This paper explores the use of Proteus, an architecture-independent language suitable for prototyping parallel and distributed programs. Proteus is a high-level imperative notation based on sets and sequences with a single construct for the parallel composition of processes communicating through shared memory. Several different parallel algorithms for N-body simulation are presented in Proteus, illustrating how Proteus provides a common foundation for expressing the various parallel programming models. This common foundation allows prototype parallel programs to be tested and evolved without the use of machine-specific languages. To transform prototypes to implementations on specific architectures, program refinement techniques are utilized. Refinement strategies are illustrated that target broad-spectrum parallel intermediate languages, and their viability is demonstrated by refining an N-body algorithm to data-parallel CVL code.<<ETX>>


OBJECTIVES
The objective of the study was to assess the impact of adipokines on the future major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

METHODS
Subjects were 77 men with first, ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention in whom data were available after one year follow-up. Baseline clinical and angiographic data were collected, blood level of C-reactive protein, uric acid, fasting glucose, lipid profile, adiponectin, resistin and leptin and left ventricular ejection fraction on echocardiography were assessed. MACE was defined as cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, hospitalization for angina or heart failure.

RESULTS
12% of patients experienced MACE. As revealed by univariate logistic regression analysis predictors of MACE were diabetes, multivessel disease, ejection fraction, blood C-reactive protein and adiponectin level. In multivariable analysis diabetes (OR=22.19, 95%CI 1.22-402.19; p=0.0360), lower left ventricular ejection fraction (OR=0.78, 95%CI 0.63-0.98; p=0.0298) and lower adiponectin level (OR=0.19, 95%CI 0.04-0.90; p=0.0362) were independent negative predictors of MACE. The optimal value of adiponectin for predicting MACE was 4.23 microg/ml. CONCLUSION. In male patients with myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention, a baseline blood adiponectin but not resistin or leptin is independently predictive of MACE. The other prognostic factors are diabetes mellitus and left ventricular ejection fraction.


In this paper, we present a lighting design framework for near-diffuse real objects, starting from a set of prerecorded photographs of an object under various lighting conditions. Light sources are placed at fixed positions around an object, for which the intensities are to be determined. Using existing digital imaging software, the lighting designer paints the desired illumination distribution on a photograph of an object. This painted-on illumination is used to determine the light intensities which produce a shading of the real object matching the desired illumination distribution. Certain areas in the painted image can be favored among others by weighting their importance in the optimization algorithm.


The resolution of the trimethyl headgroup resonance of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM) in the intact human low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (1)H NMR spectrum at 600 MHz enabled the investigation of LDL surface structure and phospholipid-apoB interactions. We have previously shown that a higher proportion of PC headgroups (25-35% of total PC in LDL) compared to SM were tightly bound to apoB and therefore NMR-invisible [Murphy, H. C., et al. (1997) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 234 (3), 733-737]. In the present study, we have investigated the mobility of phospholipid (PL) headgroups, using (1)H NMR spin-spin (T(2)) relaxation measurements, in LDL isolated from nine volunteers. We show that both PC and SM exist in two additional and distinct environments indicated by the biexponential behavior of the relaxation decays in each case. The data showed that 36% of PC headgroups had a short T(2) component, mean T(2) of 31 ms, and 64% had a longer T(2) component of 54 ms. Approximately 15% of SM headgroups had a short T(2) component (mean T(2) of 27 ms) and 85% had a longer T(2) component of 78 ms. Therefore the majority of SM headgroups (85%) were more mobile than PC (P < 0.001) and since PC headgroups in organic media were more mobile than SM, we conclude that the characteristic high mobility of LDL SM is not an intrinsic property but arises from a high degree of order in molecular packing of the surface PL of human LDL. We suggest that because PC and SM interact differentially with cholesterol and possibly with neighboring phospholipids, this results in the formation of relatively long-lived microdomains of PL in vivo.


PLoS Biology | http://biology.plosjournals.org Biochemists aren't much accustomed to seeing their work in the popular press, save for annual coverage of the Nobel prize in chemistry. This year, Roderick MacKinnon was recognized for working out the atomic structure of an ion channel and Peter Agre for discovering that a major protein found in red blood cells functions primarily as a water channel. Agre went on to establish the family of related channels, which he named "aquaporins.'' Channel proteins have aqueous pores that cross the cell membrane and regulate the flow of molecules in and out of cells. Water passively pours though aquaporins by osmosis, moving from low to high concentrations of solutes. Solving the structure of these channels provided a platform for exploring the underlying molecular mechanisms that allow the proteins to function as filters and maintain osmotic equilibrium. Robert Stroud and colleagues recently solved the atomic structure of an aquaporin (GlpF) and have now solved the structure of another water channel from Escherichia coli, called aquaporin Z, that selectively conducts only water at high rates. Aquaporins form a large, diverse family of proteins and have been found in bacteria, plants, and animals. There are 11 family members in the human proteome. Less than a decade ago, scientists discovered the aquaporin Z gene (aqpZ) in E. coli, pointing to the protein's role in regulating water transport in this prokaryote. The high-resolution X-ray structures of recombinant aquaglyceroporin glycerol facilitator (GlpF)—a channel protein that transports both glycerol and water in E. coli—determined by the Stroud group in 2000 and of bovine aquaporin 1 (AQP1) from red blood cells, determined a year later, revealed how these aquaporins regulate their transport and selectivity. The aquaporin Z channel protein in E. coli can accommodate a flow of water at rates six times higher than GlpF, making it the prime subject for studying the selectivity of a high-conducting water channel. And because the two main classes of aquaporins occur in E. coli—which means they're exposed to the same cellular environment—and were both expressed recombinantly, the opportunities for comparative structural and functional analyses, combined with site-directed mutagenesis, promise to provide valuable insights into the molecular underpinnings of the selectivity of functionally different aquaporins. After fabricating and growing a recombinant form of AqpZ in E. coli, David Savage in the Stroud group recovered the proteins from the bacterial colonies, then purified and concentrated them. The proteins were crystallized—capturing five water molecules inside—and then analyzed by state-of-the-art high-resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. The architecture of aquaporin Z, the researchers report, is typical of aquaporins, with a spiral of eight oxygens providing water-binding sites inside the channel and amino acid side chains determining the size and chemistry of the channel. The outer membrane and cytoplasmic ends of the channel are wider than the interior, which is long and narrow. This structure confirms that aquaporin selectivity arises in part from erecting a physical barrier: small molecules, like water, can easily pass, but larger ones simply can't fit. And the strategic positioning of amino acid residues with hydrophilic or hydrophobic properties along the channel helps police the influx of molecules based on their affinity for water. While it seems two amino acid chains located in the middle of the channel also provide a water-friendly surface, Stroud et al. say they play a more intriguing role. Noting that the water molecules occupy the channel in single file, the scientists explain that such an orientation would normally facilitate the random flow of protons (or hydrogen ions), which would be lethal to the cell. This central amino acid pair, they say, restricts the behavior of water molecules in the center of the channel in such a way that prevents "proton jumping'' yet keeps the water flowing. With two structural models of aquaporins down to the atomic level in the same species, scientists can now begin to investigate the molecular mechanisms that facilitate their selectivity. The importance of understanding these widely distributed channel proteins was underscored by the Nobel awards this year. Water transport is fundamental to life, and aquaporins are found throughout the body. Knowledge of their structure will help reveal the molecular mechanics of their specialized feats and promise to offer insights into a wide range of human disorders.


Gluteal amnesia is described as a condition in which the neural recruitment patterns of the gluteal muscle complex are insufficient to activate muscle fibers, causing the hamstring and lower back muscles to take up the physical demand. Symptoms due to insufficient gluteal muscle activation include tight hamstrings post-exercise, anterior pelvic tilt, and knee valgus during squat or lunge performance. This could lead to compensation injuries of the lumbar, knee, and ankle joints. Many physical therapy rehabilitation programs of the lower back and lower extremity incorporate gluteal exercises which could potentially treat this condition and prevent compensation injuries. PURPOSE: To identify and test a person experiencing symptoms of gluteal amnesia to determine gluteal muscle activation before and after a therapy program designed to enhance muscle recruitment and function. METHODS: A 74-year-old male experiencing symptoms of unilateral gluteal amnesia was recruited for this case-study. Electromyographic (EMG) analysis of the gluteal muscle complex was recorded while the subject performed movements typically associated with gluteal muscle complex activation. Both the affected and unaffected side were analyzed while the subject performed movements, as well as submaximal and maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC). After baseline testing, a daily, 3-week progressive resistance rehabilitation program consisting of exercises utilizing the gluteal muscle complex was completed. After completion of the rehabilitation program, EMG analysis of the affected and unaffected sides was performed as during the baseline measures. Integrated EMG signals of gluteal activation were compared between preand post-tests. Baseline EMG was considered to be 100% of muscle activation. The post-rehabilitation EMG during MVIC was a percentage of the maximal effort output. MVIC of the submaximal tests were obtained by comparing the quadruped hip extension and single leg glute bridge exercises to the standing gluteal squeeze, and the quadruped hip abduction and clam shell exercises to the side lying hip abduction. RESULTS: Increased gluteal complex activation post-rehabilitation was evident in both the affected and unaffected limbs. Specifically, the largest increases of the left and ride side were seen through the quadruped hip extension (18.7%, 52.4%) and quadruped hip abduction (54.1%, 98.8%) exercises, respectively. The left limb presenting with gluteal amnesia symptoms consistently gave lower output values. CONCLUSION: In this case-study, increased EMG activity in the affected muscles, progressive increases in resistance during daily rehabilitation and anecdotal improvements in movement patterns were observed. Based on the results of this case-study, treatment for conditions such as gluteal amnesia and other disorders of ineffective motor unit recruitment should include targeted rehabilitation exercises designed to isolate the affected musculature.


Modelling data over time requires a set of unique and bespoke processes in order to deal with problems induced by temporal dependency and autocorrelation. Methods are well developed and widely applied for working with such data when sample sizes are high, but the issue of how to fit models which are methodologically robust but not under-powered or over-fitted on short time series data remains vexing. This research proposes an interrupted time series analysis model solution to this problem, and uses a Type II Sum Squares ANCOVA Lagged Dependent Variable, variance-centric approach as part of a newly introduced R package - its.analysis. Using this model switches the null hypothesis situation to a much more reliable test and allows for a much more flexible approach to adding covariates in small sample conditions. The model performs very well under test conditions, appears more conservative than existing alternative techniques, and as such is recommended to researchers for future analysis of temporal data where observations are limited (between 15 and 45 observations).


This is a new edition of the book previously titled Solute Movement in the Soil-Root System, and describes in detail how plant nutrients and other solutes move in the soil in response to plant uptake. It provides a basis for understanding processes in the root zone so that they can be modelled realistically in order to predict the effects of variations in natural conditions or our own practices. The new edition brings the text up-to-date, and it will be less technical.


Since the time when legal education became the preserve of universities and other higher education providers there has been an uneasy relationship between the 'aims' of a liberal course of study and the demands of a practising profession. In addition, educators have dominated formal legal learning with a rules-driven curriculum delivered principally in the format of lectures – where students are seen and treated primarily as passive recipients of knowledge.

On joining academia from legal practice in the early 1990s my work has been principally focused on addressing the tensions implicit in the above – looking at what we as educators, practitioners, students and the wider public need and want from legal education and the most effective ways of achieving that.

Taking the importance of knowledge, skills and values as a framework I have published widely on both the content and means of delivery of legal education. Whilst the former (content) must be seen in context – undergraduates for example may have very different outcomes set for them as compared with those an overtly vocational course – the latter (delivery) has a common denominator. This is to do with how students learn and how they can be encouraged to take responsibility for, and make the most of, that.

Learning through experience supported by the means to conduct critical reflection is at the centre of my work. I have looked, in particular, at developing models of 'clinic' where students, under requisite supervision, engage in real or realistic casework in order to comprehend relevant content, be that legal doctrine, lawyering skills or professional and ethical considerations.

This work has been recognised as 'pioneering' in the development of clinical legal education both in the UK and further afield, as evidenced by the volume of publications, numerous citations in other works and requests made by others for assistance, particularly in developing clinics.

Most recently I have been looking at whether these pedagogic and professional practice models have transferable value in civil and common law jurisdictions and to what extent they aide access to justice.

The publications – a mix of books, book chapters, articles in refereed journals and other material in the public domain – that I rely on are listed in Appendix 1 to this commentary and show, I submit, how I have made a significant contribution to knowledge through the development of clinic as pedagogy and the utility of this, for student, client, profession and the wider public in a domestic and international context.

This submission looks initially at the context of my published work and recounts a journey encompassing different models of clinical legal education. This is followed by a section setting out a framework for understanding the nature, scope and extent of 'clinic'. In order the encapsulate what clinic is and what potential is offered a taxonomy is suggested based on the variants that determine the educational, public service and professional reach of experiential learning in general and clinical legal education in particular. I then focus on three aspects of my work represented by the publications on which I rely for this award – simulation, model modification and international transferability and provide examples of these manifestations of clinic alongside analysis from other scholars. The final substantive section of the submission attempts to locate what I have published within the wider context of current changes and proposed reforms in legal education. The conclusions reached include the recognition of the importance of clinic (actual and potential) in serving the various agendas held by relevant stakeholders.


ABSTRACT Many studies demonstrate the importance of the commensal microbiomes to animal health and development. However, the initial community assembly process is poorly understood. It is unclear to what extent the hosts select for their commensal microbiota, whether stochastic processes contribute, and how environmental conditions affect the community assembly. We investigated community assembly in Atlantic cod larvae exposed to distinct microbial metacommunities. We aimed to quantify ecological processes influencing community assembly in cod larvae and to elucidate the complex relationship between the bacteria of the environment and the fish. Selection within the fish was the major determinant for community assembly, but drift resulted in inter-individual variation. The environmental bacterial communities were highly dissimilar from those associated with the fish. Still, differences in the environmental bacterial communities strongly influenced the fish communities. The most striking difference was an excessive dominance of a single OTU (Arcobacter) for larvae reared in two of the three systems. These larvae were exposed to environments with higher fractions of opportunistic bacteria, and we hypothesise that detrimental host–microbe interactions might have made the fish susceptible to Arcobacter colonisation. Despite strong selection within the host, this points to a possibility to steer the metacommunity towards mutualistic host–microbe interactions and improved fish health and survival.


Abstract. A coupled Bayesian model selection and geostatistical regression modeling approach is adopted for empirical analysis of gross primary productivity (GPP) at six AmeriFlux sites, including the Kennedy Space Center Scrub Oak, Vaira Ranch, Tonzi Ranch, Blodgett Forest, Morgan Monroe State Forest, and Harvard Forest sites. The analysis is performed at a continuum of temporal scales ranging from daily to monthly, for a period of seven years. A total of 10 covariates representing environmental stimuli and indices of plant physiology are considered in explaining variations in GPP. Similarly to other statistical methods, the presented approach estimates regression coefficients and uncertainties associated with the covariates in a selected regression model. Unlike traditional regression methods, however, the approach also estimates the uncertainty associated with the selection of a single "best" model of GPP. In addition, the approach provides an enhanced understanding of how the importance of specific covariates changes with the examined timescale (i.e. temporal resolution). An examination of changes in the importance of specific covariates across timescales reveals thresholds above or below which covariates become important in explaining GPP. Results indicate that most sites (especially those with a stronger seasonal cycle) exhibit at least one prominent scaling threshold between the daily and 20-day temporal scales. This demonstrates that environmental variables that explain GPP at synoptic scales are different from those that capture its seasonality. At shorter time scales, radiation, temperature, and vapor pressure deficit exert the most significant influence on GPP at most examined sites. At coarser time scales, however, the importance of these covariates in explaining GPP declines. Overall, unique best models are identified at most sites at the daily scale, whereas multiple competing models are identified at longer time scales.


The authors have done an analysis of meteorological data which may add to the growing body of information addressing the cause or causes of recent global warming. If an augmented greenhouse effect, due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, has been a significant factor producing global warming, then this should be indicated by an increase in the interval of time between the time of maximum insolation. and the time of maxim.um surface temperature, as well as a decrease in the interval of time between the time of minimum insolation and the time of minimum surface temperature, in the mid latitudes. However, the magnitude of this effect should not be as great during the Northern Hemisphere summer as during the Northern Hemisphere winter because of the reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide due to increased photosynthesis. The anthers have examined surface air temperature data from a mid-latitude, continental area to see if the above expected changes have, in fact, occurred. The results of this study indicate that global warming, during the ca. 50 year study period, is consistent with an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere. A comparison of the summer vs winter lag data show that increases in heat retention have occurred mainly during the Northern Hemisphere winter, when annual carbon dioxide concentrations are greste.i. The augmentation of the greenhouse effect appears to be 'mitigated during the Northern Hemisphere summer. The data suggest that factors other than anthropogenic increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have also significantly influenced the heat budget at the surface of the esrth during the period froni'l 950 to 2003. Kev words: carbon dioxide, global warming, anthropogenic, seasonal effects


Introduction: Therapist self-disclosure within the therapeutic context has been the subject of discussion since early on in the history of psychotherapy. However, therapist self-disclosure can also be viewed within the context of supervision. There would now appear to be a movement towards acknowledging the benefits of self-disclosure within both contexts and the investigation of factors involved would seem appropriate for investigation. Literature review: The literature review suggested that therapist self- disclosure was facilitated and inhibited by a number of different mechanisms e. g. alliance. Supervisee self-disclosure within supervision appeared largely a function of the development of a good supervisory relationship with supervising therapist self-disclosure and therapist self-disclosure within the therapeutic dyad being much more about personal choice and style. Research report: Given that self-disclosure and discussion of clinical mistakes is felt within clinical psychology to be beneficial to the learning and development of trainee clinical psychologists an `online' questionnaire study based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was devised. The purposes of the study were to assess trainee clinical psychologists' intention to disclose personal clinical mistakes in supervision and whether intention was associated with the strength of supervisory relationship and team climate. The TPB was found to predict intention to disclose personal clinical mistakes in supervision. No other variables were found to add significantly to the model of prediction. However, intention was associated with a number of other variables including supervisory rapport. Critical Appraisal: An appraisal of the research process is submitted with discussion of methodological limitations, clinical implications and possible areas for future research.


Abstract Five species of aulacopleurid trilobites occur in rich, silicified trilobite faunas from the Upper Ordovician of Virginia: Harpidella triloba (Hu, 1975a), Strasburgaspis cona (Hu, 1971), and Strasburgaspis? n. sp. A, all from the Turinian Edinburg Formation, Harpidella whittingtoni new species, from the overlying Turinian Oranda Formation, and Harpidella evitti new species, from the Chatfieldian Martinsburg Formation. The species of Harpidella, similar to other sets of congeneric taxa known from the formations, are subtly but pervasively differentiated. In addition to qualitative differentia such as the expression of the eye socle and of pygidial tubercle rows, the species are shown to differ in cranidial and librigenal shape via landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis. The genus Strasburgaspis (type species S. cona) is new. It is assigned to Aulacopleuridae on the basis of its micropygous morphology, but it shares potential apomorphies with Brachymetopidae and could prove to be the most plesiomorphic representative of that family.


Purpose: Immunotherapeutic strategies to treat patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) offer new opportunities for disease management. Further improvements to immunotherapy will require additional understanding of the host response to RCC development. Experimental Design: Using a novel approach to understanding the immune status of cancer patients, we previously showed that patients with a certain immune profile had decreased overall survival. Here, we examine in more detail the phenotypic changes in peripheral blood and the potential consequences of these changes in RCC patients. Results: We found that CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes were the most predominant phenotypic change in peripheral blood of RCC patients, elevated nearly 5-fold above the average levels measured in healthy volunteers. Intratumoral and peritumoral presence of CD14 cells was an independent prognostic factor for decreased survival in a cohort of 375 RCC patients. The amount of peripheral blood CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes was found to correlate with the intensity of CD14 staining in tumors, suggesting that the measurement of these cells in blood may be a suitable surrogate for monitoring patient prognosis. The interaction of monocytes and tumor cells triggers changes in both cell types with a loss of HLA-DR expression in monocytes, increases of monocyte survival factors such as GM-CSF in tumors, and increased production of angiogenic factors, including FGF2. Conclusions: Our results suggest a model of mutually beneficial interactions between tumor cells and monocytes that adversely affect patient outcome. Clin Cancer Res; 21(18); 4224–33. ©2015 AACR.


Managing water quality in drinking water distribution systems is very important to guarantee consumers' health. Disinfection is used to reduce the risk of pathogenic contamination or microbial species proliferation. Chlorine is a disinfection substance that is traditionally used due to its effectiveness and low cost. However, the use of chlorine has related disinfection by-products, some of which can have carcinogenic effects on human health (e.g., trihalomethanes, THMs). In this context, the objective of this paper is to compare different multi-objective optimization problem formulations to improve the operational interventions of WDSs, in order to reduce the formation of THMs in the network. The analysis of two case studies shows that operating valves is more convenient than operating hydrants and pumps in most of the proposed formulations.


Most prior empirical online shopping research studied consumer purchase behaviour
and post-purchase behaviour from the perceived benefit/value perspective. However,
few efforts have attempted to employ the cost concept to analyse consumers' online
behaviour. Researchers in psychology, marketing, and organizational behaviour have
applied the transaction cost (TC) construct to study how the TCs influence the
managers' decision-making process at the organizational level. At the individual
consumer level, TC consideration has become increasingly important in affecting the
way consumers choose shopping channel and vendors in their daily lives.
Nevertheless, little research attention has been devoted to understanding how the
individual consumers' online purchase and post-purchase behaviours are affected by
their perceived TCs. This study therefore represents a point of departure in that it
brings in TCs to explain online behaviour at the individual online shopper level. By
extending TCs from traditional shopping to online shopping, this study develops an
integrative model of consumer TCs associated with shopping at an online store, based
on which hypotheses regarding the salient antecedents and consequences of consumer
TCs were developed.
The research was undertaken in China, in which the economy, particularly the online
shopping industry, has been increasing rapidly. China has also a unique cultural and
institutional setting when compared to other countries although existing research
based on China is limited. This research is therefore expected to shed light on
consumer TCs of online shopping within the Chinese context. Data for the study was
collected using an on-street survey conducted on a face-to-face basis in one
economically developed city and one economically less-developed city randomly
selected from the pool of coastal cities and inland cities of China, respectively.
Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (AMOS 20.0) and
multiple group analysis.
Results of the study indicate that consumer TCs consisting of pre-, contemporaneous-,
and post-TCs are derived from three major aspects, namely consumer-related
characteristics, online store- and product-related characteristics, and online channelrelated
characteristics. The consumer-related characteristics, including Internet access
availability, perceived Internet expertise, and online buying frequency, are found to
negatively affect consumer TCs. The online store- and product- related characteristics,
consisting of e-service quality and reputation of online store, can significantly lower
consumer TCs. In the last category of online channel-related characteristics, the
results confirm that privacy and security concerns increase consumer TCs whereas
perceived convenience largely reduces consumer TCs. As for the consequences of
consumer TCs, online purchase behaviour and customer loyalty are found to be
directly affected by TCs.
Further, the results reveal that though TCs have direct and negative effects on
customer loyalty, part of their effects is conditional on their ability to reduce customer
satisfaction. That is, though lower TCs in online purchasing activities could help gain
customer loyalty, such relationship is subject to the mediating effects of customer
satisfaction in online shopping. Additionally, results of the study imply that as
consumers' inherent attributes, consumer's risk-bearing propensity confounds the
effects of TCs on customer loyalty, and perceived enjoyment of online shopping
moderates the effect of TCs on online purchase behaviour. Finally, the results suggest that the different product categories affect TCs itself as well as the effects of the
antecedents on TCs. Product categories further influence the relationships between
TCs and subsequent online behaviour.
This study advances the consumer behaviour literature by taking a new perspective of
TC mechanisms in online consumers' decision-making. It offers deeper theoretical
and empirical insights into online purchase and post-purchase behaviour by
explicating the role of TCs at the individual consumer level and exploring a
comprehensive set of antecedents of TCs. This study also has important practical
implications. From the consumer's perspective, this research brings benefits to
individual consumers by informing them about the advantages of online shopping
which can reduce their time and cognitive effort expended on shopping and
consequently lower their TCs of online shopping. In addition, the research findings
provide online vendors with a deeper understanding on the allocation of resources and
capabilities in achieving minimum consumer TCs and inducing favourable
behavioural outcomes.


Andrews curves are examples of the space transformed visualization (STV) techniques for visualizing multivariate data, which represent k‐dimensional data points by a profile line (or curve) in two‐ or three‐dimensional space using orthogonal basis functions. Andrews curves are based on Fourier series where the coefficients are the observation's values. One advantage of the plot is based on the Parseval's identity (energy norm), which indicates that the information through transformation from the data space into the parameter space is preserved, and information that can be deduced in the hyperdimensional original space can be easily deduced in the two‐dimensional parameter space. This duality empowers the discovery of correlated records, clusters and outliers based on the curve's intersections, gaps and isolations, respectively. This article focuses on STV, in general, Andrews curves visualizations, in particular, and the effective use of these methods in the exploration of clusters, classes, and outliers. WIREs Comp Stat 2011 3 373–382 DOI: 10.1002/wics.160


This paper studies the link between group-speci c consumption growth and volatility within a framework of heterogeneous agents, under the assumption of a consumption externality. Household preferences are related to the volatility through asset holding decisions: volatility decreases with groups' degree of patience, and increases with household eagerness to keep up with the group average. Moreover, consumption growth is expected to relate positively to the volatility. This last hypothesis is tested using household data imputed from GSOEP and the German Income and Expenditure Survey (EVS), where a U-shaped relationship is found for the nondurable consumption. Moreover, examining the growth-inequality relationship using EVS data alone shows that it is positive for nondurable and negative for durable consumption.


The present report is devoted to the problems of estimating the state of a linear dynamic system on the basis of on-line observation. It is assumed that the disturbances in the system inputs and in the current measurements are uncertain, a set-membership description of their values being only given in advance.

A considerable number of problems concerning systems of the above type are covered by the theory of control and observation under uncertainty conditions. The main problems of this paper deal with the description of certain informational domains that are consistent with the results of available measurements of the state space variables. Here we consider the case when the disturbances in the system dynamics and in the observation equation are subjected to instantaneous (or "geometric") constraints.

One approach to the problem based on an imbedding procedure of the primary problem into an auxiliary one of linear-quadratic estimation theory is given in the paper. The proposed procedure involves certain quadratic forms to bound the uncertainties in the modified problem. This method allows one to derive an appropriate maximum principle that is satisfied by system trajectories leading to boundary points of the informational domain.


Stabilized sand deposits from arid regions are often used as palaeoenvironmental proxies for past periods of enhanced aeolian activity. Although widespread use of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating techniques has opened up the possibility of systematic analyses of dune building chronologies, palaeoenvironmental histories cannot be reconstructed from chronological data alone. The reconstruction of regional palaeoenvironmental histories should consider all available evidence - stratigraphic, sedimentological and micromorphological, and chronological. This paper highlights potential issues with the interpretation of dune records in the context of stratigraphic preservation, using examples from the Tirari Desert in Australia and the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. Sedimentological characterisation of linear dunes in the Tirari Desert demonstrates that reworking of underlying dune sediments and buried soils is common, thereby calling into question simplistic interpretations of dune formation involving sequential deposition and pedogenesis. This case study highlights the limitation of the augering technique, although useful information can be gained nonetheless. Three OSL age estimates confirm the presence of at least two Holocene dune building episodes, but cannot constrain the timing of the onset of dune building. Higher frequency sampling and micromorphological analyses may further elucidate the palaeoenvironmental history of individual dunes. In the Southwestern Kalahari, interdune sediments have been described as the least sensitive part of the aeolian landscape, thus offering the potential for longer records of aeolian deposition. This is found not to be the case at Witpan, where interdune sands are extensively mixed and probably younger than the linear dune cores. The lunette at Witpan records numerous short-lived and rapid deflationary events from the nearby pan (playa). These are considered to reflect changes in sediment source rather than pedogenesis. These examples highlight the value of combining micromorphological, sedimentological and chronological studies for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.


Existing sampling techniques applied within known orebodies, such as sampling along mining drifts, yield element concentration values for larger blocks of ore if they are extended into their surroundings. The resulting average concentration values have relatively small "extension variance". These techniques can be used for multifractal modeling as well as ore reserve estimation approaches. Geometric probability theory can aid in local spatial covariance modeling. It provides information about increase of variability of element concentration over short distances exceeding microscopic scale. In general, the local clustering of ore crystals results in small-scale variability known as the "nugget effect". Parameters to characterize spatial covariance estimated from ore samples subjected to chemical analysis for ore reserve estimation may not be valid at local scale because of the nugget effect. The novel method of local singularity mapping applied within orebodies provides new insights into the nature of the nugget effect. Within the Pulacayo orebody, Bolivia, local singularity for zinc is linearly related with logarithmically transformed concentration value. If there is a nugget effect, moving averages resulting from covariance models or estimated by other methods that have a smoothing effect, such as kriging, can be improved by incorporating local singularities indicating local element enrichment or depletion. Although there have been many successful applications of the multifractal binomial/ p model, its application within the Pulacayo orebody results in inconsistencies, indicating some shortcomings of this relatively simple approach. Local singularity analysis and universal multifractal modeling are two promising new approaches to improve upon results obtained by commonly used geostatistical techniques and use of the binomial/ p model. All methods in this paper are illustrated using a single example (118 Pulacayo zinc values), and several techniques are applied to other orebody datasets (Whalesback copper deposit, Witwatersrand goldfields and Black Cargo titanium deposit). Additionally, it is discussed that nugget effects exist in a binary series of alternating mostly gneiss and metabasite previously derived from KTB borehole velocity and lithology logs, and within a series of 2796 copper concentration values from this same drillhole.


Questions
It is hypothesized that species and genetic diversity are correlated because niche differentiation among species and genotypes is either affected by the same processes (positive) or each level restricts the amount of diversity in the other (negative). Although many studies have observed both positive and negative relationships, others have found no correlation between the two diversity measures. Are measures of species (richness, diversity and evenness) and genetic diversity correlated, and how does resource (soil moisture, light, nitrogen and phosphorus) quantities and heterogeneity affect both levels of diversity?

Location
Intact tallgrass prairie at Konza Prairie Biological Station, northeast Kansas, US.

Methods
We investigate the correlation between plant species and genetic diversity in a long-term precipitation manipulation experiment – the Rainfall Manipulation Plots (RaMPs) – located in intact tallgrass prairie as well as adjacent non-manipulated prairie. The RaMPs experiment has been imposing ambient and more variable precipitation regimes (a 50% increase in timing between rainfall events without changing total rainfall amount) during the growing season since 1998, resulting in reduced mean soil moisture and increased soil moisture variability. Thus, the RaMPs and non-manipulated prairie plots capture a range of soil moisture amounts and variability. Genetic diversity (measured as genotype richness and genomic dissimilarity among individuals) was quantified for the dominant grass species, Andropogon gerardii, which has large impacts on plant community structure and ecosystem function.

Results
We found species and genetic diversity were not significantly correlated. Genotypic richness was negatively related to soil moisture variability, but measures of species diversity were not. In the non-manipulated plots only, we found generally negative relationships between resource quantity (light and nitrogen) and community diversity, and positive relationships between resource heterogeneity (CV of light) and community diversity.

Conclusions
Our results suggest that a lack of a positive or negative relationship between species and genetic diversity could be due to these two levels of diversity responding differently to the identity, quantity and heterogeneity of resources.


A voluminous magmatic complex was emplaced in the Voring and More basins during Paleocene/Eocene continental rifting and break-up in the NE Atlantic. This intrusive event has had a significant impact on deformation, source-rock maturation and fluid flow in the basins. Intrusive complexes and associated hydrothermal vent complexes have been mapped on a regional 2D seismic dataset ( c .150 000 km) and on one large 3D survey. The extent of the sill complex is at least 80 000 km 2 , with an estimated total volume of 0.9 to 2.8 × 10 4 km 3 . The sheet intrusions are saucer-shaped in undeformed basin segments. The widths of the saucers become larger with increasing emplacement depth. More varied intrusion geometries are found in structured basin segments. Some 734 hydrothermal vent complexes have been identified, although it is estimated that 2–3000 vent complexes are present in the basins. The vent complexes are located above sills and were formed as a direct consequence of the intrusive event by explosive eruption of gases, liquids and sediments, forming up to 11 km wide craters at the seafloor. The largest vent complexes are found in basin segments with deep sills (3–9km palaeodepth). Mounds and seismic seep anomalies located above the hydrothermal vent complexes suggest that the vent complexes have been re-used for vertical fluid migration long after their formation. The intrusive event mainly took place just prior to, or during, the initial phase of massive break-up volcanism (55.0–55.8Ma). There is also evidence for a minor Upper Paleocene volcanic event documented by the presence of 20 vent complexes terminating in the Upper Paleocene sequence and the local presence of extrusive volcanic rocks within the Paleocene sequence.


We review and introduce several approaches to the study of centralizer algebras of the infinite symmetric group $S_{\infty}$. Our work is led by the double commutant relationship between finite symmetric groups and partition algebras; in the case of $S_{\infty}$, we obtain centralizer algebras that are contained in partition algebras. In view of the theory of symmetric functions in non-commuting variables, we consider representations of $S_{\infty}$ that are faithful and that contain invariant elements; namely, non-unitary representations on sequence spaces.


The Masai Mara Game Reserve is Kenya's finest wildlife reserve, one of the world's top tourist attractions and vital to Kenya's economy. Recently, concerns have been expressed about the sustainability of tourism given the threats of depletion of indigenous animals, degradation of the landscape and impact on the native Masai Mara tribespeople. The challenge now is to create a sustainable situation that protects the interests of all stakeholders. This paper explores the views of four key stakeholder groups: the Masai people; conservationists including the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Masai Mara Game Reserve management; local tourism and game lodge operators; and government departments. Interviews were carried out with representatives of each stakeholder group to gain insight into their needs from tourism and whether these needs are currently met; suggestions for short- and long-term tourism developments; and the economic implications of tourism in the Masai Mara. Interview data were supplemented by an extensive period of observation. The findings indicate that the growth of tourism and the lack of resources to manage tourism are leading to persistent tensions between stakeholders and presenting long-term threats to the tourism industry. Overpopulation, changes in land use, poaching, deforestation, land degradation, conflicts due to unequal sharing of revenue, poor infrastructure and insecurity all contribute to these tensions. All stakeholders agreed that urgent action is required and lessons must be learned in order to sustain tourism and ensure the Masai Mara is preserved for future generations.


If a school trustee of the early thirties could be suddenly tnmsported into one of the new milliondollar schoolhouses ill New York! \That would astonish him most? Not, I ween, merely the beautiful and chaste arcleitccture of the Henaissance school building; not even the immensity of an eighty-six classroom school, with accommodation under one roof Ior :i,OOO children: not merely the wonderful improvement in matters 'of ffinitatio~ and hygiene.: hut rather the "new-fangled" things that thE boys and girls are learning nowadays, '1'0 him it .would be II strange sight to see a class of boys settin~ type in 1I. 'miniature printing ,shop; another class of 'boys caning chairs, and still another drawing an Indian from aetual life. Here a group of girls are making hats, another group weaving baskets, still others cooking dinners. and learning the art of waiting on table. In the basement gymnasiums the boys are performing on trapezes, parallel bars and flying nings; in the sub-collar fifty or sixty at once are learning to swim in 11 great swimming tank, ceaseIessly watched over and protected by a competent instructor, On an upper floor a class is receiving instruction in first aid to the injured, another is being taught nursing and the scientitlc preparation of foods, another millinery, and another manual training. "Boys are conducting experiments in physi001 and r-homical laboratories; girls are playing basket-ball. ani! even the roof is made use of for all kinds of g:>m<s.--Saturday Evening Post.


Abstract:Latin America may be approaching a historic turning point in the areas of political incorporation and labor relations. The levels of economic and social dislocation and political flux in the region are opening up an opportunity for creative, entrepreneurial leaders to change the direction of employment, labor rights, and politics for a new generation. Doing nothing will ensure only that the promising shores of opportunity become the menacing shoals of crisis as the unbending realities of demographics, globalization, and populist opportunism threaten the political and economic fortunes of the region.


Graffiti and vandalism are everywhere in the modern city; they seem to be part of the typical urban background. While graffiti are usually associated with concrete walls, bridges and train cars, one particular area of focus of vandalistic writing is the walls and stalls of public bathrooms. This area, for both obvious, and sometimes unclear reasons, is a popular forum for anyone wanting to write. This project was conducted with the intent of better understanding these somewhat ubiquitous and seemingly mundane scribbles. As the first step toward this goal, a literature review of approaches to vandalism was conducted. This theoretical exploration, which comprised the majority of the project, explored vandalism in general, with a particular focus on graffiti. The second step of research was the collection of photographs of bathroom stall graffiti on the campuses of both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. This second step sought to take the general literature on vandalism and graffiti and apply it to the more specific example of bathroom wall graffiti. In concluding, this article proposes alternative approaches to understanding graffiti and vandalism.


Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are based on standardized and open technologies (i.e., SIP, H.323) using servers reachable through the Internet, implemented in software and provided often over general purpose computing hardware. Therefore, such services can suffer from various security threats as denial of service attacks. In this paper we present a new hybrid (anomaly and misuse) SIP flooding attack detection algorithm, which overcomes the existing problems in many of other detection algorithms. The proposed algorithm is tested using simulated traffic datasets, and compared with three well known anomaly algorithms and one misuse detection algorithm. The test results show that the new algorithm has high detection accuracy and high completeness.


BACKGROUND
The use of mechanical thrombectomy in the management of acute ischemic stroke is becoming increasingly popular.

OBJECTIVE
To identify notable factors that affect outcome, revascularization, and complications in patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with the Solitaire Flow Restoration Revascularization device.

METHODS
Eighty-nine patients treated with the Solitaire Flow Restoration Revascularization device (ev3/Covidien Vascular Therapies, Irvine, California) were retrospectively analyzed. Three endpoints were considered: revascularization (Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction), outcome (modified Rankin Scale score), and complications. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to determine significant predictors.

RESULTS
The mean time from onset of symptoms to the start of intervention was 6.7 hours. The average procedure length was 58 minutes. The mean NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 16 on arrival and 8 at discharge. Of the patients, 6.7% had a symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage, 16.8% had fatal outcomes within 3 months post-intervention, and 81.4% had a successful recanalization. Thrombus location in the M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery was associated with successful recanalization (thrombolysis in cerebral infarction 2b/3) (P = .003). Of the patients, 56.6% had a favorable outcome (modified Rankin Scale score at 3 months: 0-2). In patients younger than 80 years of age, 66.7% had favorable outcome. Increasing age (P = .01) and NIHSS score (P = .002) were significant predictors of a poor outcome. On multivariate analysis, NIHSS score on admission (P = .05) was a predictor of complications. On univariate analysis, increasing NIHSS score from admission to 24 hours after the procedure (P = .05) and then to discharge (P = .04) was a predictor of complications. Thrombus location in the posterior circulation (P = .04) and increasing NIHSS score (P = .04) predicted mortality.

CONCLUSION
The Solitaire device is safe and effective in achieving successful recanalization after acute ischemic stroke. Important factors to consider include age, NIHSS score, and location.


Haemodynamically insignificant left-to-right shunts are frequently discovered when screening for congenital heart disease, resulting in significant economic and psychosocial impact. A literature search was performed within the National Library of Medicine using the keywords small/insignificant/silent atrial septal defect (ASD), ventricular septal defect (VSD), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and patent foramen ovale (PFO). The search was refined by adding the keywords definition, classification and follow-up. Our analysis revealed significant heterogeneity in the evaluation and management of innocent left-to-right shunts. The definitions for small defects vary greatly, making it difficult to distinguish between physiologic and pathologic lesions (eg, a PFO vs a true ASD). Most small defects will partially or completely resolve spontaneously early in life. If spontaneous resolution does not occur, the risk for long-term complications (such as embolic events and endocarditis) is low but poses several practical and ethical issues: immediate discharge versus long-term follow-up, duration and frequency of follow-up, and content and method of discussions with the parents. Additionally, there is controversy pertaining to treatment for PDAs and VSDs, particularly among interventional cardiologists, even though risk/benefit analyses are lacking. Standards and guidelines using consensus opinion for the management of insignificant left-to-right shunts are needed to address the heterogeneity in diagnosis and management as well as use of resources, ethical and psychosocial issues.


Recently, variants of neural networks for computational linguistics have been proposed and successfully applied to neural language modeling and neural machine translation. These neural models can leverage knowledge from massive corpora but they are extremely slow as they predict candidate words from a large vocabulary during training and inference. As an alternative to gradient approximation and softmax with class decomposition, we explore the tree-based hierarchical softmax method and reform its architecture, making it compatible with modern GPUs and introducing a compact tree-based loss function. When combined with several word hierarchical clustering algorithms, improved performance is achieved in language modelling task with intrinsic evaluation criterions on PTB, WikiText-2 and WikiText-103 datasets.


This paper synthesizes recent work on urban poverty with an emphasis being placed on the relationship between urban poverty and the labour market. The themes considered include the distinction between permanent and temporary poverty and between trends and shocks. A number of distinctive features of urban poverty are discussed including the informal labour market, female headed households, the individualized nature of urban poverty and the greater exposure of urban residents to environmental risks. A final section considers policy implications, differentiating between promotive and protective strategies.


We, the Editors and Publisher of the journal Behaviour & Information Technology, have retracted the following article which was part of the Special Issue on Behaviour Monitoring and Management of Customers, People and Organizations using Deep Learning: Xing Zhao (2019) Application of deep learning algorithm in college English teaching process evaluation, Behaviour & Information Technology, DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2019.1690579 After publication it came to our attention that the person named as the Guest Editor of the Special Issue was impersonated by a fraudulent entity and the articles were not reviewed fully in line with the journal's peer review standards and policy. We did not find any evidence of misconduct by the authors. However, in order to ensure full assessment has been conducted, we sought expert advice on the validity and quality of the published articles from independent peer reviewers. Following this post publication peer review, the editor has determined that the articles do not meet the required scholarly standards to remain published in the journal, and therefore has taken the decision to retract the articles. The authors have been informed of this decision. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The retracted articles will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but they will be digitally watermarked on each page as 'Retracted'.


A subwavelength-period grating made in an intrinsic anisotropic medium was experimentally fabricated by means of imprinting and subsequent photoinduced molecular alignment of photocrosslinkable polymer liquid crystals (PCLC). Optical properties including the total birefringence and optic axis were theoretically and experimentally investigated by varying the crossing angle between the grating vector and the polarization azimuth of linearly polarized ultraviolet light for the photoalignment of PCLC. The total birefringence and optic axis were well-controlled by both form birefringence due to the subwavelength-period grating structure and intrinsic birefringence induced by photoalignment of PCLC. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method was an effective tool for characterizing the optical properties of a subwavelength-period grating made in an intrinsic anisotropic medium.


Criminality is today a major social problem. Many criminals begin their criminal careers during adolescence, often caused by a difficult childhood and a quest for identity. There are many researches about why some youths tend to become criminals, but few studies show criminals experiences and thoughts about crime and how they got there. Therefore we have chosen to refer to this subject. Our purpose of this study is to investigate former criminals experiences and thoughts about why they got involved in crime. In our interpretive framework, we chose to involve different risk factors and symbolic interactionism as a theory to explain respondents' behavior. The result, which describes the interviewers' experiences on why they turned to crime, is compared to whether they are consistent with previous research and with our own understanding. Our study shows that all respondents have had problematic upbringing conditions where risk factors such as abuse, domestic violence, separation, loss and alienation have been relevant. Keywords: delinquency, risk factors, social environment, identity and addiction.


From many past years, the detection of unknown malicious mobile agents before they invade the Mobile Agent Platform has been the subject of much challenging activity. The ever-growing threat of malicious agents calls for techniques for automated malicious agent detection. In this context, the machine learning (ML) methods are acknowledged more effective than the Signature-based and Behavior-based detection methods. Therefore, in this paper, the prime contribution has been made to detect the unknown malicious mobile agents based on n-gram features and supervised ML approach, which has not been done so far in the sphere of the Mobile Agents System (MAS) security. To carry out the study, the n-grams ranging from 3 to 9 are extracted from a dataset containing 40 malicious and 40 non-malicious mobile agents. Subsequently, the classification is performed using different classifiers. A nested 5-fold cross validation scheme is employed in order to avoid the biasing in the selection of optimal parameters of classifier. The observations of extensive experiments demonstrate that the work done in this paper is suitable for the task of unknown malicious mobile agent detection in a Mobile Agent Environment, and also adds the ML in the interest list of researchers dealing with MAS security.


A research, in any field, starts with either a passing idea or a bee in one's mind. Research in the field of language study, for instance, in all its branches, is a rich area where in hundreds of ideas and problems can be thought of and investigated. Needless to say, the study of language includes generally (linguistics: phonetic, phonology, morphology, syntax, comparative linguistics, etc.), (applied linguistics: pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, biolinguistics, clinical linguistics, experimental linguistics, computational linguistics, mathematical linguistics, forensic linguistics, corpus linguistics, contrastive analysis, discourse analysis, stylistics and error analysis, etc.), and (educational linguistics: language learning, teaching, and acquisition, etc.). Due to this, a certain problem or an idea in any of the above areas can be investigated from different points of view; that is, using either the correlational research approach, case-study, survey, experimental, ethnographic or the large-scale research approach. Actually, it is claimed in this paper that the above mentioned research approaches are different yet alike. This last point, however, is the major aim of this paper where in the six research approaches are compared and contrasted. At last, the researcher claims that no matter what a researcher in language study will follow since this approach fulfills the questions of his or her study logically, scientifically, and comes up with useful and fruitful bits of information and knowledge. Keywords : Research approaches, Language study, Correlational research, Case-study, Experimental study, Survey study, Ethnographic study, Large-scale study, Comparative and contrastive studies.


Using the recently developed theory of multiresolution decomposition, a formulation that governs the response of a linear dynamical system with nonstationary microscale heterogeneities is reduced to two coupled formulations, one governing the response smoothed on an arbitrary chosen reference scale with the response fine details as forcing, and one governing the response details with the response smooth as a forcing. By substituting the formal solution of the latter in the former, a new framework, specifically tuned to macroscale variations of the response, in which the effects of the nonstationary microscale heterogeneity are described via a macroscale‐effective material operator, is obtained. Localization of across‐scale couplings, as well as the dependence of the response smooth and the effective material operator on the microscale and macroscale geometries, are investigated via general asymptotic considerations and specific numerical examples. The latter concerns the response of a fluid loaded elastic...


In spite of remarkable growth in Ethiopia's agricultural production and overall real incomes (GDP/capita) from 2004/05 to 2008/09, prices of major cereals (teff, maize, wheat and sorghum) have fluctuated sharply in both nominal and real terms. International prices of cereals also fluctuated widely, particularly between 2006 and 2008. However, the links between Ethiopia's domestic cereal markets and the international market are by no means straightforward. Among the major staples, only wheat is imported or exported on a significant scale. And frequent changes in trade and macro-economic policies, movements in international prices and fluctuations in domestic production have at times eliminated incentives for private sector imports of wheat. From July 2005 to March 2007, private sector wheat imports were profitable and domestic wheat prices closely tracked import parity prices. Then, from April 2007 to May 2008, good domestic harvests coincided with increase international wheat prices, so private sector wheat imports were no longer profitable. Most recently, rationing of foreign exchange for imports effectively stopped private sector wheat imports beginning in about April 2008. Partial equilibrium analysis shows,however, that government imports and sales in 2008-09 effectively increased domestic supply and lowered market wheat prices. These sales at the low official price also implied that recipient households, traders and flour mills enjoyed a significant subsidy. Allowing the private sector access to foreign exchange for wheat imports or auctioning government wheat imports in domestic markets would eliminate these rents and generate additional government revenue, while having the same effect on market prices as government subsidized sales.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of service quality on customer retention among commercial banks in Kenya. The study was guided by the following research questions: How do customers perceive the quality of service offered by different banks? How does bank service quality relate to its customer retention? The objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between service quality practices and customer retention among commercial banks in Kenya. The research used a descriptive cross sectional research design. This research design was appropriate for this study since it seek to provide an overall picture of the extent to which service quality dimensions affect customer retention among commercial banks. Primary data was collected from bank customers using a likert type scale questionnaire. The finding was that most of the commercial banks in Kenya use the ServQual dimensions to some extent. Demographics data was analyzed by descriptive statistics while the relationship between service quality and customer retention was analyzed using regression model. There was significant relationship between ServQual dimensions (reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness) and indicators of customer retention (customer trust, customer satisfaction, level of involvement, communication effectiveness, switching barriers and price). Therefore this study recommends that management should pay attention to service quality and other factors which may lead to customer retention.


This paper titled "Proposed Intrusion Detection System" is an intrusion detection system (IDS) proposed by analyzing the principle of the intrusion detection system based on host and network. Here we are concentrating and analyzing overall performance as well as security of the proposed IDS. Moreover the proposed IDS approve the effectiveness of the proposed method, and presented results shows advantages of host based as well as network based security. The proposed model of hybrid IDSs offers several advantages over alternative systems. First of all it provided higher security, it supported high availability and scalability, and most important thing it produced good results in terms of normal and abnormal behaviors of captured packet. The proposed model includes integration of individual components to produced batter results.


The Fukushima Daiichi disaster 11 March, 2011 is considered the largest nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and has been rated at level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. As different radioactive materials have different effects to human body, it is important to know the types of nuclides and their levels of concentration from the recorded mixture of radiations to take necessary measures. We presently formulate a Bayesian generative model for the data available on radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster across Japan. From the sparsely sampled measurements the model infers what nuclides are present as well as their concentration levels. An important property of the proposed model is that it admits unique recovery of the parameters. On synthetic data we demonstrate that our model is able to infer the underlying components and on data from the Fukushima Daiichi plant we establish that the model is able to account for the data. We further demonstrate how the model extends to include all the available measurements recorded throughout Japan. The model can be considered a first attempt to apply Bayesian learning unsupervised in order to give a more detailed account also of the latent structure present in the data of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.


This report is in the nature of a progress report; it sets forth in some detail the status of the research on the several tasks as of the date of the report. In general, the research was incomplete on that date and no conclusions are presented. The report is written primarily to keep parsonnel of the sponsoring agency apprised of work that has been accomplished. It is not intended for outside distribution or publication.
 This is the first annual report under a continuing research project whose objective is to gain a better understanding of the failure of equipment when subjected to vibration. This is essential to (1) the attainment of improved practices in design of equipment that is required to withstand vibration and (Z) to the application of more rational procedures for conducting vibration tests in the laboratory. In principle, the laboratory test creates a vibration condition that causes such failure of the equipment as would occur during actual service use. However, a laboratory test cannot reproduce the service condition in all of its details; thus, a good knowledge of the mechanics of failure is necessary to relate laboratory and service conditions in a constructive manner.
The research program includes two general aspects that are being pursued concurrently, at least in the initial phase of the research program:
 1. Actual electronic and mechanical components of equipment with known susceptibility to failure; e.g., a vacuum tube in the initial task, are subjected to vibration of various defined types. The components are connected in circuits designed to simulate a typical application and the effect of vibration on the operation of the circuits is monitored. An objective of the experiment is to infer from the circuit operation and response of the component an analog that may be used to describe the characteristics of the component that are significant with respect to vibration. Such analogs are then used in further analyses of the component.
 2. Concurrent with the above experiments using actual components, a group of analogs having apparent application to known components is selected initially. Additional analogs are added to this group as experimental evaluation of actual components proceeds. The response of each selected analog to various idealized forms of vibration is investigated. Then from the relation between the response of the analog to such vibration and observed performance of the component to which the analog is related. the response of the component and its operational capability under more general types of vibration can be predicted.
A representative vacuum tube has been mounted upon a vibration exciter and subjected to both sinusoidal and random vibration. Its performance was Monitored by noting the voltage output (microphonic noise) that could be ascribed to vibration. This report includes records of output voltage as a function of vibration frequency, for further use in attempting to infer an appropriate mechanical analog.
 Five idealized forms of excitation have been selected for initial investigation: (1) sinusoid, (2) combined sinusoids, (3) scanning or sweeping sinusoid, (4) broad band random with Gaussian distribution and (5) broad band random with magnitude limitation. For each type of excitation, the response of the most common mechanical analog, a damped, single degree of freedom system, has been analyzed. By relating the characteristics of the analog to an actual component and applying appropriate criteria of failure, these responses are of use in predicting the performance capability of the component. For example, consider a structure vulnerable to failure by fatigue; then the distribution of response cycles included in the analysis of the analog response when taken with hypotheses of cumulative damage is applicable to predict the fatigue life.
 Some experiments on fatigue have been carried out, with the objective of determining whether existing hypotheses of cumulative damage are applicable to the problem being discussed here. A simplified structure having certain characteristics of a typical equipment has been subjected to fatigue tests. Because of certain unanticipated characteristics of the response of the structure, it has become evident that additional experiments are required to interpret the results obtained to date. This phase of the program is continuing.
 Section 1 of the report includes a detailed discussion of research program, its hypotheses and objectives. A brief summary of the results also is included in Section 1, with references to other sections of the report and to the appendices when complete details are set forth.


Three dimensionally ordered macroporous bioactive glasses (3DOM-BGs), namely 80SiO 2 -15CaO-5P 2 O 5 , were synthesized by sol-gel method. PMMA colloidal crystals and non-ionic block copolymers P123 were used as cotemplates. The amorphous 3DOM-BGs had skeletal walls enclosing macropores. Such structure resulted from octahedral and tetrahedral holes of the face-centered cubic ( fcc ) closest packed PMMA templates and windows interconnecting through macropores network. The thicknesses of the walls were around 50 nm – 80 nm and the windows were 90 nm – 110 nm in diameter. These wall thickness is increased by with an increase in ageing time up to 24 h and  then gradually reduced with further increase in aging time. Vibration bands of Si–O–Si and P–O were evident in infrared spectra which are in agreement with EDS spectra indicating Si, P and Ca compositions. After in vitro bioactivity testing by soaking 3DOM-BGs in simulated body fluid at 37 °C, the crystallization of amorphous calcium phosphate layers compatible to the bone component of hydroxyl carbonate apatite were rapidly formed within 3 h. These results indicated that these 3DOM-BGs resembled ideal bone implant materials. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.1.4755


This article explores the appointment process for government ministers in the Israeli cabinet and senior executive officials in the Israeli public service. It examines the institutions that are supposed to exercise oversight and check these appointments, finds them wanting, and proposes an alternative. In the United States, with its constitutional system of separation of powers, the president's power to appoint is checked by the Senate's active role in exercising its "advice and consent" powers.(1) In Israel, with its parliamentary system, there is no such robust check on the appointment power of the prime minister and his ministers. In theory, this power is subject to Knesset approval,(2) and the fused powers of a parliamentary system foster accountability and responsible government in ways that a presidential system with separation of powers does not. Yet, as we will see, under some conditions--and conditions that prevail in Israel--this benefit is more apparent than real. It does not work in Israel, at least under conditions of hyperfragmentation in the governing coalition. Problems with weak appointments reached crisis proportions in the 1990s and, as a consequence, the Israeli High Court intervened to review and reject several executive appointments. In a sense, the Court assumed a function similar to the "advice and consent" powers of the U.S. Senate in overseeing these appointments. Although some have heralded this development as a triumph of the "rule of law" over naked politics and see it as a means of protecting against "unreasonable" appointments (Barak 1993; Gavison, Dotan, and Kremnitzer 1999; Landau 1989; Rubinstein 1991; Zamir 1993), this article argues that this emerging new role for the Court is both inappropriate and counterproductive. It is inappropriate because judicial intervention provides a legal solution where a political solution is better suited. In the long run, such intervention runs the risk of weakening both the judiciary and the political process. Certainly, horizontal accountability by means of checks on the power of executives to appoint is needed in all modern government (O'Donnell 1999), but the solution to this problem in Israel is to strengthen Knesset oversight, not judicial oversight. More generally, this article explores accountability in the executive-appointment process in parliamentary systems under conditions of hyperfragmentation. In so doing, it reveals factors that challenge conventional wisdom about the advantages of oversight and accountability in parliamentary over presidentialist systems.(3) Indeed, it ends by calling for a presidentialist solution to the problem, a proposal that is consistent with several recent trends in the Israeli government structure. This article is organized as follows: Part I explores the debate about the strength of public-service appointments in parliamentary and presidentialist systems and finds that parliamentary systems generally earn higher marks for the quality of executive appointments. However, it also shows that this advantage may not apply in situations where there is hyperfragmentation among the parties in the governing coalition. Part II presents several case studies of the appointment process in Israel in the 1990s. These case studies reveal evidence of substantial irresponsibility in the appointment process, as well as a lack of meaningful oversight and checks on the process. Part III explores the Supreme Court's emerging role in trying to counter this development, arguing that although the problem is both real and serious, judicial intervention is fraught with danger both for the Court and the rule of law on the one hand, and for responsible party politics on the other. Part IV outlines an alternative approach--strengthening the role of the Knesset--to cope with the problem of irresponsible political appointments. Separation of Powers and Appointments in Public Service In a 1991 article, Fred Riggs makes a compelling argument for the need for comparative analysis in the study of public administration (474). …


The loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) is an excellent animal model to elucidate biological origin and evolutionary significance of genome duplication and unisexual reproduction because artificially induced and naturally occurring polyploids and parthenogenetic (gynogenetic, androgenetic) animals can be compared. First, we summarize the chromosome manipulation techniques to induce triploids and tetraploids by inhibiting meiotic or mitotic divisions of inseminated eggs, respectively, as well as parthenogenetic animals, obtained after fertilization with genetically inactivated gametes. Then, we review the knowledge on natural polyploid and unisexual lineages found in Misgurnus loaches. A natural diploid-tetraploid complex occurs in wild populations in central China, and these diploid and tetraploid loaches reproduce bisexually. Chinese tetraploids are considered autotetraploid, which may have arisen by doubling of the entire genome of an ancestral diploid, based on cytogenetic results from FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) karyotypes and meiotic configurations. In contrast, gynogenetically reproducing clonal diploid lineages have been discovered in a few wild populations in Japan, although most wild-type individuals are bisexually reproducing diploids. Such clonal diploid loaches sometimes produce triploid progeny by accidental incorporation of a sperm nucleus into an unreduced diploid egg, and the resulting triploid generates haploid eggs by meiotic hybridogenesis. Unreduced diploid gametes of clonal loaches are generated by a cytological mechanism, premeiotic endomitosis, which likely occurs in the early (gonium stage) germ cells. Initiation of gynogenetic development is related to a failure of decondensation of the male (sperm) pronucleus in unreduced diploid eggs of a clonal loach. Clonal lineages may have arisen from a past hybrid event between genetically divergent groups, but their exact origins are unknown at present. See also the sister article focusing on plants by Hegarty et al. in this themed issue.


A prosecutor's duty to disclose evidence favorable to the defense has proved to be one of the thorniest issues in criminal practice, no doubt in large part due to the complex, overlapping, and, at times, conflicting web of rules and standards governing that obligation: constitutional doctrine, statutory law, criminal procedure rules, and state ethics rules. The Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the American Bar Association recently issued an expansive interpretation of Rule 3.8(d) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which governs prosecutorial disclosure. As interpreted in Formal Opinion 09-454, Rule 3.8(d) is now in direct conflict with a federal statute governing disclosure of witness statements. This Article critiques the process by which this conflict was created. In essence, the ABA adopted positions that proponents of broader and earlier disclosure had sought — unsuccessfully — to attain through litigation, legislation, or rulemaking processes. These earlier reform efforts failed largely due to the need to avoid the very conflict with the Jencks Act that the Opinion has now created. The Article examines the implications of this conflict, and charts a path forward. Specifically, the Article argues that reforming federal criminal discovery practice requires going through — not around — one or more of the three institutions legitimately capable of harmonizing the rules regarding disclosure: The Judicial Conference of the United States, Congress, or the United States Supreme Court.


Existing experimental data for the breakup of B at energies from 30 to 1000 MeV/nucleon on light through heavy targets are analyzed in detail in terms of an extended Glauber model. The predictions of the model are in excellent agreement with independent reaction data (reaction cross sections and parallel momentum distributions for core like fragments). Final state interactions have been included in the Coulomb dissociation component. We extract asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANC) from which the astrophysical factor S17(0) for the key reaction for solar neutrino production, Be(p,γ)B, can be evaluated. Glauber model calculations using different effective interactions give consistent, though slightly different results. The differences give a measure of the precision one can expect from the method. The unweighted average of all ANCs extracted leads to S17(0) = 18.7 ± 1.9 eVb. The results of this new analysis are compared with the earlier one. They are consistent with the values from most direct measurements and other indirect methods.


Determining whether systems achieve desired emergent properties, such as safety or reliability, requires an analysis of the system as a whole, often in later development stages when changes are difficult and costly to implement. In this article we propose the Process Risk Indicator (PRI) methodology for analyzing and evaluating emergent properties early in the development cycle. A fundamental assumption of system engineering is that risk mitigation processes reduce system risks, yet these processes may also be a source of risk: (1) processes may not be appropriate for achieving the desired emergent property; or (2) processes may not be followed appropriately. PRI analyzes development process artifacts (e.g., designs pertaining to reliability or safety analysis reports) to quantify process risks that may lead to higher system risk. We applied PRI to the hazard analysis processes of a network-centric, Department of Defense system-of-systems and two NASA spaceflight projects to assess the risk of not achieving one such emergent property, software safety, during the early stages of the development lifecycle. The PRI methodology was used to create measurement baselines for process indicators of software safety risk, to identify risks in the hazard analysis process, and to provide feedback to projects for reducing these risks.


Background. Diabetes is a highly prevalent condition with substantial associated morbidity. The economic impact of diabetes is dramatic, with estimated total costs of $98 billion in 1997. We sought to investigate the effects of diabetes on work-force participation, including absenteeism, retirement, and disability. Methods. We used the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) as a data source. The likelihood of falling into various work-related categories, by diabetes status, was estimated using logistic regression; duration of being in different states of participation was estimated using OLS regression. We then estimated the economic impact of diabetes using the estimates of lost time due to disability, absenteeism, and early retirement combined with median salaries in the HRS sample. Results. Diabetes is a significant predictor of self-rated disability (OR = 3.1), of not working due to health impairments (OR = 2.4), and of receiving Social Security Disability or VA disability (OR = 2.6 and 3.0, respectively). Subjects with diabetes also missed more work time than those without (incremental missed days per year = 2.7). These changes in work-force participation equate to (up until wave 1 of the HRS) to an incremental loss of $57.8 billion in income, and another $7.8 billion in disability payments. Conclusion. Diabetes has a profound economic impact in the US. These figures should be considered when evaluating the cost-effectiveness of diabetes interventions and to inform and improve the allocation of resources for chronic disease management.


Deficiencies in the alveolar ridge, dental migration and malocclusion are conditions that may hamper restorative treatment and thus must be resolved by taking a multidisciplinary approach. This clinical case report is associated with orthodontics, implantology and prostheses for rehabilitation. A 34-year-old male patient presented himself in a private practice complaining of aesthetics and discomfort when chewing. At the clinical examination, teeth numbers 11, 12, 21, 22 and 25 were absent, with a removable partial denture replacing them. Due to the prolonged use of this prosthesis, wear of the artificial teeth and the extrusion of the anterior inferior teeth were present. A depression was also present in the vestibular region of the upper incisors, which did not provide adequate lip support. The tomographic examination revealed that despite the deficiency of the vestibular-lingual bone volume, the remnant in this region allowed for the implantation of implants. Orthodontic treatment was performed for the intrusion of the inferior elements and the alignment of the arches, with the goal of providing more spaces for rehabilitation. Afterward, the patient underwent surgery to install implants in the 11, 21 and 25 regions, concomitantly with bone regeneration in the vestibular region of the upper incisors. During this time, the patient used a new removable partial denture. After eight months, the prosthetic phase was started. Ten years after the end of treatment, the patient is satisfied with the results and performs maintenance every six months.KeywordsTooth movement techniques; Dental implants; Bone transplantation; Dental prosthesis.


This study examined the short-term recovery response at 2 salmon farms in southern
Tasmania where organic loads were equivalent, but where background environmental conditions
differed markedly. Although benthic communities at each of the farm locations showed good recovery
over the 3 mo fallow period, community structure did not fully return to that observed under
reference conditions at either location. At the Stringers Cove site the primary ecological functions of
the background community were restored, but this was not the case at Creeses Mistake. These
differences in recovery response were a direct reflection of background environmental conditions.
Stringers Cove sediments had naturally high organic carbon content and as a result there was greater
similarity in the ecological function of the unimpacted and impacted conditions at this location than
at Creeses Mistake, where, under unimpacted conditions, the sediments had a very low organic
content. In addition, the background fauna at Stringers Cove contained several species with reproductive
strategies suited to rapid recruitment and well adapted for early recolonisation in organically
enriched sediments. In contrast, the background fauna at Creeses Mistake not only changed more
with the impacts of organic enrichment, but was less able to re-establish populations directly by
immigration, needing to rely to a greater extent on remediation of the sediments by transitional
species before being able to colonise. This has important implications for environmental management,
as it suggests that the sediments in some areas have greater resilience to organic inputs.


The aim of this paper is to improve the method of modelling scattered data by free-from surfaces presented in [5]. In that method a neural network was used for ordering the data and forming a quadrilateral control grid from the scattered points, hence the standard free-form methods like Bézier-surface or NURBS could be applied to approximate or interpolate the data. Instead of the original artificial neural network, which has been used for ordering the data, now a recent development, the dynamic version of this neural network is applied. Hence the preprocess of ordering the spatial scattered data is based on the neural network, the improvement of the network yields a much faster and more reliable algorithm.


Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels containing α-subunits of the Kv2 subfamily mediate delayed rectifier currents in excitable cells. Channels formed by Kv2.1 α-subunits inactivate from open- and closed states with both forms of inactivation serving different physiological functions. Here we show that open- and closed-state inactivation of Kv2.1 can be distinguished by the sensitivity to intracellular tetraethylammonium and extracellular potassium and lead to the same inactivated conformation. The functional properties of Kv2.1 are regulated by its association with modulatory α-subunits (Kv5, Kv6, Kv8, and Kv9). For instance, Kv9.3 changes the state preference of Kv2.1 inactivation by accelerating closed-state inactivation and inhibiting open-state inactivation. An N-terminal regulatory domain (NRD) has been suggested to determine the function of the modulatory α-subunit Kv8.1. However, when we tested the NRD of Kv9.3, we found that the functional properties of chimeric Kv2.1 channels containing the NRD of Kv9.3 (Kv2.1NRD) did not resemble those of Kv2.1/Kv9.3 heteromers, thus questioning the role of the NRD in Kv9 subunits. A further region of interest is a PXP motif in the sixth transmembrane segment. This motif is conserved among all α-subunits of the Kv1, Kv2, Kv3, and Kv4 subfamilies, whereas the second proline is not conserved in any modulatory α-subunit. Exchanging this proline in Kv2.1 for the corresponding residue of Kv9.3 resulted in channels (Kv2.1-P410T) that show all hallmarks of the regulation of Kv2.1 by Kv9.3. The effect prevailed in heteromeric channels following co-expression of Kv2.1-P410T with Kv2.1. These data suggest that the alteration of the PXP motif is an important determinant of the regulatory function of modulatory α-subunits.


The share of services in India's GDP, at round 60%, is much higher than that in other emerging economies including China. Since the year 1991 growth of services in the economy has surpassed that of agriculture and manufacturing, a feature that defies received wisdom on the growth pattern of economies. Received wisdom, grounded in the Kuznets paradigm, is that growth in the productivity of agriculture and agricultural incomes provides the manufacturing sector both low cost agricultural raw materials and a demand for its output. In time, the continued growth in incomes promotes the growth of the services sector both through a demand for consumer services and for services as growth promoting inputs into manufacturing and agriculture. India's services sector, though, has grown alongside an agriculture sector that is none too productive, and a manufacturing sector that accounts for a relatively low 20% of the GDP. This paper provides an explanation, grounded in the country's history and economic policies of the pre-liberalization era, for the growth of the services sector and argues that, contrary to popular opinion, it can lead the economy.


A compact multiterawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is demonstrated. Chirped pulses are amplified from 20 pJ to 900 mJ by two lithium triborate optical parametric preamplifiers and a final KDP optical parametric power amplifier with a pump energy of 5 J at 532 nm from Nd:YAG-Nd:glass hybrid amplifiers. After compression, we obtained a final output of 570-mJ-155-fs pulses with a peak power of 3.67 TW, which is the highest output power from an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser, to the best of our knowledge.


The evolutionary origin of the vertebrate telencephalon remains unsolved. A major challenge has been the identification of homologous brain parts in invertebrate chordates. Here we report evidence for a telencephalic region in the brain of amphioxus, the most basally branching invertebrate chordate. This region is characterised, like its vertebrate counterpart, by the combined expression of the telencephalic markers FoxG1, Emx and Lhx2/9. It is located at the anterior neural border and dorsal-ventrally patterned, as in vertebrates, by the antagonistic expression of Pax4/6 and Nkx2.1, and a ventral Hh signal. This part of the brain develops only after metamorphosis via sustained proliferation of neuronal progenitors at the ventricular zone. This is concomitant with a massive expansion of late differentiating neuronal types as revealed by neuropeptide and neurotransmitter profiling. Overall, our results suggest that the adult amphioxus brain shows remarkable similarities to the vertebrate embryonic brain, thus providing a key missing link in understanding the invertebrate-to-vertebrate transition in chordate brain evolution.


Ore textures provide direct clues for tracking ore-forming processes. In this regard, most of our knowledge is generally based on two-dimensional (2-D) image analyses, leaving a considerable gap in comprehending three-dimensional (3-D) in-situ textural settings. Recent advances in lab-based and synchrotron radiation–based X-ray computed microtomography and nanotomography have made it possible to visualize and quantify rock volumes in a 3-D space. In this study, we first analyzed microscale textures in oriented drill cores from the world-class Suurikuusikko orogenic gold deposit of northern Finland using lab-based X-ray computed microtomography. The technique revealed a kinematic history and a number of in-situ 3-D quantitative aspects including size, shape, spatial distribution, and geometrical orientation of arsenopyrite and pyrite in a highly altered host-rock matrix. For 3-D nanotomography, the experimental procedure known as holotomography was adopted. Individual arsenopyrite crystals were separated and scanned with voxel sizes ranging from 50 nm to 150 nm using the X-ray nanoprobe beamline (ID16B) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France. This ultrahigh-resolution technique illustrated the 3-D distribution of micron- to nanoscale gold inclusions, mostly associated with primary rutile or along secondary microfractures inside arsenopyrite. The workflow, from micro- to nanotomography, outlined in this study offers an indispensable new technique in quantifying and characterizing 3-D textural settings of ores, which is otherwise impossible with conventional 2-D imaging devices. The method can also be highly useful in evaluating the amenability of ores to treatment with different processing options.


As valuation of ecosystem goods and services derived from ecological processes becomes increasingly important in environmental decision‐making, the need to quantify how restoration activities influence ecosystem function has grown more urgent, particularly within income‐generating or subsistence‐providing landscapes where economic needs and biodiversity goals must be balanced. However, quantification of restoration effects is often hindered by logistical issues, which include (1) the difficulty of systematically monitoring responses over large areas and (2) lack or loss of comparison sites necessary for assessing treatment effect. We explored the use of remote sensing to quantify the effects of native grass seeding and prescribed burns on ecosystem forage provisioning services within a California (U.S.A.) rangeland landscape. We used Landsat time series to monitor forage (green biomass) dynamics within 296 ha of treatment areas—distributed throughout a 36‐km2 watershed—for 6 years and to identify post hoc comparison areas when a priori comparisons were lacking. Remote sensing analysis documented gains and losses in forage provisioning services due to restoration efforts and provided critical information for adaptive management. Our results demonstrate the degree to which invaded grasslands can be resistant to change and suggest that increasing the functional complexity of restoration mixes might help increase forage availability and reduce opportunities for weed reinvasion.