FSCQ is the first file system with a machine-checkable proof (using the Coq proof assistant) that its implementation meets its specification and whose specification includes crashes. FSCQ provably avoids bugs that have plagued previous file systems, such as performing disk writes without sufficient barriers or forgetting to zero out directory blocks. If a crash happens at an inopportune time, these bugs can lead to data loss. FSCQ's theorems prove that, under any sequence of crashes followed by reboots, FSCQ will recover the file system correctly without losing data. To state FSCQ's theorems, this paper introduces the Crash Hoare logic (CHL), which extends traditional Hoare logic with a crash condition, a recovery procedure, and logical address spaces for specifying disk states at different abstraction levels. CHL also reduces the proof effort for developers through proof automation. Using CHL, we developed, specified, and proved the correctness of the FSCQ file system. Although FSCQ's design is relatively simple, experiments with FSCQ running as a user-level file system show that it is sufficient to run Unix applications with usable performance. FSCQ's specifications and proofs required significantly more work than the implementation, but the work was manageable even for a small team of a few researchers.


The rapid increase in economic globalization and international diversification of investment portfolios impose new problems in performance assessment and risk management. Research showing relatively low correlation among equities traded in different countries suggests substantial risk reduction is possible from international diversification. In this article, Scherer points to the statistical difficulty of measuring correlation properly for securities traded in national markets that are open and closed at different times in the "same" day. If the trading day starts in Japan, by the time the U.S. stock market opens, the European markets have been trading for hours and the Japanese stock market is already closed. A major event with worldwide implications that occurs during New York trading hours will not show up in the Nikkei until the next day, while it will be reflected in returns on the German DAX either the same day or the next, depending on the time. Procedures that synchronize returns to correct correlation estimates for this effect show that true correlations are much higher than uncorrected estimates computed from "accounting" returns. Without such corrections, risk measures like Value-at-Risk will be significantly underestimated.


With global trade talks stalled at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), rich-country cotton subsidies remain unabated, hurting poor cotton farmers. World Bank led reforms to privatise the Malian cotton sector, including the adoption of a new price- setting mechanism, are further exacerbating the dire conditions in cotton-producing communities. A minimum level of price stability is vital for income security in the cotton sector and to prevent further slides into poverty. The wider donor community should provide adequate funds to finance a cotton-sector support fund, as well as invest in rural extension services and sustain capacity building of farmers to enable them to maximise their returns from new market opportunities.


We propose a new framework for the analysis of mutual funds and use it to examine the rationale behind existing regulations that require mutual fund adviser fees to be of the "fulcrum" variety. We find little justification for the regulations. Indeed, we find that asymmetric "incentive fees" in which the adviser receives a flat fee plus a bonus for exceeding a benchmark index provide Pareto-dominant outcomes with a lower level of equilibrium volatility. Our model also offers some insight into fee structures actually in use in the asset-management industry. We find that when leveraging is not permitted and the fee structure must be of the fulcrum variety, the equilibrium fee in our model is a flat fee with no performance component; while if asymmetric incentive fees are allowed and leveraging is permitted the equilibrium fee is an incentive fee with a large performance component. These predictions match observed fee structures in the mutual fund industry and the hedge fund industry, respectively.


In this thesis I begin by extending previous psychophysical research on the
effects of visual motion on spatial localisation. In particular, I measured the
perceived spatial shift of briefly presented static objects adjacent to a moving
stimulus. It was found that the timing of the presentation of static objects with
respect to nearby motion was crucial. I also found a decrease of this motion
induced spatial displacement with the increasing distance of static objects from
motion, suggesting a local effect of motion. The induced perceptual shift could
also be reduced by introducing transient stimuli (flickering dots) in the
background of the display.
The next stage was to construct a computational model to provide a
mechanism that could facilitate such shifts in position. To motivate our
combined model of motion computation and spatial representation we
considered what functions could be attributed to V1 cells on the basis of their
contrast sensitivity functions. I found that functions based on sums of
differential of Gaussian operators could provide good fits to previously found V1
data.
The properties of V1 cells as derivatives of Gaussian kernel filters on an image
were used to build a spatial representation, where position is represented in the
weighting of these filter outputs, rather than in a one-to-one isomorphic
representation of the scene. This image representation can also be used along
with temporal derivatives to calculate motion using the Multi-Channel Gradient
Model scheme (Johnston et al, 1992). 1 demonstrate how this framework can
incorporate motion signals to produce "in place" shifts of visual location. Finally
a combined model of motion and spatial location is outlined and evaluated in
relation to the psychophysical data.


This paper describes a procedure for efficiently simulating a multi asset Heston model with an arbitrary correlation structure. Very little literature can be found on the topic (e.g. Wadman (2010) and Dimitroff et al. (2011)), the latter being very restrictive on correlation assumptions. The scheme proposed in this text is based on Andersen's Quadratic Exponential (QE) scheme (2008) and operates with an arbitrary input correlation structure, which is partially decorrelated via a Gaussian copula approach to fit the single asset QE prerequisites. Given a long term horizon, it is shown numerically that, in the multi asset QE (MQE) scheme, all combinations of terminal correlations converge quickly to the true terminal correlations for decreasing Monte Carlo time step size, if the input correlation matrix is interpreted as the system's instantaneous correlation matrix. Convergence of vanilla and spread option prices is investigated, in order to verify the appropriate behaviour for higher moments of the marginal and the joint distribution under MQE. Finally, the superiority of MQE vs. Taylor based schemes is shown by comparing convergence of the empirical PDF, calculated with Monte Carlo, to the "exact" function calculated via Fourier inversion.


This article deals with a reform in the regulation on employment of migrant workers which was implemented in the Israeli construction industry from 2005. This corporations-based arrangement replaced a restrictive employment arrangement which tied the employee to a specific employer. The new regulation of work conditions and wages, coupled with a significant reduction in the number of work permits issued to construction, has improved work conditions and wages paid to migrant workers, and made their employment less attractive to employers. The reform also included elements designed to reduce the illegal employment phenomenon and to encourage migrant workers to leave the country at the end of their contracts. However, the new arrangement still restricted the mobility of migrant workers to some extent and had negative consequences such as a significant rise in the broker fees demanded of workers.


Single-species Gadget models were used to assess the effects of using a sorting grid mounted on the traditional trawl net used by Sicilian trawlers to exploit the deep-water rose shrimp in the Strait of Sicily. The main commercial by-catch species of this fleet is the European hake (Merluccius merluccius), often caught at sizes well below the minimum conservation reference size. Selectivity curves based on the results of an experimental survey carried out in the area using a commercial trawler equipped with an ad hoc-designed sorting grid were incorporated into single-species Gadget models to forecast the effects of changing fishery selectivity on the performance of the two stocks in terms of catch and biomass. The models included catch data from the Italian, Tunisian and Maltese fleets as well as MEDITS trawl survey data for the period 2002-2016. Several scenarios were defined to simulate the effect of the Italian trawlers' adopting the sorting grid under different stock-recruitment assumptions. The results obtained, when compared with status quo simulations of fishing without a sorting grid mounted on the trawl net, indicated a beneficial effect for both stocks in terms of an increase in biomass and for the fleets in terms of the amount and size composition of annual landings.


In the 1580s and 1590s London experienced high inflation, plague outbreaks, and prolonged dearth caused, in part, by the City's phenomenal population explosion in the late sixteenth-century. (1) The Crown and City responded to these conditions with a surge of anti-building legislation. Numerous Royal Proclamations, issued at the urging of the City's officials, blamed unregulated building for the increasingly disturbing changes in London's social topography. John Stow's Survey of London (1598), which provides a detailed account of London's wards and parishes during the reign of Elizabeth I, vividly illustrates the power of the Crown and City's anti-building rhetoric, describing the ecological devastation and social disintegration ushered in by unregulated building. However, Stow complicates the traditional paradigm governing the Elizabethan debates about building, in which building is discussed almost exclusively in terms of urban containment (or, less frequently, urban expansion), by attributing specific negative or positive consequences to particular types of building. By doing so, Stow demonstrates the emerging power of what I call "a discourse of building," which focuses on issues of style, material, and location and emphasizes the type of expansion. More importantly, the striking similarities between the nascent urban planning ideas expressed in the Survey of London and those promoted in seventeenth-century building regulations make a strong case for elevating the role texts such as Stow's played in generating alternative solutions to London's urban expansion problems during the period. Elizabeth's 1580 Royal Proclamation against building assumed national scope with an Act of Parliament in 1588, effectively sanctioning a discourse of building founded on the idea that banning any new, subdivided, or multi-occupant buildings would curb London's skyrocketing population. (2) A series of Elizabethan anti-building proc lamations was based on the premise that the new and subdivided buildings and the landlords who rented to multiple tenants in already overcrowded houses fueled London's population expansion and thus contributed to higher food and fuel prices, the spread of plague and fire, and the inability of her majesty "to have her people ... well governed by ordinary justice." The remedy was "to command all manner of person, of what quality soever they be, to desist and forbear from any new buildings of any house or tenement within three miles from any of the gates of London ... where no former house hath been known" on threat of "close prison" and "seizure of all building materials." The Crown and the City authorities wished to encourage London's recent arrivals to "provide themselves with other places in the realm where many houses rest uninhabited to the decay of divers ancient good boroughs and towns." (3) London's new and converted buildings acted as material evidence for those outside the capital who accused the City of siphoning off inhabitants, devaluing rental income, and stealing business away from other towns, all of which helped popularize the image of London as the "great wen" or as an "overgrown spleen." One anonymous petitioner from the period complained that "retailers and artificers, at the least of such things as pertain to the back or belly, do leave country towns where there is no vent and do fly to London, where they be sure to find ready and quick market." (4) These complaints should not be dismissed as mere exaggerations. By the mid-seventeenth century, London's high mortality rate coupled with its low birth rate demanded an influx of more than 8,000 new residents annually to sustain its growth, and many, if not most, came from other parts of England. (5) The rhetoric of the Royal Proclamations placed London's overcrowding and its increased population, and the host of social problems accompanying rapid growth, in a causal relationship to its new buildings and daily altering topography. …


A growing number of economists blame the length and severity of the Great Depression on factors that rigidified wage rates, raised production costs, and interfered with the market allocation of labor. The target of their critique is President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal labor program, which they portray as creating a series of large negative supply shocks through encouragement of unions, minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and other anticompetitive industrial relations practices. The author uses a combination of institutiognal and Keynesian theory to present the other side of the story. Drawing principally from the works of J. R. Commons and J. M. Keynes, he develops both a spending and a productivity rationale for stable wages during the Great Depression and demonstrates that the New Deal's interventionist labor program was on balance necessary and beneficial. He also highlights the neglected macro-economic dimension of industrial relations theory and policy.


Rapidly falling renewable technology costs and new business models mean that decentralized energy solutions hold great promise to accelerate universal sustainable energy access. Across developing countries, women are typically the primary household energy managers. Close to their customers, women entrepreneurs have the potential to lower customer acquisition and servicing costs and drive these new decentralized solutions. However, they remain under-represented in the industry. This paper attempts to understand the root causes of this gender gap. It formulates the research hypothesis that market transformation policies intended to reduce investment risks to accelerate energy access may not benefit men and women entrepreneurs equally because of the existing structural barriers that women face. To test this hypothesis, the paper conducts a gender sensitive investment barrier and risk analysis, overlaid onto an existing gender neutral taxonomy of investment barriers and risks for decentralized sustainable energy solutions. A key finding is that for women entrepreneurs, existing structural impediments to gender equality translate into additional investment barriers as well as increased likelihood of occurrence and severity of the financial impact of generic investment risks. The paper offers an illustrative theory of change to facilitate a dialogue on the specific interventions needed to address these gender differentiated risks locally. It concludes that market transformation efforts for universal sustainable energy access must include targeted policy measures to ensure equal benefits to men and women entrepreneurs, and optimize the use of public resources to catalyze private investment and reduce poverty.


Some observers have worried that under or over-estimating the output gap may unnecessarily induce tightening or loosening of monetary conditions, causing real fluctuations. To investigate the relationship between the output gap and inflation, we examine models of inflation that do and do not use the output gap. The Phillips curve, which relates inflation to real activity, is regarded as the maintained theory of inflation. Models of inflation without the output gap include the equation of exchange of the quantity theory of money, the real interest rate gap, and two versions of the model. Since none of these economic models are either totally wrong nor complete, it makes sense to diversify across models rather than relying on one model exclusively. The forecasts derived from different stable models can be combined through averaging, which offsets biases and reduces the forecast error variance. Such model diversification spreads the risks of errors (i.e., insurance about bad outcomes that arise from the reliance on a single model) and provides greater robustness for policy. This paper examines ten different models of inflation and estimates sixty-seven different specifications, some of which outperform others. Some explanatory variables like money and the real interest rate gap seem to provide more information about future inflation than does estimates of output gap.


Seasonal changes in trophic position and food sources of deep subalpine lake (Lake Iseo, Northern Italy) zooplankton taxa were investigated during the year 2011. Furthermore, it's combined carbon and nitrogen Stable Isotope Analysis (SIA) with size-specific analyses of both, the major predatory cladoceran ( Leptodora kindtii , Focke) and two potential preys ( Daphnia longispina complex and Eubosmina longicornis ). SIA studies have been extremely useful to track the energy flow through complex trophic network, however, if it is applied to analyze relation between two/few species may lead to misleading interpretations. In fact, integrating size-specificity allowed for understanding why L. kindtii nitrogen isotopic fingerprint fully overlapped with Daphnia , in spring. By investigating changes in L. kindtii 's feeding basket, we found that in spring, L. kindtii mainly relied upon E. longicornis as prey, Daphnia being of too large body size for being captured by L. kindtii. Among preys encountered directly in front by a free-swimming Leptodora , only those able to fit into basket opening can be captured. As basket diameter increases with animal body length, size selection of prey depends on L. kindtii body length. As in other deep, subalpine lakes, E. longicornis was less 15 N-enriched than Daphnia , most likely because of exploiting nitrogen fixing, cyanobacteria colonies, commonly detected in Lake Iseo with the onset of thermal stratification. Cyclopoid adults were at the top of zooplankton food chain and they could potentially be feeding on Daphnia . They, however, likely fed in a different habitat (>20 m deep water), as suggested by a rather than negligible carbon fractionation. The results overall suggest that size-specificity is crucial for addressing space and time changes in trophic links between organisms composing the two hierarchical levels within open water zooplankton community.


To make sense of our unpredictable world, humans use sensory information streaming through billions of peripheral neurons. Uncertainty and ambiguity plague each sensory stream, yet remarkably our perception of the world is seamless, robust and often optimal in the sense of minimising perceptual variability. Moreover, humans have a remarkable capacity for dexterous manipulation. Initiation of precise motor actions under uncertainty requires awareness of not only the statistics of our environment but also the reliability of our sensory and motor apparatus. What happens when our sensory and motor systems are disrupted? Upper-limb amputees tted with a state-of-the-art prostheses must learn to both control and make sense of their robotic replacement limb. Tactile feedback is not a standard feature of these open-loop limbs, fundamentally limiting the degree of rehabilitation. This thesis introduces a modular closed-loop upper-limb prosthesis, a modi ed Touch Bionics ilimb hand with a custom-built linear vibrotactile feedback array. To understand the utility of the feedback system in the presence of multisensory and sensorimotor in uences, three fundamental open questions were addressed: (i) What are the mechanisms by which subjects compute sensory uncertainty? (ii) Do subjects integrate an arti cial modality with visual feedback as a function of sensory uncertainty? (iii) What are the in uences of open-loop and closed-loop uncertainty on prosthesis control? To optimally handle uncertainty in the environment people must acquire estimates of the mean and uncertainty of sensory cues over time. A novel visual tracking experiment was developed in order to explore the processes by which people acquire these statistical estimators. Subjects were required to simultaneously report their evolving estimate of the mean and uncertainty of visual stimuli over time. This revealed that subjects could accumulate noisy evidence over the course of a trial to form an optimal continuous estimate of the mean, hindered only by natural kinematic constraints. Although subjects had explicit access to a measure of their continuous objective uncertainty, acquired from sensory information available within a trial, this was limited by a conservative margin for error. In the Bayesian framework, sensory evidence (from multiple sensory cues) and prior beliefs (knowledge of the statistics of sensory cues) are combined to form a posterior estimate of the state of the world. Multiple studies have revealed that humans behave as optimal Bayesian observers when making binary decisions in forced-choice tasks. In this thesis these results were extended to a continuous spatial localisation task. Subjects could rapidly accumulate evidence presented via vibrotactile feedback (an arti cial modality ), and integrate it with visual feedback. The weight attributed to each sensory modality was chosen so as to minimise the overall objective uncertainty.


Building airtightness is a critical aspect for energy-efficient buildings as energy performance of a building can be reduced significantly by poor airtightness. The Pulse technique has been regarded as a promising technology, which measures the building airtightness at a low pressure of 4Pa by rapidly releasing a 1.5-second pulse of air from a pressurised vessel into the test building and thereby creating an instant pressure rise that quickly reaches a "quasi-steady" condition. However, questions have often been asked on the test viability due to the nature of the test. One of the frequently raised questions concerns uniformity of the pressure distribution across the internal space of the test building during the air pulse release. To provide insight into this, experimental work was conducted to measure the indoor pressure distribution during the pulse pressurisation process. The effect of the specific pulse release location on the building airtightness measurement has also been assessed by performing tests at various locations within the building. The test building, which is a five-bedroom house located in the University of Nottingham, was chosen for the testing. Five differential pressure transducers were used to obtain the pressure distribution within the dwelling. In addition, an ultrasonic anemometer was employed to measure the outdoor wind condition to eliminate the impact of wind on the indoor pressure. All the tests were conducted in December 2018 at wind speeds less than 0.5m/s (at a height of 2.2 metres above ground). The results show that a maximum relative percentage difference of 1.4% was obtained by comparing the pressure distribution between living room (Pulse test location) and the other rooms. This indicates that a pressure difference within the building during the Pulse test does exist but considering the accuracy of pressure transducers (0.15%), the deviation is not significant. Comparatively, smaller differences of the pressure level in the five rooms were observed in the fan pressurisation (Duct Blaster B, abbreviated as DBB) test at 10Pa and 15Pa, which are 0.5% and 0.2% respectively. In terms of building airtightness measurement, a subtle variation (i.e. 1.05%) is noted when the Pulse test was conducted at different locations on the ground floor, which may also be caused by variations in the environmental condition (e.g. temperature and wind condition).


The Republic of South Africa faces the imperative of escaping economic stagnation. This paper seeks to synthesize results from a series of research efforts, including but not limited to the work conducted under the UNU-WIDER project on 'Regional growth and development in Southern Africa', and consider policy options for escaping economic stagnation. The focus is on South Africa and South African policies yielding relatively quick dividends in terms of growth and taking the rest of the world as given. Four broad implications are presented. These could form part of a concerted effort to escape from South Africa's long running economic malaise.


The prevailing approach to free/open source software and licenses has been that each system is developed, distributed, and used under the terms of a single license. But it is increasingly common for information systems and other software to be composed with components from a variety of sources, and with a diversity of licenses. This may result in possible license conflicts and organizational liability for failure to fulfill license obligations. Research and practice to date have not kept up with this sea-change in software licensing arising from free/open source software development. System consumers and users consequently rely on ad hoc heuristics (or costly legal advice) to determine which license rights and obligations are in effect, often with less than optimal results; consulting services are offered to identify unknowing unauthorized use of licensed software in information systems; and researchers have shown how the choice of a (single) specific license for a product affects project success and system adoption. Legal scholars have examined how pairs of software licenses conflict but only in simple contexts. We present an approach for understanding and modeling software licenses, as well as for analyzing conflicts among groups of licenses in realistic system contexts, and for guiding the acquisition, integration, or development of systems with free/open source components in such an environment. This work is based on an empirical analysis of representative software licenses and of heterogeneously-licensed systems. Our approach provides guidance for achieving a "best-of-breed" component strategy while obtaining desired license rights in exchange for acceptable obligations.


The epidemics of Ebola virus in West Africa and Zika virus in America highlight how viruses can explosively emerge into new territories. These epidemics also exposed how unprepared we are to handle infectious disease emergencies. This is also true when we consider hypothesized new clinical features of infection, such as the associations between Zika virus infection and severe neurological disease, including microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome. On the surface, these pathologies appear to be new features of Zika virus infection, however, causal relationships have not yet been established. Decades of limited Zika virus research are making us scramble to determine the true drivers behind the epidemic, often at the expense of over-speculation without credible evidence. Here we review the literature and find no conclusive evidence at this time for significant biological differences between the American Zika virus strains and those circulating elsewhere. Rather, the epidemic scale in the Americas may be facilitated by an abnormally warm climate, dense human and mosquito populations, and previous exposure to other viruses. Severe disease associated with Zika virus may therefore not be a new trait for the virus, rather it may have been overlooked due to previously small outbreaks. Much of the recent panic regarding Zika virus has been about the Olympics in Brazil. We do not find any substantial evidence that the Olympics will result in a significant number of new Zika virus infections (~10 predicted) or that the Olympics will promote further epidemic spread over what is already expected. The Zika virus epidemic in the Americas is a serious situation and decisions based on solid scientific evidence - not hyped media speculations - are required for effective outbreak response.


Food prices increased significantly in 2007–08 in Ethiopia due to several supply- and demand-side factors. The Ethiopian government released emergency food grain reserves, imported and distributed wheat at subsidized price, banned the export of staple cereals, and removed value added and turnover taxes on food items. It also increased the reserve requirement of commercial banks and reduced domestic borrowing by public enterprises. These measures were mostly initiated by the government and the role of interest groups as well as local and international actors has been limited. These measures were taken to prevent potential social unrest and maintain macro-economic stability.


Rare fossil mammals from Hengdong in the Hengyang Basin of southern China have provided unusual opportunities to study early mammals in depth, to explore their phylogenetic relationships, and shed new light on the early radiation of eutherians. The first mammalian fossil from this basin was recovered fifty years ago. The fauna now includes ten species belonging to seven orders and is characterized by an abundance of early insectivores and rodents and their relatives. It also includes a varied group of mesonychids, didymoconids, and perissodactyls. The species Orientolophus hengdongensis and the new insectivores and rodents are closely related to those from the Bumban Member of the Naran Bulak Formation of Mongolia. New material of Propachynolophus hengyangensis, a species previously considered to be an equoid, suggests that it probably represents either an early tapiroid or a chalicothere, and that equids most likely did not occur in the early Eocene in Asia. Comparisons of the Hengdong fauna with others provide important information for biostratigraphic correlation and for understanding the mammalian exchange at the very beginning of the Eocene. Nine biozones are recognized from four Asian Paleocene and Early Eocene land mammal ages. The first appearances of the Order Rodentia in the Asian latest Paleocene land mammal age and in the North American Clarkforkian indicate that these land mammal ages may probably be correlated. The Order Perissodactyla marks the beginning of the Eocene. Its first appearance id the Asian early Eocene land mammal age, in the North American Wasatchian, and in the European Spamacian suggest that these land mammal ages are correlative. Study and reexamination of the Hengdong fossil mammals indicate that they represent one of the earliest early Eocene faunas in Asia. The Hengdong fauna is correlated with the Mongolian Bumban fauna, the North American Sandcouleean of the Wasatchian, and the European early Spamacian. CHAPTER I AN EARLY EOCENE MAMMALIAN FAUNA FROM HENGDONG, HUNAN PROVINCE, CHINA


We study the spin dependent tunneling of electrons through a zinc-blende semiconductor with the indirect $X$ (or $\ensuremath{\Delta}$) minimum serving as the tunneling barrier. The basic difference between tunneling through the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ vs the $X$ barrier is the linear-$k$ spin-orbit splitting of the two spin bands at the $X$ point, as opposed to the ${k}^{3}$ Dresselhaus splitting at the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ point. The linear coefficient of the spin splitting at the $X$ point is computed for several semiconductors using density-functional theory and the transport characteristics are calculated using the barrier tunneling model. We show that both the transmission coefficient as well as the spin polarization can be large, suggesting the potential application of these materials as spin filters.


The Waterberg Priority Area ambient air quality monitoring network was established in 2012 to monitor the ambient air quality in the Waterberg Air Quality Priority Area. Three monitoring stations were established in Lephalale, Thabazimbi and Mokopane. The monitoring stations measure the concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOx, CO, O3, BTEX and meteorological parameters. Hourly data for a 31 month period (October 2012-April 2015) was obtained from the South African Air Quality Information System (SAAQIS) and analysed to assess patterns in atmospheric concentrations, including seasonal and diurnal patterns of the ambient concentrations and to assess the impacts that such reported pollution concentration may have. Local source regions for SO2, PM10, PM2.5 and O3 were identified and trends in the recorded concentrations are discussed.


University undergraduate engineering programs have technical components as well as general education and liberal arts components. Often, the various components are not integrated well, and students may not see the relationships between technology and history. On the other hand, non-engineering students very rarely take engineering courses, and thus may graduate with very limited understanding of engineering and technology and their roles in society. At Cleveland State University, a course entitled ESC 200 Engineering History and Heritage has been developed to allow students to investigate the development of technology in civil, mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineering in the context of historical case studies. As part of the course, students working in groups prepare and present an engineering history case study. The students, working in groups of 3 to 5, write technical papers and present their results on the last day of class. This allows the student groups to develop and demonstrate their communication skills as well as their mastery of the course concepts. The student projects provide other benefits. Projects that are done well can be incorporated into future offerings of the course. An example is how the development and eventual decline of the Ohio canal system influenced the growth of the state's economy, and how the canals led to the growth of the railroads that eventually overtook them.


Over the last years, several failures in duplex and super duplex stainless steel structures in subsea applications are reported to be a result of hydrogen induced stress cracking. One main source of hydrogen is found to be cathodic protection. To control and predict hydrogen cracking of duplex stainless steels, knowledge of the diffusion properties and the hydrogen distribution is essential. Local stress and strain concentrations are known to cause hydrogen accumulation, which under appropriate conditions could lead to fracture. In this work, the diffusion of hydrogen in a 25 % Cr duplex stainless steel structure has been studied by finite element simulations in ABAQUS Standard. Finite element models containing both austenite and ferrite phases have been applied, with diffusion and material properties representative for each phase. The effect of stress and plastic strain caused by embedded and surface defects on hydrogen accumulation has been analyzed, and the fracture susceptibility of these defects has been evaluated through implementation of hydrogen dependent user defined cohesive elements in the crack paths. All stress and environmental conditions have been chosen to best represent subsea operation conditions and cathodic protection. Diffusion parallel to elongated austenite grains was found to give the highest diffusion coefficient. Over all, the calculated diffusion coefficients are in good agreement with reported diffusion coefficients found in literature and from previous research projects on duplex steels. For all results, trapping due to plastic strain was found to be the dominating effect in influencing the hydrogen distribution near the notch tip. Stress concentrations caused by defects were found to give a maximum hydrogen concentration of 1.33 and 1.1 times the initial concentration, for an inner surface and embedded defect respectively. Concentrations of plastic strain were found to give a maximum hydrogen concentration of 36.6, 6.6 and 7.6 times the concentration without influence of plastic strain, for an inner surface defect and both notch tips of an embedded defect respectively. Threshold stress intensity factors of 19.2 MPa/m^0.5, 20.8 MPa/m^0.5 and 23.3 MPa/m^0.5 were found for the outer surface defect and the first and second notch tips of the embedded defect, respectively. The results indicate that surface defects are more susceptible to hydrogen fracture, due to a combination of higher stress and higher plastic strain. For all cases of fracture, crack initiation occurred at the crack tip surface. Hydrogen concentration was found to be the dominating factor in controlling hydrogen cracking in the ferrite phase, while stress level was found to be the dominating factor in the austenite phase. For further work, valid parameters and relationships for hydrogen diffusion and cracking under the influence of stress and plastic strain should be established for both the austenite and ferrite phases in a duplex steel.


The Dobzhansky–Muller model posits that postzygotic reproductive isolation results from the evolution of incompatible epistatic interactions between species: alleles that function in the genetic background of one species can cause sterility or lethality in the genetic background of another species. Progress in identifying and characterizing factors involved in postzygotic isolation in Drosophila has remained slow, mainly because Drosophila melanogaster, with all of its genetic tools, forms dead or sterile hybrids when crossed to its sister species, D. simulans, D. sechellia, and D. mauritiana. To circumvent this problem, we used chromosome deletions and duplications from D. melanogaster to map two hybrid incompatibility loci in F1 hybrids with its sister species. We mapped a recessive factor to the pericentromeric heterochromatin of the X chromosome in D. simulans and D. mauritiana, which we call heterochromatin hybrid lethal (hhl), which causes lethality in F1 hybrid females with D. melanogaster. As F1 hybrid males hemizygous for a D. mauritiana (or D. simulans) X chromosome are viable, the lethality of deficiency hybrid females implies that a dominant incompatible partner locus exists on the D. melanogaster X. Using small segments of the D. melanogaster X chromosome duplicated onto the Y chromosome, we mapped a dominant factor that causes hybrid lethality to a small 24-gene region of the D. melanogaster X. We provide evidence suggesting that it interacts with hhlmau. The location of hhl is consistent with the emerging theme that hybrid incompatibilities in Drosophila involve heterochromatic regions and factors that interact with the heterochromatin.


This paper deals with market power and information issues in the ongoing process of the European Electricity Market. We present a regulatory game played among the key group of utilities, the customers and the regulatory authority. The development of the game allows us to state for a clear commitment to entry freedom reducing the informational strategic advantage of incumbents. As the assumption of such a commitment involves another game, we develop it and we conclude that the liberalisation of entry is also a key factor for credibility and effectiveness of flexible regulation and tariffs reduction as well.


The article overviews the features and framework of monetary social care system in Lithuania. The monetary social care administrative reforms that took part in 2012 are thoroughly analysed, taking into account the problems that led to changes and efficiency criteria set-up to evaluate the aftermath of the reform. The theoretical conclusions are based on the Republic of Lithuania legal acts, theoretical material and a sociological survey. The article also examines how the monetary system works, what are the motives for monetary social system change from a legal and economic perspective. The study was carried on in order to find out how the local authority employees evaluated changes in the monetary social care administrative system and what challenges they had to face after the reform. Social workers were questioned from municipalities that decided to take part in the pilot program. Monetary social care system is a social support system and at the same time the most integral part of the welfare system, helping to resolve social problems that arise. The changing social and economic environment, globalization, public sector spending cuts, economic change encourage to search for optimal and effective social support system management methods. On the 1st of January 2012, monetary social care system change was initiated: 2012-2014 monetary social benefits (social allowance, heating cost, drinking water, and hot water cost compensations) were implemented using two models: • State wise (state delegates to municipalities) function (financed from the government budget); • Individualised function in five (Akmenė, Panevėžys, Radviliskis, Raseiniai and Silalė regions) experimental (pilot) municipalities (financed from the municipality funds). However, the authors of the article believe that social care system effectiveness has to be further increased, not only increasing the number of decision making municipalities, but also pushing the quality of the reform upwards. Moreover, the administration of social care benefits has to cover up society's needs and priorities. Ineffective administration of social services may result in unfavourable results and future recessions can lead to increased costs for social services. Social care administrative effectiveness cannot be evaluated only from the financial side, social goals have to be considered, too, such as decreasing poverty, tackling social exclusion, lowering the effects of poverty traps for most vulnerable groups of people and helping families with children.


Objective: To investigate whether dental hygienist students through peer-learning can increase their ability to conduct motivational interviewing (MI) compared with students who follow the regular curriculum. The aim was also to get an insight into the process of learning of MI. Materials and Methods: Ten dental hygienist students were randomly selected to either the intervention group (IG) or the control group (CG). Students in the IG performed two MI sessions, which were discussed in a peer group and with a tutor. Thereafter the students performed the third MI sessions, which was evaluated by "Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Code, Version 3.1". The CG consisted of five students who followed the regular curriculum in the education and they conducted one MI session. A questionnaire was used to study how students reflected before and after these MI sessions. The analysis was performed by using descriptive statistics and for the comparison between groups the Mann-Whitney test was used. Results: The students in the IG used significantly more, simple and complex reflections (p < 0.05) compared to the CG. The IG gave also significantly less information during the counseling, and thereby asked more open-ended questions than the CG (p < 0.05). Both groups planned their MI sessions carefully by preparing questions before they met the patients. Conclusion: Dental hygienist students in the present study increased their skills in motivational interviewing by peer-learning from other students and from a tutor, compared to a control group.


Publication Date 2018 Document Type Thesis Committee Members Shelley Jagow (Committee Member), Yong Pei (Advisor), Mateen Rizki (Committee Member) Degree Name Master of Science (MS) Abstract Learning music instrument is a challenging task for a beginner without constant guidance from an instructor. The primary objective of this thesis research is to design and develop an iOS mobile / iPad learning app that helps users to learn and practice intonation for a suite of wind instruments by themselves with comfort and ease through app-provided tuning and charting guidance and app-assisted self-assessment. Particularly, our successfully-implemented app provides the following features to enhance the user's learning experience: 1 ) Provides learners easy-to-access information for the fingering and tuning techniques of wind instruments by converting Dr. Shelley Jagow's book "Tuning for Wind Instruments: A Roadmap to Successful Intonation" to an iOS app. 2 ) Provides instant feedback on learner's technique and performance by assessing the intonation of individual note being played, while the fingering and tuning chart is presented simultaneously for the early practices. 3 ) provides instant feedback on learner's technique and performance by identifying the sequence of notes being played for subsequent practices. The app is implemented using Xcode and Swift 4.0 and will be distributed through Apple App Store Page Count 58 Department or Program Department of Computer Science and Engineering Year Degree Awarded 2018 Copyright Copyright 2018, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author. Creative Commons License


The rising population of older people in the UK (Office for National Statistics 2010) and pressure on healthcare services to reduce costs indicate the necessity of developing strategies that enable coping and independence. Loss through death of close family members, partners and friends is a key factor that inhibits physical, emotional and social well being of older people. The research carried out for this thesis explored bereavement in healthcare settings where contacts with bereaved older people commonly occur, and used data collected to develop guidelines for practice. The guidelines provide research informed enhancement to bereavement care and develop opportunities for meaningful interactions. They complement current policy development work on bereavement in healthcare settings (The Scottish Government 2011). A qualitative design drawing on phenomenological methodology was used to explore healthcare staffs experiences of caring for bereaved older people, and older peoples experiences of being bereaved and bereavement care. Theoretical sampling took place to recruit staff from a range of roles in general practice and community nursing, hospital wards and care homes, as well as a small sample of bereaved older people. Thirty nine participants took part in in-depth interviews that yielded four key themes: bereavement care depends on a relationship between healthcare staff and relatives; preparation for a relatives death may not equate to preparedness for bereavement; the ˜Open Door to bereavement care is only slightly ajar, and bereavement care supports progression of the ˜Rolling Ball of life. The themes informed development of the guidelines in terms of structure and content. Recommendation statements consider bereavement care before the death; at the time of the death; and follow up in the weeks and months afterwards. Criteria in the recommendations provide suggestions for enhancements to practice that facilitate appropriate response to bereavement in older people. Consultation on the guidelines provided positive feedback that identified the potential to promote consistent interactions with bereaved older people, respond to needs and support coping. The main text of the thesis is in the file 'STEPHEN 2011 Exploration and development'. The ZIP file 'STEPHEN 2011 Bereavement care for older people' contains supplementary material.


We describe an educational game in collaborative logistics. The game is based on an award-winning application in cost allocation in transportation. The purpose of the game is to acquire an understanding of negotiation, coalition building, and cost/profit sharing when the players have different powers and hold different levels of information. The game is played with each player representing a single company. The challenge for the players is to find an efficient coalition and to share the benefits and costs of the collaboration. We describe the underlying case study, review basic concepts in game theory, outline the teaching case, and discuss experiences from running the game in several countries and with students in business, engineering, and forestry.


Background: Transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) are one of the biggest threats to blood transfusion safety. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) in blood donor screening has been implemented in many countries to reduce the risk of TTIs. NAT shortens this window period, thereby offering blood centers a much higher sensitivity for detecting viral infections. Aims: The objective was to assess the role of individual donor-NAT (ID-NAT) for human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) and its role in blood safety. Materials and Methods: A total of 32978 donations were tested for all three viruses using enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (Vironostika ® HIV Ag-Ab, Hepanostika ® HCV ultra and hepatitis B surface antigen ultra by Biomerieux) and ID-NAT using Procleix Ultrio plus ® Assay (Novartis Diagnostic, USA). All initial NAT reactive samples and serology nonreactive were retested in triplicate and NAT discriminatory assay for HIV-1, HCV and HBV were performed. Results: Of the 32978 samples, 43 (0.13%) were found to be ID-NAT reactive but seronegative. Out of 43, one for HIV-1, 13 for HCV and 27 for HBV were reactive by discriminatory assays. There were two samples that were reactive for both HCV-HBV and counted as HCV-HBV co-infection NAT yield. The prevalence of these viruses in our sample, tested by ID-NAT is 0.06%, 0.71%, and 0.63% for HIV-1, HCV and HBV respectively. The combined NAT yield among blood donors was 1 in 753. Conclusion: ID-NAT testing for HIV-1, HCV and HBV can tremendously improve the efficacy of screening for protecting blood recipient from TTIs. It enables detection of these viruses that were undetected by serological test and thus helped in providing safe blood to the patients.


If you ask people what comes to mind when they hear the terms civil rights and Civil Rights Movement, they will likely reply by referring to Martin Luther King and the African American struggle for dignity and equality. Essentially, people may be making two oversimplified assumptions. The first is that Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement are one and the same. The second is that the term civil rights refers exclusively to the African American struggle. I briefly address both of these assumptions in my review of this two-volume anthology Reporting Civil Rights, published in 2003, edited by Clayborne Carson, et.al, and covering the years 1941 to 1973. The anthology evocatively transports the reader back into the sounds and spirit of the times. The volumes provide us with stories that appeared in such publications as the Saturday Evening Post, the New York Times, and Time Magazine, as well as essays, opinion pieces and portions of novels and memoirs from some of the most astute observers of the times. In making their choices on what to include and to exclude, the editors necessarily editorialized. But the editors for Reporting Civil Rights would have improved their compilation if they had added commentary explaining their selection process. For example, there is a strong slant favoring Martin Luther King - perhaps because Clayborne Carson is the senior editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford University. The contributions of more radical and underreported spokesmen such as Malcolm X, members of the Black Panthers, and the black power movement are diminished. Similarly, the volumes focus on the large issues of the era that appeared most often on the national radar screen. Substantially less attention is paid to the grassroots organizations and their heroic leaders who made huge differences in their communities, but who did not capture the national media attention. Whether the reader lived through these times or not, he or she will find many of the pieces, all of which were written in the throes of the movement, remarkable in their evocation of time and place. The editors have provided us with a window into the major social movement of the century, a bygone era that will forever inform our American culture.


In this thesis the validity of an Assessment Centre (called 'Extended Interview') operated on behalf of the British police is investigated. This Assessment Centre (AC) is used to select from amongst internal candidates (serving policemen and policewomen) and external candidates (graduates) for places on an accelerated promotion scheme. The literature is reviewed with respect to history, content, structure, reliability, validity, efficiency and usefulness of ACs, and to contextual issues surrounding AC use. The history of, background to and content of police Extended Interviews (Els) is described, and research issues are identified. Internal validation involved regression of overall EI grades on measures from component tests, exercises, interviews and peer nominations. Four samples numbering 126, 73, 86 and 109 were used in this part of the research. External validation involved regression of three types of criteria - training grades, rank attained, and supervisory ratings - on all EI measures. Follow-up periods for job criteria ranged from 7 to 19 years. Three samples, numbering 223, 157 and 86, were used in this part of the research. In subsidiary investigations, supervisory ratings were factor analysed and criteria intercorrelated. For two of the samples involved in the external validition, clinical/judgemental prediction was compared with mechanical (unit-weighted composite) prediction. Main conclusions are that: (1) EI selection decisions were valid, but only for a job performance criterion; relatively low validity overall was interpreted principally in terms of the questionable job relatedness of the EI procedure; (2) Els as a whole had more validity than was reflected in final EI decisions; (3) assessors' use of information was not optimum, tending to over-emphasize subjectively derived information particularly from interviews; and (4) mechanical prediction was superior to clinical/judgemental prediction for five major criteria.


PURPOSE
The BRCAPRO model, used to predict a family's likelihood of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, was designed using mutation frequencies of white and Ashkenazi Jewish populations, and may not be applicable to other populations. BRCAPRO was recently validated in African Americans, although has yet to be examined in Hispanics. This retrospective study reports the mutation frequency and spectrum of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in a Hispanic population and evaluates the BRCAPRO model in Hispanics.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A descriptive analysis of mutation frequency and spectrum was performed for Hispanic patients who underwent BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing at a single institution. For comparative analysis of the BRCAPRO risk model, Hispanic patients who underwent comprehensive analysis were compared with white controls using area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC).

RESULTS
Fourteen Hispanic individuals who underwent comprehensive analysis were identified to carry a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 (17.9%; 95% CI, 10.2% to 28.3%) and seven individuals had a variant of uncertain significance (9.0%; 95% CI, 12.0% to 30.8%). A total of eight different mutations and three variants were observed within the entire Hispanic population. When evaluating the performance of the BRCAPRO model, the AUROC for Hispanics was 0.774 (95% CI, 0.63 to 0.90), compared with the AUROC of 0.770 (95% CI, 0.65 to 0.89) for whites.

CONCLUSION
Deleterious BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations occur at considerable frequency within the Hispanic population, many of which have been identified previously in other ethnic populations. The BRCAPRO model appears to perform equally well in Hispanics as in whites.


Typically it is believed that modern countries of the world are developed in all areas, including healthcare, and that poor health is an affliction of poor, under-developed countries. The truth, however, is that inadequate healthcare is prevalent in all types of countries, and no country has a perfect healthcare system. Improvements in healthcare should be a continual goal of all countries. Health is a basic human right, and care that improves the lives of citizens will improve a country as a whole. This paper summarizes the healthcare systems of seventeen countries around the world and makes suggestions for economic and political changes that will increase the availability of quality care at feasible financial costs. There is no set formula for change; each country is evaluated and suggestions are respective to problems inherent in the country. The goal is always to create a sustainable healthcare system to provide quality care to all citizens.


Understanding movement behavior and identifying areas of landscape connectivity is critical for the conservation of many species. However, collecting fine-scale movement data can be prohibitively time consuming and costly, especially for rare or endangered species, whereas existing data sets may provide the best available information on animal movement. Contemporary movement models may not be an option for modeling existing data due to low temporal resolution and large or unusual error structures, but inference can still be obtained using a functional movement modeling approach. We use a functional movement model to perform a population-level analysis of telemetry data collected during the reintroduction of Canada lynx to Colorado. Little is known about southern lynx populations compared to those in Canada and Alaska, and inference is often limited to a few individuals due to their low densities. Our analysis of a population of Canada lynx fills significant gaps in the knowledge of Canada lynx behavior at the southern edge of its historical range. We analyzed functions of individual-level movement paths, such as speed, residence time, and tortuosity, and identified a region of connectivity that extended north from the San Juan Mountains, along the continental divide, and terminated in Wyoming at the northern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. Individuals were able to traverse large distances across non-boreal habitat, including exploratory movements to the Greater Yellowstone area and beyond. We found evidence for an effect of seasonality and breeding status on many of the movement quantities and documented a potential reintroduction effect. Our findings provide the first analysis of Canada lynx movement in Colorado and substantially augment the information available for conservation and management decisions. The functional movement framework can be extended to other species and demonstrates that information on movement behavior can be obtained using existing data sets.

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Changing higher education pedagogy, digitisation of scholarly content and the increasing influence of relevant technologies have impacted on the transformation of academic library services. This paper examines research support through the lens of the transformation of academic library services. The authors have conducted a review of the literature to determine benchmarks by which to measure the research support services delivered by Stellenbosch University. The paper examines academic libraries' attempts to establish the "deeper meaning" of the librarian for the researcher and the research process. In support of that deeper meaning libraries are providing a new and expanded set of services which includes, inter alia, research data management, curation and preservation; facilitation of open access and bibliometric analysis. Using the research life cycle as a framework, this paper examines the research support services provided by the Stellenbosch University Library and Information Service (SULIS) to the research community. The Research Commons is used as the launch pad for new and innovative services at Stellenbosch. The use of research performance management tools to scan the research landscape, strengthening of self-retrieval of scholarly literature, assistance in the dissemination of research results via publication, and assistance in determining impact factor are all part of the suite of services offered by the Library at Stellenbosch University. The authors conclude that, for academic libraries, there is much to learn and contribute to in this dynamic environment of research production.


An individual's prior experience will influence how new visual information in a scene is perceived and remembered. Accuracy of memory performance per se is an imperfect reflection of the cognitive activity (awareness states) that underlies performance in memory tasks. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of varied visual fidelity of training environments on the transfer of training to the real world after exposure to immersive simulations representing a real-world scene. A between groups experiment was carried out to explore the effect of rendering quality on measurements of location-based recognition memory for objects and associated states of awareness. The immersive simulation consisted of one room that was either rendered flat-shaded or using radiosity rendering. The simulation was displayed on a stereo head-tracked head mounted display. Post exposure to the synthetic simulation, participants completed a memory recognition task conducted in a real-world scene by physically arranging objects in their physical form in a real-world room. Participants also reported one of four states of awareness following object recognition. They were given several options of awareness states that reflected the level of visual mental imagery involved during retrieval, the familiarity of the recollection and related guesses. The scene incorporated objects that "fitted" into the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as consistent objects, and objects that were not related to the specific context of the real-world scene, referred to as inconsistent objects. A follow-up study was conducted a week after the initial test. Interestingly, results revealed a higher proportion of correct object recognition associated with mental imagery when participants were exposed to low-fidelity flat-shaded training scenes rather than the radiosity rendered ones. Memory psychology indicates that awareness states based on visual imagery require stronger attentional processing in the first instance than those based on familiarity. A tentative claim would, therefore, be that those immersive environments that are distinctive because of their variation from "real," such as flat-shaded environments, recruit stronger attentional resources. This additional attentional processing may bring about a change in participants' subjective experiences of "remembering" when they later transfer the training from that environment into a real-world situation.


This study examines the role of books and official Publications in accounting and finance research. From an analysis of thirteen leading journals for the year 1987–8 we report on the characteristics of such non-serial materials used by authors to support their research. We find that the accounting discipline in particular has become more open to influence from other disciplines. The individual perspectives of these thirteen journals can be partially revealed by their use of non-serial materials. Using cluster analysis we examine inter-journal variations in the disciplinary pattern of book citations and the distribution of citations to official bodies. Several relatively homogeneous groupings are identified.


Introducing Standards for International Antitrust In recent years, the global ramifications of domestic antitrust enforcement have steadily crept up the international economic-policy agenda. The dispute over whether Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas should be allowed to merge took the United States and the European Union to the brink of a trade war and moved antitrust policy from obscurity in the business section to prominence on the front page of newspapers around the world. Yet, despite such incidents, there is a growing record of bilateral cooperation among industrial countries, and US confidence in certain foreign antitrust regimes reached such a point in 2000 that leading antitrust officials began calling for a "Global Competition Initiative." Some US experts look east for a starting point in their analysis of globalization and antitrust policy. The suspicion that foreign access to Japan's domestic markets has been effectively blocked by agreements among Japanese firms to buy solely from members of their own industrial groups, known as keiretsu, or to sell only to distributors who also refuse to market rival firms' products, fuels this alternative perspective. According to this view, Japanese antitrust authorities have systematically declined to break up these inter-firm agreements to the detriment of US exporters, even though the authorities have the legal powers to do so. This interpretation of Japan's antitrust policy was influential in the United States from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s and was responsible for, among other things, the Structural Impediments Initiative and the disputes with Japan over automobile parts and photographic film. When the latter disputes were effectively resolved in Japan's favor, this view lost considerable g round, and even though many US policy-makers still publicly subscribe to its tenets, few now act on them. Having failed to address these perceived deficiencies in Japanese antitrust enforcement through unilateral trade-policy measures, scholarly attention shifted to advocating common international standards for antitrust laws and enforcement that would enhance access to foreign markets. Peter Morici's Antitrust in the Global Trading System falls squarely in this camp. Even if one does not agree with Morici's proposals, one must admit that he successfully demonstrates that national antitrust enforcement--and in some cases the lack of it--can damage the interests of foreign consumers and producers. An example illustrates this point: if two of the world's major platinum producers located in the same nation decide to merge, the combined firm is likely to gain more market power and to raise prices. The antitrust authority in the nation where the two firms are based will consider whether the enhanced profitability of the merged firm adequately compensates for the loss of home purchasers' welfare--and will ignore the effects on purchasers abroad. In a world of increasingly integrated markets, corporate actions typically have national and international ramifications, but national antitrust authorities usually only consider the former when making their decisions. This characterization of the problem, however, misses an important point. After all, a corporate action that "spills over" national borders is rather like cross-border environmental pollution. Given the growing number of international agreements on the latter, how hard can it be to ameliorate some of the costs of the former? Unfortunately, the analogy breaks down because while environmental agreements often contain transfers by which the winners compensate the losers, in antitrust matters such compensation goes against the tradition of evaluating each corporate action case by case, forbidding trade-offs and other side payments. For example, a financial payment was never proposed as a means to overcome the European Commission's objections to Boeing's merger with McDonnell-Douglas. …


Background: Multiple single-institution studies have revealed that breast free flap compromise usually occurs within the first 48 postoperative hours. However, national studies analyzing the rates and timing of breast free flap compromise are lacking. This study aimed to fill this gap in knowledge to better guide postoperative monitoring. Methods: All women undergoing breast free flap reconstruction from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program 2012 to 2016 database were analyzed to determine the rates and timing of free flap take-back. Take-backs were stratified by postoperative day through the first month. Multivariable modified Poisson regression analysis was used to determine the independent predictors of free flap take-back. Results: A total of 6792 breast free flap patients were analyzed. Multivariable analysis revealed that body mass index of 40 kg/m2 or higher, hypertension, American Society of Anesthesiologists class of 3 or higher, steroid use, and smoking were independent predictors of take-back (p < 0.05). Take-back occurred at the highest rate during postoperative day 1, dropped significantly by postoperative day 2 (p < 0.001), and remained consistently low after postoperative day 2 (<0.6 percent daily). The identified risk factors significantly increased the likelihood of take-back on postoperative day 1 (p < 0.05), with a trend noted on postoperative day 2 (p = 0.06). Fewer than 0.4 percent of patients (n = 27) underwent take-back on postoperative day 2 without having risk factors. Conclusions: This is the first national study specifically analyzing rates, timing, and independent predictors of breast free flap take-back. The data support discontinuing breast free flap monitoring by the end of postoperative day 1 for patients without risk factors, given the very low rate of take-back for such patients during postoperative day 2 (≤0.4 percent). CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Risk, III.


Every weekday morning, in every South African city, scores of taxis, buses, and cars move children, black and white, long distances to attend schools. A simple explanation for the phenomenal rise of out-of-area schooling in South Africa—one perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world—is the end of apartheid's racially divided schooling system in the 1990s. But focused on south and central Durban, this paper traces the emergence of ten distinct pathways that children take through different schools, referred to as "circuits of schooling." The socialgeographical inequalities that underpin schoolchildren's movement today, it argues, are rooted in racial segregation under apartheid, rising inequalities within segregated areas from the 1970s, and a decisive shift from raceto class-based inequalities after 1994. However, rather than seeing children's mobility as unfolding mechanically from social structure, life histories of parents and interviews with schoolteachers demonstrate that it is a) emerging from important gendered sociospatial transformations in families/households; b) tied up with the reworking of symbolic power, including through the contested status of English language and schoolboy sports like rugby; c) and produced by (and producing) new struggles over space. As such, the paper proposes that the concurrent deracialization of schools, workplaces, and residential areas is marked by a new urban politics in which the "right to the city" and education are deeply intertwined.


Abstract This study aims to explore persistent microorganic pollutants (Poly chloro byphneyls (PCBs) and Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs)) in sediment and mud clams (Polymesoda erosa) in Segara Anakan Lagoon (SAL). In addition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the mud clams were evaluated their risk consumption and Bioaccumulation factor in sediment. Concentrations of seven PCBs in the sediment were found in the range 0.11 ± 0.05 to 2.63 ± 0.1 μg kg−1 sed dw. OCPs levels were found in the range of 0.2 ± 0.05 and 2.9 ± 0.01 μg kg−1 sed dw. In P. erosa, 16 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) (USEPA) were found in the range from 103.34 ± 2.01 to 1348.31 ± 18.21 μg kg−1 tissue dry weight (dw), PCBs content was found only in one station at concentration 2.34 ± 1.72 μg kg−1 tissue dw and OCPs content was found in the range 0.87 ± 0.03 to 24.79 ± 1.30 μg kg−1 tissue dw. The disturbance matrices have been evaluated with the appropriate samples according to the extraction yield and yield analysis. Several guidelines evaluate the quality of sediment on PCBs and OCPs (i.e. pp-DDE). The consumption evaluation shows that this mud clam P. erosa has been contaminated of PAHs and not recommended for human consumption. They were potentially as site-specific bioaccumulation in sediment for organic micropollutants which receives from any untreated sewage, industrial waste discharge into the canal system of river of Segara Anakan Lagoon.


Estrogen appears to be a negative regulator of normal hematopoiesis. Chromosome 6q, which contains the estrogen receptor (ER) gene, is frequently altered in human hematopoietic neoplasms. The ER gene, which has growth and metastasis suppressor activity in many different cell types, is inactivated by promoter methylation in some ER-negative breast tumors and 100% of colorectal tumors. We now report that the promoter region of the ER gene is aberrantly methylated in 86% of human hematopoietic tumors, including 8 of 9 pediatric acute lymphocytic leukemia, 17 of 18 adult acute lymphocytic leukemia, 21 of 23 adult acute myelogenous leukemia, 3 of 6 chronic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia, 9 of 9 blast crisis chronic myelogenous leukemia and 5 of 8 lymphomas. This methylation event was also present in all nine leukemia cell lines examined, where it was associated with very low or absent ER expression. In addition, rat and mouse leukemia cell line also exhibited this change, indicating that ER CpG island methylation in leukemias is conserved among species. Our results suggest that ER CpG island methylation could be an important step in the genesis of human hematopoietic neoplasms and might be a useful molecular marker for monitoring the clinical status of these diseases.


Polysemy is a problem for methods that exploit image search engines to build object category models. Existing unsupervised approaches do not take word sense into consideration. We propose a new method that uses a dictionary to learn models of visual word sense from a large collection of unlabeled web data. The use of LDA to discover a latent sense space makes the model robust despite the very limited nature of dictionary definitions. The definitions are used to learn a distribution in the latent space that best represents a sense. The algorithm then uses the text surrounding image links to retrieve images with high probability of a particular dictionary sense. An object classifier is trained on the resulting sense-specific images. We evaluate our method on a dataset obtained by searching the web for polysemous words. Category classification experiments show that our dictionary-based approach outperforms baseline methods.


This essay argues that Jane Eyre (1847) is an elaborate confidence game in which Rochester takes Jane into his confidence in order to lie to her and that Jane responds by first masquerading as his confidante and then taking the reader into her confidence to lie to her as well. Jane9s retrospectively informed narration must be seen as working against her naive, romantic plot. Bronte has not written a conventional marriage plot but rather a revenge novel in which Jane reveals secrets that the blinded Rochester cannot read. Jane actively and consciously uses Bertha to draw attention away from her own act of revenge. Unlike Bertha9s terrifying ineptitude, Jane9s revenge works because it is controlled, sustained, articulate, and above all disguised. I argue against a correlation between Jane9s acquisition of speech and her development as the writer of her story. Jane never writes within the pages of her novel; it is crucial to her success that Rochester fall in love with a silent listener, a woman he believes has no story of her own.


The aim of this study was to investigate in 261 subjects from 58 families the association between DNA variation at the genes coding for the Na,K-ATPase peptides and resting metabolic rate (RMR), respiratory quotient (RQ), and percent body fat (%FAT). Five restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) at three Na,K-ATPase genes were determined: one at the alpha 1 locus (BglII), and two at the beta locus (beta MspI and beta PvuII). Haplotypes were determined from the two variable sites of the alpha 2 gene (alpha 2 haplotypes) and the beta gene (beta haplotypes). There was a strong trend for %FAT to be related to the RFLP generated by BglII at the alpha 2 exons 21-22 in males (P = 0.06) and females (P = 0.05). RQ was (a) associated with the BglII RFLP at the alpha 2 exon 1 (P = 0.02) and with the alpha 2 8.0 kb/4.3 kb haplotype (P = 0.04) and (b) linked with the beta gene MspI marker (P = 0.04) and with the beta 5.3 kb/5.1 kb haplotype (P = 0.008) based on sib-pair analysis. The present study suggests that the genes encoding Na,K-ATPase may be associated or linked with RQ and perhaps with %FAT but not with RMR.


This Article explores the creation and conundrum of citizen shareholders - investors who enter the securities market primarily through employer-sponsored defined-contribution plans, invest in mutual or index funds, and are saving for long-term goals like retirement. Citizen shareholders are a consequence of a retirement revolution, and are the fastest growing group of investors. Citizen shareholders are distinguishable from other shareholders on the grounds of choice, exit, and the number of intermediaries inserted into the investment chain in defined-contribution plans. They are largely missing from corporate policy and scholarship debates; few discussions have incorporated the growing reality that shareholder status has changed over the last several decades with how, why, and in what form individual investors enter the securities market. This group of investors, estimated to be nearly 75 million Americans, is alienated from traditional corporate governance mechanisms at both the operating company and the investment company levels. Citizen shareholders complicate corporate law assumptions about shareholder empowerment, exacerbate tensions between management and control, and undermine corporate regulatory solutions such as those advanced in Dodd Frank. Additionally, the disclosure-based regime required under federal securities and Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") laws are incomplete, fractured, and not tailored to the needs of citizen shareholders, a group of investors that includes low-dollar and often unsophisticated investors. As a result, citizen shareholders are long-term investors locked in a market system that rewards short-term performance and facilitates exit over activism. Second, citizen shareholders exercise constrained control over their self-directed accounts with limited investment options, virtually no control over fee structures that erode retirement savings, and splintered and incomplete information about their investments and the fees charged to them. Recognizing that retirement investments play a crucial role for the individual and for society, this Article proposes both theoretical and practical approaches to better incorporate the interests of citizen shareholders into the markets.


This paper summarizes and classifies the various approaches to validation of remote measurements of atmospheric state variables, and tries to recommend a clear and unambiguous terminology. The following approaches have been identified: Intercomparison of individual profiles for accuracy validation; statistical comparison of matched pairs of measurements with respect to bias determination and precision validation; statistical intercomparison of randomly sampled measurements by two instruments, and comparison of a single measurement to an ensemble of measurements. Applicable statistics are shortly reviewed, and recipes for evaluation of the co-incidence error due to less than perfect co-incidences are presented. An approach is suggested to quantitatively validate profile measurements when full covariance matrices are unavailable.


This collection shows students of English and applied linguistics ways in which language and literary study can be integrated. By drawing on a wide range of texts by mainly British and American writers, from a variety of different periods, the contributors show how discourse stylistics can provide models for the systematic description of, for example, dialogue in fiction; language of drama and balladic poetry; speech presentation; the interactive properties of metre; the communicative context of author/reader. Among the texts examined are novels, poetry and drama by major twentieth-century writers such as Joyce, Auden, Pinter and Hopkins, as well as examples from Shakespeare, Donne and Milton. Each chapter has a wide range of exercises for practical analysis, an extensive glossary and a comprehensive bibliography with suggestions for further reading. The book will be particularly useful to undergraduate students of English and applied linguistics and advanced students of modern languages or English as a foreign language.


This thesis consists of a summary and five papers, dealing with the modeling of Gaussian bridges and membranes and inference for the α-Brownian bridge.In Paper I we study continuous Gaussian processes conditioned that certain functionals of their sample paths vanish. We deduce anticipative and non-anticipative representations for them. Generalizations to Gaussian random variables with values in separable Banach spaces are discussed. In Paper II we present a unified approach to the construction of generalized Gaussian random fields. Then we show how to extract different Gaussian processes, such as fractional Brownian motion, Gaussian bridges and their generalizations, and Gaussian membranes from them.In Paper III we study a simple decision problem on the scaling parameter in α-Brownian bridges. We generalize the Karhunen-Loeve theorem and obtain the distribution of the involved likelihood ratio based on Karhunen-Loeve expansions and Smirnov's formula. The presented approach is applied to a simple decision problem for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes as well. In Paper IV we calculate the bias of the maximum likelihood estimator for the scaling parameter and propose a bias-corrected estimator. We compare it with the maximum likelihood estimator and two alternative Bayesian estimators in a simulation study. In Paper V we solve an optimal stopping problem for the α-Brownian bridge. In particular, the limiting behavior as α tends to zero is discussed.


For the past twenty-five years Americans have relied on Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmith William Safire for their weekly dose of linguistic illumination in "The New York Times Magazine's" column "On Language" -- one of the most popular features of the magazine and a Sunday-morning staple for innumerable fans. He is the most widely read writer on the English language today.Safire is the guru of contemporary vocabulary, speech, language, usage and writing. Dedicated and disputatious readers itch to pick up each column and respond to the week's linguistic wisdom with a gotcha letter to the "Times. The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time" marks the publication of Safire's sixteenth book on language. This collection is a classic to be read, re-read, enjoyed and fought over. Fans, critics and fellow linguists wait with bated (from the French "abattre" "to beat down") breath for each new anthology -- and, like its predecessors, this one is bound to satisfy and delight. Safire finds fodder for his columns in politics and current events, as well as in science, technology, entertainment and daily life. The self-proclaimed card-carrying language maven and pop grammarian is not above tackling his own linguistic blunders as he detects language trends and tracks words, phrases and cliches to their source. Scholarly, entertaining and thoughtful, Safire's critical observations about language and slanguage are at once provocative and enlightening.Safire is America's go-to guy when it comes to language, and he has included sharp and passionately opinionated letters from readers across the English-speaking world who have been unable to resist picking up a pen to put the maven himself in his place or to offer alternate interpretations, additional examples, amusing anecdotes or just props."The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time" is a fascinating, learned and piquant look at the oddities and foibles that find their way into the English language. Exposing linguistic hooey and rigamarole and filled with Safire's trademark wisdom, this book has a place on the desk or bedside table of all who share his profound love of the English language -- as well as his penchant for asking "What does that mean?" Or, "Wassat?"This new collection is sure to delight readers, writers and word lovers everywhere and spark the interest of anyone who has ever wondered, "Where "did" the phrase 'brazen hussy' come from?"


This comment analyzes the current state of students' free speech rights in the context of creative writing assignments and examines potential First Amendment applications to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), a statewide, mandatory, standards-based exam administered to Pennsylvania public school students. The PSSA, which currently contains a writing assessment for students in sixth, ninth, and eleventh grades requiring students to write essays in response to prompts, is scored anonymously by private entities under contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Those private subcontractors have "red-flagging" procedures in place to identify essays containing imagery or themes that indicate imminent threats of harm to the writer or to others. Red-flagged essays are matched with the name of the writer and are sent to local school officials. This comment examines the red-flagging procedure and offers suggestions for ensuring that students, teachers, administrators, and parents are made aware of how the education system in general and PSSA officials in particular are attempting to protect not only the safety of the community but also students' rights of creativity and free expression.


Abstract In March and April 2010, we investigated the development of young landfast sea ice in Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen, Svalbard. We sampled the vertical column, including sea ice, brine, frost flowers and sea water, to determine the CO2 system, nutrients, salinity and bacterial and ice algae production during a 13 day interval of ice growth. Apart from the changes due to salinity and brine rejection, the sea-ice concentrations of total inorganic carbon (C T), total alkalinity (A T), CO2 and carbonate ions (CO3 2–) in melted ice were influenced by dissolution of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitates (25–55 μmol kg-1) and played the largest role in the changes to the CO2 system. The C T values were also influenced by CO2 gas flux, bacterial carbon production and primary production, which had a small impact on the C T. The only exception was the uppermost ice layer. In the top 0.05 m of the ice, there was a CO2 loss of ∼20 μmol kg-1 melted ice (1 mmol m-2) from the ice to the atmosphere. Frost flowers on newly formed sea ice were important in promoting ice-air CO2 gas flux, causing a CO2 loss to the atmosphere of 140-800 μmol kg--1 d-1 melted frost flowers (7-40 mmol m-2 d–1).


textabstractThis study sets out to discuss and test the factors, which are identified in the existing literature as potential risk factors for consideration in energy efficiency retrofit valuation estimates. It reviews both the short- and long-term assumptions regarding the various uncertainties associated with input parameters to assess their potential effect on outcomes predicted by conventional calculation models. Potential risk mitigation strategies are discussed for each of the listed risk factors with reference to the energy efficiency risk dimensions presented. A general framework is developed and applied to derive risk-specific parameters in a sensitivity analysis calculation. The results demonstrate that financial returns and payback periods are most sensitive to changes in debt, energy prices, interest rates, initial investment costs, and holding periods. The results also underline the crucial role of market mechanisms (green rent premiums) for recouping these investments.


This paper studies an interesting problem: is it possible to predict the crowd opinion about a movie before the movie is actually released? The crowd opinion is here expressed by the distribution of ratings given by a sufficient amount of people. Consequently, the pre-release crowd opinion prediction can be regarded as a Label Distribution Learning (LDL) problem. In order to solve this problem, a Label Distribution Support Vector Regressor (LDSVR) is proposed in this paper. The basic idea of LDSVR is to fit a sigmoid function to each component of the label distribution simultaneously by a multi-output support vector machine. Experimental results show that LDSVR can accurately predict peoples's rating distribution about a movie just based on the pre-release metadata of the movie.


In this exploratory paper we review, reflect, and react upon recent research that heavily critiques common design approaches towards electricity load balancing. Through this review we identify overlooked opportunity spaces for design in which we situate a prototype called Peacetime as an alternative approach to load balancing on the electrical grid. In sharp contrast to home energy management systems (HEMS) and in-home displays (IHD's) which provide detailed energy data, Peacetime employs frameworks from slow time and emotional design, and from ambient multimodal interfaces to create a stronger and different experience in relation to load balancing. We present the Peacetime concept in detail and discuss its implication for future designs within the field of Sustainable Interaction Design.


This research is conducted to identify area of learning which students think is more significant to be highlighted when teachers scaffold writing instructions of brief reports, focusing on the first theme, 'Nature and Resources' only. It also attempts to identify type of scaffolding activity that students mostly preferred in everyday classroom of English for Science and Technology (EST) lessons and to examine its relevance in helping students to be independent writers. Form 4 EST students of SMK Tebakang are involved in this study. This study has implemented two instruments; a set of self-constructed questionnaires adapted from MacKenzie (1999) and semi-structured interviews. About 155 questionnaires are distributed to the respondents and only 152 are returned. Only 20 respondents are selected for the semi-structured interviews. Based on the findings of the study, the respondents believe that EST teachers should scaffold on language area when teaching writing because they claimed that if they are not proficient in English Language, they fail to understand the content knowledge and later have difficulty to convey ideas and justify opinions in writing form. Moreover, they claim they need to acquire certain and important language features when writing brief reports. Apart from that, they also believe that EST teachers should continue to scaffold acquisition of content knowledge. According to the respondents, if they are lack of the content knowledge, they will not be able to present information and to justify their ideas. Activity that the respondents claim to be effective when teachers scaffold writing instructions is group works. Furthermore, there are activities embedded in group works such as in class projects like preparing scrap book or pamphlets, group presentations, discussions like preparing drafts and completing worksheets. However, EST teachers need to be aware as students admitted that they were comfortable working in groups because they were able to switch to Bahasa Melayu. This will defeat the main objective of studying EST.


Early marriage of women is a common practice in Bangladesh, where the significant numbers of women being married before the age of 18. Early marriages have been convicted globally as the harmful practice of girls' health. It is an important issue that impacts not only the lives of the children who are married but also the lives of those around them. The factors that mainly contribute to early marriage in Bangladesh are poverty and cultural practice. We assessed the impacts of early marriage on women health and their wellbeing. Early marriage represents a major threat to women well-being. Our findings indicate that WEM impact on maternal health such as women depression and domestic violence. The study suggests that it is crucial to challenge socioeconomic, religious and cultural practices or norms associated with early marriages. © 2017. Hosting by Aibma Management. All rights reserved.


In 2011, we published a review exploring how researchers report and justify their focus group sample sizes. We concluded that sample sizes vary widely and that most researchers give no explanation for their sample size. The aim of our 2011 study was to describe practice rather than develop guidance. However, after our study was published, we noticed that new researchers were using our information about typical sample sizes as justification for their own sample size. In other words, practice that we had presented as typical or "normal" but generally lacking in justification was being used as normative. The current study aims to explore the misrepresentation of descriptive information as normative. Specifically, we map this type of quotation error in references to our 2011 study. Using Google Scholar, we identified all articles referencing our study. We then extracted quotations where the researchers had referred to our study and categorized these as follows: (a) quotations where the researchers had used the descriptive information from our study to justify their sample size and (b) quotations where the researchers had referred to our study for other purposes or where the purpose was unclear. We assessed 205 articles that had referred to our 2011 study. We identified the type of quotation error we were interested in, namely the misrepresentation of descriptive information as normative, in 50.7% of the included articles. Our study shows very high rates of one type of quotation error: the misrepresentation of descriptive information about focus group sample size as normative. Researchers referring to other researchers' work carry most of the responsibility for ensuring that they do this appropriately. However, the authors of the research being referred to also need to consider how they can make their results clearer. We offer suggestions as to how this might be achieved.


1. Increased agricultural intensification has led to well-documented declines in the fauna and flora associated with intensive grasslands in the UK. We aimed to quantify the effectiveness of different field margin management strategies for putting bumblebee and butterfly biodiversity back into intensive grasslands.

2. Using four intensive livestock farms in south-west England, we manipulated conventional management practices (addition of inorganic fertilizer, cutting frequency and height, and aftermath grazing) to generate seven grass-based treatments along a gradient of decreasing management intensity. We also tested two more interventionist treatments which introduced sown components into the sward: (i) a cereal, grass and legume mix, and (ii) a diverse conservation mix with kale, mixed cereals, linseed and legumes. These crop mixtures were intended to provide forage and structural resources for pollinators but were not intended to have agronomic value as livestock feed. Using a replicated block design, we monitored bumblebee and butterfly responses in 27 plots (10 × 50 m) in each farm from 2003 to 2006.

3. Bumblebees were most abundant, species-rich and diverse in the sown treatments and virtually absent from the grass-based treatments. The diverse conservation mix treatment supported larger and more diverse bumblebee assemblages than the cereal, grass and legume mix treatment. The sown treatments, and the most extensively managed grass-based treatments, had the highest abundance, species richness and diversity of adult butterflies, whereas butterfly larvae were only found in the grass-based treatments.

4. Bumblebee and butterfly assemblage structure was driven by floral abundance, floral richness, the availability of nectar resources, and sward structure. Only vegetation cover was correlated with butterfly larval abundance.

5. Synthesis and applications. This study has identified management options in the margins of intensive grasslands which can enhance bumblebee and butterfly biodiversity. Extensification of conventional grass management by stopping fertilization, reducing cutting frequency and not grazing, benefits butterflies. However, to enhance bumblebees requires a more interventionist approach in the form of sowing flower-rich habitat. Both approaches are potentially suitable for adoption in agri-environment schemes in the UK and Europe


The first version of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules was endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1976. Now considered one of UNCITRAL's greatest successes, the rules have had an extraordinary impact on international arbitration as both instruments in their own right and as guides for others. The Iran-US Claims Tribunal, for example, employs a barely modified version of the rules for all claims, and many multilateral and bilateral foreign investment treaties adopt the UNCITRAL Rules as an arbitral procedure. The Rules are so pervasive and the consequences of the new version potentially so significant that they cannot be ignored. This commentary on the Rules brings the official documents together in one volume and includes the insights and experiences of the Working Group that are not included in the official reports.