A digital learning and performance support environment for university student design tasks was developed. This paper describes on the design rationale, process, and the usage results to arrive at a core set of design principles for the construction of such an environment. We present a collection of organizational, technical, and course-related requirements that led to the particular choice and setup of the targeted environment. Building upon the established learning management system "Moodle", we designed a backbone structure called Product & Process that fitted onto the ASCE intervention model. Within the four phases of this model, students could find activity checklists, tools, and background information to support their design activities. In addition, the environment was supplemented with tools for group Communication and collaborative Report writing. The environment has been used for 5 weeks by 35 students who worked in small groups on a design task. We analyzed the students' appraisals for usability, and examined usage data from their action logs. The results indicated that the students were positive about the environment, and generally used its facilities fairly frequently. The discussion revolves around the issue of how to achieve a balance between constraints, freedom, and scaffolding. In addition, a set of design principles is proposed for the constructing of a future version of a learning & performance support environment.


In recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of small satellites being designed, built and launched. Due to resource constraints, these spacecraft have not generally included any propulsion capability, and this has severely limited mission capabilities and lifetime. To enhance their performances, next generation of small spacecraft will require extremely miniaturized, highly integrated propulsion systems capable to meet stringent mass, volume and power constraints. Two of the most promising technologies to achieve these goals are Electric Propulsion (EP) systems and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The study identifies a wide variety of mission scenarios, satellites and EP technologies which could benefit from the use of MEMS leading to a selection of one propulsion technology that seems the most promising: the colloid thruster propulsion system. For this technology the requirements are identified and then a preliminary MEMS based EP system design is established. Modularity is very important to enable the same design to be used over and over again and critical subsystem units, such as the high voltage power and control electronics, have also to be developed for the integration in the modular concepts. Two basic design concepts have been investigated to cover the wide range of applications and missions scenario stated within this study and they are presented in this paper.


As the inaugural article in the Public Administration Quarterly series on "Resilient Governance," this essay argues that one key to creating resilient governance is promoting civility and discouraging incivility. Why start with civility? Many values influence the performance of public servants other than the traditional notions of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, both of which are increasingly stressed in an uncertain economic environment. The challenges to the commonweal resulting from incivility are clear. Frequently this incivility goes unchecked; it then surfaces in the form of violence. Seemingly random acts of violence can endanger any free society. For example: 1. Incivility in politics was brought to the forefront as the nation mourned in the days and weeks after the shooting spree in January 2011 by Jared Lee Loughner that killed 6 and injured 13, including the serious head injury to Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. While this incident occurred in Tucson, it could as easily take place in your hometown next time. The Pima County Sheriff, among others, argued the ideological incivility of campaign posters with a gun sight over Giffords' congressional district was partly to blame, while others stressed inadequacy of mental health services, a source of incivility in public places as well as a serious contributor to political threats (Quinn et al. 2011; Lacey et al. 2011). 2. Incivility in our communities is manifest in bullying (Samson 2009). In a Massachusetts case, 15-year old Phoebe Prince, a recent Irish immigrant to the U.S., took her own life after what has been referred to as "months of merciless and sometimes violent bullying." Nine teenagers were criminally charged in this case (McGreal 2010). There is a good chance that someone in your hometown has done the same thing, yet escaped the international spotlight shown in this instance. The spotlight is international because this type of incivility with corollary suicide is a topic of public concern worldwide (Brunstein et al. 2010; DeMartino et al. 2011). 3. Incivility in the workplace is as rampant as bullying among our youth, and is widespread in public organizations (Vickers 2006). A Zogby International survey report showed that 37% of employees have been bullied in the workplace, while 62% of employers do nothing or make the situation worse by their response when acts of bullying are reported (Workplace Bullying Institute 2008). Employers face this difficulty because behaviors range from minor slights to more sinister acts, or are of ambiguous intent. As with school bullying, it is not necessarily easy to recognize the offender until events escalate. Incivility--indicated by lack of respect for authority, intolerance, and disconnectedness--consists of a wanton disregard for the collective interest, and exhibits itself in a range of public behaviors both large and small. The phrase "going postal" is well recognized in American culture, but workplace violence did not begin or end at the neighborhood post office. For example, public concerns have swirled around violent events at a smattering of schools and college campuses. Columbine High School (fourteen dead, twenty three wounded on April 20, 1999) and Virginia Tech (thirty three dead, twenty three injured on April 16, 2007) serve as exemplars, yet this is not simply about violent tendencies or poor American gun control laws. Similar incidents took place in the tiny town of Tuusula, Finland (nine killed on November 7, 2007) and Dublane, Scotland (eighteen kindergarteners killed on March 13, 1996). Such violence even entered the peaceful Amish community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, leaving five school children and the gunman dead on October 2, 2006. Incivility does not need to ensue on such a grand scale to create serious problems. Specifically, "Microinequities are the subtle putdowns, snubs, dismissive gestures, or sarcastic tones that can undercut employee performance and encourage employee turnover" (Cherng and Tate 2007, 1). …


The rate of liberation of free acetylcholine from the surface of prostigmin-treated cerebral cortex in the freely moving cat has been determined in states of slow wave sleep, paradoxical or activated sleep, and waking. The average rate during slow wave sleep (1.2 nanograms per minute per square centimeter of cortical surface) increased during paradoxical sleep (2.2 nanograms per minute) and during waking (2.1 nanograms per minute). The rate of acetylcholine release is thus related to the electroencephalogram pattern of desynchronized activatin of the cortex rahter than to the behavioral responsiveness of the animals.


In this work, it is shown how the shapes of surface plasmon dispersion curves can be engineered by manipulating the distribution of the electromagnetic fields in multilayer structures, which themselves are controlled by the free electron density in metal-like materials, such as doped semiconductors in the THz spectral range. By having a nonuniform free electron density profile, reduced relative to that in typical bulk metals, the electromagnetic fields of surface plasmons are distributed in different metallic materials that have different complex dielectric permittivities. As the in-plane component of surface plasmon's wave-vector increases, they become more confined to a particular layer of the multilayer structure and have energies that are predictable by considering the permittivity of the layer in which the fields are most concentrated. Unusual and arbitrary shapes of surface plasmon dispersion curves can be designed, including stair steps and dovetails shapes.


In the midst of several large cyberattacks in 2017, the European Commission adopted its multi-sector cybersecurity package in September of that same year. Whereas this initiative can be expected to contribute to strengthening the cyber-resilience and response of EU financial firms, several policy issues and unanswered questions remain. In order to analyse the issues that are considered to be relevant to financial fields (retail banking, corporate banking, capital markets, financial infrastructure and insurance), CEPS-ECRI organised a Task Force between September 2017 and May 2018 with a group of experts from the financial industry, tech industry, national supervisors and European institutions, as well from a consumer association and a law firm. In this Final Report, the Task Force members identify the following nine policy issues that need to be further addressed in order to bolster the financial industry's cyber-resilience against current and future threats. Main policy recommendations 1. Convergence in the taxonomies of cyber-incidents is needed. 2. The framework for incident reporting needs to be significantly improved to fully contribute to the cyber-resilience of financial firms. 3. Authorities should assess how and to what extent the data held by the centralised hub should be shared with supervisors, firms and clients. 4. Ambitious policies are needed to develop consistent, reliable and exploitable statistics on cyber-trends. 5. Best practices for cyber-hygiene should be continuously enhanced by regulators and supervisors. 6. The European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme needs to be strengthened to contribute better to cybersecurity, cyber-risk management and capability. 7. In order to improve the processes of attribution and extradition, the reinforcement of cross-border cooperation and legal convergence remains a priority, both within the EU and more widely. 8. Best practices in remedies in case of cyberattacks need to be further encouraged. 9. Policy-makers should further assess the pros, cons and feasibility of creating an emergency fund in case of large cyberattacks.


Digital automation has pervaded many areas of our daily activities, with serious repercussions for social, economic and political systems. Automation's ever-enhancing capability to transform human lives has spawned a wide body of scholarly research, with inputs from social and economic sciences, engineering and technology. This paper1 provides a brief overview of the main arguments put forward by the researchers, particularly in labour economics, on the subject of digital automation, with a special focus on Germany. Such debates revolve around the impact of automation on the number of jobs performed by human labour and the restructuring of labour markets under the influence of automation. The overview starts with a short discussion about the meaning of digital automation. It then outlines the debates of how technology distributes work between humans and machines from the viewpoint of skill-biased technological change and routine-biased technological change research. This is followed by a summary of the way digital technologies have been restructuring the world of work.
The overview concludes by pointing out research gaps that are particularly relevant in the German context. It emphasizes that a new research agenda should incorporate the role of existing education and training regimes (VET), in particular in light of employment polarisation and the shrinking employment segment of jobs with mid-level pay and skills. Moreover, there is a lack of research that considers the insights of industrial sociology with regard to the renegotiation of work organisation in the process of automation. In particular, the role of institutional factors, such as workers' representatives, in the form of trade unions or works councils, has largely been neglected by studies on labour economics. Finally, there should be more attention paid to the differentiated effects of automation on specific socio-economic groups, such as women and men, but also between different generations.
1


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common preventable and treatable disease, is characterized by persistent airflow limitation that is usually progressive and associated with an enhanced chronic inflammatory response in the airways and the lung to noxious particles or gases. Clinical diagnosis of COPD should be considered in any individual, who has dyspnea, chronic cough, sputum production, and positive history of risk factors. Pharmacologic therapy can reduce COPD symptoms, reduce the frequency and severity of exacerbations, and improve health status and exercise tolerance. After cessation of smoking and life style modification, bronchodilator therapy is the first step in COPD treatment. Beside commonly used bronchodilator therapy newly developed bronchodilators started to be preferred. These drugs consist of long-acting beta2 agonist (Indacatarol, Vilanterol, Olodaterol, Abediterol), long acting muscarinic antagonism (Umeclidinium), long-acting beta2 agonist with inhaled steroid (combination of fluticasone furoate and vilanterol), long-acting beta2 agonist with a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (Fixeddose combination of indacaterol with glycopyrronium by means of breezhaler device).


Abstract The present study aimed to compare the changes of direction on repeated sprint ability (RSA) vs. intensive repeated sprint ability (IRSA) protocols in basketball. Eighteen young male basketball players performed on RSA [10 × 30-m (15 + 15-m, one change of direction)] and IRSA [10 × 30-m (10 + 10 + 10-m, two changes of direction)]. A correlation matrix between RSA, IRSA, "squat jump (SJ)–countermovement jump (CMJ)", footstep analysis and total distance in Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 was performed. The best time, worst time, total time and the number of footsteps were significantly smaller in the RSA test compared to IRSA test (P < 0.001), even though they were significantly correlated with each other (r > 0.80, P < 0.05). Blood lactate level and fatigue index did not show any difference between tests. The sensibility of the two tests assessed by the Bland–Altman analysis revealed a small bias (<1.5%) for almost all variables. Moreover, almost all time variables of the two tests were significantly correlated with the SJ (r > 0.478, P < 0.05), CMJ (r > 0.515, P < 0.05) and Yo-Yo (r > 0.489, P < 0.05) performances. The IRSA provided a reliable method for assessing specific sprint ability (with 10-m legs for IRSA ~2.3 s vs. 15 m for RSA ~3 s) with a closer link to basketball game's actions (~2 s). Besides, IRSA could be an appropriate choice for assessing both RSA and changes of direction capacities in basketball players.


Whitehead's cosmology centers on the self-creation of actual occasions that perish as they come to be, but somehow do combine to constitute societies that are persistent agents and/or patients. "Instance Ontology" developed by D.W. Mertz concerns unification of relata into facts of relatedness by specific intensions. These two conceptual systems are similar in that they both avoid the substance-property distinction: they differ in their understanding of how basic units combine to constitute complex unities. "Process Structural Realism" (PSR) draws from both of these approaches in developing an account of how combinations of processes may produce ontologically significant coherences. When a group of processes achieves such closure that a set of states recurs continually, the effects of that coherence differ from what would occur in the absence of that closure. Such altered effectiveness is an attribute of the system as a whole, and would have consequences. This indicates that the network of processes, as a unit, has ontological significance. The closed network of processes, together with the conditions that prevail, constitute the form of definiteness of the coherence. That form continues to obtain as long as the coherence persists. Constituents contribute to, rather than share, that characteristic. Aspects of some recent research in systems biology, microeconomics, and social psychology illustrate the application of PSR.


The Book of Life uses an exemplary fusion of art and science to tell the story of life on earth. The text, under the editorship of Stephen Jay Gould, provides a thorough understanding of the latest research and is accompanied by paintings prepared especially for this book. Never before has our planet's evolution been so clearly, so ingeniously explained. History is marked by disaster. The Book of Lifeexplains how mammals, having survived at least one of these disasters-the impact of a massive comet-luckily inherited the earth. Next came the rise of modern humans, who would shape the world as no creature has. As this fascinating history unfolds, gorgeous illustrations allow us to observe climate changes, tectonic plate movement, the spread of plant life, and the death of the dinosaurs. We discover the chains of animal survival, the causes and consequences of adaptation, and finally the environmental impact of human life.


In the opinion of some historians the era of fascism ended with the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler. Yet the debate about its nature as a historical phenomenon and its value as a term of historical analysis continues to rage with ever greater intensity, each major attempt to resolve it producing different patterns of support, dissent, and even hostility, from academic colleagues. Nevertheless, a number of developments since 1945 not only complicate the methodological and definitional issues even further, but make it ever more desirable that politicians, journalists, lawyers, and the general public can turn to "experts" for a heuristically useful and broadly consensual definition of the term. These developments include: the emergence of a highly prolific European New Right, the rise of radical right populist parties, the flourishing of ultra-nationalist movements in the former Soviet empire, the radicalization of some currents of Islam and Hinduism into potent political forces, and the upsurge of religious terrorism. Most monographs and articles attempting to establish what is meant by fascism are written from a unilateral authoritative perspective, and the intense academic controversy the term provokes has to be gleaned from reviews and conference discussions. The uniqueness of this book is that it provides exceptional insights into the cut-and-thrust of the controversy as it unfolds on numerous fronts simultaneously, clarifying salient points of difference and moving towards some degree of consensus. Twenty-nine established academics, mostly German but including several prominent experts working in English, were invited by the periodical Erwagen Wissen Ethik (Deliberation Knowledge Ethics) to engage with an article by Roger Griffin, one of the most influential theorists in the study of generic fascism in the Anglophone world. The resulting debate progressed through two "rounds" of critique and reply, forming a fascinating patchwork of consensus and sometimes heated disagreement. In a spin-off from the original discussion of Griffin's concept of fascism, a second exchange documented here focuses on the issue of fascist ideology in contemporary Russia. This collection is essential reading for all those who realize the need to provide the term "fascism" with theoretical rigour, analytical precision, and empirical content despite the complex issues it raises, and for any specialist who wants to participate in fascist studies within an international forum of expertise. The book will change the way in which historians and political scientists think about fascism, and make the debate about the threat it poses to infant democracies like Russia more incisive not just for academics, but for politicians, journalists, and the wider public.


Nurses, both in Australia and overseas, have long felt they are denied appropriate professional recognition for their role in the operation of the health system in which they work. In her book, Nursing and the Injustices of the Law, Megan-Jane Johnstone argues that nurses are not recognised as an autonomous profession, and at the same time are exploited by patriarchal medical profession whose views are legitimated and reenforced by law. She argues that even with reforms that are said to expand the legal practice of nursing, the autonomous and professional status of the nurse has not improved. She suggests that the medical and legal profession, two male dominated professions, act in a way that maintains the subordinate position of the nurse. To combat this situation, Ms. Johnstone urges that the nursing profession is in need of the development of a nursing jurisprudence whereby nurses can attain legal authority that matches their responsibilities as health care professionals. The book rightly argues that historically the law, in conjunction with the legal profession, has trivialised the role of the nurse, particularly the tendency of judges, lawyers and doctors to disregard the role of the nurse. The book examines feminist jurisprudential research to draw support for the view that the law, in general, is oppressive and inequitable in its treatment of women. This journal article is available in Law Text Culture: http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol1/iss1/18


This paper analyzes the importance of equity finance for the R&D activity of small and medium-sized enterprises. We use information on almost 6000 German SMEs from a company survey. Using the intensity of banking competition at the district level as instrument to control for endogeneity, we find that a higher equity ratio is conducive to more R&D for young but not for old companies. Equity may be a constraining factor for young companies which have to rely on the original equity investment of their owners since they have not yet accumulated retained earnings and can relay less on outside financing. The positive influence is found for R&D intensity but not for the decision whether to perform R&D. Equity financing is therefore especially important for the most innovative, young companies.


Review Essay: Retheorizing the Holocaust; History and Memory after Auschwitz, by Dominick LaCapraHolocaust studies is difficult to define. It has, of course, a unifying referent: the Holocaust. But its constitutive feature seems to lie elsewhere. After all, historical analyses of the Holocaust's causes often do not belong in the disciplinary category Holocaust studies. Nor is methodology its characteristic component. For Holocaust studies includes a variety of perspectives: philosophical, historical, sociological, literary critical, psychological. What, then, gives Holocaust studies its sense of coherence? Perhaps all the disparate intellectual undertakings that comprise it are bound together by their shared concern with questions of representation. Indeed, Holocaust studies has focused on the theoretical problems with which historians of the Holocaust must reckon, and on public and aesthetic processes of remembering trauma and memorializing catastrophe, as well as on the connections between historiographical problems and public remembrance. Holocaust studies takes place at the intersection of history and memory.For the moment, however, it might be more appropriate to claim that Holocaust studies should take place at the intersection of history and memory. At least this is the point Dominick LaCapra pushes in his thoughtful and compactly written new book, History and Memory after Auschwitz. LaCapra argues that practitioners of Holocaust studies have been largely unsuccessful in their attempt to establish a kind of symbiotic relationship between history and memory, and that the project of sustaining a difficult tension between history and memory is worth pursuing. Why is this project so compelling? LaCapra's contention is that it is both theoretically satisfying and socially productive. Accordingly, three of his six chapters deal with the recondite historiographical challenges posed by "the limit-case" of the Holocaust; the other three assess the effectiveness of prominent aesthetic attempts at Holocaust remembrance: Camus's The Fall, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, and Art Spiegelman's Maus.LaCapra is clearly the right man for this difficult job. He holds a chair of Humanities at Cornell University and is an eminent European intellectual historian, best known, perhaps for his long-standing and intense critical engagement with contemporary trends in historiography (See, for example, his History and Criticism, 1987). LaCapra has also managed to straddle disciplinary divides, mobilizing his theoretical acumen to play a key role in high-profile discussions of literary theory. And his readings of cultural phenomena, fiction, and film exhibit an easy familiarity with sophisticated techniques of textual analysis. Moreover, LaCapra has written extensively on the Holocaust. His Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma (1994) is one of the founding texts of Holocaust studies. And so his meta-reflection on Holocaust studies is also a kind of poignant exercise in self-reflection. Indeed, he refers to his own work often and, at times, rather critically.But his most pointed criticisms are reserved for other theoreticians of the Holocaust. In his eponymous first chapter, for example, he pours opprobrium on both historians who try to separate history and memory cleanly and historians who would collapse the distinction between history and memory. Meanwhile, LaCapra himself tries to chart a course between the Scylla of strict division and the Charybdis of conflation. LaCapra objects, for example, to Charles E. Maier's disparaging remarks about the lively interest in memory in contemporary culture, both high and low. Memory in general, and the process of remembering the Holocaust in particular, may have become a privileged object of journalistic, artistic, and pop-cultural attention. And some of this attention may be opportunistic (the "Shoah business," as it has been called) and even obsessive (a narrow identity politics which appropriates the legacy of victimization as the seat of identity). …


Problem. Research has indicated that there are three factors essential to the retention of young adults in the Seventh-day Adventist Church: Adventist education, the local church, and the home (Dudley, 2000, p. 79). However, a majority of high school youth from the Idaho Conference of Seventh-day Adventists family units are not receiving the spiritual nurture of Adventist education because they are attending public schools. While local churches offer curricula for spiritual education, there is no provision for compensatory family-based curricula for these students. Method. As a means of addressing this problem, materials for family-based spiritual nurture of Adventist public high school students in the Idaho Conference were selected and distributed to selected families for one school year. During that time, communication was maintained with the families through newsletters. At the end of the school year, the students and their parents were surveyed regarding their perception of the value of the supplied materials toward improving spiritual nurture. The responses from the surveys were analyzed and recommendations were made to the Idaho Conference Board of Directors on how better to spiritually nurture the Adventist youth who are attending public high schools in the conference. Recommendations were also made to the publishing houses and materials distribution organizations and the North Pacific Union Conference and the North American Division on how they could support family-based youth ministry for Adventist public high school youth. Finally, recommendations were made for further research. Results. While 83 parents and public high school students originally agreed to take part in this project, only 10 surveys were returned from six parents and four students at the end of the study. Although this is a small portion of those accepting the materials, the survey results were informative. Before asking them about the specific materials distributed, I asked about their perception of other spiritual nurturing programs and activities in being helpful for the spiritual nurture of the teenagers. The survey respondents viewed the church worship service, youth Sabbath school, family worship, and personal devotions as more helpful than unhelpful. Although, the students viewed family worship and personal devotions as slightly more helpful than the parents did. Four types of books were distributed to the families: devotional, doctrinal, practical, and an informational book on teen development. The respondents viewed the doctrinal book as being the most helpful and the developmental book as being most unhelpful for the spiritual nurture of Adventist public high school students. Conclusions. Three observations were demonstrated by the project: (a) there is a felt need for family-based youth ministry participation in the Idaho Conference, (b) families have difficulty in following-through with family-based youth ministry programs, and (c) mid-adolescents see value in family-based youth ministry. These observations substantiate the value of family-based youth ministry and should encourage pastors, youth leaders, and parents to continue seeking ways for it to be successful.


Despite predictions that urbanization, economic development and globalization would lead to the recession of religion from public life, populations around the world continue to be highly religious. This pattern holds in most parts of the Global South and also in some advanced industrial democracies in the North, including in the United States. In grappling with the influence (or lack thereof) of religion on political life, a growing body of literature pays attention to how clergy–congregant communication might shape listeners' political attitudes and behaviors. Considerable debate remains as to whether clergy–congregant communication is likely to change political attitudes and behavior, but there is a greater consensus around the idea that exposure to religious communication can at the very least prime (that is, increase the salience of) certain considerations that in turn affect how people evaluate political issues and whether they participate in politics. Religious communication is more likely to exert a persuasive and a priming influence among those already inclined to select into the communication and when the source of the communication is credible. More research is needed on the duration of religious primes and on the effects of religious communication in different political and social contexts around the world.


Background Individuals in conflict-affected areas rarely get appropriate care for chronic or non-infectious diseases. The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing worldwide, and new evidence shows conclusively that the negative effects of hyperglycemia occur even at mild glucose elevations and that these negative effects can be attenuated by treatment. Scientific literature on gestational diabetes in refugee camp settings is critically limited. Methods A 75 g 2-hour glucose tolerance test was administered to 228 women attending the antenatal care (ANC) clinic in Maela refugee camp on the Thai–Myanmar border. Prevalence of GDM was determined using the HAPO trial cut-offs [≥92 mg/dL (fasting),≥180 (1 hour), and≥153 (2 hour)] and the WHO criteria [≥126 mg/dL (fasting), and 140 mg/dL (2 hour)]. Results From July 2011 to March 2012, the prevalence of GDM was 10.1% [95% confidence interval (CI): 6.2–14.0] when the cut-off determined by the HAPO trial was applied. Applying the older WHO criteria yielded a prevalence of 6.6% (95% CI 3.3–9.8). Age, parity, and BMI emerged as characteristics that may be significantly associated with GDM in this population. Other risk factors that are commonly used in screening guidelines were not applicable in this diabetes-naïve population. Discussion The prevalence of GDM is lower in this population compared with other populations, but still complicates 10% of pregnancies. New evidence regarding gestational diabetes raises new dilemmas for healthcare providers in resource-poor settings. Efforts to identify and treat patients at risk for adverse outcomes need to be balanced with awareness of the risks and burdens associated with over diagnosis and unnecessary interventions. Screening approaches based on risk factors or using higher cut-off values may help minimize this burden and identify those most likely to benefit from intervention.


Home automation refers to applications of technology to control function in the house
and communications within the inside and outside world. One of the major benefits of
smart homes to consumers is its ability to incorporate energy management features. One
smart home system manufacturer claims to be able to reduce the electricity bill by 30%
depending on the home consumption. Smart homes can even go further in energy
management by keeping track of the energy usage of each and every appliances in the
house. Such features allow the user to know what is using too much electricity and
adjust things accordingly. It is obvious that if cost is to be minimized, usage of the
electricity has to be monitored more accurately and carefully. An automated electrical
power meter can be used to achieve this objective. In one version of the automated
electrical power meters the power consumption of an appliance can be read remotely by
using the existing electrical wiring. In this mode data transmission plays an important
role. In this work the transmission of data between the transmitter and the receiver of a house using X-10 protocol is studied and applied. X-10 protocol is a scheme of
transmitting signal through existing electrical household cable to control appliances.
Therefore, the main objective of this research is to design and assemble the hardware of
a transmitter and a receiver for data transmission using power line and to develop the
software for a micro-controller.


AbstractThis paper uses an intertemporal general equilibrium asset pricing model to study the term structure of interest rates. In this model, anticipations, risk aversion, investment alternatives, and preferences about the timing of consumption all play a role in determining bond prices. Many of the factors traditionally mentioned as influencing the term structure are thus included in a way which is fully consistent with maximizing behavior and rational expectations. The model leads to specific formulas for bond prices which are well suited for empirical testing.


Gender mainstreaming is accepted by many national and international agencies and Non-governmental organization, as an effective strategy for promoting gender equality. Many researchers widely agree thatessential but can also lead to poverty eradication, human development and general economic growth everywhere but more specifically in Africa. This just shows the importance at a global level of gender equality and any strategy towards achieving it. The main aim of this thesis is to assess how gender mainstreaming as a strategy and approach has led to gender equality within the Swedish Cooperative Centre-Viagroforestry project-Kisumu (SCC-VI). It is based on exploring how gender mainstreaming works on a day-to-day basis in the project area. To collect relevant information, a detailed background review of Swedish Cooperative Centre-Viagroforestry project was done; field staff were interviewed with the help of a predesigned semi -structured question guides and focused group discussions were conducted with different farmer groups involved in the project. The interviews and the focused group discussions were later transcribed as part of analysis. The focus group discussions, which were conducted in Luo, were translated to English. The main finding was that as a project, SCC-Vi is committed to mainstreaming gender in its activities, however the staff had limited skills for mainstreaming. Similarly, it was clear that focus was mostly put on numbers/quantitative aspects as opposed to the qualitative aspects of equality. The conclusion drawn here is that mainstreaming may lead to gender equality, but its success highly depends on how the process is implemented and whether there is adequate knowledgeabout the structural causes of inequality and skills the staff have to do it. From this research however, it was not possible to show that gender mainstreaming has led to equality.


In this work, an N-T/gold nanoparticle system was assembled for the convenient and colorimetric identification of Cr based on its coordination chemistry with the thymine derivative (N-T). In addition to the visible colorimetric changes for the qualitative Cr identification, the A630 nm/520 nm values changed linearly with Cr concentration over a range of 0.5-2.5 μM and the detection limits reached 0.03 μM and 0.07 μM for Cr3+ and Cr2O72-, respectively, both of which satisfied the Cr water quality standards of the U.S. EPA, WHO and China. Furthermore, a more convenient method was developed for quantitative determination of Cr concentrations in practical samples based on the Eyedropper function in Microsoft's PowerPoint software, wherein the RGB (red, green and blue) value of the sample could be easily screened in the colorimetric card for a more accurate result with good recovery, avoiding complicated instrumentation.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


This thesis is an analysis and practice of writing otherwise in academia. It takes off from Barthes' claim that "Science will become literature" (1989, p. 10) into a labyrinth of writing in different contexts and genres. In local and specific writing contexts, the author contrasts (social) scientific analytical writing with poetic, dramatic and autoethnographic writing to begin to generate theories about how different types of writing might work differently to construct different knowledges. Data from collective biography projects is re-presented as poetry and as a theatre script. Data from a professional development context becomes the launch pad for autoethnography. Sections of "creative" or "literary" writing are interspersed with theoretical and methodological analysis. The research methodologies of collective biography/ memorywork and autoethnography are interrogated in the light of poststructural theories on language. Poetry and drama are analysed as poststructural research and writing methodologies. The thesis is a risky journey into transgressive writing research. The linear narratives of research are disrupted as the thesis is organized as a series of detours into writing towards a conclusion that stresses the (im)possibilities of conclusions.
Particular lines of flight through this thesis are the subject, the body and the other in writing. Poststructural perspectives on subjects emphasise their positionality (Foucault, 1972) and their mobility (Ferguson, 1993). Subjects are produced in particular spaces, places and times (Probyn, 2003) and this thesis attends to subjects-in-process in particular writing (con)texts. Writing is both the site and the practice of research. The body is pivotal in this thesis. All the texts produced in this thesis attend explicitly to the (female) body. The methodologies of collective biography/ memorywork (Davies et al., 2001; Haug, 1987), which provoked the poetic and dramatic writing in this thesis, begin with the body as the locus of knowledge. The particular research sites and texts of this thesis have given an overtly feminist cast to this textual body. My research colleagues have almost all been women and it is women's embodied experiences that have been of interest to us. Research sites have ranged from Germany (where I was part of Project Area Body of the Internationale Frauenuniversitat in 2000), to a community theatre company in my town, to a writing group around my kitchen table. The "other" is the third line of flight in this thesis and I use the concept of the other to trace how the writing in this thesis has been a collaborative practice, and an ethical practice where writing the other (otherwise) might be seen as a practice of love (Cixous, 1991; Somerville, 1999).


Occupying considerable space in the daily awareness of people across the globe, terrorism is nevertheless an elusive concept, falling prey to politicization, loose definition, and lack of context. In some ways terrorism has been described as whatever a person wants it to be, which often gives it an out-sized role in public opinion and policy demands. The Constructions of Terrorism Project, jointly undertaken by Abu Dhabi research center TRENDS Research and Advisory and the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, seeks to approach this slippery concept from multiple directions, employing a variety of research methodologies, from many academic disciplines and policy-making perspectives. The goal is to thoroughly explore the many ways in which terrorism is constructed by academics, political leaders, the public, and those who employ terror to get what they want. It seeks to provide a forum in which the diversity of conceptual understandings of terrorism can be collectively interrogated, believing that from the high-ground of a more thorough, rigorously investigated understanding of terrorism, better, more effective means of confronting it can be developed and implemented.


Abstract. The outflow of dust from the northern African continent towards the North Atlantic is stimulated by the atmospheric circulation over North Africa, which modulates the spatio-temporal distribution of dust source activation and consequently the entrainment of mineral dust into the boundary layer, as well as the transport of dust out of the source regions. The atmospheric circulation over the North African dust source regions, predominantly the Sahara and the Sahel, is characterized by three major circulation regimes: (1) the harmattan (trade winds), (2) the Saharan heat low (SHL), and (3) the West African monsoon circulation. The strength of the individual regimes controls the Saharan dust outflow by affecting the spatio-temporal distribution of dust emission, transport pathways, and deposition fluxes. This study aims at investigating the atmospheric circulation pattern over North Africa with regard to its role favouring dust emission and dust export towards the tropical North Atlantic. The focus of the study is on summer 2013 (June to August), during which the SALTRACE (Saharan Aerosol Long-range TRansport and Aerosol-Cloud interaction Experiment) field campaign also took place. It involves satellite observations by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) flying on board the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite, which are analysed and used to infer a data set of active dust sources. The spatio-temporal distribution of dust source activation frequencies (DSAFs) allows for linking the diurnal cycle of dust source activations to dominant meteorological controls on dust emission. In summer, Saharan dust source activations clearly differ from dust source activations over the Sahel regarding the time of day when dust emission begins. The Sahara is dominated by morning dust source activations predominantly driven by the breakdown of the nocturnal low-level jet. In contrast, dust source activations in the Sahel are predominantly activated during the second half of the day, when downdrafts associated with deep moist convection are the major atmospheric driver. Complementary to the satellite-based analysis on dust source activations and implications from their diurnal cycle, simulations on atmosphere and dust life cycle were performed using the mesoscale atmosphere–dust model system COSMO-MUSCAT (COSMO: COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling; MUSCAT: MUltiScale Chemistry Aerosol Transport Model). Fields from this simulation were analysed regarding the variability of the harmattan, the Saharan heat low, and the monsoon circulation as well as their impact on the variability of the Saharan dust outflow towards the North Atlantic. This study illustrates the complexity of the interaction among the three major circulation regimes and their modulation of the North African dust outflow. Enhanced westward dust fluxes frequently appear following a phase characterized by a deep SHL. Ultimately, findings from this study contribute to the quantification of the interannual variability of the atmospheric dust burden.


Contemporary life can seem rushed and overloaded. We argue this may be due not to merely having too much to do, but rather with experiencing fragmentation and inadequate meaning in one's own activity. We suggest that a design approach to this challenge is to enhance awareness of significant and persistent activity, and the themes, values, places, and motivations that unifies it and gives it greater meaning. Specifically, we suggest that people-centered smart territories can enhance community awareness by reminding people of placed-based history, heritage, current issues and discussions, and plans for the future in the community through a smart social grid of community information services.


Philadelphia has agreed to implement a long-term plan to employ ecosystem services provided by green stormwater control infrastructure to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSO) and achieve compliance with the CSO requirements of the Clean Water Act. The $2.5 billion Green City, Clean Waters Program, to be implemented over 25 years as a part of the City's larger "Greenworks�? sustainability initiative, will save the City approximately $8 billion over traditional grey infrastructure. Green infrastructure projects in developed landscapes require the involvement of private property owners. This presents unique issues and opportunities for public-private partnerships, tax-exempt finance, mechanisms to leverage tax benefits, and to generate co-benefits in energy and recreation. This article examines the applicable requirements of the Clean Water Act, the City's efforts to implement and finance the program, other similar programs and the possibility of replicating the program in other jurisdictions.


Title of dissertation: INFORMATION POWER EFFICIENCY TRADEOFFS IN MIXED SIGNAL CMOS CIRCUITS Nicole McFarlane, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Pamela Abshire Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Increasingly sensors for biological applications are implemented using mixed signal CMOS technologies. As feature sizes in modern technologies decrease with each generation, the power supply voltage also decreases, but the intrinsic noise level increases or remains the same. The performance of any sensor is quantified by the weakest detectable signal, and noise limits the ability of a sensor to detect the signal. In order to explore the trade-offs among incoming signal, the intrinsic physical noise of the circuit, and the available power resources, we apply basic concepts from information theory to CMOS circuits. In this work the circuits are modeled as communication channels with additive colored Gaussian noise and the signal transfer characteristics and noise properties are used to determine the classical Shannon capacity of the system. The waterfilling algorithm is applied to these circuits to obtain the information rate and the bit energy is subsequently calculated. In this dissertation we restricted our attention to operational transconductance amplifiers, a basic building block for many circuits and sensors and oftentimes a major source of noise in a sensor system. It is shown that for typical amplifiers the maximum information rate occurs at bandwidths above the dominant pole of the amplifier where the intrinsic physical circuit noise is diminished, but at the same time the output signal is attenuated. Thus these techniques suggest a methodology for the optimal use of the amplifier, but in many cases it is not practical to use an amplifier in this manner, that is at frequencies above its 3dB cutoff. Further, a direct consequence of applying the classic waterfilling algorithm leads to the idea of using modulation techniques to optimize system performance by shifting signals internally to higher frequencies, providing a practical means to achieve the information rates predicted by waterfilling and at the same time maintaining the real world application of these amplifiers. In addition, the information rates and bit energy for basic CMOS amplifier configurations are studied and compared across configurations and processes. Further the additional design constraints formed by adding the information rate and the bit energy to traditional design characteristics is explored. INFORMATION POWER EFFICIENCY TRADEOFFS IN MIXED SIGNAL CMOS CIRCUITS


Parallelization of unit propagation in SAT solvers is a compelling way of obtaining an efficient parallel decision procedure for the propositional satisfiability problem. However, due to the P-completeness of unit propagation, it is challenging to achieve good efficiency in practice. In this article, we present two methods for unit propagation on multi-core systems and their implementation. We throughly evaluate these techniques by comparison to a simulation that estimates a baseline efficiency and by experimental evaluation of an implementation on competition benchmarks. We thereby demonstrate that achieving a speed-up linear in the number of cores is indeed challenging in practice, but also that unit propagation on multi-core systems is feasible in practice.


Introduction
The Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory has recently created a special "Center for interdisciplinary research of musical creativity". One of the main tasks of this center is to study genetic musical scales from different aspects including new opportunities for composers and for musical therapy. This lecture is devoted to scientific aspects of the genetic musical scales, which are based on symmetric features of molecular ensembles of genetic systems. These musical scales were revealed in a course of symmetrologic study of representations of molecular-genetic ensembles in a united form of mathematical matrices (Kronecker or tensor families of genetic matrices). This study has disclosed a relation between genetic system, golden section and Fibonacci numbers, which play role in the hierarchical system of these musical scales and which are known in biological phyllotaxis laws and in aesthetics of proportions. Fibonacci numbers are also used in different branches of informatics, for example, they are the base of «Fibonacci computers» (http://www.goldenmuseum.com/index_engl.html). Some historical and biological aspects of musical harmony are also considered.
Main Part
From ancient times, understanding the phenomenon of music and creating musical structures were associated with mathematics. The creator of the first computer G.Leibniz wrote: "Music is a secret arithmetical exercise and the person who indulges in it does not realize that he is manipulating numbers" and "music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting" (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/g._wilhelm_leibniz/ ).
It can be mentioned that thoughts about the key significance of musical harmony in the organization of the world exist from ancient time. For example, Pythagoreans thought about musical intervals in the planetary system and in all around. J. Kepler wrote the famous book Harmonices Mundi, etc. Modern atomic physics found the harmonic ratios in spectral series by T. Lyman in the atom of hydrogen, which has been named "music of atomic spheres" by A. Einstein and A. Sommerfeld. The importance of Pythagorean ideas about a role of musical harmony was emphasized also by the Nobel prize winner in physics R. Feynman. Some classicists of crystallography emphasized a connection between crystal structures and musical harmony (C.S. Weiss, J. Grassman, V. Goldschmidt, etc.). Taking into account that E. Schrodinger named living bodies as "aperiodic crystal", one can suppose that biological structures are also connected with musical harmony. Achievements of molecular biology have led to the new understanding of life itself: «Life is a partnership between genes and mathematics" [1]. From this point of view, attempts to reveal possible connections between musical harmony and living organisms can be focused to structures of molecular ensembles of the genetic code.The human brain does not possess a special center of music. The feeling of love to music seems to be dispersed in the whole organism. It is known that different emotions belong to inherited biological phenomena. Charles Darwin has revealed that all the chief expressions exhibited by man are the same throughout the world and that, with much probability, such expressions are innate (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15600203). It seems that many aspects of musical harmony also belong to inborn feelings and are connected with genetic phenomena.
The range of human sound perception contains an infinite set of sound frequencies. Pythagoras has revealed that certain mathematical rules, based on integers, allow separating - from this infinite set of frequencies - a discrete set of frequencies, which determine a harmonic sound set. In other words, certain combinations of sounds from this set are perceived by living organisms as pleasant for hearing (consonances). In addition, Pythagoras has linked the phenomenon of the harmonic sounds with the parameters of a physical object: oscillation frequencies of stretched string, the length of which is varied in accordance with appropriate numerical rules. However, these revelations by Pythagoras say nothing about the fact that other discrete sets of sound frequencies may exist, which will also form harmonic sets of sounds.
This lecture describes some results of studying symmetry properties of the genetic coding system by means of matrix representation and analysis of molecular ensembles of the genetic system. The results reveal that sets of parameters of this molecular genetic system are related to the well-known Pythagorean musical scale and also to a hierarchy of special mathematical sets. This hierarchy is called as "Fibonacci-stage scales" or "pentagram scales" because its structures are connected with Fibonacci numbers, the golden section φ = (1+50.5)/2 = 1.618… and with the factor φ2, which exists in regular 5-stars (pentagram) as a ratio between sides of the adjacent stars entered in each other. These mathematical scales can be interpreted and used as the base of a new system of musical scales, because appropriate sets of sound frequencies possess harmonic properties for human hearing. According to our assumption, it seems essential that these musical systems are connected with the molecular-genetic system. Our researches of the genetic code have inspired the authors together with their colleagues not only to research new musical scales but also to create a few musical instruments based on these new scales. Special software on the computer language Python to produce appropriate musical products was also created. A group of specialists from different fields of science, medicine and culture participate also in these works. Initial results of the wide study testify into a favor of good perspectives of this direction for science, culture and musical therapy (see some details in [2]).
One can remind additionally that the pentagram was used by the Pythagoreans who considered it as the emblem of perfection and health. Pythagoreans swore by it and used the pentagram as a distinctive sign of belonging to their community. The value φ2 is also well known in genetically inherited phenomena of phyllotaxis. The golden section is presented in 5fold-symmetrical objects of biological bodies (flowers, etc.), which are presented widely in the living nature but which are forbidden in classical crystallography. It exists as well in many figures of modern generalized crystallography: quasi-crystals by D. Shechtman, R. Penrose's mosaics, dodecahedra of ensembles of water molecules, icosahedral figures of viruses, etc. The theme of golden section in genetic matrices seems to be important because many physiological systems and processes are connected with it. It is known that proportions of a golden section characterize many physiological processes: cardio-vascular processes, respiratory processes, electric activities of brain, locomotion activity, etc. The golden section is investigated for a long time in phenomena of aesthetic perception as well.
Discussion
In our opinion, the aesthetic aspects of genetic music are connected not with a mechanical resonance of molecular structures under direct influence of sound waves but with informational aspects, which provide an effect of (not yet identified way of) recognition of a kindred language under during listening genetic music. This effect of recognition can be provided by biological algorithms of signal processing inside organisms. For example, in the case of pentagram music from the outside world, our organism can recognize those ratios, on which its genetic system and the whole inherited physiology are built, and the organism responds positively to this manifestation of a structural kinship of the outside world with its own genetic physiology. This positive reaction can be compared with mutual understanding between two persons when they begin to talk in the same language (if they talk in different languages, mutual understanding and interactivity don't arise though these persons can speak more and more loudly and energetically).
The described facts about relations of the genetic systems with musical harmony are essential for the problem of genetic bases of aesthetics and inborn feeling of harmony [3]. According to the words of R. Feynman about feeling of musical harmony, "we may question whether we are any better off than Pythagoras in understanding why [stressed] only certain sounds are pleasant to our ear.  The general theory of aesthetics is probably no further advanced now than in the time of Pythagoras" [4, Chapter 50].
Evolution of musical culture and contemporary music reflects dangers and hopes of our times. The impact of music on the general population is increasing due to new developments in science and technology. Musical therapy is one of musical applications, which is popular around the world and which has a social value. Understanding the biological basis of music perception and opportunities for further development of musical culture has social value and it should use data of contemporary science. Our data about connections of the genetic coding systems with musical harmony can be useful for this understanding.
References

Stewart I. Life's other secret: The new mathematics of the living world. New-York: Penguin, 1999.
Darvas, G., Koblyakov, A., Petoukhov, S., Stepanyan, I. Symmetries in molecular-genetic systems and musical harmony. Symmetry: Culture and Science, 2012, 3-4, pp. 343-375.
Petoukhov S.V. Matrix genetics, algebras of the genetic code, noise-immunity. Moscow, RCD, 2008, 316 p. (in Russian, http://petoukhov.com/).
Feynman, R., Leighton, R., Sands, M. The Feynman lectures. New-York:  Pergamon Press, 1963.


The growing uneasiness about the democratic deficit of the European Union (EU) has incited politicians and academics alike to look for remedies other than institutional reforms and giving more powers to the European Parliament. Strategies of 'good governance' shifted centre stage and the governance turn initiated a lively discourse on the democratic credentials of involving civil society. This article presents the changing views on the role of civil society in EU discourse. Al though the Commission and even the Constitutional Convention put high hopes on the legitimacy input of civil society, a representation discourse is conspicuously absent. The article introduces an analytical framework to assess the contributions and limitations of civil society to democratic representation in EU governance.


When effectively integrated with transit services, considerable room exists for bicycling to realize various benefits to communities. A successful marriage between bicycling and transit will likely increase the use and efficiency of both modes. A core problem, however, exists in that the predominant approach for integrating bicycles and transit—bicycles aboard transit vehicles—frequently runs up against capacity restraints. Integrating bicycling and transit requires analysis of a broad range of alternatives that considers both the travel patterns and needs of individuals but also accompanying urban form characteristics. What are the most cost effective strategies likely to generate the largest number of cyclists accessing transit? To aid in developing a framework to evaluate the cost effectiveness of different strategies to integrate transit and bicycling this project: (1) reviews the state of the knowledge, (2) proposes an analysis framework for communities and transit agencies to consider in efforts to maximize the integration of bicycling and transit, (3) conducts focus groups with cyclists from five case study communities to gauge preferences for bicycle and transit integration strategies, and (4) develops a preliminary application to evaluate four bicycle and transit integration strategies based on focus group discussions and use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). These evaluation measures are applied to five communities. A cycling-transit user (CTU) index provides an initial attempt to understand transit stops that have a higher likelihood to attract CTUs. The AHP ranked cyclists' preferences for four bicycle and transit integration strategies in order of preference: (1) "Bike ON transit" (transporting the owner's bicycle aboard (inside or outside) the transit vehicle) (0.471); (2) "Bike TO transit" (using and parking the owner's bicycle at a transit access location) (0.185); (3) "Shared bike" (sharing a bicycle, which would be based at either the transit access or egress point) (0.185); and (4) "Two bike" (using an owner's two bicycles at the access and egress location) (0.159). Results of the cost effectiveness assessment suggest that "Bike ON transit" ranked most cost effective overall, followed by "Bike TO transit," "Two bike," and "Shared bike" strategies.


NEW ORLEANS—More is better, at least when it comes to treatments for multiple myeloma. Separate studies from a Spanish group and an Italian group showed that up-front use of four drugs improves durable responses and progression-free survival in elderly patients. Both studies also showed that a kinder, gentler weekly schedule of bortezomib (Velcade) instead of the standard twice-weekly schedule maintains efficacy and reduces toxicity.


Understanding the target audience for popular television series is valuable for online video platform to manage advertising sales, purchase video copyrights, and compete with other video service platforms. Existing studies in this domain generally focus on using data mining and machine learning techniques to recommend television series to individual users or predict the popularity of television series. Knowing only the popularity of television series may, however, limit our ability to answer more in-depth questions and develop more intelligent applications. In this paper, we develop a data-driven framework to model and predict audience competition patterns for popular online television series. Specifically, we first construct a sequence of dynamic competition networks of television series by mining the detailed viewership records. Then, we design the Dynamic Deep Network Factorization (DDNF), a hybrid modeling framework for predicting the future competition networks. Our framework adopts the deep neural network (DNN) and the knowledge-base (KB) embedding to incorporate static features, and integrates the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to learn dynamic features of the television series. Finally, extensive experiments on real-world data sets validate the effectiveness of our approach compared with state-of-the-art baselines in predicting the audience competition for existing and new television series.


Since ancient times, men and women have dreamed of soaring among the stars, but only in this century has that dream been realized. In Rockets into Space, Frank Winter tells the fascinating story of the modern launch vehicle, from the mythological musings of the Babylonians and Greeks to the present-day reality of manned and unmanned space flight. In concise yet comprehensive chapters dense with anecdotal detail, Winter tracks the theoretical formulations and technological breakthroughs that have charted the evolution of rocket propulsion and vehicle design. He pays particular attention to the remarkable contributions of pioneers Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, Eugen Sanger, and Sergei Korolev, whose genius and vision paved the way for later innovation. He describes the clandestine development of the V-2 rocket in Germany, under the technical leadership of Wernher von Braun, and its dramatic impact on postwar rocket research and satellite development in the United States and the Soviet Union. He also chronicles the complex events of the last three decades, which have produced ever more sophisticated rockets capable of launching larger payloads, from weapons to weather and communications satellites. Finally, he surveys exotic propulsion systems--nuclear, electric, solar, photon, laser--that lie on the frontiers of science today but that will shape the spaceflight and space policy decisions of tomorrow. Rockets into Space is an authoritative, entertaining guidebook for all who are interested in the history of space travel.


Abstract In the paper the first order sensitivity analysis is performed for a class of optimal control problems for time delay hyperbolic equations. A singular perturbation of geometrical domain of integration is introduced in the form of a circular hole. The Steklov-Poincare operator on a circle is defined in order to reduce the problem to regular perturbations in the truncated domain. The optimality system is differentiated with respect to the small parameter and the directional derivative of the optimal control is obtained as a solution to an auxiliary optimal control problem.


This paper uses seven nationally representative time use surveys in Latin America to identify key stylized facts regarding the quantity and quality of parental time investment on the skill formation of their children. Traditional models of household behavior have failed to account for the differential behavior of parents with respect to skill formation of their children vis-a-vis home production. This paper finds that, similarly to higher-income countries, there is a positive education gradient, as more educated parents spend more time on skill formation than their less educated counterparts. This pattern is observed across all countries. The paper further extends this literature by showing that more educated parents also provide better care for their children, thus increasing the socioeconomic gap.


Classical Antiquity is a particularly important field in terms of "Hope studies" […]. For centuries, the ancient tradition, and classical mythology in particular, has been a common reference point for whole hosts of creators of culture, across many parts of the world, and with the new media and globalization only increasing its impact. Thus, in our research at this stage, we have decided to study how the authors of literary and audiovisual texts for youth make use of the ancient myths to support their young protagonists (and readers or viewers) in crucial moments of their existence, on their road into adulthood, and in those dark hours when it seems that life is about to shatter and fade away. However, if Hope is summoned in time, the crisis can be overcome and the protagonist grows stronger, with a powerful uplifting message for the public. […] Owing to this, we get a chance to remain true to our ideas, to keep faith in our dreams, and, when the decisive moment comes, to choose not hatred but love, not darkness but light. Katarzyna Marciniak, University of Warsaw, From the introductory chapter


In an effort to redress the educational needs of Indigenous peoples as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's call to action (2015), two Indigenous colleagues, Elizabeth Brulé and Ruth Koleszar-Green, came together to engage in a collective reflection on what Indigenizing the curriculum has meant to each of them. Through a collective dialogue that affirms that knowledge is created through our individual and collective storytelling, they discussed the challenges and successes that Indigenous women have encountered in their attempts to indigenize the curriculum over the past decade in the province of Ontario, Canada. Collaborative work such as this has not only provided them with an enriching intellectual and collective experience but has also given them cause for hope in their pursuit for truth and reconciliation. Through this collective dialogue, issues of Indigeneity, pedagogy, reconciliation and sisterhood are discussed.


Three cases of torticollis are recorded, one of a child with congenital muscular torticollis and two of infants with acquired torticollis caused by neurogenic tumours. All were treated by chiropractors before the correct diagnosis was made. The differential diagnosis of torticollis in infants and children is important in clinical practice.


Arterial elasticity has gained importance in recent decades because it has been shown to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular diseases. Several in vivo and ex vivo techniques have been developed to characterize the elastic properties of vessels. In vivo techniques tend to ignore the anisotropy of the mechanical properties in the vessel wall, and therefore fail to characterize elasticity in different directions. Ex vivo techniques have been focused on studying the mechanical properties in different axes. In this paper, we present a technique that uses piezoelectric elements to measure the elasticity of soft tubes and excised arteries in two directions while maintaining the natural structure of these vessels. This technique uses sonometry data from piezoelectric elements to measure the strain in the longitudinal and circumferential directions while the tubes/arteries are being pressurized. We conducted experiments on urethane tubes to evaluate the technique and compared the experimental results with mechanical testing done on the materials used for making the tubes. We then performed sonometry experiments on excised pig carotid arteries assuming that they are transversely isotropic materials. To evaluate the sensitivity of this technique to changes in the material properties, we changed the temperature of the saline bath in which the arteries were immersed. The calculated Young's modulus from sonometry experiments for the urethane tubes and the mechanical testing values showed good agreement, deviating no more than 13.1%. The elasticity values from the excised arteries and the behavior with the temperature changed agreed with previous work done in similar arteries. Therefore, we propose this technique for nondestructive testing of the biaxial properties of soft material tubes and excised arteries in their natural physiological shape.


Introduction Competencies oriented medical curricula are intended to support the development of those specific tasks likely to improve patient care outcomes. In 2005, our institution developed curricular objectives and instructional activities intended to enable our students to competently perform four specific clinical tasks (diagnose, treat, manage and explain phenomena) for each of approximately 100 common and/or important patient presentations (eg, dyspnoea). However, competencies oriented curricula must also develop outcome metrics aligned with their objectives and instructional activities in order to launch a continuous quality improvement (CQI) programme. This investigation describes how a novel course evaluation methodology produced presentation and task-focused outcome metrics sufficient to support CQIs in our competencies-oriented curriculum. Methods Literature suggests that aggregated, group opinions are much more reliable than individual opinions in a variety of settings, including education. In 2010, we launched a course evaluation methodology using aggregated student self-assessments of their confidence in performing the four tasks trained to in each presentation-focused instructional activity. These aggregated estimates were transformed into a variety of graphic and tabular reports which faculty used to identify, and then remediate, those specific instructional activities associated with suboptimal presentation and task-focused confidence metrics. Results With academic year 2010–2011 serving as a baseline and academic year 2015–2016 as an endpoint, analysis of variance revealed a sustained and statistically significant gain in student confidence across this 6-year study period (p<0.001). Discussion This investigation demonstrated that aggregated, presentation and task-specific confidence estimates enabled faculty to pursue and attain CQIs in a competencies-oriented curriculum. Suggestions for new approaches to confidence-related research are offered.


The present research examined whether possessing multiple social identities (i.e., groups relevant to one's sense of self) is associated with creativity. In Study 1, the more identities individuals reported having, the more names they generated for a new commercial product (i.e., greater idea fluency). In Study 2, multiple identities were associated with greater fluency and originality (mediated by cognitive flexibility, but not by persistence). Study 3 validated these findings using a highly powered sample. We again found that multiple identities increase fluency and originality, and that flexibility (but not persistence) mediated the effect on originality. Study 3 also ruled out several alternative explanations (self-affirmation, novelty seeking, and generalized persistence). Across all studies, the findings were robust to controlling for personality, and there was no evidence of a curvilinear relationship between multiple identities and creativity. These results suggest that possessing multiple social identities is associated with enhanced creativity via cognitive flexibility.


The behaviour of ornamental stones in response to environmental changes or interactions is crucial when dealing with the conservation of cultural heritage. Weathering factors affect each rock differently, depending on structure, mineralogy, and extraction and implementation techniques. This work focuses on the Macigno sandstone, a dimension stone often employed in Tuscany over the centuries. A thorough mineralogical (optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction) and petrophysical characterization (i.e. mercury intrusion porosimetry, X-ray computed tomography, hygroscopic adsorption behaviour, ultrasounds, image analysis and capillary uptake) was made of the sandstone type extracted in the area of Greve in Chianti. The lithotype shows mineralogical (i.e. presence of mixed-layer phyllosilicates) and micro-porosimetric features, leading to a high susceptibility to relative humidity variation. Moreover, the influence of swelling minerals is related to weathering due to saline solution. The joint application of petrographic and petrophysical techniques allows an understanding of the characteristic weathering pattern of exfoliation (i.e. detachment of multiple thin stone layers, centimetre scale, that are sub-parallel to the stone surface).


During the past decade, various new types of organic nonlinear optical crystals have been developed to overcome the benchmark stilbazolium DAST (4-(4-(N,N-dimethylamino)styryl)-1-methylpyridinium 4-methylbenzenesulfonate) crystal. Here, we review the acentric core structures used in recently developed organic nonlinear optical crystals exhibiting high macroscopic second-order optical nonlinearity, along with their supramolecular interactions and THz applications. The nonlinear optical acentric core structures such as neutral CLP (configurationally locked polyene based on phenyltriene), ionic pyridinium-based N-alkyl DAS (4-(4-(N,N-dimethylamino)styryl)-1-alkylpyridinium benzenesulfonate) and N-phenyl DAP ((4-(N,N-dimethylamino)styryl)-1-phenylpyridinium hexafluorophosphate), ionic quinolinium-based HMQ (2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyryl)-1-methylquinolinium benzenesulfonate) and OHQ (2-(4-hydroxystyryl)-1-methylquinolinium benzenesulfonate) and benzoindolium-based DBI (2-(4-(dimethylamino)styryl)-1,3,3-trimethyl-3H-benzo[g]indolium iodide) exhibit comparable or enhanced physical properties compared to DAST crystals. Organic crystals introducing an identical acentric core structure often exhibit similar molecular alignment features with analogous supramolecular interactions. We also discuss the nonlinear optical properties and potential applications of these materials, in particular their very promising THz photonic applications.


This article explores the use of poetic inquiry in a transnational competence-building Shadow Play Project. Based on journals from four Nepalese preschool teacher educators, I present and interpret examples of data poems that portray the teachers' experiences of ownership in the project. My discussion intends to make explicit some aspects of the process of my search for the experience of ownership, coupled with a discussion of the search of a poetic form. I will further reflect upon the usefulness and challenges of poetic inquiry, given the use of English as a second or third language of the persons involved. Through this, I seek to develop a critical understanding of poetic inquiry as a way of understanding the experiences of others.


This paper reports the findings of a psycholinguistic study of the development of phonological awareness (PA) in Chinese children acquiring their first language and learning a foreign language at the same time. The language situation of these children in relation to PA is of particular interest because Chinese and English have not only different phonological systems, but also different writing systems. Eighty-two children in Taiwan aged 10–11 were tested on Chinese and English PA processing tasks. These tests included six tasks, such as syllable awareness, initial phoneme oddity, final phoneme oddity, medial phoneme oddity, final phoneme deletion and initial phoneme deletion. Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise regressions were used to determine the PA in both languages. The findings indicate that (1) strong positive associations exist between English/Chinese PA and English/Chinese abilities for all subjects; (2) skills in phoneme segmentation and phoneme deletion acquired in Chinese are transferable to English for young Chinese EFL beginning learners; and (3) skills in first phoneme oddity and initial phoneme deletion are good predictors for success in learning an alphabetic language such as English.


The function of the vascular endothelium is to maintain vascular homeostasis, by providing an anti-thrombotic, anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory interface between circulating blood and the vessel wall, meanwhile facilitating the selective passage of blood components such as signaling molecules and immune cells. Dysfunction of the vascular endothelium is implicated in a number of pathological states including atherosclerosis and hypertension, and is thought to precede atherogenesis by a number of years. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF) is a crucial mitogenic signaling molecule, not only essential for embryonic development, but also in the adult for regulating both physiological and pathological angiogenesis. Previous studies by our laboratory have demonstrated that VEGF-A activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), the downstream component of a signaling cascade important in the regulation of whole body and cellular energy status. Furthermore, studies in our laboratory have indicated that AMPK is essential for VEGF-A-stimulated vascular endothelial cell proliferation. AMPK activation typically stimulates anabolic processes and inhibits catabolic processes including cell proliferation, with the ultimate aim of redressing energy imbalance, and as such is an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndromes, and type 2 diabetes. Metabolic diseases are associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and AMPK activation is reported to have beneficial effects on the vascular endothelium. The mechanism by which VEGF-A stimulates AMPK, and the functional consequences of VEGF-A-stimulated AMPK activation remain uncertain.
The present study therefore aimed to identify the specific mechanism(s) by which VEGF-A regulates the activity of AMPK in endothelial cells, and how this might differ from the activation of AMPK by other agents. Furthermore, the role of AMPK in the pro-proliferative actions of VEGF-A was further examined. Human aortic and umbilical vein endothelial cells were therefore used as a model system to characterise the specific effect(s) of VEGF-A stimulation on AMPK activation.
The present study reports that AMPK α1 containing AMPK complexes account for the vast majority of both basal and VEGF-A-stimulated AMPK activity. Furthermore, AMPK α1 is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum when sub-confluent, but translocated to the Golgi apparatus when cells are cultured to confluence. AMPK α2 appears to be associated with a structural cellular component, but neither α1 nor α2 complexes appear to translocate in response to VEGF-A stimulation. The present study confirms previous reports that when measured using the MTS cell proliferation assay, AMPK is required for VEGF-A-stimulated endothelial cell proliferation. However, parallel experiments measuring cell proliferation using the Real-Time Cell Analyzer xCELLigence system, do not agree with these previous reports, suggesting that AMPK may in fact be required for an aspect of mitochondrial metabolism which is enhanced by VEGF-A. Studies into the mitochondrial activity of endothelial cells have proved inconclusive at this time, but further studies into this are warranted.
During previous studies in our laboratory, it was suggested that VEGF-A-stimulated AMPK activation may be mediated via the diacylglycerol (DAG)-sensitive transient receptor potential cation channel (TRPCs -3, -6 or -7) family of ion channels. The present study can neither confirm, nor exclude the expression of TRPCs in vascular endothelial cells, nor rule out their involvement in VEGF-A-stimulated AMPK activation; more specific investigative tools are required in order to characterise their involvement. Furthermore, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP)-stimulated Ca2+ release from acidic intracellular organelles is not required for AMPK activation by VEGF-A.
Despite what is known about the mechanisms by which AMPK is activated, far less is known concerning the downregulation of AMPK activity, as observed in human and animal models of metabolic disease. Phosphorylation of AMPK α1 Ser485 (α2 Ser491) has recently been characterised as a mechanism by which the activity of AMPK is negatively regulated. We report here for the first time that VEGF-A stimulates AMPK α1 Ser485 phosphorylation independently of the previously reported AMPK α1 Ser485 kinases Akt (protein kinase B) and ERK1/2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2). Furthermore, inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC), the activity of which is reported to be elevated in metabolic disease, attenuates VEGF-A- and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-stimulated AMPK α1 Ser485 phosphorylation, and increases basal AMPK activity. In contrast to this, PKC activation reduces AMPK activity in human vascular endothelial cells. Attempts to identify the PKC isoform responsible for inhibiting AMPK activity suggest that it is one (or more) of the Ca2+-regulated DAG-sensitive isoforms of PKC, however cross regulation of PKC isoform expression has limited the present study. Furthermore, AMPK α1 Ser485 phosphorylation was inversely correlated with human muscle insulin sensitivity. As such, enhanced AMPK α1 Ser485 phosphorylation, potentially mediated by increased PKC activation may help explain some of the reduced AMPK activity observed in metabolic disease.


Adaptive feedforward error cancellation applied to correct distortion arising from third-order nonlinearities in RF receivers requires low-noise low-power reference cubic nonidealities. Multistage cubic-term generators utilizing cascaded nonlinear operations are ideal in this regard, but the frequency response of the interstage circuitry can introduce errors into the cubing operation. In this paper, an overview of the use of cubic-term generators in receivers relative to other applications is presented. An interstage frequency response plan is presented for a receiver cubic-term generator and is shown to function for arbitrary three-signal third-order intermodulation generation. The noise of such circuits is also considered and is shown to depend on the total incoming signal power across a particular frequency band. Finally, the effects of the interstage group delay are quantified in the context of a relevant communication standard requirement.


In civil aviation, navigation performance has to be maintained up to a high standard for its uninterrupted operations. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) coupled with other navigational aid system provide the required performance levels for flight operations. In GNSS based position estimates, the vertical component is less accurate than the horizontal component; it is specifically due to the necessity of estimating a receiver clock bias. In all phases of flight navigation, the accuracy of height component is extremely important. With the concept of receiver clock modeling (RCM), sometimes also referred as clock coasting, the accuracy of the vertical component can be improved by a large extent. In this paper, we present experimental results of GNSS code-based flight navigation with and without RCM. GNSS observations are captured during a flight for about three hours with multiple geodetic grade GNSS receivers and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Some of the receivers are connected with external atomic clocks to analyze the feasibility and validity of RCM in flight navigation; also to study the impact of flight dynamics on the external clocks and GNSS observations. Data captured are processed post-flight; position and clock errors are estimated with multi-GNSS code and Doppler observations using a Kalman filter (KF) approach. The estimated position and clock errors are computed twice, once by applying the concept of RCM and once without applying it. Finally, the estimated positions are compared with the reference trajectory and the topocentric coordinate differences are evaluated. Experimental results demonstrate that the precision in the height component is improved by about 65% using GPS and Galileo P-code observations with RCM applied compared to a positioning solution without applying RCM. Overall, there is no significant difference in the horizontal components for the solution computed with and without RCM. The effects of flight dynamics on external atomic clocks and GNSS observations are also discussed briefly. There exists a high correlation (about 90%) between flight acceleration and the frequency offset of an external atomic ovenized quartz oscillator during a highly dynamic maneuver phase.


While real-world decisions involve many competing objectives, algorithmic decisions are often evaluated with a single objective function. In this paper, we study algorithmic policies which explicitly trade off between a private objective (such as profit) and a public objective (such as social welfare). We analyze a natural class of policies which trace an empirical Pareto frontier based on learned scores, and focus on how such decisions can be made in noisy or data-limited regimes. Our theoretical results characterize the optimal strategies in this class, bound the Pareto errors due to inaccuracies in the scores, and show an equivalence between optimal strategies and a rich class of fairness-constrained profit-maximizing policies. We then present empirical results in two different contexts -- online content recommendation and sustainable abalone fisheries -- to underscore the applicability of our approach to a wide range of practical decisions. Taken together, these results shed light on inherent trade-offs in using machine learning for decisions that impact social welfare.


Monte Carlo simulations have been used for calculating the energy deposition of beta particles in the depletion region of a silicon carbide (SiC) betavoltaic cell along with the corresponding theoretical efficiencies. Three Monte Carlo codes were used in the study: GEANT4, PENELOPE, and MCNPX. These codes were used to examine the transportation of beta particles from 90Y, 90Sr, and 35S. Both the average beta energy from each source and the entire spectrum were modeled for calculating maximum theoretical energy deposition in both a spherical and slab geometry. A simulated depletion region was added in postprocessing containing the maximum energy deposited per micrometer. The calculated maximum efficiencies with the slab configuration model are approximately 1.95%, 0.30%, and 0.025% using monoenergetic average energy and 1.54%, 0.25%, and 0.019% using an energy spectrum for 35S, 90Sr, and 90Y, respectively. These efficiencies when using the spherical configuration model are 2.02%, 0.31%, and 0.023% using the monoenergetic average energy and 1.10%, 0.17%, and 0.013% using an energy spectrum for 35S, 90Sr, and 90Y, respectively.


Normal faults were initiated and grew through hierarchical formation of pressure-solution structures and their subsequent shearing in Cretaceous carbonates in the leading thrust front of Maiella Mountain, Italy. Through mapping in the field, we have documented the detailed architecture of faults with increasing slip values from a few millimeters to ∼50 m and have identified pretilting structural elements and four stages of fault development, each stage representing addition of a new structural element. The result is a conceptual model that begins with pretilting structures (bed-parallel and bed-perpendicular solution surfaces) that were reactivated in shear upon tilting of the beds at the frontal limb of the Maiella anticline. Slip on mechanical-layer boundaries and on bed-perpendicular solution surfaces resulted in oblique solution surfaces, linkage of solution surfaces, and fragmentation of rock. Oblique zones of fragmented rock in adjacent mechanical layers linked to form a continuous breccia and facilitated fault growth. These normal faults formed through mechanical processes strictly in a compressional regime.


Spondyloarthritides (SpAs) encompass heterogeneous diseases sharing similar genetic background, pathogenic mechanisms, and phenotypic features. Vitamin D is essential for calcium metabolism and skeletal homeostasis. Some recent evidences reported supplemental functions of vitamin D, such as modulation of inflammatory reactions.

 To analyze published data about a possible association between vitamin D and SpAs.

 Vitamin D could play a role in immune reactions, influencing both immune and adaptive response. Vitamin D deficiency is more frequent in SpAs than in general population: an active and more severe disease infers patients' mobility and reduces sunlight exposure. Quiescent inflammatory bowel disease, frequently associated with SpAs, could worsen vitamin D deficiency. All the parameters related to UVB exposure are the most important determinants for vitamin D status and need to be considered evaluating the vitamin D levels in SpAs.
 Apart from musculoskeletal problems, patients affected by SpAs frequently suffer from other comorbidities, especially cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis, and vitamin D status could have a relevance in this field. Bone is involved in SpAs with a dualistic role, coexisting trabecular bone resorption and new bone formation.
 It seems rational to monitor vitamin D levels in SpA subjects and to target it to global health threshold.

 Literature data were not completely in agreement about a possible relation between poor vitamin D status and onset or worse disease course of SpAs. In fact, these results come from cross-sectional studies, which affect our ability to infer causality. Therefore, large, randomized controlled trials are needed.


MIS416 is an intact minimal cell wall skeleton derived from Proprionibacterium acnes that is phagocytosed by antigen presenting cells, including dendritic cells (DCs). This property allows MIS416 to be exploited as a vehicle for the delivery of peptide antigens or other molecules (for example, nucleic acids) to DCs. We previously showed that covalent (non-cleavable) conjugation of OVA, a model antigen derived from ovalbumin, to MIS416 enhanced immune responses in DCs in vivo, compared to unconjugated MIS416 and OVA. Intracellular trafficking promotes the lysosomal degradation of MIS416, leading to the destruction of MIS416 plus the associated cargos conjugated to MIS416. However, lysosomal degradation of cargo may not be desired for some MIS416 conjugates. Here we have investigated whether a cleavable linkage could facilitate release of the cargo in the cytoplasm of DCs to avoid lysosomal degradation. DCs were treated in vitro with disulfide-containing conjugates, and as hypothesised faster release of SIINFEKL peptide in the cytoplasm of DCs was observed with the inclusion of a disulfide bond between MIS416 and cargo. The inclusion of a cleavable disulfide bond in the conjugates did not significantly alter the amount of SIINFEKL antigens presented on MHC I molecules on DCs as compared with conjugates without a disulfide bond. However, the conjugates containing disulfide-linkages performed either slightly better (p<0.05) than, or the same as conjugates without a disulfide bond with respect to in vitro OT-1 T-cell proliferation induced by the presentation of SIINFEKL antigens on DCs, or DC activation studies, respectively. However, disulfide-containing conjugates were less effective than conjugates without a disulfide bond in in vivo cytotoxicity assays. In conclusion, inclusion of a disulfide bond in MIS416-peptide conjugates was associated with efficient release of peptides in the cytoplasm of DCs, an important consideration for MIS416-mediated delivery of degradation-sensitive cargoes. However, treatment of DCs with disulfide-containing conjugates did not significantly alter the presentation of peptide antigens on MHC class I molecules to T-cells, or greatly enhance antigen-associated T-cell proliferation in vitro.


The formation of perched deltas and other lacustrine deposits in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica is widely considered to be evidence of valley-filling lakes dammed by the grounded Ross Sea ice sheet during the local Last Glacial Maximum, with lake drainage interpreted as a record of grounding line retreat. We used luminescence dating to determine the age of paleolake deltas and glacial tills in Garwood Valley, a coastal dry valley that opens to the Ross Sea. Luminescence ages are stratigraphically consistent with radiocarbon results from algal mats within the same delta deposits but suggest radiocarbon dates from lacustrine carbonates may overestimate deposit ages by thousands of years. Results suggest that late Holocene delta deposition into paleolake Howard in Garwood Valley persisted until ca. 3.5 ka. This is significantly younger than the date when grounded ice is thought to have retreated from the Ross Sea. Our evidence suggests that the local, stranded ice-cored till topography in Garwood Valley, rather than regional ice-sheet dynamics, may have controlled lake levels for some McMurdo Dry Valleys paleolakes. Age control from the supraglacial Ross Sea drift suggests grounding and up-valley advance of the Ross Sea ice sheet into Garwood valley during marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 4 (71−78 ka) and the local Last Glacial Maximum (9−10 ka). This work demonstrates the power of combining luminescence dating with existing radiocarbon data sets to improve understanding of the relationships among paleolake formation, glacial position, and stream discharge in response to climate change.


The PermaSense project, a joint computer science and geoscience project, investigates the influence of climate change on permafrost and specifically the stability of steep rock walls in alpine regions and future natural hazard scenarios due to global warming. Current practice only allows to make observations in the mountain cryosphere using limited field studies; larger-scale and longer-term measurements are very difficult. To this extent we develop autonomous, wireless sensors that allow the collection, transmission and analysis of data online with reliable and high-quality measurement systems for extreme environmental conditions. The main goal of PermaSense is to provide long-term high-quality sensing in harsh environments, to obtain better quality data more effectively and make measurements that have previously been impossible. The system makes use of state-of-the-art ultra- low power wireless sensor nodes that can live off of a single battery for 3-5 years and survive the harsh environmental conditions in high-alpine regions. A base station is responsible of relaying data to a server using a long-haul wireless link, e.g. GSM/GPRS or WLAN with low latency on the order of seconds. Online data analysis allows to assess the state of a field site quickly and to adapt algorithms and analysis methods when necessary. We are currently operating sensor networks delivering online data on both the Jungfraujoch and the Matterhorn at 3500m a.s.l. In this paper we describe the tech- nology currently used in PermaSense and explain how this can be adapted for other cases of envi- ronmental monitoring.