Zapryanova, I. & Ignatova, M. (2018). Effect of the inclusion of different doses of biologically active plant supplement into the combined feed for grower pigs. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 24(5), 860–864 The purpose of this experiment was to establish the effect of the lower and the higher level of the studied extract VemoHerb (VH), compared to the level of 150 g/t, which was used in the other experiments. In connection to this, an experiment was conducted with a total number of 24 grower pigs, divided into four groups – Group I (control), Group II – with a supplement of 75 g/t VH to the fodder, Group III + 150 g/t VH to the fodder, Group IV + 225 g/t VH to the fodder. The duration of the experiment was 42 days and covered the weight period from 30 to 60 kg live weight. The infl uence of the group the animals belong to depending on the dose of the studied supplement is a reliable variation source of the features of average daily growth (P<0.05) and the quantity of the received fodder (P<0.01). Compared to the control pigs, the animals from Groups III and IV have a practically equal growth intensity and use of the fodder, which shows that the increase of the dose of the used product does not lead to a signifi cant increase of the productivity and the economic effectiveness; therefore, the dose used up to now for the inclusion of the product of 150 g/t is the most appropriate one.


Ammonia leaks are a significant concern for the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has external transport lines that direct liquid ammonia to radiator panels where the ammonia is cooled and then brought back to thermal control units. These transport lines and radiator panels are subject to stress from micrometeorites and temperature variations, and have developed small leaks. The ISS can accommodate these leaks at their present rate, but if the rate increased by a factor of ten, it could potentially deplete the ammonia supply and impact the proper functioning of the ISS thermal control system, causing a serious safety risk. A proposed ISS astrophysics instrument, the Lobster X-Ray Monitor, can be used to detect and localize ISS ammonia leaks. Based on the optical design of the eye of its namesake crustacean, the Lobster detector gives simultaneously large field of view and good position resolution. The leak detection principle is that the nitrogen in the leaking ammonia will be ionized by X-rays from the Sun, and then emit its own characteristic Xray signal. The Lobster instrument, nominally facing zenith for its astrophysics observations, can be periodically pointed towards the ISS radiator panels and some sections of the transport lines to detect and localize the characteristic X-rays from the ammonia leaks. Another possibility is to use the ISS robot arm to grab the Lobster instrument and scan it across the transport lines and radiator panels. In this case the leak detection can be made more sensitive by including a focused 100-microampere electron beam to stimulate X-ray emission from the leaking nitrogen. Laboratory studies have shown that either approach can be used to locate ammonia leaks at the level of 0.1 kg/day, a threshold rate of concern for the ISS. The Lobster instrument uses two main components: (1) a microchannel plate optic (also known as a Lobster optic) that focuses the X-rays and directs them to the focal plane, and (2) a CCD (charge coupled device) focal plane detector that reads out the position and energy of the X-rays, allowing a determination of the leak location. The effective area of the detection system is approximately 2 cm(exp2) at 1 keV. The Lobster astrophysics instrument, designed for monitoring the sky for Xray transients, gives high sensitivity along with large field of view (3030deg) and good spatial resolution (1 arc min). This offers a significant benefit for detecting ISS ammonia leaks, since the goal is to localize small leaks as efficiently as possible.


We compare here results of iodine dating in fluids collected from mud volcanoes and gas hydrate occurrences associated with active margins. This is a compilation of previously reported data for 7 subduction zones around the Pacific Rim with slab ages ranging from 6 Ma to 130 Ma, where we determined iodine concentrations and 129I/I ratios in more than two hundred pore water samples. Iodine ages consistently are older than the host sediments and show an age distribution independent of the slab ages associated with the subduction zones. The results suggest that iodine in gas hydrates and mud volcanoes is predominantly derived from organic matter in the upper plates of subduction zones and that iodine derived from host sediments or subducting marine sediments has only a minor presence in these fluids. Because potential source sediments typically are found at lateral distances of 20 km or more, our results also suggest that fluid movement is possible over considerable distances in fractures present in the upper plate sediments. The association between iodine and methane suggests that our results can be extrapolated to the origin and transport of methane to mud volcanoes and gas hydrates. Throughout all studied sites around the Pacific margins, ages of source sediments for iodine were found to fall into the same range, which starts at the early Eocene (∼50 Ma) and has a broad peak around 30 Ma. Our results indicate that the occurrence of iodine and methane in gas hydrates and mud volcanoes is the result of transport in aqueous fluids and long-term remobilization of carbon in the upper plates of subduction zones.


When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nation's currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany's finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake. Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, "quantitative easing," that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country's deficit-necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure-it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.


Purpose: Human papillomavirus 16 (HPV-16) has been implicated as a causative agent in a subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). This study was undertaken to discern the distribution and timing of HPV viral integration during tumorigenesis of the upper respiratory tract. Experimental Design: A tissue array was assembled from a consecutive group of 176 patients with HNSCCs. The array was evaluated by HPV-16 in situ hybridization and p16 immunohistochemistry. Patients with HPV-positive tonsillar cancers who had undergone bilateral tonsillectomies were selected for more complete mapping of viral integration. Results: HPV-16 was detected in 38 of the 176 (22%) cases by in situ hybridization. When stratified by site of origin, HPV-16 was detected in 37 of 45 cancers arising from the oropharynx but in only 1 of 131 tumors arising from nonoropharyngeal sites (82% versus 0.8%, P < 0.00001). P16 expression was associated with the presence of HPV-16: 31 of 38 HPV-positive tumors exhibited p16 expression, whereas only 9 of the 138 HPV-negative tumors were p16-positive (82% versus 6%, P < 0.00001). In the bilateral tonsil sections, hybridization signals were strictly limited to the invasive cancers and associated dysplasias. P16 staining was widely distributed throughout the nonneoplastic crypt epithelium of individuals with and without tonsillar cancer. Conclusions: HPV-16 is strongly associated with carcinomas arising from the oropharynx, and integration is tightly coupled to the neoplastic process. Viral integration does not occur as a field alteration throughout normal tonsillar epithelium. P16 expression localizes to HPV-positive cancers, and is intrinsic to the specialized epithelium of the tonsillar crypts. For risk assessment, early cancer detection and disease surveillance, evidence of HPV-16 integration may represent a meaningful finding, whereas high p16 expression, by itself, may not.


Governments present the assisted return of rejected asylum seekers and other 'unwanted' migrants as the cornerstone of an effective migration management policy. However, it is also a practice criticised by migrants' rights advocates for being a form of coerced, rather than voluntary, return. One response to critiques is to highlight the potential such programmes have in the successful reintegration of returnees. But what is meant by 'successful' reintegration? Based on research in Afghanistan with returnees from Norway and the United Kingdom, we highlight the extreme difficulties faced in achieving reintegration. Brief Points


Palaeogeographical reconstructions of the Australian and Antarctic margins based on matching basement structures are commonly difficult to reconcile with those derived from ocean-floor magnetic anomalies and plate vectors. Following identification of a previously unmapped crustal-scale structure in the southern part of the early Palaeozoic Delamerian Orogen (Coorong Shear Zone), a more tightly constrained plate reconstruction for these margins is proposed. This reconstruction places the Coorong Shear Zone opposite the Mertz Shear Zone in Antarctica and lends itself to a revised interpretation of continental rifting along Australia's southern margin in which rift basin architecture, margin segmentation and the formation of ocean-floor fracture zones are all linked to pre-existing basement structure and the reactivation of a few deep-rooted crustal structures inherited from the Delamerian Orogeny in particular. Reactivation of the Coorong Shear Zone and other basement structures (Avoca–Sorell Fault Zone) during the earlier stages of rifting was accompanied by the partitioning of extensional strain and formation of late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous normal faults and half-graben in the Bight and Otway basins with opposing NE–SW and NW–SE structural trends. Previously, the Mertz Shear Zone has been correlated with the Proterozoic Kalinjala Mylonite Zone in the Gawler Craton but this positions Australia 300–400 km too far east relative to Antarctica prior to breakup and fails to secure an equally satisfactory match in both basement geology and the superimposed extension-related structures.


The challenge of developing powerful and general Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents has received increasing attention in recent years. Much of this effort has focused on the single-agent setting, in which an agent maximizes a predefined extrinsic reward function. However, a long-term question inevitably arises: how will such independent agents cooperate when they are continually learning and acting in a shared multi-agent environment? Observing that humans often provide incentives to influence others' behavior, we propose to equip each RL agent in a multi-agent environment with the ability to give rewards directly to other agents, using a learned incentive function. Each agent learns its own incentive function by explicitly accounting for its impact on the learning of recipients and, through them, the impact on its own extrinsic objective. We demonstrate in experiments that such agents significantly outperform standard RL and opponent-shaping agents in challenging general-sum Markov games, often by finding a near-optimal division of labor. Our work points toward more opportunities and challenges along the path to ensure the common good in a multi-agent future.


The most used recommendation method is collaborative filtering, and the key part of collaborative filtering is to compute the similarity. The similarity based on co-occurrence of similar event is easy to implement and can be applied to almost all the situation. So when the word2vec model reach the state-of-art at a lower computation cost in NLP. An correspond model in recommender system item2vec is proposed and reach state-of-art in recommender system. It is easy to see that the position of user and item is interchangeable when their count size gap is not too much, we proposed a user2vec model and show its performance. The similarity based on cooccurrence information suffers from cold start, we proposed a content based similarity model based on doc2vec which is another technology in NLP.


Abstract As increasing numbers of youth embrace computer-mediated communication to meet academic and social needs, interpersonal violence directly and indirectly related to the Internet is occurring more often. Cyberbullying in particular has shot to the forefront of agendas in schools and communities due to the emotional, psychological, and even physical harm to which victims can be subjected. While previous studies have focused on describing its frequency in an exploratory capacity, the current work seeks to utilize general strain theory to identify the emotional and behavioral effects of cyberbullying victimization. Data collected online from a sample of adolescent Internet-users indicate that cyberbullying is a potent form of strain that may be related to involvement in school problems and delinquent behavior offline. Implications of these findings and suggestions for policy are discussed.


Objective To explore the influence of age-related changes in the cerebral blood vessels (cerebral blood flow,blood-brain barrier integrity,and level of glucose transporter [GLUT]) in cognitive ability of SAMP8 mouse models of AD. Methods Ten SAMP8 mice and 10 homologous anti-senescence accelerated mice R1 (SAMR1) were chosen in our study; spatial learning and memory abilities of these mice were assessed using Morris water maze; cerebral blood flow was determined by laser Doppler flowmeter; blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability was examined by fluorescence spectrophotometer; and expressions of GLUT1 and GLUT3 were determined using Western blotting.Results The cognitive abilities of SAMP8 mice damaged apparently even at 4 months of age as compared with those of SAMR1 mice, showing rigid thinking pattern and slow learning process in their Morris water maze test. With increasing of age, much obvious decrement in cerebral blood flow and severe BBB leakage was observed in SAMP8 mice; moreover, alterations in GLUT1 and GLUT3 expressions in the cortex and hippocampus of SAMP8 mice were observed. The cerebral blood flow,BBB integrity,and expressions of GLUT1 and GLUT3 were significantly affected by age and strain,and closely associated with cognitive abilities. Conclusion The alterations in cerebral blood flow and energy failure induced by aging and vascular insults are the reasons for neuron dysfunction and cognitive impairment in mice models of AD.

Key words:
Alzheimer's disease; Cerebral blood flow; Blood brain barrier; Brain glucose metabolism; Cognition


Abstract This article tries to pursue three goals: first, how can a hard-to-define cultural concept such as tolerance in society be measured? Second, is it possible to draw conclusions about the tolerance level of a nation on the basis of an analysis of web search behaviour? And third, is there a relationship between the tolerance level in East Asian societies and their ability to attract highly qualified knowledge workers? Taking as its starting point Richard Florida's claim that a high tolerance level in society represents an essential pull factor for attracting the most sought-after people in the world, this article analyses and interprets web search behaviour among Google users residing in Japan, Korea and China in order to identify issues related to tolerance in East Asia.


With the increased interest in the role of inequality in modern economies, this timely and original book explores income distribution as an equilibrium phenomenon. Though globalization tends to destroy earlier equilibria within industrialized and developing countries, new equilibria are bound to emerge. The book aims at a better understanding of the forces that create these new equilibria in income distribution and examines the concept at three distinct levels: market equilibrium, bargaining equilibrium and political economy equilibrium. In particular, the author addresses the question of how the main factor markets of labour and capital are related to income distribution.


The purpose of the paper is to examine the effect of founding-family control on the cost of bank debt. We examine the cost of accessing the syndicated market, and we use the financial crisis and the unexpected nature of Lehman Brother's collapse as a laboratory in order to tease out the effect of family ownership. We find the increase in loan spreads around the Lehman crisis was at least 24 basis points lower for family firms. Furthermore, the gap in spreads among family and non-family firms becomes wider among firms that had pre-crisis relationships with lenders with higher exposure to the shock. The evidence is consistent with family ownership lowering the cost of accessing debt financing, especially when lenders are constrained. We further investigate potential channels that drive the effect of family ownership. We provide novel evidence that for 17% of the family firms, creditors impose explicit restrictions in private credit agreements that require the founding family to maintain a minimum percentage of ownership or voting power. Thus, creditors value the presence of the family. Furthermore, the impact of family control on lowering the cost of bank debt is higher when family CEOs run the firms and among firms with higher ex-ante agency conflicts.


The feeding behaviour of Cicadulina storeyi China on healthy and virus-infected plants of maize varieties with different levels of resistance to maize streak geminivirus (MSV) was studied using an alternating current (AC) electronic monitor. Three maize varieties were tested: 8321-21 (fully resistant), 8329-15 (moderately resistant) and FR114 x FR303 (susceptible). Typical waveforms that have previously been associated with salivation, ingestion and non-probing activities were recorded. Variety and disease status influenced feeding behaviour. Leafhoppers probed more frequently, had a higher number of non-probing activities such as walking or resting, and a significantly shorter duration of phloem feeding on healthy plants of 8321-21 compared to those of other varieties. These results suggest that 8321-21 manifests antixenosis-type resistance to C. storeyi. The percentage of time spent on patterns associated with phloem ingestion was significantly greater on healthy plants of all varieties than on virus-infected ones. The Significance of Cicadulina feeding behaviour in relation to transmission of MSV is discussed.


In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the presence of multiple subsets expressing 'stereotyped' B-cell receptors (BCRs) has implicated antigen(s) in leukemogenesis. These stereotyped subsets display similar immunoglobulin (IG) gene usage, almost identical complementarity determining region 3's and may share clinical features. For instance, subsets #1 (IGHV1/5/7/IGKV1-39) and #2 (IGHV3-21/IGLV3-21) have inferior outcome compared to non-subset patients, whereas subset #4 (IGHV4-34/IGKV2-30) display a favourable prognosis. The aim of this thesis was to investigate genomic aberrations, gene expression patterns and methylation profiles in stereotyped subsets and compare epigenetic profiles in CLL and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). In paper I, we investigated genomic aberrations in subsets #2, #4 and #16 and in non-stereotyped samples (n=101) using high-density 250K SNP arrays. Subset #2 and non-subset #2 IGHV3-21 cases displayed a higher frequency of aberrations than subset #4 cases. The high incidence of del(11q) in both subset #2/non-subset #2 may reflect the adverse survival reported for IGHV3-21 patients. In contrast, the lower frequency of genetic events and lack of poor-prognostic aberrations in subset #4 may partially explain their indolent disease. In paper II, we analysed the global RNA expression in subset #4, #16 and non-subset IGHV4-34 CLL patients (n=25). Subsets #4 and 16 showed distinct gene expression profiles, where genes involved in cell regulatory pathways were significantly lower expressed in subset #4, in line with their low-proliferative disease. In paper III, a genome-wide methylation array was applied to investigate methylation profiles in subsets #1, #2 and #4 (n=39). We identified differential methylation patterns for all subsets and found affected genes to be involved in e.g. apoptosis and therapy resistance. When performing functional annotation, a clear enrichment of genes involved in adaptive immunity was observed. These genes were preferentially methylated in subset #1 when compared to either subset #2 or #4, possibly due to different antigen responses. In paper IV, the genome-wide methylation profiles for 30 CLL and 20 MCL patients were investigated. Distinct methylation profiles were observed, where MCL displayed a more homogeneous profile. Homeobox transcription factor genes showed a higher degree of methylation in MCL, while apoptosis-related genes and proliferation-associated genes were methylated in CLL. In summary, this thesis demonstrates that stereotyped CLL subsets display differences in gene expression profiles, genetic aberrations and methylation patterns, underscoring the functional relevance of subgrouping according to BCR stereotypy. The distinct methylation profiles of CLL and MCL suggests that different epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the pathogenesis of these B-cell malignancies.


One goal of the International Criminal Court is to end impunity for those who have committed crimes within its jurisdiction. This must be accomplished within fair trial standards to make sure that convictions are reliable. Fair trial standards at the International Criminal Court require reliable evidence at all stages of the court process and require the suspect's presence at trial. This is a challenging goal for any court, however it is especially challenging for the International Criminal Court as it does not have its own police force to gather evidence or make arrests. Rather, the Court must rely on the cooperation of States Parties to do these important functions.

The lack of police force creates many evidentiary and arrest challenges. It is however, the reliance on the cooperation of States that creates room for politics to interfere with court proceedings. While the Rome Statute requires States Parties to turn over whatever information they have regarding a relevant investigation and to arrest any suspects who come within their territory, this is not always what happens in practice. States' and other political interests can hinder evidence collection and reliability and suspects' arrests. Examining the use of intermediaries in Lubanga, States' failure to arrest Omar al-Bashir, and the demise of the Ruto and Sang cases, this paper will explore how politics have interfered with evidence collection and arrest at the International Criminal Court. Identifying instances of political interference with evidence collection and arrest and analyzing the effect of such interference can help limit politics from entering future investigations.

Political interests in evidence collection and arrest are distracting and dangerous for the Court. When evidence cannot be collected or suspects cannot be arrested, the Court cannot have reliable trials. Even if these issues are remedied, they can lead to lengthy delays which can in turn lead to disappearing witnesses, doubts about evidence reliability, and destruction of both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence. This ultimately prevents fair trials, justice, and the end of impunity for these crimes. Further, it causes unreliable outcomes and decisions that can damage the Court's legitimacy.


Tackling Big Data in the Life Sciences by the guest editors Roeland Merks and Marie-France Sagot The Life Sciences are traditionally a descriptive science, in which both data collection and data analysis both play a central role. The latest decennia have seen major technical advances, which have made it possible to collect biological data at an unprecedented scale. Even more than the speed at which new data are acquired, the very complexity of what they represent makes it particularly difficult to make sense of them. Ultimately, biological data science should further the understanding of biological mechanisms and yield useful predictions, to improve individual health care or public health or to predict useful environmental interferences. Biologists routinely measure DNA sequences, gene expression, metabolic profiles, and protein levels, infer molecular structures, visualize the positions and shape of cells in developing organs and whole embryos over time, rapidly screen the phenotypic effects of gene mutations, or they monitor the positions of species and individual animals and plants in whole ecosystems or herds, to name just a few. The resulting datasets yield new insight into biological problems, while at the same time they pose new challenges to mathematicians and informaticians. How do we store these large bodies of data in an efficient manner and make sure they remain accessible in the future, while at the same time preserving pri-vacy? How do we search through the data, spot interesting patterns and extract the biologically relevant information? How do we compare data of different conditions or species? How do we integrate data from different sources and across biological levels of organization to make new predictions? Can we then use the resulting patterns to solve the inverse problem and derive meaningful dynamical mathematical models from kinetic datasets? How do we model complex and/or large biological systems, e.g., whole cells, embryos, plants or ecosystems? What are the challenges to multiscale modeling? Given the great variety of topics that such general questions cover, this Special Theme of ERCIM News could only highlight a few, in a selection of nineteen papers. These provide an overview of the latest techniques of data acquisition at the molecular level, address problems of data standardisation and integration, and propose sophisticated algorithms for analysing complex genetic features. Such algorithms help to infer the rules for predictive, dynamical modelling, by characterising genetic interactions , as well as molecular and cellular structures from noisy and incomplete data. They also provide key data for modelling multiscale systems at the multicellular or ecosystem level. Alongside data mining approaches, such dynamical models are a useful aid for proposing new control strategies, e.g., in personalised medicine or to help improve medical diagnostics. A further selection of articles discusses visualisation methods for big and noisy data, or suggest to make use of new communication techniques, such as Twitter, to help in quick management of health. Overall these approaches illustrate the breadth and the beauty of the mathematical and computational approaches that have been developed to cope with the challenges that biology poses to data science. These challenges will only continue to grow in the foreseeable future, as the volume, quality and types of biological data keep on expanding.


Axisymmetric aplanatic systems have been used in the past for solar concentrators and condensers (Gordon et. al, 2010). It is well know that such a system must be stigmatic and satisfy the Abbe sine condition. This problem is well known (Schwarzschild, 1905) to be solvable with two aspherics when the system has rotational symmetry. However, some of those axisymmetric solutions have intrinsically shading losses when using mirrors, which can be prevented if freeform optical surfaces are used (Benitez, 2007). In this paper, we explore the design of freeform surfaces to obtain full aplanatic systems. Here we prove that a rigorous solution to the general non-symmetric problem needs at least three free form surfaces, which are solutions of a system of partial differential equations (PDE). We also present the PDEs for a three surface full aplanat. The examples considered have one plane of symmetry, where a consistent 2D solution is used as boundary condition for the 3D problem. We have used the x-y polynomial representations for all the surfaces, and the iterative algorithm formulated for solving the above said PDE has shown very fast convergence.


This paper aims at providing a novel techno-economic flexibility index to quantify the relative flexibility of different conventional generation technologies. The proposed measure takes into account a comprehensive set of technical flexibility characteristics of generation units including minimum stable generation level, operating range, minimum up/down times, and ramp up/down capability. The impact of various technical parameters on the flexibility restriction is determined based on the additional costs imposed to the system operator in order to satisfy that constraint. Afterward, the calculated flexibility index is incorporated into day-ahead market clearing procedure as a new objective function beside operation cost using a multiobjective decision-making approach. Simulation results show that the need of different flexibility levels changes the optimal generation dispatch and results in different operation costs. Furthermore, the impact of two emerging flexible options, i.e., bulk energy storages and a typical demand response program in the flexibility contribution of other generation technologies is also investigated. The results reveal that the integration of emerging flexible options frequently changes the flexibility share of conventional units and can provide the required flexibility level at a lower cost.


This booklet gives an overview of pressure and wind as they relate to aviation. According to the scope notes on the title page, it includes an "Explanation of the effects of pressure in the atmosphere to include altimeter error, identity of the standard reference plane, identity of and weather connected with high and low pressure systems plus associated winds." The text also has self-evaluation questions printed throughout, with the answers printed on the last page.


How can we use ICT and digital media in a way that support and enhance social inclusion? I've been working with a group of Academics and Practitioners known as PraDSA (Practical Design for Social Action) and have taken from them ideas that I have applied back on my home ground in Teesside. In return I've taken some ideas from Teesside back to the PraDSA table. I've learned that free and open source software along with a smattering of Web 2.00 can be great and effective tools for social inclusion. That is, provided they meet the participant group's needs. There can be no one size fits all and one has to adopt a fluid approach and go with the flow. For the past two years I have been delivering on a project called Social Inclusion Demonstrators (SID) one of only 20 in the UK. I'll talk about this project and I'll conclude by sharing the conclusion of the project with you. I will tell how a group of quite disadvantaged young people mounted an exhibition called "Dreams Hopes and Wishes" and then rose to the occasion and grew into the space that had been made available to them. These young people became someone other than what their background and environment might have modelled them to be. Even their vocabulary became different. Even their teachers talked about a possible new approach to teaching I was so mesmerised by this that I almost forgot to record it. Luckily I recovered long enough to record a few video clips which I will share with you.


Economists generally hold that environmental regulations impose constraints on the production possibilities set and are therefore potentially harmful to economic growth. In recent years, however, it has been recognized that environmental regulation can enhance the prospects for growth if improved environmental quality increases the productivity of inputs or the efficiency of the education system. It is also held that environmental regulation promotes pollution abatement activity and can lead to the exploitation of increasing returns to scale in abatement. Furthermore, expectations of a better environment may encourage households to save. Finally, it has been conjectured that environmental regulations can stimulate innovation because R&D s a relatively clean activity and because the market share of clean innovations increases.


My research explores the early to mid-twentieth century architecture of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Nigeria. It does this by examining official colonial records, PWD surviving buildings and architecture professional records. By adopting these three strands of investigation, the research aims to better understand the department's building operations, building types and designs, and the composition of its architectural personnel. More importantly, the research aims to demonstrate that a study of Nigeria PWD architecture significantly contributes to wider debates on tropical imperial architecture and Nigeria's colonial architecture.

There has been a host of previous literature on empire and its influences on architecture in the tropics, with a number of these studies examining the PWD in some former imperial environments. However, Nigeria's imperial architecture literature is mostly limited to the country's late colonial tropical modernist works, while the PWD remains largely un-researched. The only previous work found on Nigeria PWD architecture, is Davidson's 1957 The architectural works of the ministry of works, Western Region, Nigeria. This focuses on drawing approvals, the architectural staff strength, and the building output and climatic design factors employed. But this is all presented in a two page article that provides very limited insights.

Are the issues raised in Davidson's study all there is to PWD architecture in Nigeria? Other emerging questions will be - what comprehensive building operations did the department undertake? What were the building types constructed, and was climate the only design consideration? Who were the architects, why had they worked there at the time, and what was the relation to Nigeria's early architectural profession? To answer these questions and obtain the insights needed to build on Davidson's 1957 study, the research methods employed are - archival investigations, to source official colonial records; fieldwork, to track down surviving PWD buildings; and unstructured interview so as to obtain a veteran's account of working in the department.

The data obtained is analysed in the three sections of PWD building operations, PWD building output and PWD architectural personnel. The main findings which emerge therefore are that, (a) although PWD building operations were being implemented at all levels by colonial officials, the native administration level imbibed significant native operational inputs; (b) Although PWD buildings were mainly initiated to serve colonial administrative purposes, the designs largely portrayed architecture as a vital tool for improved tropical health; and (c) although PWD architects were perceived as agents of a grand imperial building scheme, in reality they had functioned more as professionals taking up practice opportunities.

On the whole, the mainstream arguments have mainly stressed the PWD's role in imperial building agenda. However, the findings of the research indicate and also further the argument that within this wider agenda, the PWD also operated in what may be termed as localized agendas. While this better addressed the practical realities of working, building and living in the colonies, it also aimed to limit certain colonizer-colonized barriers.


This thesis presents a number of modifications to a blind aid, known as the video optophone, which enables a blind user to more readily interpret their local environment for enhanced mobility and navigation. Versions of this form of blind aid are generally both difficult to use and interpret, and are therefore inadequate for safe mobility. The reason for this severe problem lies in the complexity and excessive bandwidth of the optophonic output after the conversion from scene-to-sound.
The work herein describes a number of modifications that can be applied to the current optophonic process to make more efficient use of the limited bandwidth provided by the auditory system when converting scene images to sound. Various image processing and stereo techniques have been employed to artificially emulate the human visual system through the use of depth maps that successfully fade out the quantity of relatively unimportant image features, whilst emphasising the more significant regions such as nearby obstacles.
A series of experiments were designed to test these various modifications to the optophonic mapping by studying important factors of mobility and subject response whilst going about everyday life. The devised system, labelled DeLIA for the Detection, Location, Identification, and Avoidance (or Action) of obstacles, provided a means for gathering statistical data on users' interpretation of the optophonic output. An analysis of this data demonstrated a significant improvement when using the stereo cartooning technique, developed as part of this work, over the more conventional plain image as an input to an optophonic mapping from scene-to-sound.
Lastly, conclusions were drawn from the results, which indicated that the use of a stereo depth map as an input to a video optophone would improve its usefulness as an aid to general mobility. For the purposes of detecting and determining text or similar detail, either a plain unmodified image or some form of edge (depth) image were found to produce the best results


Variable A in M33 is a member of a rare class of highly luminous, evolved stars near the upper luminosity boundary that show sudden and dramatic shifts in apparent temperature due to the formation of optically thick winds in high mass loss episodes. Recent optical and infrared spectroscopy and imaging reveal that its "eruption," begun in ∼1950, has ended, having lasted ≈45 yr. Our current observations show major changes in its wind from a cool, dense envelope to a much warmer state surrounded by low-density gas with rare emission lines of Ca II, [Ca II], and K I. Its spectral energy distribution has unexpectedly changed, especially at the long wavelengths, with a significant decrease in its apparent flux, while the star remains optically obscured. We conclude that much of its radiation is now escaping out of our line of sight. We attribute this to the changing structure and distribution of its circumstellar ejecta, corresponding to the altered state of its wind as the star recovers from a high mass loss event.


In fall 1996, California's Saddleback Community College began enforcing a prerequisite mathematics course for the college's Algebra (Math 8), Statistics (Math 10), and Trigonometry (Math 124) series. The 11 memoranda collected in this report present results from a study of the effects of enforcing the prerequisite on successful completion of the three subsequent courses. Data are presented on the following topics: (1) successful completion rates in Math 8, 10, and 124 in fall 1996, compared to pre-enforcement rates in fall 1994 and fall 1995; (2) methods used by students to meet the prerequisite in fall 1996; (3) course completion rates by the method used to fulfill the prerequisite; (4) the relationships between the grade received in the prerequisite course and the subsequent math course chosen, successful completion in the subsequent course, and the number of previous attempts at the course or higher level courses; (5) for individual sections of Math 8, 10, and 124, differences in average grade received in the prerequisite course for students who completed the course at the college; (6) whether the rate of success in subsequent courses declined as the time since the completion of the prerequisite increased; (7) whether success rates declined over time for students who satisfied the prerequisite by passing an exam; (8) the relationship between scores on the prerequisite exam and success rates in Math 8, 10, or 124; and (9) the high school of origin for students fulfilling the prerequisite while in high school. (TGI) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


This project is the written part of a practice-as-research document which explores the process of the fade in intermedial practice. The written element acts as a literary counterpart to the practical work and includes an account of the process, an exploration of its theoretical context and sources of inspiration for the work. The writing is also a part of the autobiographical practice that informs my creative journey. The writing is not primarily an explanation or an analysis of my practice, although there are elements of these present in this document. Furthermore, whilst it adheres to scholarly conventions, this document is not written as a conventional thesis which seeks to explore a hypothesis and draw a set of conclusions. It is, rather, a distinct but integral part of the exploratory process which is at the heart of this project.
The project is laid out in sections, rather than chapters. It begins by introducing the inspiration for the practice-as-research project, and explores practical and theoretical ideas through a range of existing practical and theoretical work in the field. The second section puts these ideas in context of feminism, which is an important element of my exploration, and provides the context in which some
existing interdisciplinary and intermedial work is located. Section 3 locates the ideas within a 'between' space, influenced by Hegel's concept of sense-certainty and the French body of thought, ecriture feminine. Section 4 is written as a dialogue between characters. This section draws a line under the process using many voices from the practical and theoretical journey. Section 5 comprises annexes of additional material complementary to the project.
This thesis incorporates a range of material evidence including different forms of writing, visual essays, DVDs and illustrative material. In summarising my practice in this document I resist drawing hard and fast conclusions, but provide reflection upon the process and make suggestions for future work in the field of intermediality.
On the following pages I have included a practice as research working diagram (P&R Mollusc) to illustrate the working methodology and the to-ing and fro-ing of collaborative, interdisciplinary and intermedial practices, as well as an alternative contents diagram to illustrate the thesis visua


This article is about the Budhan Theatre, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India and known for using Street Theatre as a medium to bring about social change. Budhan's street theatre is a new kind of theatre which brings individuals from the stigmatized community to the stage and aims to raise consciousness and demand social acceptance for them in the process. The article examines Budhan Theatre as a movement that brings about socio-political change in India and discusses its performances and their implications in light of performance studies. The discussion presented here is based on my observations, interviews with members of Budhan theatre, and print media coverage. I have been connected to Budhan theatre for the past five years through conducting this research, facilitating some of the children's workshops, talking to Chhara community members, and observing the group and their activities closely. The strategy of Budhan Theatre, which underlies each of its plays, is to highlight social problems by expressing people's situations. The ideology and propaganda behind the performances are quite similar to those of other indigenous theatres in the world: to make the audience feel culpable about the plight of the oppressed by presenting their victimhood. The theatre company performs these plays throughout India and supports and fights for other denotified and nomadic tribes who are facing similar problems.


Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher* 650+ colour photographs, 44 destinations, 23+ years in the making. India is one of the most exotic, diverse, colourful, exciting, challenging, welcoming and beautiful countries on the planet, and consequently has been capturing the imagination of travellers for centuries. In India: essential encounters, internationally renowned photographer Richard I'Anson presents more than 650 colour photographs, featuring 44 of India's most captivating destinations, in a stunning photographic essay that encompasses the entire country and took over 23 years to complete. Each 'encounter' is concisely introduced with evocative and informative text by acclaimed travel writer Sarina Singh. Since his first visit in 1986, Richard I'Anson has returned to India more than 30 times. His vivid images faithfully capture this truly remarkable destination, taking the reader on an epic journey that reveals and celebrates all that India has to offer. Throughout these pages Richard brings to life sacred sites, grand and ancient monuments, panoramic mountain landscapes, palm-fringed beaches and waterways, and shows close encounters with India's famous wildlife. But most compellingly, he captures the colour and infinite variety of the crowded bazaars, frenetic festivals and ethnically diverse people that for most visitors provide the warmth, mystery and fascination of India. Highlights include: Agra, Allahabad Kumbh Mela, Amritsar, Anjuna & Goa's Coast, Bengaluru, Bodhgaya, Darjeeling, Delhi, Ellora & Ajanta Fort Cochin, Goecha La Trek, Hampi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur Kauri Pass Trek, Kerala's Backwaters, Khajuraho, Kisama Hornbill Festival Kolkata, Konark, Kullu Valley, Lamayuru, Leh, Madurai, Mamallapuram, Mumbai Munnar, Mysore, McLeod Ganj, Puri, Pushkar Mela, Ranthambore National Park, Shatrunjaya, Shimla, Srinagar, Tawang, Thiksey, Thrissur Pooram Udaipur, Valley of Flowers, Varanasi, Villages of Kutch Authors: Richard I'Anson, Sarina Singh About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source: Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013


The structure/function relationship between bacteria and biocidal molecules in the vapor or solution phase is well-understood. However, the fundamental structure/function relationship between covalently-bound biocidal surface molecules and bacteria is not. While a number of antibacterial surfaces have been reported, detailed analysis of the molecular scale surface structure has not been performed. The lack of structural knowledge makes it difficult to determine how alterations to the surface affect the viability of the bacteria. Most of the antibacterial surfaces reported to date are composed of polymer systems. Controlling the properties of large surface-bound molecules like polymers is difficult. Self-assembled monolayers, or SAMs, of alkanethiols on gold have been used extensively in the past 20 years as model surfaces for investigation of a large breadth of surface phenomena. SAMs allow for control of the molecular scale surface structure and are amenable to a great number of characterization techniques. The primary objective of the work in this study is to establish the use of SAMs as a tool to investigate the fundamental relationship between surface structure and bacteria viability. The surfaces were characterized before interaction with bacteria by reflectionabsorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Determination of the viability of Escherichia coli on the surfaces was performed via the antibacterial assay. In the assay, a culture of E. coli was sprayed onto the surfaces using a chromatography sprayer. After addition of growth agar and overnight incubation, the number of colony forming units on the surface were counted. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the number of colony forming units on different surfaces. Surfaces were characterized after the assay by RAIRS. The RAIR spectra indicated that no significant change to the well-ordered alkane chain configuration was evident. The


In order to stay globally competitive enterprises face an increasing pressure to be innovative. Furthermore, the rising complexity of new technologies forces enterprises into RnD-cooperations with third parties as technology development can often not be handled by one organization on its own. In spite of this need for technological innovations, lots of excellent research results from academia remain unexploited. The reason for this often lies in a lacking industrial partner for commercialization of developed technologies, which again is often caused by lacking visibility. Although several measures are taken to bridge the gap between research and industry, their success is not broadly achieved. In the past years, with the rising technical capabilities of modern Web 2.0 and social software technologies, several web-based platforms were built up in order to support technology transfer, and increase the visibility of the developed technologies at various research establishments. In this paper of ongoing research, different types of platforms are introduced and analyzed. Based on this analysis of existing platforms and the characterization of specific transfer situations we introduce a concept of a social technology transfer platform which is currently established within the Cluster of Excellence in Aachen "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries".


The crystal structure of kettnerite, CaBi[OFCO 3 ] was refined in the orthorhombic cell a = 5.3641(1), b = 5.3641(1), c = 13.5771(2) A, space group Pbaa , Z = 4, R all = 2.71 % for 446 reflections. Both Bi and Ca cations are [8] coordinated. The structure consists of layers parallel to (001): the Bi-O layers at z = 0, Ca-F layers at z = 1/2. Both these layers are pseudotetragonal showing a subcell parameter a ≈ 3.8 A. The layers of CO 3 groups are located between the Bi-O and Ca-F layers. The CO 3 groups are approximately parallel to (110) or (110) planes with one O atom oriented towards the Bi-O layer while the remaining two O atoms are oriented towards the Ca-F layer. The orientations of CO 3 groups are interlaced, so that each group approximately parallel to (110) is surrounded by four nearest neighbors parallel to (110) and vice versa. This arrangement requires description of the whole structure in the proposed supercell. As a consequence weak additional superlattice reflections appear in the diffraction pattern. The CO 3 layers may connect to the other layers in two different yet geometrically equivalent ways, thus the structure can be considered as an OD structure formed by more than one kind of layers. Two of them are non-polar (the Bi-O and Ca-F layers) while the layers of CO 3 groups are polar with regularly alternating sense of polarity. The strong main reflections can be interpreted as family reflections while the superlattice ones can be attributed to polytype reflections. Their diffuse streaking along c * indicates partial stacking disorder. The described structure represents the simplest possible polytype 1O. The refinement revealed deviations from the ideal OD symmetry. The O and F atoms in the Bi-O and Ca-F layers are displaced from ideal positions in the a direction and the CO 3 groups are slightly rotated from their ideal diagonal positions. The studied crystals were merohedrally twinned via 4[001] operation (the "lost" fourfold axis).


By paying particular attention to the local economic context, this paper analyzes the determinants of non-agricultural employment and earnings in non-agricultural jobs. The empirical analysis is based on the Brazilian Demographic Census, allowing for disaggregated controls for the local economy. Education stands out as one of the key determinants of employment outcome and earnings potential. Failure to control for locational effects, however, can lead to biased estimation of the importance of individual and household-specific characteristics. The empirical results show that local market size and distance to population centers have a significant impact on non-agricultural employment prospects and earnings.


An alarming number of students drop out of junior high school in developing countries. In this study, we examine the impacts of providing a social–emotional learning (SEL) program on the dropout behavior and learning anxiety of students in the first two years of junior high. We do so by analyzing data from a randomized controlled trial involving 70 junior high schools and 7,495 students in rural China. After eight months, the SEL program reduces dropout by 1.6 percentage points and decreases learning anxiety by 2.3 percentage points. Effects are no longer statistically different from zero after 15 months, perhaps due to decreasing student interest in the program. However, we do find that the program reduces dropout among students at high risk of dropping out (older students and students with friends who have already dropped out), both after eight and 15 months of exposure to the SEL program.


The adaptor Grb2 plays both positive and negative roles in FGF receptor signaling. Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) exhibit basal tyrosine phosphorylation and activity in the absence of ligand stimulation, which has been attributed to the "leaky" nature of tyrosine kinase autoinhibition and stochastic collisions of receptors in the membrane bilayer. This basal phosphorylation does not produce a signal of sufficient amplitude and intensity to manifest in a biological response and hence is considered to be a passive, futile process that does not have any biological function. This paradigm has now been challenged by a study showing that the basal phosphorylation of RTKs is a physiologically relevant process that is actively inhibited by the intracellular adaptor protein growth factor receptor-bound 2 (Grb2) and serves to "prime" receptors for a rapid response to ligand stimulation. Grb2 is conventionally known for playing positive roles in RTK signaling. The discovery of a negative regulatory role for Grb2 reveals that this adaptor acts as a double-edged sword in the regulation of RTK signaling.


Although the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs prohibits discriminatory import tariffs, GATT rules include means by which this prohibition can be circumvented. The previous literature use static models to show that discriminatory tariffs increase welfare. In a dynamic model, this is not necessarily true. For example, with consumer switching costs, current market share is valuable. In this case, discriminatory tariffs are higher for firms with a higher market share. In expectation of such policies, firms price less aggressively. If switching costs are significant relative to exporting country asymmetries then this adverse affect on incentives can result in lower importing country welfare. This suggests that it might be in the interests of importers to abide by the GATT MFN principle.


Interactions between spatial and temporal variability of rainfall and catchment characteristics strongly influence hydrological response. In urban areas, where runoff generation is fast due to high imperviousness degree, it is especially relevant to capture the high spatiotemporal rainfall variability. Significant progress has been made in the development of spatially distributed rainfall measurements and of distributed hydrological models, to represent the variability of catchment's characteristics. Interactions between rainfall and basin scales on hydrological response sensitivity, however, needs deeper investigation. A previous study investigated the hydrological response in the small urbanized catchment of Cranbrook (8 km2, London, UK) and proposed three dimensionless "scale factors" to identify if the available rainfall resolution is sufficient to properly predict hydrological response. We aim to verify the applicability of these scale factors to larger scales, with a distinct physiographic setting, in Little Sugar Creek (111 km2, Charlotte, USA), to identify the required rainfall resolution and to predict model performance. Twenty‐eight events were selected from a weather radar data set from the National Weather Radar Network, with a resolution of 1 km2 and 15 min. Rainfall data were aggregated to coarser resolutions and used as input for a distributed hydrological model. Results show that scale factors and associated thresholds are generally applicable for characterization of urban flood response to rainfall across spatiotemporal scales. Additionally, application of scale factors in observation‐based analysis supports identification of event characteristics that are poorly captured and critical improvements that need to be made before the model can benefit from high‐resolution rainfall.


Abstract. The Goddard Earth Observing System global chemical transport (GEOS-Chem) model was used at 2°  ×  2.5° resolution to simulate ozone formation for a base case representing year 2010 and a natural background case without worldwide anthropogenic emissions. These simulations provided boundary concentrations for base and natural background simulations with the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) on a North American domain (one-way nested) at 12 km  ×  12 km resolution over March–September 2010. The predicted maximum daily average 8 h (MDA8) background ozone for the US is largest in the mountainous areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The background MDA8 ozone in some of these locations exceeds 60 ppb, when averaged over the 10 days with the largest base-case ozone (T10base average). The background ozone generally becomes both a larger fraction of the base-case ozone in the western US and a smaller fraction in the eastern US when proceeding from spring to summer to the T10base average. The ozone difference between the base and background cases represents the increment to ozone from all anthropogenic sources. The path-integral method was applied to allocate this anthropogenic ozone increment to US anthropogenic emissions, Canadian/Mexican anthropogenic emissions, and the anthropogenic components of the lateral and top boundary concentrations (BCs). Using the T10base average MDA8 ozone, the relative importance of the sources is generally US emissions  >  anthropogenic lateral BCs  >  Canadian/Mexican emissions  ≫  anthropogenic top BCs. Specifically, for 10 US urban areas, the source contributions were 12–53 ppb for US emissions, 3–9 ppb for lateral BCs, 0.2–3 ppb for Canadian/Mexican emissions, and  ≤  0.1 ppb for top BCs. The contributions of the lateral BCs are largest for the higher-elevation US sites in the Intermountain West and along the western boundary of the domain. In Denver, for example, the lateral BCs contribute 44 % to the T10base anthropogenic increment. Averaging over the 10 days in the background case with the largest MDA8 ozone (T10bkgd), the contribution from US emissions is reduced to 3–13 ppb at the 10 urban sites, leading to a reduction in the anthropogenic ozone increment. The contribution of the Canadian/Mexican emissions remains about the same (0.3–2 ppb), and the contribution from the lateral BCs increases (5–10 ppb), especially at the lower-elevation urban sites. The net effect at the urban sites is that the relative importance of the anthropogenic lateral BCs is significantly greater for the T10bkgd average than the T10base average. This is also true for rural sites studied, where the anthropogenic lateral BC contribution becomes as large as 68 % of the anthropogenic increment for the T10bkgd average. In addition to the source apportionment, we also used surface and ozonesonde measurements to evaluate GEOS-Chem and CAMx performance.


Using coupled-mode theory we examine the linear and Kerr nonlinear behavior of multiple consecutive photonic-crystal switches. Two types of resonators are considered, those with the cavity inside and those adjacent to the waveguide. We observe gap solitons in both structures and examine a nonlinear mode with energy localized near the boundaries of the finite system. Finally, we propose a device with two side-coupled resonators and a judiciously chosen intercavity distance that demonstrates switching at low powers. In addition to coupled-mode theory, rigorous simulations are performed for this structure.


The two target articles address the origins of music in complementary ways. However, both proposals focus on overt musical behaviour, largely ignoring the role of perception and cognition, and they blur the boundaries between the potential origins of language and music. To resolve this, an alternative research strategy is proposed that focusses on the core cognitive components of musicality


"The most relevant and plausible conceptions of economic rationality, interpersonal liberty, human welfare and private-property anarchy do not conflict in theory or practice." Using philosophy and social science, Escape from Leviathan defends this bold, non-normative thesis from contrary positions in the scholarly literature. Considering authors such as David Friedman, John Gray, R. M. Hare, Robert Nozick, Karl Popper, John Rawls, Murray Rothbard, Alan Ryan, Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams, the rationality assumptions of neoclassical and Austrian School economics are reconciled and related to liberty and welfare. A new pre-propertarian theory of interpersonal liberty as the absence of (initiated or proactively) imposed cost is argued to be libertarian. Human welfare is defended as the satisfaction of unimposed wants. Practical anarchy is simply unconstrained private property. Related topics include free will, weakness of will, the nature of moralising, intellectual property and restitution and retribution. This is a ground-breaking piece of work, functioning as an excellent introduction to libertarianism and social thought.


The article presents a brief overview of general law ontologies. It introduces the concept of special ontology and defines the special ontology as a system of fundamental concepts that allows to describe the knowledge used in some particular area of law, for example, in criminal law. The article discusses the traditional (corpus delicti based) ontology of criminal law. It shows that this ontology is oriented to qualification of criminal acts and almost unhelpful in legislation because do not support decisions about criminalization of acts and about criminal sanction to be provided. A legislation-oriented ontology is proposed. This ontology is based on the concept of the encroachment. It is assumed that any encroachment violates some social value and must be evaluated from this point of view. It is assumed also that the legislators regard the criminal law as one of the tools which purpose is to protect the social values (rights, freedoms and interests) recognized by the Constitution. The article sugest that the criminal law must have some flexibility and allow to the courts to provide criminal policy taking in the account the changes in the society. Formaly the ontology is described by frames similar to the norm frames proposed by Kralingen and Visser. The paper demonstrates how the ontology can be used to design a harmonized system of criminal, administrative and civil sanctions. The proposed ontology enables to change currently used weak-defined sanction determination procedures to the systematic design process. The paper presents short instructions how to apply the proposed ontology in order to design the system of criminal sanctions.


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Heaving buoy wave energy converters (WEC) are floating oscillators, commonly modeled as single-degree-of-freedom vibrating systems. As the wave frequencies change according to the sea state, these devices must be controlled to maximize energy absorption. A new short-term reactive loading control technique is proposed that maximizes power absorption. The control is realized through tuning the effective stiffness of the vibrating system; thus, adjusting its natural frequency to meet the incident waves energy frequency achieving near-to-resonance operation and maximum power absorption. This stiffness is adjusted using an external stiffness, whose value is varied by a continuously variable transmission (CVT) mechanism connected to the buoy. The system equations were derived then solved analytically to calculate the controller bandwidth. Experiments demonstrated promising results for near-resonance tuning at different input frequencies. Results show that an optimized damping value exists at which power absorption can be significantly increased. The WEC equipped with the proposed reactive controller can provide faster tuning actions than long-term techniques. It also works on longer time intervals than phase-control methods; hence, reducing the continuous demands from the PTO system.


Escort tugs operate at high yaw angles in order to produce forces to steer and stop the vessel they are escorting in an emergency. In this paper, RANS predictions of forces and flow patterns around the hull of an escort tug model are compared with experimental data. Two alternative meshing strategies were used, one using tetrahedral elements with triangular faces and one using hexahedral elements with quadrilateral faces.

Experiments were carried out with and without the low aspect ratio fin that is typical of many escort tugs. Lift and drag forces were measured experimentally for yaw angles from 15 to 45 degrees. Flow measurements around the tug at 45 degrees yaw were obtained using a stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system.

The results from each CFD simulation were compared to the measured flow patterns using a numerical procedure that led to a quantitative measure of the accuracy of the predicted results. The analysis of the flow patterns indicated that the main features of the flow were predicted, and that on average, the predicted velocity magnitudes were within 10% of the measured values. Neither mesh approach had a significant effect on the accuracy of the flow pattern predictions. The hexahedral mesh gave more accurate force predictions that the tetrahedral mesh. Forces were predicted by the CFD code with this mesh to within 5 % of the experimentally obtained values.


Objective: Given previous research examining the relationship between physical activity (PA) and working memory in children has not taken into account of potentially confounders, this study specifically controlled for the effects of intelligence and fitness-related factors (i.e., aerobic and motor fitness) on this relationship. Method: Thirty-two children were assigned to either the higher PA group (HP) (n = 16) or lower PA group (LP) (n = 16) based on their amount of PA as measured by an accelerometer. Working memory was measured by the delayed-matching test, with concurrent recordings of event-related potentials including the P3 and the positive slow wave (PSW) components. Results: Data analysis controlling for the effects of potential confounders found that the HP group had higher response accuracy in both task conditions relative to the LP group. For reaction times (RT), the HP group showed shorter RT than the LP group in the delayed condition. Furthermore, the HP group had similar P3 amplitudes across task conditions, whereas amplitudes in the delayed condition were smaller than that in the non-delayed condition in the LP group. In addition, the HP group also showed larger PSW amplitudes than the LP group. Supplementary partial correlations analysis indicated negative correlations between levels of PA with RT in both task conditions, and positive correlations with P3 amplitude and PSW amplitude in the delayed condition. Conclusions: Children with higher levels of PA, while controlling for individual differences in intelligence and fitness-related factors, have better working memory as assessed by both behavioral and neuroelectric measures.


The mutation for adult polycystic kidney disease (APKD) has previously been localised to chromosome 16 by the demonstration of genetic linkage with the loci for the alpha-chain of haemoglobin and phosphoglycolate phosphatase. These studies were carried out, however, on only nine families so that the possibility remained that mutations at other genetic loci might produce the disease. Such genetic heterogeneity of linkage would invalidate the general use of chromosome 16 markers for the purposes of detection of the disease, and complicate the characterisation of APKD at the molecular level. Therefore further families were studied to address this question. A total of 28 northern European pedigrees were analysed, all apparently unrelated, and with origins in England, Scotland, Holland and eastern Finland. No evidence was found to suggest heterogeneity of genetic linkage between alpha-globin and the APKD locus in this population.


The Passive Optical Network (PON) is an attractive solution for high-bandwidth access networks. In the context of a broadband access network, the term open access implies the ability of multiple service providers to share the deployed access network infrastructure to make services available to the end users. Multiple services may thereby be delivered over a shared access channel. Open access requires fairness in terms of throughput, delay, jitter, and other network parameters in the access channel among the sharing entities, namely service providers and end users. Since the traffic in an access network is very bursty, an access network may be frequently subjected to high loads for certain durations of time. Meeting the above fairness requirements under such conditions is therefore very challenging. In this study, we first motivate the problem of meeting fairness requirements simultaneously to both service providers and users, which are located at opposite ends of an access channel. We then investigate the importance of two different sets of Service-Level Agreements (SLAs), which we call Dual SLAs. After formulating a mathematical model, we propose an efficient scheduling algorithm to meet Dual SLAs which is based on the well-known concept of max-min fairness. We then demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm through simulations using a discrete-event-simulator-based PON set-up, which compares the fairness of the Dual-SLA scheduling algorithm with that of other traditional fair queuing algorithms such as Deficit Round Robin (DRR)


Path Following and Collision Avoidance, be it for unmanned surface vessels or other autonomous vehicles, are two fundamental guidance problems in robotics. For many decades, they have been subject to academic study, leading to a vast number of proposed approaches. However, they have mostly been treated as separate problems, and have typically relied on non-linear first-principles models with parameters that can only be determined experimentally. The rise of deep reinforcement learning in recent years suggests an alternative approach: end-to-end learning of the optimal guidance policy from scratch by means of a trial-and-error based approach. In this article, we explore the potential of Proximal Policy Optimization, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm with demonstrated state-of-the-art performance on Continuous Control tasks, when applied to the dual-objective problem of controlling an autonomous surface vehicle in a COLREGs compliant manner such that it follows an a priori known desired path while avoiding collisions with other vessels along the way. Based on high-fidelity elevation and AIS tracking data from the Trondheim Fjord, an inlet of the Norwegian sea, we evaluate the trained agent's performance in challenging, dynamic real-world scenarios where the ultimate success of the agent rests upon its ability to navigate non-uniform marine terrain while handling challenging, but realistic vessel encounters.


A 640 Gb/s high-speed ATM switching system that is based on the technologies of advanced MCM-C, 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS and optical WDM interconnection is fabricated for future B-ISDN services. A 40-layer, 160 mm/spl times/114 mm ceramic MCM realizes the basic ATM switch module with 80 Gb/s throughput. The basic unit ATM switch MCM-C consists of an 8-chip advanced 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS VLSI and 32 chip I/O bipolar VLSIs. The MCM employs a 40 layer, very-thin-layer ceramic MCM and a uniquely structured closed loop type liquid cooling system is adopted to cope with the MCM's high-power dissipation of 230 W. The MCM is mounted on a 32 cm/spl times/50 cm mother board. A three-stage ATM switch is realized by optical WDM interconnection between the high-performance MCMs. For WDM interconnection, newly developed compact size 10 Gb/s, 8 WDM optical transmitters and receivers are used. An optical WDM router based on an AWG (Arrayed WaveGuide) router is used for mesh interconnection of boards. The optical WDM interconnect has 640 Gb/s throughput and easy, simple interconnection. The system, MCM, and optical WDM interconnection will be applied to future B-ISDN backbone networks.


Generation Y (Gen Y) shoppers are recognized as an important and distinctive market segment and demonstrate differences in shopping styles when compared to previous generational cohorts (Bakewell and Mitchell, 2003; Carpenter and Moore, 2005; Seock and Bailey, 2008; Pentecost and Andrews, 2010), yet there is a lack of extant patronage research specific to the cohort. While initial steps to understand Gen Y shoppers have been taken, few extant studies empirically link shopping orientations to specific patronage behaviors among this sizeable and important market segment. This study explores shopping orientations and retail format choice among a sample of Gen Y apparel shoppers in the U.S. (N = 215). The research examines the effects of shopping orientations (shopping enjoyment, price consciousness, shopping confidence, convenience/time consciousness, fashion/brand consciousness, in-home shopping tendency, brand/store loyalty) on retail format choice within seven distinct retail formats (upscale department stores, traditional department stores, value department stores, specialty stores, fast fashion stores, discounters, off-price stores, outlet stores). The findings provide guidance to both academics and retailers with regard to approaching and attracting Gen Y shoppers.


Abstract. A systematic coherence analysis is presented for the set of the most prominent millennial reconstructions of northern hemispheric temperature. The large number of mutual coherences underwent a clustering analysis that revealed five significant, mutually incoherent ("inconsistent") clusters. The use of multiple proxies seems to be causing the clustering, at least in part, but not in an easily definable, physical way. Alternatively, a multidimensional scaling is performed on the same set of coherences. This results in a graphic, two-dimensional rendering of the reconstructions whose geometry (location and distance) is given by the coherences. Both approaches offer complementary ways in dealing with the inconsistencies.


In a society of agents the learning processes of an individual agent can become critically dependent on knowledge processes in the society as a whole. It is useful to adopt a collective stance that views the overall society as a larger adaptive agent that is recursively divided into adaptive sub-agents. The resources for an agent include other agents, and some of an agent's processes will be devoted to modeling other agents' capabilities and others to developing those capabilities. This article presents a model for adaptive interactions in societies of adaptive agents in which knowledge arises as a state variable imputed by one agent to another to account for its capabilities, and task allocation between agents results in functional differentiation in an initially homogeneous society. It is shown that a simple training strategy of keeping an agent's performance constant by allocating tasks of increasing difficulty as an agent adapts optimizes the rate of learning and linearizes the otherwise sigmoidal learning curves. It is suggested that this is the basis for the human preference for a flow condition in which the challenge of a task is managed to remain between the extremes of boredom and anxiety.


One of the most poignant moments in Alexande r Korda ' s 1935 version of H G Wells ' Things to Come appears in the closing seconds. With a sweep of the arm embracing the whole universe a key character asks , ' Can it really be our destiny to conquer all this? Is there to be no rest from the unrelenting quest for knowledge, no peace for man until the whole universe is his? ' ' No ' answers his colleague, 'there can be no rest, for once man has taken the first step down the path of knowledge and understanding , he must take all those that follow , the alternative is to do nothing, to live with the insects in the dust . The choice is simple . It is the whole universe or nothing . Which shall it be? ' Fade out to celestial choir taking up the theme : ' Which shall it be ?'


Global trade in the 21st century is characterised by complex value chains. Successful exporters usually rely on quality imports, and exported goods cross borders many times before reaching their final consumer. This poses challenges to economic measurement as well as policymaking because it becomes difficult to characterise the true interdependencies between countries. Currently, estimates of the share of imports from a trade partner destined for re-exports, and the share used in the domestic economy, are crude at best. We develop a novel approach to estimate these shares. Instead of assigning imports for re-exports proportionally across all source countries, we consider the origin of imports for each trader who re-exports goods. The method is illustrated for the Netherlands, a major re-exporter. We find that non-European member states export 10 billion euros of commodities to the Netherlands that are destined for re-export to the United Kingdom. We also find that the goods trade deficit between the Netherlands and the United States is drastically reduced when taking re-export flows into account.


The scattering of CF3+ from highly oriented pyrolytic graphite results in the formation of CF3−. Comparison is made with CF3+ scattering from a metal and from an insulator surface, which do not yield negative molecular ions. The outcome of the charge transfer processes that occur as CF3+ approaches a surface is critically dependent on the electronic properties of that surface. The ability to produce a stable negative ion close to a surface may be an important factor in the etching efficiency of the CF3 molecule.


This article reports on the experiences of South African military personnel who have been deployed on peace missions in Burundi, the DRC and Darfur/Sudan. These missions are extremely challenging for peacekeepers given the complex, vicious and protracted nature of the conflicts in these countries. This has placed heavy demands on individuals participating in field operations, not only because the operations are often dangerous and unpredictable, but also because of the conditions under which they have to serve and the resources available to them. In this study, the experiences of 94 SANDF personnel who have been deployed primarily in Burundi, the DRC and Sudan are analysed in relation to their operational experiences; the challenges posed by the rules of engagement; shortcomings in their training; and their readiness and interaction with other role players. The findings of this empirical research provide a real sense of how peacekeepers at the tactical level experience these deployments from a uniquely South African perspective.


We show how to find a minimum weight loop cutset in a Bayesian network with high probability. Finding such a loop cutset is the first step in the method of conditioning for inference. Our randomized algorithm for finding a loop cutset outputs a minimum loop cutset after O(c 6kkn) steps with probability at least 1 - (1 - 1/6k)c6k, where c > 1 is a constant specified by the user, k is the minimal size of a minimum weight loop cutset, and n is the number of vertices. We also show empirically that a variant of this algorithm often finds a loop cutset that is closer to the minimum weight loop cutset than the ones found by the best deterministic algorithms known.


The rise of China has major repercussions for a country such as Bangladesh which has emerged as an important player in the global apparels market. True, the global pie in apparels trade is expected to expand considerably in view of the increase in demand, and also on account of the envisaged closure of large number of apparels/textile unit in the developed countries (mostly lower-end apparels/textile segment which were likely to become a sunset sector) and there will be space for more than one player. Evidently, impact and implications of competition from China will have to be examined and scrutinized at country level and for disaggregated items of apparels (since the impact for particular countries will be felt only at the disaggregated product level). It needs to be mentioned here that an earlier paper by the CPD has looked into the possible implications of Chinas rise in the context of the EU market. This particular paper will try to analyse the aforesaid issues as they relate to the US market.


This paper describes principles for the apportionment of water allocations to users of a multi-reservoir water supply system utilising a volume shared entitlement and allocation framework. The challenge of this problem is that volume shared systems determine the available water for allocation based on a total system approach. The subsequent operational challenge is to then apportion this total volume of available water to specific reservoirs to meet individual user requirements. This is an important problem as entitlement and allocation frameworks usually have the water resource assessment process and high-level water sharing principles enshrined in a set of legally binding orders and instruments. However, some systems still have a subsequent apportionment of allocation problem, not codified in any binding document, where decisions need to be made around how much allocation should be made available from particular reservoirs for the various stakeholders or user groups. In shared systems where contests over water is common, or access to allocation may vary over time, it is desirable that the agency responsible for making the resource decisions uses an objective, fair and equitable method of allocating water. To work through this problem and present the set of principles for apportionment, the Wimmera-Glenelg System located in western Victoria, Australia, is used as a case study. The Wimmera-Glenelg System is a complex water resource system with multiple reservoirs and many different user groups and stakeholders. The region is also subject to a highly variable climate with frequent dry periods and water rationing, creating periods of time where the equitable apportionment of allocation becomes incredibly important. Concepts of capacity sharing have been used to help with the development of the apportionment principles to help maximise the transparency in decision making to stakeholders and because the system does have an emerging water market where commercial and economic certainty is becoming paramount. However, capacity sharing for systems with multiple reservoirs is not common, and so even this has limitations in use. The principles described can be universally applied to reservoir systems of varying complexity, where there are multiple users, and is compatible with both capacity shared systems and newer continuous sharing or continuous accounting systems. Results are shown for the Wimmera-Glenelg System.


Traditionally, conodont intrarelationships have been reconstructed following the evolutionary palaeontology paradigm, which lacks a formal methodology, renders hypo- theses unrepeatable and takes little account of the imperfect nature of the fossil record. Cladistics provides a prescriptive approach to phylogeny reconstruction and, it is argued, a rigorous method of character analysis that is not incompat- ible with the aims of evolutionary palaeontology. To demon- strate this, we use the Silurian family Kockelellidae as an example of how cladistics can be used to reconstruct relative relationships, and how such hypotheses can be converted to phylogenies. We follow traditional, cladistic approaches to assessing the completeness of the fossil record and find that failure to conduct this within a milieu of absolute, rather than merely relative, relationships leads to spurious infer- ences of gaps in the fossil record. This appears to be a prob- lem that is widespread in theory, but peculiar to species in practice, and parallels the observation that cladograms of fos- sil species tend to exhibit poorer correlation to stratigraphy than do cladograms of fossil higher taxa. We conclude that cladistics provides the only appropriate framework within which to conduct character analysis; phylogenies can be developed from cladograms but very often this additional inferential step is entirely superfluous to the aims of evolu- tionary studies.


This article examines the development of the position of Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din (d.2001), who headed Lebanon's Islamic Shiʿi Supreme Council, ISSC, from 1978 to 2001, on the Lebanese sectarian system. I trace the progression of his positions which underwent three phases: first, accommodation with sectarianism, albeit with reforms proposals, during the phase of collaboration with Sayyid Musa al-Sadr in the 1970s; second, a more radicalized position that rebutted the sectarian system in the midst of the civil war and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982; and finally, a de facto acceptance of the war-ending Taʾif Agreement of 1989 that consolidated sectarianism. I argue that the changing political context of post-war Lebanon and the rise of Hezbollah as a contending force on the Shiʿi Lebanese scene have propelled Shams al-Din to seek rapprochement with the Lebanese state, in line with the legacy that Musa al-Sadr had initiated in Lebanon when he founded the ISSC.


We propose a novel 3D wavelet based tone mapping framework for high dynamic range videos. Still image tone mapping methods can be applied to videos in a frame by frame fashion, but they often exhibit haloing artifacts and do not guarantee temporal coherence, resulting in flickering. Directly extending wavelet analysis/synthesis to time solves the flickering problem but leads to ghosting. Our method, based on a new variant of edge avoiding wavelets in time, addresses both flickering and ghosting. We also reduce haloing artifacts through the use of a new gain control method. Our method produces significantly higher quality results compared to existing state-of-the-art techniques when applied to both live action and computer graphics video.


In July 2002 a new regulation of the European Commission came into force setting maximum permitted values for PCDD/Fs in food. Until the end of 2004 these limit values have to be verified with current monitoring data, especially in regard to the integration of dioxin-like PCBs in this regulation. It is well known that fish accumulate lypophilic substances to a high degree from their aquatic surroundings so that fish and fish products are an important source of human intake of dioxins. Several studies have been published recently regarding the contamination of marine fish species with PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs, but less is known about the contamination of fresh water fish with these substances. To bridge this gap, the German environmental specimen bank (ESB) analyzed archived bream muscle samples for PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs. Breams are widely distributed in Europe and often used as a monitoring organism for fresh water and sediment contamination because of their small migration radius. As adult breams feed mainly on benthic invertebrates they are permanently in direct contact with the sediments. Although bream is less consumed at least in Germany the here presented results might facilitate general statements regarding the contamination of other fresh water fish species with PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs.


The way we steward soil resources and manage our land use activities is central to ensuring Europe's transition to a sustainable future for its citizens and its global partners. Research and knowledge dissemination are fundamental to securing soils and land for next generations, for competitive economies and healthy landscapes. Clever use of the services provided by the soil-sediment-water system provides solutions for meeting societal needs and for overcoming societal challenges. In order to create a new strategic research agenda (SRA) on soil, land-use and land management in Europe, it was collected relevant information on research demands, based on key stakeholder interviews, workshops and desk exercise from 17 European countries. This investigation revealed the research needs that should be included in the European SRA. According to key stakeholders the societal challenges facing Europe increasingly require research and innovation which integrates different approaches from across research disciplines. These often increase the impact and usefulness of the research for businesses and society. It was highlighted the need to improve the dissemination procedure and was suggested enlarged stakeholders' involvement in research projects. The dissemination of projects should include indicators to access the social impacts, policy implications and applicability demonstrations. Strategic partnerships between universities and enterprises were recommend, and a clear and accessible cost-benefits analysis, to increase the added value of research was emphasised. Furthermore, stakeholders consider important to facilitate the access to existing databases and scientific publications through thematic online platforms. Concluding the inquiry, the stakeholders consolidated recommendations on the future projects, which should promote interdisciplinary teams, integrate economic,


We study the optical scattering force on the coated nanoparticles with gain core and nonlocal plasmonic shell in the long-wavelength limit, and demonstrate negative optical force acting on the nanoparticles near the symmetric and/or antisymmetric surface plasmon resonances. To understand the optical force behavior, we propose nonlocal effective medium theory to derive the equivalent permittivity for the coated nanoparticles with nonlocality. We show that the imaginary part of the equivalent permittivity is negative near the surface resonant wavelength, resulting in the negative optical force. The introduction of nonlocality may shift the resonant wavelength of the optical force, and strengthen the negative optical force. Two examples of Fano-like resonant scattering in such coated nanoparticles are considered, and Fano resonance-induced negative optical force is found too. Our findings could have some potential applications in plasmonics, nano-optical manipulation, and optical selection.


The fluorination of polymer donors through substituting hydrogen atoms by fluorine atoms on aromatic rings have been widely used in highly efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, this fluorination process suffers from complicated synthesis and low yields. Herein, through replacing the methyl group with a trifluoromethyl group, the feasibility of synthetically-simple fluorination towards high-performance polymer donors is demonstrated. Two structurally similar polymer donors, one having a trifluoromethyl (–CF3) group and the other with a methyl (–CH3) pendant group for comparison, were designed and synthesized. By comparing these two donors, we found that the –CF3 group addition lowered the HOMO energy level and increased absorption through improved intermolecular interactions. Single-junction solar cells based on the trifluoromethylated donor yield a maximum power conversion efficiency of 13.5%, representing a nearly two-fold increase compared with that of devices using the methylated counterpart. These findings reveal great potential of fluorinating polymer donors by the trifluoromethyl group to improve solar cell performance.


Expressions, such as add fuel to the fire, can be interpreted literally or idiomatically depending on the context they occur in. Many Natural Language Processing applications could improve their performance if idiom recognition were improved. Our approach is based on the idea that idioms violate cohesive ties in local contexts, while literal expressions do not. We propose two approaches: 1) Compute inner product of context word vectors with the vector representing a target expression. Since literal vectors predict well local contexts, their inner product with contexts should be larger than idiomatic ones, thereby telling apart literals from idioms; and (2) Compute literal and idiomatic scatter (covariance) matrices from local contexts in word vector space. Since the scatter matrices represent context distributions, we can then measure the difference between the distributions using the Frobenius norm. For comparison, we implement Fazly et al. (2009)'s, Sporleder and Li (2009)'s, and Li and Sporleder (2010b)'s methods and apply them to our data. We provide experimental results validating the proposed techniques.


Robustness to adversarial attacks was shown to require a larger model capacity, and thus a larger memory footprint. In this paper, we introduce an approach to obtain robust yet compact models by pruning randomly-initialized binary networks. Unlike adversarial training, which learns the model parameters, we initialize the model parameters as either +1 or -1, keep them fixed, and find a subnetwork structure that is robust to attacks. Our method confirms the Strong Lottery Ticket Hypothesis in the presence of adversarial attacks, and extends this to binary networks. Furthermore, it yields more compact networks with competitive performance than existing works by 1) adaptively pruning different network layers; 2) exploiting an effective binary initialization scheme; 3) incorporating a last batch normalization layer to improve training stability. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach not only always outperforms the state-of-the-art robust binary networks, but also can achieve accuracy better than full-precision ones on some datasets. Finally, we show the structured patterns of our pruned binary networks.


The intergenerational earnings mobility of Canadians born to immigrants is examined using the 2001 Census. A detailed portrait of the Canadian population is offered as are estimates of the degree of generational mobility among the children of immigrants from seventy countries. The degree of intergenerational persistence is about the same for immigrants as for the entire population, and there is more generational mobility among immigrants in Canada than in the United States. We also use quantile regressions to distinguish between the role of social capital from other constraints limiting mobility and find that these are present.


RASAT is the second Turkish Earth Observation satellite which was launched in 2011. It operates with pushbroom principle and acquires panchromatic and MS images with 7.5 m and 15 m resolutions, respectively. The swath width of the sensor is 30 km. The main aim of this study is to analyse the radiometric and geometric quality of RASAT images. A systematic validation approach for the RASAT imagery and its products is being applied. RASAT image pair acquired over Kesan city in Edirne province of Turkey are used for the investigations. The raw RASAT data (L0) are processed by Turkish Space Agency (TUBITAK-UZAY) to produce higher level image products. The image products include radiometrically processed (L1), georeferenced (L2) and orthorectified (L3) data, as well as pansharpened images. The image quality assessments include visual inspections, noise, MTF and histogram analyses. The geometric accuracy assessment results are only preliminary and the assessment is performed using the raw images. The geometric accuracy potential is investigated using 3D ground control points extracted from road intersections, which were measured manually in stereo from aerial images with 20 cm resolution and accuracy. The initial results of the study, which were performed using one RASAT panchromatic image pair, are presented in this paper.