Andre Green occupies a unique position in psychoanalysis today, and his work represents a synthesis of the traditions of Lacan, Winnicott and Bion. This volume collects fourteen of his papers together with a substantial introduction. The papers range widely across clinical and theoretical issues including borderline states, the true and false self, and narcissism. On Private Madness has achieved the status of a modern psychoanalytic classic, and this new impression will be welcomed by all those admirers of Dr Green who wish to have these seminal papers collected together.


ABSTRACT In Joe Kubert's Fax from Sarajevo, the chapter 'The Rape Camp' deals with the mass rape of women by Serb troops during the Bosnian War. Kubert's rape narrative displays a tension between presence and absence that is analysed on different (extra)textual levels. Formally, the two incentives interact when Kubert inscribes the sexual violence on the page but acknowledges its visual limitations by constructing it as an act that can be read from the faces of the people involved and through the use of language. On a narrative level, the chapter's disconnect from the rest of the story marginalises its content and does not explore the long-lasting effects of rape, though Kubert briefly refers to genocidal rape at other points in the graphic novel. Furthermore, the tension between presence and absence in Kubert's rape narrative is informed by a cultural backdrop of excessive images of sexual violence. The article argues that this oscillation between inscription and elision in Fax from Sarajevo works productively, as it demonstrates a reflexive awareness of the risks of visualising rape.


Entrepreneurship offers a viable and proven pathway to economic growth and personal fulfillment. However, the number of individuals engaged in entrepreneurial behaviors remains low. This discrepancy between entrepreneurial attitudes and action underscores the need for programs that foster the development of entrepreneurship in today's youth. We argue that a relational developmental systems approach can help researchers understand and facilitate the development of entrepreneurship. In this study, we triangulate across quantitative and qualitative data from the Young Entrepreneurs Study, showing that self-regulation skills, financial risk tolerance, innovation orientation, and the presence of entrepreneurial adults may be especially important for promoting entrepreneurial intent in older adolescents and young adults. We discuss limitations of the present data set and future directions for research.


The automobile is a tremendous consumer of energy. The entire transport sector uses 26% of the energy used in the U.S. — and half the oil. In fact, the American auto alone consumes one-ninth of all the oil used in the world today. Since our present land use patterns lock us into intensive auto use the best approach is to redesign the auto for vastly better fuel economy. By 1985, auto makers will have to have cars that average 27.5 mpg. And beyond that, the federal DOT wants to produce autos that average 50 mpg. Among things the auto industry is developing: cars to run on new fuels — e.g. gasohol, methanol, ethanol, and liquid fuels derived from coal and oil shale; new auto engines that are vastly more efficient and can burn a variety of fuels — e.g. the Stirling engine and the gas turbine; the electric auto and the hybrid auto (combination electric and engine powered vehicle); the flywheel as a means of storing energy normally wasted in braking; lighter cars using weight-saving materials such as high-strength steels, fiber-reinforced plastics, aluminum, etc.


We describe and assess the usefulness of a newly-constructed database of electronic payments, comprised of debit and credit card transactions as well cheques that clear through the banking system, as indicators of current GDP growth. Apart from capturing a broad range of spending activity, these variables are available on a very timely basis, thereby making them suitable candidate indicators. Controlling both for the release dates of various variables and the vintage of GDP available to analysts at the time a nowcast is produced, we generate nowcasts of GDP growth for a given quarter over a span of five months, which is the period over which interest in nowcasts would exist. We find that nowcast errors fall by about 60 per cent between the first and final nowcast. Evidence on the value of the additional payments variables is mixed, however; the point estimates suggest reductions in forecast loss at some nowcast horizons, but with considerable variability.


An epidemiological study of 15.462 hip fractures in Ostergotland 1940-86 showed a large incidence increase mainly due to an increase in age-specific incidence of trochanteric fractures. A trendforecast assuming the same increase in incidence as over the study period and a population forecast according to the official prognosis, predicted 70% more hip fractures in the year 2000 compared to 1985. The different forecasts models were validated for the year 1995 and showed a good correlation between estimated and observed number of fractures, but varied dependent on which fracture and prognosis model that were evaluated.A follow-up investigation of 11.517 hip fractures 1982-96 showed a downturn in incidence of female fractures and a continous increase for males, particularly of trochanteric fractures. A trend brake was thus seen and this continues up to 2010 according to our trendforecasts but may be counteracted by the increasing number of elderly after 2020. Gender ratio changed over time with increasing number of male fractures, more trochanteric fractures relative to cervical (c/t-ratio) and an increasing mean age of the fracture patient.Age specific reference values were established for bone mineral density (BMD) in forearm, lumbar spine and hip after investigation of 429 women 20-80 years, randomly sampled from the general population. Bone density was assessed from cross-sectional data for the various skeletal sites over an almost complete adult life period and these were then compared to values obtained from other studies, densitometry technologies and reference materials. Large discordances were found between the different technologies and reference materials.The outcome of using the T-score proposed by a WHO study group 1994 as a diagnostic cutoff principle for the diagnosis of osteoporosis (T<-2.5) and osteopenia (T<-1 - -2.5) was evaluated by calculating the resulting prevalence in a cohort of 210 women, 70 years of age. The use of different approaches in calculation of T -score and different reference samples, yielded unacceptable disparities in disease prevalence of between 9 and 72%. The differences were also heavely dependent of which and how many sites that were included in the diagnostic decision.We studied biochemical markers of bone turnover (alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, hydroxyproline and calcium excretion in the urine) in relation to age, menopause and BMD, and their ability to predict bone loss in a 5-year follow-up perspective. Markers varied inversely to BMD, increased markedly at menopause and predicted bone loss over the next 5 years up to 75% at individual level, (AUC of an ROC analysis).A case. finding strategy using low-energy index fractures in forearm, spine, hip or humerus was performed to detect subjects with osteoporosis. 303 consecutive women 55-75 years with a recent fracture were examined with densitometry and a risk profile questionnaire. The lowest BMD was found in spine and hip fracture patients. Odds ratio for osteoporosis was at least 8 for a patient with a prior hip fracture. The number of previous fractures correlated inversely with bone density (Z-score). Despite 92% of the fracture patients (many with a multiple fracture history) had a low bone mass (t-score<1), only 15% had been treated for osteoporosis before the index fracture.


In multistage manufacturing processes it is common to locate inspection stations after some or all of the processing workstations. The purpose of the inspection is to reduce the total manufacturing cost, resulted from unidentified defective items being processed unnecessarily through subsequent manufacturing operations. This total cost is the sum of the costs of production, inspection and failures (during production and after shipment). Introducing inspection stations into a serial multistage manufacturing process, although constituting an additional cost, is expected to be a profitable course of action. Specifically, at some positions the associated inspection costs will be recovered from the benefits realised through the detection of defective items, before wasting additional cost by continuing to process them.
In this research, a novel general cost modelling for allocating a limited number of inspection stations in serial multistage manufacturing processes is formulated. In allocation of inspection station (AOIS) problem, as the number of workstations increases, the number of inspection station allocation possibilities increases exponentially. To identify the appropriate approach for the AOIS problem, different optimisation methods are investigated. The MAX-MIN Ant System (MMAS) algorithm is proposed as a novel approach to explore AOIS in serial multistage manufacturing processes. MMAS is an ant colony optimisation algorithm that was designed originally to begin an explorative search phase and, subsequently, to make a slow transition to the intensive exploitation of the best solutions found during the search, by allowing only one ant to update the pheromone trails. Two novel heuristics information for the MMAS algorithm are created. The heuristic information for the MMAS algorithm is exploited as a novel means to guide ants to build reasonably good solutions from the very beginning of the search. To improve the performance of the MMAS algorithm, six local search methods which are well-known and suitable for the AOIS problem are used. Selecting relevant parameter values for the MMAS algorithm can have a great impact on the algorithm's performance. As a result, a method for tuning the most influential parameter values for the MMAS algorithm is developed.
The contribution of this research is, for the first time, a methodology using MMAS to solve the AOIS problem in serial multistage manufacturing processes has been developed. The methodology takes into account the constraints on inspection resources, in terms of a limited number of inspection stations. As a result, the total manufacturing cost of a product can be reduced, while maintaining the quality of the product. Four numerical experiments are conducted to assess the MMAS algorithm for the AOIS problem. The performance of the MMAS algorithm is compared with a number of other methods this includes the complete enumeration method (CEM), rule of thumb, a pure random search algorithm, particle swarm optimisation, simulated annealing and genetic algorithm. The experimental results show that the effectiveness of the MMAS algorithm lies in its considerably shorter execution time and robustness. Further, in certain conditions results obtained by the MMAS algorithm are identical to the CEM. In addition, the results show that applying local search to the MMAS algorithm has significantly improved the performance of the algorithm. Also the results demonstrate that it is essential to use heuristic information with the MMAS algorithm for the AOIS problem, in order to obtain a high quality solution. It was found that the main parameters of MMAS include the pheromone trail intensity, heuristic information and evaporation of pheromone are less sensitive within the specified range as the number of workstations is significantly increased.


Objectives: To cure long and multiple ureteric strictures by a simple procedure without the long term complications of bowel interposition or surgery of high magnitude like auto-transplantation.
 Methods: Ureteric strictures in 5 patients were treated with buccal mucosa onlay grafts with an omental wrap. The underlying etiology was tuberculosis in 4 patients and amyloidosis in I patient. Mean age was 45 years. Three patients had strictures in upper ureter, 1 patient in midureter and 1 patient had panureteric stricture. In all patients length of stricture was greater than 5 cm.
 Results: Ureteric patency was established in all patients. Four patients have persistent improvement in renal function. In I patient, renal function improved initially (at 6 months follow-up) but subsequently (at 1-year follow-up) the unit was non functioning. Follow-up was in the range of 1.5 year to 3.5 years.
 Conclusions: In selected patients with complicated benign ureteric strictures, buccal mucosal dorsal onlay graft was proved capable of maintaining patency and good urinary drainage. The procedure is technically simple and devoid of complications.


Selective deposition is a powerful self-aligned precision
materials processing strategy which can hugely benefit next-generation
nanoelectronics, catalysis, and energy conversion/storage fields. Atomic layer
deposition (ALD) is showing a significant promise in enabling area-selective
deposition using various growth blocking layers including self-assembled
monolayers (SAMs) and various polymers. However, these blocking layers are not
compatible with energetic co-reactants like ozone and plasma radicals, showing
relatively fast degradation and losing their growth inhibition character. In this
work, we demonstrate that polymerized fluorocarbon surfaces function as
effective growth inhibitors for ALD-grown Pt and Pd films. Besides effectively inhibiting
film growth with considerable nucleation delays for, Pt experiments revealed
that polymerized CFx layers are also ozone-compatible. To the best
of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an AS-ALD process using
ozone as co-reactant for noble metals. In our manuscript, we detail our observations of
(Pt,Pd) film nucleation evolution and self-aligned deposition experiments on
patterned samples. We have performed in-depth chemical and surface characterizations along the nucleation studies and self-aligned patterning
experiments.


In drafting the Constitution, the Framers were conscious about the need to maintain the division of powers between the central government and the regions (which later became known as States) so that each level of government would be equal to one another. Australia has since seen a gradual erosion of State autonomy as a result of a series of unsatisfactory decisions of the High Court. The erosion of State legislative and financial powers began when Isaacs and Higgins JJ were appointed to the High Court in 1906. Following this, the High Court has demonstrated a willingness to interpret Commonwealth powers broadly, at the expense of the States. This expansive, literalist approach to interpreting the Constitution enunciated in Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd ('Engineers') (1920) was later used to expand the Commonwealth's financial power in the cases of South Australia v Commonwealth ('First Uniform Tax Case') (1942), Victoria v Commonwealth ('Second Uniform Tax Case') (1971) and Ha v New South Wales (1997). The culmination of these decisions effectively precluded the States from levying income tax, and rendered all State franchise fees on petroleum, tobacco and alcohol constitutionally invalid. This thesis will illustrate the fundamental decisions in the centralisation of Commonwealth legislative and financial powers. In doing so, it will argue that the High Court has failed in its duty to protect the Constitution, and instead has allowed the Commonwealth to increase its powers, thus undermining Australian federalism. This thesis will conclude by examining Australia's current financial situation, and will propose specific solutions to restore Australia's fiscal federal balance to the framework that was envisioned by the Framers in 1890.


This paper will focus on the developments of new molecules that have low global warming potential, high thermal performance, and favorable safety characteristics, to name only a few required characteristics. Several new molecules that have very short atmospheric lifetimes, as well as refrigerant blends utilizing these molecules, have been developed and will be evaluated for use in various types of water chillers ranging from smaller capacity systems that currently use R-410A or R-407C refrigerants to larger centrifugal compressor chillers that have currently used R-134a or R-123. Thermodynamic and system simulations were carried out using low GWP refrigerant properties and compared against the baseline refrigerants. These new LGWP refrigerants show promise in these applications and warrants further development.


In both the private and public sectors, human resource management processes face considerable challenges in terms of skills management within organizations. In fact, during the recruitment process, it is difficult to find the right profile for certain functions. To cope with this constraint and thus streamline this process, organizations tend to implement intelligent management of jobs and skills. Most systems of matching a job with a profile face the difficulty of developing and maintaining resources specific to each field. In view of this, ontologies are not only a tool for professional management and strategic management of human resources, but they also make it possible to base the relationship between the couple job / profile. Thus, we propose a construction approach of three ontologies that will play a key role in knowledge management in the context of the Secretariat Charge De L'eau but which remains valid for later use in broader contexts.


The core proposition of this article is that reconciliation, both as a process and an end state, is a concept of justice. Its animating virtue is mercy and its goal is peace. These concepts are expressed most deeply in religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The idea of justice as right relationship is also found in the contemporary restorative justice movement, an approach to criminal justice that has emerged in the past generation. For contemporary political orders addressing past war, genocide, and authoritarianism, the holistic justice of reconciliation involves not only the legal guarantee and actual practice of human rights and the laws of war but also a redress of the range of wounds that political injustices inflict. Reconciliation is achieved through a set of six political practices that seek to restore a measure of human flourishing. A secondary fruit of these practices is an increase in the legitimacy that citizens bequeath to their governing institutions or to their state's relationship with other states. The article takes a close look at two of the practices that are often thought to be at odds in addressing past injustices—punishment and forgiveness—and argues that when viewed as practices that reflect and participate in a restorative concept of justice, punishment and forgiveness become compatible in principle—with important implications for the politics of facing past evil


Abstract. Bryophyte and lichen cover on the forest floor at high latitudes exerts an insulating effect on the ground. In this way, the cover decreases mean annual soil temperature and can protect permafrost soil. Climate change, however, may change bryophyte and lichen cover, with effects on the permafrost state and related carbon balance. It is, therefore, crucial to predict how the bryophyte and lichen cover will react to environmental change at the global scale. To date, current global land surface models contain only empirical representations of the bryophyte and lichen cover, which makes it impractical to predict the future state and function of bryophytes and lichens. For this reason, we integrate a process-based model of bryophyte and lichen growth into the global land surface model JSBACH (Jena Scheme for Biosphere–Atmosphere Coupling in Hamburg). The model simulates bryophyte and lichen cover on upland sites. Wetlands are not included. We take into account the dynamic nature of the thermal properties of the bryophyte and lichen cover and their relation to environmental factors. Subsequently, we compare simulations with and without bryophyte and lichen cover to quantify the insulating effect of the organisms on the soil. We find an average cooling effect of the bryophyte and lichen cover of 2.7 K on temperature in the topsoil for the region north of 50° N under the current climate. Locally, a cooling of up to 5.7 K may be reached. Moreover, we show that using a simple, empirical representation of the bryophyte and lichen cover without dynamic properties only results in an average cooling of around 0.5 K. This suggests that (a) bryophytes and lichens have a significant impact on soil temperature in high-latitude ecosystems and (b) a process-based description of their thermal properties is necessary for a realistic representation of the cooling effect. The advanced land surface scheme, including a dynamic bryophyte and lichen model, will be the basis for an improved future projection of land–atmosphere heat and carbon exchange.


Abstract Throughout about three decades of incessant research, the Austrian phenomenologist Alfred Schutz tried to specify the concept of meaning presented in an insufficient way by Max Weber in his famous definition of subjective action. Quickly, Schutz exceeded the methodological questions related with the foundation of Social Sciences, developing an elaborated reflection on the relations between Communication and Society. Along this text, are presented some particularly significant moments of this intellectual journey, such as the schtuzian reflection on intersubjectivity; the question of communication as condition of possibility of the life-world, and, finally, the analysis of appresentational reference and the set of linguistic artefacts (marks, indications, signs and symbols) that allows man to deal with the experience of transcendence.


This study explores the impact of the national institutional environment on the listing of firms on stock exchanges in Japan, the US, and the UK. In particular, the study compares the incidence of: (1) independent firm initial public offerings (IPOs); and (2) the subsidiaries of established corporations being spun-off to stock markets. An empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of 9118 IPOs extracted from the Securities Data Company New Issue Database. The results show that Japan and the UK are more active in incubating new innovative ventures within large corporations and spinning them to the stock markets than their general entrepreneurial activity would suggest. These results direct our attention to different forms of industrial renewal in different institutional environments.


Biological systems reach organizational complexity that far exceeds the complexity of any known inanimate objects. Biological entities undoubtedly obey the laws of quantum physics and statistical mechanics. However, is modern physics sufficient to adequately describe, model and explain the evolution of biological complexity? Detailed parallels have been drawn between statistical thermodynamics and the population-genetic theory of biological evolution. Based on these parallels, we outline new perspectives on biological innovation and major transitions in evolution, and introduce a biological equivalent of thermodynamic potential that reflects the innovation propensity of an evolving population. Deep analogies have been suggested to also exist between the properties of biological entities and processes, and those of frustrated states in physics, such as glasses. Such systems are characterized by frustration whereby local state with minimal free energy conflict with the global minimum, resulting in 'emergent phenomena'. We extend such analogies by examining frustration-type phenomena, such as conflicts between different levels of selection, in biological evolution. These frustration effects appear to drive the evolution of biological complexity. We further address evolution in multidimensional fitness landscapes from the point of view of percolation theory and suggest that percolation at level above the critical threshold dictates the tree-like evolution of complex organisms. Taken together, these multiple connections between fundamental processes in physics and biology imply that construction of a meaningful physical theory of biological evolution might not be a futile effort. However, it is unrealistic to expect that such a theory can be created in one scoop; if it ever comes to being, this can only happen through integration of multiple physical models of evolutionary processes. Furthermore, the existing framework of theoretical physics is unlikely to suffice for adequate modeling of the biological level of complexity, and new developments within physics itself are likely to be required.


Deep neural networks are known to be vulnerable to adversarial examples, where a perturbation in the input space leads to an amplified shift in the latent network representation. In this paper, we combine canonical supervised learning with self-supervised representation learning, and present Self-supervised Online Adversarial Purification (SOAP), a novel defense strategy that uses a self-supervised loss to purify adversarial examples at test-time. Our approach leverages the label-independent nature of self-supervised signals and counters the adversarial perturbation with respect to the self-supervised tasks. SOAP yields competitive robust accuracy against state-of-the-art adversarial training and purification methods, with considerably less training complexity. In addition, our approach is robust even when adversaries are given knowledge of the purification defense strategy. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first that generalizes the idea of using self-supervised signals to perform online test-time purification.


Scrum is increasingly becoming an essential product development methodology for project education in modern curricula, however, individually assessing students that work in scrum projects as applied in the professional work field remains extremely challenging until date. In scrum, students team up in order to deliver high-quality products in projects that are directed to real business stakeholders in order to enhance professional productivity and allow for flexibility to product requirements. Our new standard adds up to this methodology in three ways. First, we propose to represent the common language that is relevant to stakeholders, product owners and development teams in terms of epic, user story and task such that team members from different backgrounds learn to comprehend together. Second, we propose a two-stage task allocation approach in which, first, learning outcomes for a course that are set in education designs are preliminary mapped by the lecturer to abstract, state-of-the-art, tasks that are commonly relevant in the expert domain, and, then, concrete tasks for the project at hand are placed on project scrum boards by students during scrum sprint plannings in the course run. Third, we propose to assess scrum teams both at group and individual student level. For the individual grading, we define a novel concept of task balance that we consequently measure inside teams. With the aid of automated tools, the standard has been successfully applied and operationalised in various course runs of our multidisciplinary master where it has proven to be effective in assigning individual grades when needed.


This paper proposes a flexible and temporal integral voltage/reactive power control system. The voltage stability problem is mainly driven by the dynamics of consumers' load demand which possesses both daily periodic character and short-term stochastic character. These two aspects are specifically addressed in the proposed system comprising mainly two control components: an optimal planner and an intelligent plan adaptor. The first component, utilizing multi-stage optimal reactive power flow algorithm, can produce a schedule of voltage control actions for the following fixed period. When this predefined plan becomes unsuitable for maintaining an acceptable voltage profile because of unexpected events in real operation, the second component takes over. It synthesises the predefined plan and the current sensitivity information between control actions and voltage profiles. Then it flexibly adjusts the predefined plan to suit the new situation. A simple 9 bus test system is used to demonstrate the application of the proposed approach. This approach works well in controlling the voltage fluctuation of a typical 9-bus system and it can be easily extended to larger practical power systems.


The major parameters of a crystalline colloidal array optical filter have been investigated theoretically, and the results compared to published experimental data. This filter consists of an aqueous suspension of polystyrene spheres in a lattice which produces Bragg diffraction of incident light. The development of expressions for the filter bandwidth and attenuation utilized both dynamical x-ray diffraction theory and light scattering theory. The theoretical attenuation function indicates that extremely high absorbance values are achievable with relatively thin filters.


An extension of the engineering return-stroke models for lightning strikes to tall structures that takes into account the presence of possible reflections at the return-stroke wavefront and the presence of an upward-connecting leader is presented. Based on the approach proposed by Shostak et al., closed-form, iterative solutions for the current distribution along the channel, and the strike object are derived. Simulation results for the magnetic fields are compared with experimental waveforms associated with lightning strikes to the CN Tower (553 m). It is shown that taking into account the reflections at the return-stroke wavefront results in better agreement with the fine structure of the magnetic-field waveforms. Moreover, the obtained results are in better agreement with experimental observations, reproducing both the early narrow undershoot and the far-field zero crossing. The results also suggest that the typical double-peak response of the radiated fields from tall structures might be due to the combined effect of upward-connecting leaders and reflections at the return-stroke wavefront.


Abstract Heritage protection in Australia was initiated by community groups such as the National Trust before the legislatures at each tier of government established the statutory controls now evident. Professional bodies in the built environment arena have also generated international guidelines in recent times with the adoption of standardised approaches to valuation and management practices for heritage property attesting to the acknowledgement of their special value and the recognition of characteristics common to diverse cultures. The objective of this paper is to review elements of our perceptions of heritage reflecting value which incorporate yet transcend the merely economic. It identifies the framework of heritage management in Australia and considers the many meanings of the relevant terminology. The traditional view is then extended to consider the potential environmental benefits of heritage conservation, contributing a contemporary commentary to some economic, social and professional concerns and reflects upon the challenges of the journey yet to come.


Abstract This article examines the vulnerability of US coastal counties to erosion by combining a socioeconomic vulnerability index with the US Geological Survey's physically based coastal vulnerability index. The end product is a county-based index of overall coastal place vulnerability. The results indicate that place vulnerability along the coast is highly differentiated and influenced by a range of social, economic, and physical indicators. Regionally, Gulf Coast vulnerability is more of a product of social characteristics rather than physical attributes. The opposite is true of Pacific and Atlantic coastal counties, where physical characteristics are more influential in determining erosion-hazard vulnerability. It is clear that overall vulnerability of coastal counties cannot be determined without the union of social, economic, built-environment, and physical characteristics. Yet the methods for combining these components are not widely used at present by coastal scientists and policy makers, rendering hazards assessments incomplete and mitigation plans untenable for many places.


This paper sets forth a simple, but potentially infinitely expandable, model through which the consequences of changes in U.S. international tax rules can be explored. The question it poses is straightforward: Assume that our task is to aggregate funds from taxable U.S. or foreign individual shareholders and invest them in U.S. or foreign business operations through a U.S.-parented or foreign-parented multinational corporate group ("MNE"). What U.S. rate of tax will apply to income generated by those operations? Obviously, the answer will depend on, among other things, whether earnings are distributed currently and, in the case of the new GILTI tax, the mix of assets deployed in offshore operations. Nevertheless, we can establish the endpoints of ranges of possibilities and draw useful policy implications from our results.

Part I describes the proposed model, applying it to pre-TCJA law. The model suggests that pre-TCJA law created at least four major economic distortions: (1) a structural U.S.-law bias in favor of offshore operations, (2) incentives to shift income to foreign members of the same multinational group – in effect, to treat such income as income from offshore operations, (3) a structural U.S.-law bias in favor of foreign-parented MNEs, and (4) barriers to repatriating foreign profits to U.S. parents and their shareholders.

Part II then applies the model to post-TCJA U.S. law. It concludes that the structural bias in favor of offshore operations has been reduced but not eliminated. Opportunities and incentives to shift income to foreign corporate members have been significantly reduced for U.S.-parented groups, less so for foreign-parented groups – exacerbating the advantage U.S. law gives to foreign-parented MNEs. The pre-TCJA structural bias in favor of foreign-parented MNEs has been reduced in some contexts but increased in others. Finally, repeal of the repatriation tax has eliminated the pre-TCJA U.S. tax barrier to repatriation of foreign profits but, at the same time, made it more likely that capital will flee permanently out of U.S.-parented corporate solution and into foreign-parented corporate solution.


The French nation has been prolific of consummate diplomatists all through history, but her annals record no more brilliant achievement than that of Theophile Delcasse and Paul Cambon when they brought Great Britain into a French alliance. Even those who disapprove the consequences of their act must admit the skill and the pertinacity with which the two statesmen pursued their purpose. Their difficulties were stupendous; British governments had for years stood aloof from Continental agreements, but precedent was forced to give way before the perspicacity and perseverance of these two French statesmen. Delcasse had contributed the Entente Cordiale to the French cause in 1904. This understanding pledged British diplomatic support to France in her imperialistic venture in Morocco-nothing more; but it also provided a foundation upon which Cambon could exercise his talents in leading Great Britain into a trap. The result of these activities was the equivalent of an Anglo-French alliance. The French, to accomplish their purpose, led the British into a series of military and naval conversations as a means of working out plans of joint operations whereby the latter could assist the former in case of a Franco-German war. The conversations had their official beginning in 1906 and continued until the outbreak of war in 1914, by which time Britain was so completely obligated to France as to make her entry into the war a foregone conclusion.


Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was proposed in 1998 as a portable, universal, and definitive method for characterizing bacteria, using the human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis as an example. In addition to providing a standardized approach to data collection, by examining the nucleotide sequences of multiple loci encoding housekeeping genes, or fragments of them, MLST data are made freely available over the Internet to ensure that a uniform nomenclature is readily available to all those interested in categorizing bacteria. At the time of writing, over thirty MLST schemes have been published and made available on the Internet, mostly for pathogenic bacteria, although there are schemes for pathogenic fungi and some nonpathogenic bacteria. MLST data have been employed in epidemiological investigations of various scales and in studies of the population biology, pathogenicity, and evolution of bacteria. The increasing speed and reduced cost of nucleotide sequence determination, together with improved web-based databases and analysis tools, present the prospect of increasingly wide application of MLST.


BACKGROUND
Periodontal bone healing is a complex process involving many cells and processes that must function flawlessly for proper healing to occur. The exact progenitor cells that contribute to this process are not fully characterized. Periodontal fibroblasts and pericytes were postulated to be potential osteoprogenitor cells. This study describes a viable coculture model for the in vitro study of osteogenesis.

METHODS
Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC) and human periodontal ligament (HPDL) fibroblasts were cocultured in a layered model and monitored for the development of runt-related transcription factor 2 (runx2) and desmin expression by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Conditions shown to be osteogenic (bone morphogenetic protein [BMP]-2 and enamel matrix derivative [EMD]) were compared to a control coculture that was unstimulated.

RESULTS
The HMVEC migrated into a layer of collagen containing only HPDL cells as monitored by fluorescent labeling. runx2 and desmin expressions were increased in stimulated cocultures in week 2 compared to controls. At week 3, the unstimulated control cocultures developed the expression of runx2 and desmin, and the cocultures that were stimulated with EMD and BMP-2 achieved significantly higher levels of these factors than any of the other conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
Signs of osteogenesis were present in the cocultures in unstimulated and stimulated conditions. However, in the stimulated condition, osteogenic markers were increased at earlier time points. As such, this model may provide a good method for the study of specific cellular processes that may lead to osteogenesis and eventually for understanding the regeneration of periodontal bone in vivo.


A multi-page profile of Australian censorship regimes, discussing history, legal frameworks and practice. The profile highlights particular incidents and includes annotated bibliographies.


To search for the absorption of deuterium gas in titanium plates and the neutron emission from this process, electrical discharges between two titanium electrodes in a deuterium atmosphere have been performed. During the discharges, a temperature >300°C on the surface of the electrodes was measured. A typical characteristic of the phenomenon observed was the deuteration of the electrodes. Pressure reduction was notorious when the chamber was previously cooled with liquid air. Deuterium absorption seemed to be present in all experiments whether or not liquid air was added on the deuteration chamber. Sheets of CR39 plastic detectors, a Bonner sphere, and a fission chamber were used to look for neutron emission.


We present novel security requirements for second price auctions and a simple, efficient and practical protocol that provably maintains these requirements. Novel requirements are needed because commonly used requirements, such as the indistinguishability-based secrecy requirement of encryption schemes presented by (Goldwasser and Micali, 1982), do not fit properly in the second price auctions context. Additionally, the presented protocol uses a trustworthy supervisor that checks if the auctioneer deviated from the protocol and fines him accordingly. By making sure the expected utility of the auctioneer when deviating from the protocol is lower than his expected utility when abiding by the protocol we ascertain that a rational auctioneer will abide by the protocol. This allows the supervisor to optimize by performing (computationally-intensive) inspections of the auctioneer with only low probability.


We present a class of algorithms for independent component analysis (ICA) which use contrast functions based on canonical correlations in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. On the one hand, we show that our contrast functions are related to mutual information and have desirable mathematical properties as measures of statistical dependence. On the other hand, building on recent developments in kernel methods, we show that these criteria can be computed efficiently. Minimizing these criteria leads to flexible and robust algorithms for ICA. We illustrate with simulations involving a wide variety of source distributions, showing that our algorithms outperform many of the presently known algorithms.


The last three decades have witnessed a remarkable resurgence of the American Indian nations in the United States. The foundation of this resurgence has been the exercise of self-government – sovereignty – by the more than 560 federally-recognized tribes in the U.S. In this study, we explore legal and economic dimensions of current perceptions of and debates over the nature and extent of tribal self-rule in the United States. Our objective is to clarify and illuminate by distinguishing between myth and reality. We address key threads of thought and assumption that pervade, accurately or inaccurately, discussions in the public policy arena. What emerges is a picture in which tribes do exercise substantial, albeit limited, sovereignty. This sovereignty is not a set of "special" rights. Rather, its roots lie in the fact that Indian nations pre-exist the United States and their sovereignty has been diminished, but not terminated. Tribal sovereignty is recognized and protected by the U.S. Constitution, legal precedent, and treaties, as well as applicable principles of human rights.


I vividly recall when, in 1993, I was introduced to a small group of Rastafarians in a suburban and apparently poor and marginalized neighborhood southeast of Havana. (1) That moment was the beginning of my very frequent contacts with that group. Around the block from the house of one of those Rastas, there was a small so-called amphitheater, which would later become an important center of community cultural activities; this group of Rastas would play a prominent role in the organization of such activities. One of these events took place on October 31, 1999; a major reggae and rap concert was organized in that small place, which was jam-packed with a heterogeneous and primarily young audience of approximately 200 people. It was one of a series of cultural events in that community structured around reggae music and the Rastas' social contribution to the cultural life in the vicinity, combined with the frequent participation, lifestyle, and expressive needs of the tappers. However, none of these events was free from a number of organizational restrictions and regulations imposed by the local authorities regarding when, how long, and why the activities were organized, as well as conditioned on the usually excellent public discipline and order. Unlike the rest of the Hispanic Caribbean countries, during this period (mid- to late 1990s) socialist Cuba was undergoing a serious economic crisis--known as the special period--resulting from national and international political circumstances that reflected the long-lasting economic dependence of the nation on the Eastern European socialist bloc. The consequences of this crisis went far beyond economic boundaries; its long-run effects were more visible in society and culture. This period shook the grounds of Cubanness (cubania or cubanidad). Some intrinsic values such as egalitarianism and collectivism took on new meanings and adapted to the new circumstances. The individual had to face new and different personal problems. Individual and collective identities, reshaped mainly around religion, race, and the reemerging notion of class, became more diversified. Many small and medium-sized private businesses were legally owned by Cubans for the first time in the revolutionary years. National agri-food market reforms created unexpected negative impacts. New markets and foreign investments were urgently sought as a solution to bring the country out of the crisis. The "smokeless" international tourist industry replaced the sugar industry as the primary source of hard currency in the country. The noxious effects of the mass introduction of international tourism into Cuba (class differences, prostitution, dual currency, and others) created class and social divides seen at unprecedented levels by the predominantly young population born after 1959. Works by Jose A. Moreno (1998), Robin D. Moore (2006), and Sujatha Fernandes (2006) are a few examples of the extensive and critical studies of this period both a yard and abroad; the last two illustrate the ensuing cultural changes, mainly in the music industry. Moore (2006, 225) makes a drastic point: Cuba before the nineties "bears little resemblance to that of the present"; the special period left a mark on the musical changes and the cultural politics. Moreover, Fernandes's objective and critical understanding of the consolidation of the hegemonic socialist ideology in Cuban society during the postrevolutionary period leads to an analysis of how "new cultures" are emerging that embody cultural diversity, contestation, and protest as new forms of revolutionary attitudes (2006). In a nutshell, this period was one more "critical event" in the historical development of revolutionary Cuba, which "altered relations among specified sets of elements" (Sawyer 2006, 3). The state's exercise of control and hegemony to save the nation from the ideological attacks of the powerful enemy is evident in the nationalist discourse intended to counteract the effects of the emerging class inequalities. …


We present multiversion timestamp locking (MVTL), a new genre of multiversion concurrency control algorithms for serializable transactions. The key idea behind MVTL is simple: lock individual timestamps instead of locking objects. After presenting a generic MVTL algorithm, we demonstrate MVTL's expressiveness: we give several simple MVTL algorithms that address limitations of current multiversion schemes, by committing transactions that previous schemes would abort, by avoiding the problems of serial aborts or ghost aborts, and by offering a way to prioritize transactions that should not be aborted. We give evidence that, in practice, MVTL-based algorithms can outperform alternative concurrency control schemes.


Four infant monkeys underwent somatosensory deafferentation of both forelimbs within hours after birth. Ambulation, climbing, and reaching toward objects developed spontaneously in each case. Thumb-forefinger prehension could be trained by operant shaping methods. Two infants deafferented at birth and blinded by eyelid closure were retarded in motor development by only 1 to 2 weeks. Results indicate that topographic sensory feedback and autogenetic spinal reflexes are not necessary after birth for the development of most types of movement performed by the forelimb musculature in monkeys.


Due to high peak energy demands, existing hydropower plants operate nowadays under rough conditions to regulate the discharge and power with relatively fast and repeated opening and closing of turbines and pumps. The local deterioration of the mechanical properties of the steel-lined pressure wall induces a change of the two global indicators: the water-hammer celerity and the wave attenuation. This deterioration may arise from the weakening of the backfill concrete and/or the surrounding rock mass. In-situ measurements of the pressure shaft of the Grimsel II pumped-storage plant in Switzerland have been carried out to monitor these global indicators and to determine its frequency response function. The prototype measurements use dynamic pressure sensors placed at both ends of the pressure shaft. The data are acquired continuously and accessed on-line via internet. Different approaches to estimate the wave speed and wave attenuation coefficient generated inside the pressure shaft during start-up and shut-down of pumps and turbines have been applied. The wave speed was assessed from the Fourier transformation spectrums while the attenuation coefficient was determined by computing the root mean square of the signal followed by an exponential regression fitting. Monitoring charts have been established based on the statistical quality control method. The control limits and the overall behavior of the pattern of future measured points will be used for on-line monitoring of the shaft. The magnitudes of the frequency response function of the system and the coherence of pressure signals have been also defined. In spite of many difficulties encountered during the in-situ measurements, the results show a stable monitoring scheme of the wave speed and wave attenuation coefficient. Longer acquisition data series are needed to consolidate the control limits. The response identification function of the pressure shaft was not very efficient in this special case because of the reflection of the major part of the wave by the junction located between the pressure and surge shafts of the plant.


I. INTRODUCTION This topic is actually not as far afield from your conference topic as it might appear at first blush. Successful litigation always depends on a party having violated some statute, rule, duty, or standard of conduct. I hope, therefore, that my remarks today, which lay out my evolving views on the regulation of financial professionals, will be of interest to you. Please keep in mind, however, that my remarks today represent my own views, and not necessarily those of the Commission, my fellow Commissioners, or members of the staff.1 II. BACKGROUND I would like first to take a step back and put the question of broker-dealer and investment adviser regulation into the broader context of recent discussions of regulatory reform, and also to provide some historical background. The current securities regulatory framework in the United States was enacted by Congress in the 1930s and '40s; it is now a patchwork quilt-and a badly worn one at that. Although I am continually amazed at how well our securities statutes have done their job over the decades, when you look closely at the full fabric of our regulatory system, it is apparent, although not shocking, that there are gaps and overlaps. Some of the decisions made more than a half century ago are no longer ideal. There are important products and market actors, such as hedge funds and much of the over-the-counter financial derivatives market, that are beyond effective oversight by regulators. Other products and market actors are subject to regulation by a myriad of federal and state bodies, whose divided and sometimes unnecessarily overlapping jurisdictions create inefficiencies. Addressing these gaps and overlaps is high on the Commission's agenda, both by working with Congress to draft appropriate legislation and through the exercise of its current rulemaking and interpretive authority. The Balkanized structure of financial regulation in the United States is apparent in the regulation of financial professionals. I am going to focus my attention in this speech on broker-dealers and investment advisers because they are-with a few notable exceptions-subject to the Commission's jurisdiction. Of course, the gist of what I am going to say would apply equally well to other financial professionals, regardless of their primary regulator. For the most part, broker-dealers and investment advisers are regulated under different statutes and at times by different regulatory bodies. Yet, they often provide practically indistinguishable services to retail investors and direct them to the same products. As Chairman Schapiro recently told Congress, "[The Commission is] studying whether to recommend legislation to break down the statutory barriers that require a different regulatory regime for investment advisers and broker-dealers, even though the services they provide often are virtually identical from the investor's perspective."2 Before I go too much further, let me review a little background. In the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act), Congress defined an "investment adviser," in part, as "any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others . . . as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in . . . securities."3 A variety of people and entities that provide investment advice as they carry out their other professional activities, such as banks, lawyers, and publishers, are excepted from this definition.4 Congress also included an exception for broker-dealers. Specifically, the Advisers Act excepts from the definition of an investment adviser any broker-dealer whose provision of investment advice is "solely incidental" to the conduct of its brokerage business and who receives "no special compensation," which refers to an asset-based or fixed fee rather than commissions, markups, or markdowns.5 As former Commissioner Annette Nazareth noted: "This now longstanding exception to investment adviser regulation recognized both that broker-dealers were already comprehensively regulated and that there was a natural interrelationship between brokerage and providing information and advice about investments. …


Masculinities are not constructed and performed identically. This research project looks at how male learners at a township high school, South of Durban, define, understand, and perform masculinities. To that end, this study employs varying instruments (non-participant observation, focus group, and individual interviews) to explore the participants' understanding of their own masculine identities as well as that of their fellow male students. The study was informed by masculinities, sex-role, and black masculinities theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The participants (grade 9-11 male learners) range in age from 14 to19. These young males discussed early masculinities teachings as well as defining characteristics of an ideal "real men." Their understanding of masculine identities was shaped by family, media, church, peers, and others. They also provide information on the various masculinities constructions and performances at their school. Focusing on the opposition of dominant and subordinate masculinities, I gained firsthand knowledge from the participants about male learners who are excluded from formal and informal school process. The participants identified and discussed male learners who are said to be performing subordinate masculinities, including admonishment and sanctions used against learners who fall in this category. Emergent masculinities are highlighted from suggestions that participants provided as a means of ensuring that all learners can fully participate in the school process. Lastly, this study provides implications and recommendations for all stakeholders involved in secondary school education.


Quantum phase transitional patterns in the whole parameter space of the consistent-Q Hamiltonian in the Interacting Boson Model are studied based on an implemented Fortran code for numerical computation of the matrix elements in the SU(3) Draayer-Akiyama basis. Results with respect to both ground and some excited states of the model Hamiltonian are discussed. Quantum phase transitional behavior under a variety of parameter situations is shown. It is found that transitional behavior of excited states is more complicated. Pt isotopes are taken as examples in illustrating the prolate-oblate shape phase transition.


This paper discusses refactoring, which is one of the techniques to keep software maintainable. However, refactoring itself will not bring the full benefits, if we do not understand when refactoring needs to be applied. To make it easier for a software developer to decide whether certain software needs refactoring or not, Fowler & Beck (Fowler & Beck 2000) give a list of bad code smells. Bad smells are signs of potential problems in code. Detecting and resolving bad smells, however, remain time-consuming for software engineers despite proposals on bad smell detection and refactoring tools. Numerous bad smells have been recognized, yet the sequences in which the detection and resolution of different kinds of bad smells are performed are rarely discussed because software engineers do not know how to optimize sequences or determine the benefits of an optimal sequence. To this end, we propose a detection and resolution sequence for different kinds of bad smells to simplify their detection and resolution. We highlight the necessity of managing bad smell resolution sequences with a motivating example, and recommend a suitable sequence for commonly occurring bad smells. We evaluate this recommendation on two nontrivial open source applications, and the evaluation results suggest that a significant reduction in effort ranging from 17.64 to 20 percent can be achieved when bad smells are detected and resolved using the proposed sequence.


Outsider Scientists describes the transformative role played by "outsiders" in the growth of the modern life sciences. Biology, which occupies a special place between the exact and human sciences, has historically attracted many thinkers whose primary training was in other fields: mathematics, physics, chemistry, linguistics, philosophy, history, anthropology, engineering, and even literature. These outsiders brought with them ideas and tools that were foreign to biology, but which, when applied to biological problems, helped to bring about dramatic, and often surprising, breakthroughs. This volume brings together eighteen thought-provoking biographical essays of some of the most remarkable outsiders of the modern era, each written by an authority in the respective field. From Noam Chomsky using linguistics to answer questions about brain architecture, to Erwin Schrodinger contemplating DNA as a physicist would, to Drew Endy tinkering with Biobricks to create new forms of synthetic life, the outsiders featured here make clear just how much there is to gain from disrespecting conventional boundaries. Innovation, it turns out, often relies on importing new ideas from other fields. Without its outsiders, modern biology would hardly be recognizable.


The St. Lawrence Seaway was considered one of the world's greatest engineering achievements when it opened in 1959. The $1 billion project - a series of locks, canals, and dams that tamed the ferocious St. Lawrence River - opened the Great Lakes to the global shipping industry. Linking ports on lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario to shipping hubs on the world's seven seas increased global trade in the Great Lakes region. But it came at an extraordinarily high price. Foreign species that immigrated into the lakes unleashed a biological shift that reconfigured the world's largest freshwater ecosystems. "Pandora's Locks" is the story of politicians and engineers who, driven by hubris and handicapped by ignorance, demanded that the Seaway be built at any cost. It is the tragic tale of government agencies that could have prevented ocean freighters from laying waste to the Great Lakes ecosystems, but failed to act until it was too late. Blending science with compelling personal accounts, this book is the first comprehensive account of how inviting transoceanic freighters into North America's freshwater seas transformed these wondrous lakes.


Adjoint based optimisation has until now demonstrated a great promise for optimisation in aerodynamics due to its independence of the number of design variables. This is essential in large industrial applications, where hundreds of parameters might be needed so as to describe the geometry. Although the computational cost of the methodology is smaller than that of stochastic optimisation methods, the implementation and related program maintenance time and effort could be particularly high. The aim of the present is to contribute to the effort of redusing the cost above by examining whether programs using the adjoint methodology for optimisation can be automatically generated and maintained via Automatic Differentiation, while presenting comparable performance to hand derived adjoints. This could lead to accurate adjoint based optimisation codes, which would inherit any change or addition to the relative original Computational Fluid Dynamics code. Such a methodology is presented and all the different steps involved are detailed. It is found that although a considerable initial effort is required for preparation of the source code for differentiation, hand assembly of the sensitivity algorithms and scripting for the automation of the entire process, the target of this research program is achieved and fully automatically generated adjoint codes with comparable performance can be acquired. After applying the methodology to a number of aerodynamic shape optimisation examples, the logic is also extended to higher derivatives, which could also be included in the optimisation process for robust design.


This thesis considers the nature and use of orthographic sublexical inferences
by 6 year old children. Previous research by Goswami (1986) appears to demonstrate
that even young children are able to use sublexical inferences. Typically, Goswami has
shown children a clue word such as 'beak' and then shown previously unknown
analogous target words such as 'peak' sharing orthographic rimes (medial vowel and
terminal consonant(s)) with clue words, 'bean' which shares the head (initial
consonant(s) and medial vowel), and control words such as 'bank'. Children typically
read more target words which share rimes with taught clue words than other targets,
suggesting that rime inferences are privileged in early reading.
One problem with Goswami's task is that both clue and target word are
presented concurrently, possibly supporting the strategic use of inferences. Experiment
1 therefore contrasted inference use when clue words were either pretaught or
concurrently presented. Inference use was evident in the presence of concurrent
reminders of clue word pronunciation, but was not evident when a clue word was
pretaught. Subsequent experiments investigated inference use when children were
given greater prior exposure to clue words sharing orthographic and phonological
patterns with targets, but where concurrent prompts were avoided. Rime inferences
(e.g. 'leak' - 'peak') and vowel inferences (e.g. 'meat' - 'peak') were contrasted.
Results revealed equivalent improvements for both sets of words, suggesting a) that
children can make inferences in the absence of concurrent clue words as long as they
have had substantial exposure to other words sharing analogous letter-sound patterns,
and b) that there is no advantage for words sharing rimes over words sharing other
orthographic units such as vowel digraphs when tested under such conditions. The
results of these studies and parallel correlational studies are interpreted in terms of
models of vowel digraph inferences.


Background:A fracture of the humerus shaft is commonly encountered by orthopedic surgeons and the successful treatment of a humeral shaft fracture demands a knowledge of anatomy, surgical indications, techniques and implants, patient functions and expectations. The aim of the current study was to compare the outcome of interlocking intramedullary nailing versus plating of diaphyseal humeral shaft fracture in adults Patients and Methods: This prospective clinical trial was carried in Orthopedic Department, Zagazig Universityin Egypt Hospitals and Alwahda Hospital in Libya, on 36 cases with Humeral shaft fractures Group 1: included 18 patients managed by Intramedullary Nailing, Group 2: included 18 patients managed by plating during the period from March 2020 to December 2020.Patients were followed post operatively for union, and clinical assessment was done using The American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons scale. Results:Radial nerve injury was significantly higher in plate group and delayed union and nonunion was higher in nail with no significant.Excellent represent 72.2% in nail group and 66.7% in plate group, good represent 11.1% of both groups and fair founded 16.7% in plate group and 5.6% in nail group 2 cases were poor in Nail and 1 case was poor in plate Nail group was significantly associated with satisfaction. Conclusion: The intramedullary nail fixation for humerus is treatment of choice in osteoporotic bone, less rate of infection less blood loss, however it associated with higher incidence of shoulder discomfort, and more malunion and non unuon rate


Standard quantum computation proceeds via the unitary evolution of physical qubits (twolevel systems) that carry the information. A remarkably different model is one-way quantum computing where a quantum algorithm is implemented by a set of irreversible measurements on a large array of entangled qubits, known as the cluster state. The order and sequence of these measurements allow for different algorithms to be implemented. With a large enough cluster state and a method in which to perform single-qubit measurements the desired computation can be realised. We propose a potential implementation of one-way quantum computing using qubits encoded in the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom of single photons. Photons are good carriers of quantum information because of their weak interaction with the environment and the orbital angular momentum of single photons offers access to an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space for encoding information. Spontaneous parametric down-conversion is combined with a series of optical elements to generate a four-photon orbital angular momentum entangled cluster state and single-qubit measurements are carried out by means of digital holography. The proposed set-up, which is based on an experiment that utilised polarised photons, can be used to realise Grover's search algorithm which performs a search through an unstructured database of four elements. Our application is restricted to a two-dimensional subspace of a multi-dimensional system, but this research facilitates the use of orbital angular momentum qubits for quantum information processing and points towards the usage of photonic qudits (multi-level systems). We also review the application of Dirac notation to paraxial light beams on a classical and quantum level. This formalism is generally employed in quantum mechanics but the analogy with paraxial optics allows us to represent the classical states of light by means of Dirac kets. An analysis of the analogy between the classical and quantum states of light using this formalism, is presented.


Extract ----- Abstract The theoretical benefits of shared development costs and interoperability in armaments collaborations have led to an increase in cooperative projects, and the policy's popularity is only likely to grow. Nevertheless, most states fail to achieve their desired levels of collaboration. The question must therefore be raised as to what factors favour partnerships' success. We argue that realist dynamics play a more significant role than hitherto appreciated. International armaments collaboration is a fundamentally difficult process. Major projects cost significant sums and often require decades to complete. Multiple stakeholders, ranging from military headquarters to corporate managers, may calculate that cooperation no longer serves their interests. Governments therefore need powerful incentives to overcome domestic opposition for collaboration to succeed. Realist interests – notably, the sense of collectively balancing against threats – provide governments with the requisite motivation to overcome domestic discontent. States within alliances stand to benefit more from collaboration because they alone profit from collaboration's interoperability advantages. Alliances, furthermore, offer assurances in terms of supply security – sometimes through formal arrangements and at others through states' common interest in not jeopardising the alliance – that mitigate this risk. Realist concerns, as expressed in formal alliances, thus incentivise governments to steer projects through to completion. Keywords: Armaments collaboration, defence industries, NATO, European integration, realism


How literacy develops has been of interest to scholars and practitioners of literacy for at least the past century. The Vygotskian perspective of literacy emphasizes social interaction but places les emphasis on stages of behavior. Children build new concepts by interacting with others, such as teachers, who either provide feedback or help them accomplish a task. Based on this knowledge, differentiated instruction applies an approach to teaching and learning that gives students multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas. Vygotsky realized this over a hundred years ago and did studies on what a child can do on their own and what they can do with guidance. This is the same model of differentiated instruction. In a differentiated classroom teachers are guiding their students as they work in groups or on activities. Students are allowed to learn at their own pace and learn in a variety of ways. The challenge comes in when teachers are preparing activities to meet these needs. These activities include individual, small group and whole group.


Many studies presented in the literature pinpoint that the construction industry suffers
from a lack of efficiency if compared with other industries; e.g. manufacturing. This
bad construction industry performance can be attributed to many reasons, and these are
the focus of discussion in a literature review and are also evidenced in some case studies
carried out during this research. However, it was identified that construction does not
have a specific tool capable of recognizing the causes for this low performance, what
surfaced is the following main research question: how can production management
systems be easily evaluated and diagnosed in construction companies? Thus, the
objective of this thesis was to create a theory-based diagnostic tool, relying on the lean
production principles of flows management, to measure construction industry efficiency
at the production level. This lean diagnostic tool is able to identify and justify waste
occurrences in the construction process as well as to pinpoint opportunities for
improvement, through mitigation or elimination of those wastes.
To fully achieve the thesis' objective the research methodology adopted was
constructive research, that aims to provide solutions to explicit problems, in this case
pursuing: problem solving, innovation, models, and improved processes. Therefore, this
thesis focuses on producing theory-based innovative solutions to relevant practical
problems, added to the generation of new learning and knowledge, in the process of
constructing the solution. The constructive research cycle was composed of the
following phases: awareness of the problem, suggestions, development, evaluation and
conclusion. The final artefact is the Lean Diagnostic Tool (LEADIT), an easy to use
tool that provides solid theory-based output diagnosis of the performance of
construction processes at the production level. The elements that compose the LEADIT
structure are a 'Cover Sheet', 'Structure Interview Form', 'Leanness Form', 'Nonvalue-
adding Activities Analyses', and a 'Check-list to Avoid Making-do'. To facilitate
final adjustments and an evaluation of LEADIT's performance with end-users, four case
studies were carried out on construction sites.
Concluding this thesis, a critical analysis is made to identify if the LEADIT
complied with all the objectives proposed. The artefact's innovative aspect, contribution
to knowledge, and practice relevance are also discussed.


Abstract Creative approaches at the interface of ecology, statistics, mathematics, informatics, and computational science are essential for improving our understanding of complex ecological systems. For example, new information technologies, including powerful computers, spatially embedded sensor networks, and Semantic Web tools, are emerging as potentially revolutionary tools for studying ecological phenomena. These technologies can play an important role in developing and testing detailed models that describe real-world systems at multiple scales. Key challenges include choosing the appropriate level of model complexity necessary for understanding biological patterns across space and time, and applying this understanding to solve problems in conservation biology and resource management. Meeting these challenges requires novel statistical and mathematical techniques for distinguishing among alternative ecological theories and hypotheses. Examples from a wide array of research areas in population biology and community ecology highlight the importance of fostering synergistic ties across disciplines for current and future research and application.


Emergent economies suffer from underdeveloped market infrastructures and insufficient public institutions to enforce contract commitments and property rights. Informal reputation-based arrangements may substitute for government enforcement but they require close-knit networks that enable monitoring. Economic development also requires access to capital, information and other resources, which is enabled by wide-reaching and diverse networks, and not by closure. How is entrepreneurship possible given these conflicting demands? We examine how partnership networks and reputation channel the mobilization of capital for new enterprises, using quantitative information on 4,172 corporate partnerships during the industrialization of late imperial Russia (1869-1913). We find that reputation is locally effective in small and homogeneous network components. By contrast, founders in the largest components that form the network core raise more capital from investors but benefit less from reputation and more from brokerage opportunities and ties that reach diverse communities.


Dead wood is a substantial carbon stock in terrestrial forest ecosystems and hence a critical component of global carbon cycles. Given the limited amounts of dead wood biomass and carbon stock information for Caribbean forests, our objectives were to: (1) describe the relative contribution of down woody materials (DWM) to carbon stocks on the island of St. John; (2) compare these contributions among differing stand characteristics in subtropical moist and dry forests; and (3) compare down woody material carbon stocks on St. John to those observed in other tropical and temperate forests. Our results indicate that dead wood and litter comprise an average of 20 percent of total carbon stocks on St. John in both moist and dry forest life zones. Island‐wide, dead wood biomass on the ground ranged from 4.55 to 28.11 Mg/ha. Coarse woody material biomass and carbon content were higher in moist forests than in dry forests. No other down woody material components differed between life zones or among vegetation categories (P > 0.05). Live tree density was positively correlated with fine woody material and litter in the moist forest life zone (R= 0.57 and 0.84, respectively) and snag basal area was positively correlated with total down woody material amounts (R= 0.50) in dry forest. Our study indicates that DWM are important contributors to the total biomass and, therefore, carbon budgets in subtropical systems, and that contributions of DWM on St. John appear to be comparable to values given for similar dry forest systems.


Here, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 heterostructured nanoflowers at a low temperature of 200 °C by a one-step hydrothermal method. By tuning the reaction time under the influence of thiourea and hydrazine hydrate, we established a complete phase-engineered MoS2 with 1T and 2H phases on the surface of α-MoO3. Active sites associated with the phase-engineered (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid nanoflowers enable them to exhibit dual roles as a superior dye adsorbent and an electrocatalyst towards the hydrogen evolution reaction. The 2H-rich (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid heterostructured nanoflowers prepared at 16 h achieved a high surface area of 37.97 m2 g−1, and 97% of the RhB dye with an initial concentration of 47.9 mg L−1 was removed within 10 min through the adsorption process, which is the highest known removal efficiency reported in the literature. As a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst in acidic solution, the 1T-rich (1T/2H) MoS2/α-MoO3 hybrid heterostructured nanoflowers prepared at 12 h exhibited a highly efficient catalytic activity by achieving a low overpotential of 232 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which is comparable to those of previously reported HER catalysts based on MoS2. Moreover, this sample reached a low Tafel slope of 81 mV dec−1 and was stable when operated for more than 1000 cycles.


The bacterial gdhA gene encodes NADH-GDH enzyme. The gdhA-transgenic tobacco plants exhibited high growth performance and enhanced herbicide resistance as well as drought tolerance. In addition, the gdhA gene when expressed in maize plants could increase productivity because of improving stress tolerance. In this study, we isolated and analyzed a gdhA gene from the E. coli strain JM109. Then, the E.coli derived-gdhA sequence was modified by using OptimumGene™ software for plant compatibility. The optimized gdhA gene was inserted into an expression cassette containing the CaMV 35S promoter and the 35S terminator of the pRTRA7/3 vector. The 35S::gdhA::35S construct was ligated into the plant expression plasmid pCAMBIA1300 which then introduced into the A. tumefaciens strain EHA105. In order to examine the expression of the gdhA gene, we created gdhA-transgenic plants via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation into N. tabacum K326. The PCR analysis showed that two out of 20 plants were positive to the presence of the gdhA gene. The RT-PCR experiment also revealed that gdhA was expressed in transcriptional level. These results suggested that the gdhA expression construction can be transformed into other crops such as maize.


Abstract : The U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a goal of information dominance to achieve and exploit superior collection, fusion, analysis, and use of information to meet mission objectives. This goal depends on increasingly complex systems characterized by thousands of platforms, sensors, decision nodes, weapons, and warfighters connected through heterogeneous wired and wireless networks. These systems will push far beyond the size of today s systems and systems of systems by every measure: number of lines of code; number of people employing the system for different purposes; amount of data stored, accessed, manipulated, and refined; number of connections and interdependencies among software components; and number of hardware elements. They will be ultra-largescale (ULS) systems. The sheer scale of ULS systems will change everything. ULS systems will necessarily be decentralized in a variety of ways, developed and used by a wide variety of stakeholders with conflicting needs, evolving continuously, and constructed from heterogeneous parts. People will not just be users of a ULS system; they will be elements of the system. Software and hardware failures will be the norm rather than the exception. The acquisition of a ULS system will be simultaneous with its operation and will require new methods for control. These characteristics are beginning to emerge in today s DoD systems of systems; in ULS systems they will dominate. Consequently, ULS systems will place unprecedented demands on software acquisition, production, deployment, management, documentation, usage, and evolution practices.


Supercritical fluids have been used to form various organic solids. There are two types of formation methods: precipitation by rapid expansion of supercritical solutions (RESS) and precipitation by adding supercritical fluids as a gas antisolvent (GAS). RESS method is based on the reduction of solvent power of supercritical fluids by lowering pressure level and can produce very fine particles by controlling crystallization conditions. GAS method is a recrystallization method and exploits the ability of supercritical fluids to lower the solvent power of the liquid for the compounds in solution. As a separation method of solid mixtures the supercritical fluid crystallization has been investigated for the naphtalene-phenanthrene mixture by use of supercritical carbon dioxide.


Can table manners make or break a megamerger? Can a faxing faux-pas derail a promising business relationship? Can an improper introduction cost you a client? Can manners (or lack of them) really kill a career? Absolutely. In an era when companies are competing on the basis of service, manners are much more than a social nicety -- they're a crucial business skill. In fact, good manners are good business. This no-nonsense "manners reference" refreshes readers on everyday etiquette and makes sure they're on their best behavior. It provides quick guidance on such pertinent and timely topics as: * telephone, e-mail, and Internet etiquette * table manners *grooming and business dress * written communications * gift giving * resumes and interviews * making introductions * public speaking * networking, and more.


The Supreme Court's modern Fourth Amendment decisions rely on two central assumptions about the original understanding of the amendment. First, the Court and most modern commentators have presumed that the Fourth Amendment prefers searches and seizures pursuant to a specific warrant. Second, even where law enforcement activities do not require a warrant, the Court has presumed that the Fourth Amendment imposes a global reasonableness requirement on all searches and seizures. In a series of influential writings, Professor Akhil Amar has advocated a restructuring of Fourth Amendment law, based on a very different account of Fourth Amendment history. Professor Amar writes that the Fourth Amendment was enacted to limit warrants. According to Professor Amar, the framers viewed warrants as dangerous, because a warrant would provide a defense to law enforcement officers in a trespass damages action. Rather than imposing a warrant preference rule, Professor Amar asserts that the Fourth Amendment imposes a global reasonableness requirement on all searches and seizures. This article concludes that Professor Amar's account receives little support from historical sources. Contrary to Professor Amar's assertion, the framers did not believe that all warrants were dangerous. The framers actually intended that law enforcement officers must obtain a specific warrant before entering a house. Nor does the historical record support Professor Amar's claim that the Fourth Amendment imposed a global reasonableness requirement on all searches and seizures. For example, the Fourth Amendment was not even mentioned in early federal ship seizure cases. The real Fourth Amendment envisioned by the framers was actually a narrow document - much less sweeping in scope than either the traditional account or Professor Amar's understanding of history. The framers were focused on a single, narrow problem - unlawful physical invasions of houses by government agents. The Fourth Amendment was enacted to address this problem with a precise, bright-line rule. Before entering a house, law enforcement officers typically would need to obtain a specific warrant. But what about searches or seizures that did not involve a physical entry into a house? Outside of house searches, the Fourth Amendment was simply inapplicable.


The needs for life-long learning and the rapid development of information technologies promote the development of various types of online Community of Practices (CoPs). In online CoPs, bounded rationality and metacognition are two major issues, especially when learners face information overload and there is no knowledge authority within the learning environment. This study proposes a hybrid, trust-based recommender system to mitigate above learning issues in online CoPs. A case study was conducted using Stack Overflow data to test the recommender system. Important findings include: (1) comparing with other social community platforms, learners in online CoPs have stronger social relations and tend to interact with a smaller group of people only; (2) the hybrid algorithm can provide more accurate recommendations than celebrity-based and content-based algorithm and; (3) the proposed recommender system can facilitate the formation of personalized learning communities.


Seamless Fiction or Noisy Friction?: Audiobook Narration and the Grain of the VoiceIn the past few decades fiction has become increasingly accessible through the audio medium due to the rapid development of sound technology from CD discs to Mp3 players. More recently, the technical sophistication of smartphones has greatly contributed to the creation of a culture of ubiquitous listening. We may allow ourselves to be swayed by spatialised sound reverberating through our bodies or we may decide to indulge in an interiorised experience of headphone listening that seems to make the cranium itself resound. Either way, the digitized voice has a powerful effect on our emotions.However, enjoying fiction in this form also causes friction. The voice narrating the text is not infrequently perceived as a noisy machine. Arguably, twenty-first-century sonic friction of this kind is reminiscent of the controversy surrounding the nineteenth-century virtuoso, a figure that embodied the problem of mediation even before sound media existed and was often accused of tainting high art with commodified entertainment. In this paper I will move beyond simplistic value judgments that tend to polarise print text and audiobook format. Instead I wish to close the gap by exposing a behaviour associated with print culture through the agency of the recorded voice of narration. Subvocalisation is one case in point. In the reading of print text, the reader more or less unconsciously activates the vocal chords thus producing a rich and fully embodied experience of the text. Another example is the fairly recent Whispersync technology combining Kindle text, headphone listening and a spatialised sound experience. A main argument in my paper is that literary texts may contain audiophonic traces long before the technology as such exists.


For businesses, the unrelenting drive towards efficiency, lower cost, and higher margins, has led to the search for continuous improvements in inventory management. One area driving innovation in inventory management today is industrial vending machines - used to provide workers on the shop floor and in any production process with supplies required in a timely manner. Indeed, vending machines are not just for snacks anymore. It is becoming more ubiquitous in factories, offices, and warehouses and we expect it will continue to become more so. In this paper, we discuss the history of vending machines and the case of one of the leaders in the use of industrial vending – Fastenal Company – to analyze the important factors that have taken place during the last 3 decades which have allowed the transformation of vending from a purely consumer-oriented activity to an important component of the global supply chain. We use Fastenal Company for this study because its development mirrored to a large extent the historical development of industrial vending. The digital revolution, various methods of data handling and transmission, highly developed concepts of LEAN, Just in Time (JIT) Inventory Management, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), manufacturing cells, point-of-work (POW) systems, and Six Sigma are just some of the transformative factors we include in our analysis of this industrial transformation. We conclude with a discussion of the business gains in terms of reducing cost, raising efficiency, and increasing profitability that have accompanied the phenomenon of industrial vending. JEL: M10: M30


Abstract. Microbial decomposition of plant litter is a crucial process for the land
carbon (C) cycle, as it directly controls the partitioning of litter C
between CO2 released to the atmosphere versus the formation of new
soil organic matter (SOM). Land surface models used to study the C cycle
rarely considered flexibility in the decomposer C use efficiency
(CUEd) defined by the fraction of decomposed litter C that is
retained as SOM (as opposed to be respired). In this study, we adapted a
conceptual formulation of CUEd based on assumption that litter
decomposers optimally adjust their CUEd as a function of litter
substrate C to nitrogen (N) stoichiometry to maximize their growth rates.
This formulation was incorporated into the widely used
CENTURY soil biogeochemical
model and evaluated based on data from laboratory litter incubation
experiments. Results indicated that the CENTURY model with new
CUEd formulation was able to reproduce differences in respiration
rate of litter with contrasting C : N ratios and under different levels of
mineral N availability, whereas the default model with fixed CUEd
could not. Using the model with flexible CUEd, we also
illustrated that litter quality affected the long-term SOM formation. Litter
with a small C : N ratio tended to form a larger SOM pool than litter with
larger C : N ratios, as it could be more efficiently incorporated into SOM
by microorganisms. This study provided a simple but effective formulation to
quantify the effect of varying litter quality (N content) on SOM formation
across temporal scales. Optimality theory appears to be suitable to predict
complex processes of litter decomposition into soil C and to quantify how
plant residues and manure can be harnessed to improve soil C sequestration
for climate mitigation.


Thru-Thickness Bending Stress Distribution at Elevated Temperatures. (May 2005) Lee Conner Christian, B.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Peter Keating During the bending of flange plate used for dapped girders some highway bridge fabricators are experiencing cracking of the flange plate particularly when heat is used in assisting the bending process. Due to the extreme strains experienced during the fabrication process, investigating this problem requires the use of a finite element analysis. The fabrication process was broken down into two parts, first the heating of the plate through the use of either a furnace or an acetylene torch (thermal), and the second was the bending process (structural). The five different temperatures collected during the thermal analysis were a uniform temperature of 75F, a 1100F uniform temperature as a result of furnace heating, both five and ten minutes of air-cooling after the plate had reached a uniform temperature of 1100F, and the temperature gradient after heating the flange plate to a surface temperature of 1200F though the use of an acetylene torch. After the thermal analysis was completed, the resulting temperatures were imported into the structural model. The plate thicknesses analyzed were one, one and a half, and two inches, assuming both 50 and 70 ksi yield strengths. To achieve a 90 degree six-inch radius bend the plate was bent in five separate locations. The result of this analysis showed that with the introduction of temperature gradients into the iv fabrication process, the strains along the plate's extreme fibers increased. The model further showed that for both a one and a half and two-inch thick plate the extreme fiber strains exceeded ten percent, which further adds to the increased risk of the flange plate cracking during fabrication. The highest residual stresses through the plate's thickness occurred during cold bending. The residual stresses through the plate's thickness decreased when the fabrication process was carried out at elevated temperatures. When steel exceeds a strain of 10 to 16 percent during the fabrication process, the plate becomes susceptible to cracking. This strain limit was exceeded for plate thicknesses of one and a half and two inches. v DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents Milton and Melodee, and my sister Kristi. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Peter Keating for the guidance that he has given me throughout this research project and Dr. Anne Raich and Dr. Harry Hogan for their willingness to be on the advisory committee and the contributions that they have made. This research project was made possible through the funding given by the Texas Department of Transportation. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................x


The concept of "Housing First" has taken on a powerful status in the complex of government, non-profit and academic systems that study and seek to eliminate homelessness. It is a compelling concept, in that it has brought our society to the realization that housing instability itself is often the culmination of various underlying and intersecting issues, ranging from mental health and addiction issues to domestic abuse and poverty. The "Housing First" principle holds that homeless individuals stand a far poorer chance of improving their condition while they remain homeless; that the stability of a permanent home provides the foundation that allows individuals to begin addressing the issues that led to their housing instability in the first place. However, the elegance of the fundamental principle behind "Housing First" also risks creating an illusion, wherein agencies and governments might too easily conclude that the entirety of this approach to ending homelessness is merely to begin housing the homeless. While that is a step in the process, it is but a piece of the Housing First approach. And unless all the various elements of the approach are also included in the actual work done on the ground, the success observed so far in communities that have tried the Housing First approach will not necessarily be replicated. This can lead to disappointment for those trying to implement new strategies, undermine the effectiveness of Housing First, and most importantly, fail to fully help those individuals in need. Housing First encompasses a strategic application of key principles across the entire homeless-serving system. When it is introduced into a new jurisdiction, it must be accompanied by an overhaul of the current approach to social policy and service delivery. The implementation of Housing First requires a difficult and systematic process, beginning with planning and strategy development that recognizes how every part of the homeless-serving system will co-ordinate around the Housing First philosophy. In many cases, the entire organizational infrastructure will have to be re-aligned in a way that supports the implementation of a Housing First approach. On the ground, services must be co-ordinated in a way such that clients can be assessed by level of need using standardized methods across all agencies, while reducing duplication of services across agencies. An important part of this is the requirement for an effective and integrated information management, so that different agencies can track what services are — and are not — being provided to each client, to what effect, and how the client's need level changes over time. Finally, there must be formal systems of performance management and quality assurance to clarify whether systems are operating as they should, and whether goals — most importantly, improving the condition of clients — are being met. There is a great deal of growing support for the Housing First approach in the non-profit sector and government sector alike. This presents an opportunity to make real progress in making wholesale changes to our approaches for ending homelessness, which have been needed for some time. Key to that is leveraging the widespread enthusiasm for Housing First programming into a reform for the entire homeless-serving system. Housing First as a popular catchphrase is not a magic bullet for ending homelessness — but as a philosophical basis for guiding broader change throughout the system, it does have the potential to get us closer to that ultimate goal.


Abstract This study investigates the acquisition of labio-velar stops by Ga-speaking children in Ghana. Such stops were elicited in initial, intervocalic, and pre-lateral positions through a picture naming task. Sixty Ga-dominant and Ga-English children at 5-, 61/2-, and 8-years of age were tested. All age groups showed some difficulty with the doubly articulated stops, but this was relative to voicing, phonological environment, age, and input. Performance on the voiceless labio-velar stop was better than on the voiced labio-velar stop, and better in intervocalic position than in word-initial and pre-lateral positions. Older children performed better than younger children and Ga-dominant children better than Ga-English children. Performance was better when children did not receive a prompt than when they did. Analysis of modifications reveals frequent processes of simplification to labial singleton stops, some voicing changes, and the occurrence of processes of vowel insertion between the stops and /l/. These findings are discussed in terms of universals of speech sound acquisition, the role of input, and the influence of language-specific factors on children's performance.