This dissertation is aimed at generating new knowledge on Recurrent Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (RenFIS) and to explore its application in building automation. Inferential sensing is an attractive approach for modeling the behavior of dynamic processes. Inferential sensor based control strategies are applied to optimize the control of residential heating systems and demonstrate significant energy saving and comfort improvement. Despite the rapidly decreasing cost and improving accuracy of most temperature sensors, it is normally impractical to use a lot of sensors to measure the average air temperature because the wiring and instrumentation can be very expensive to install and maintain. To design a reliable inferential sensor, of fundamental importance is to build a simple and robust dynamic model of the system to be controlled. This dissertation presents the development of an innovative algorithm that is suitable for the robust black-box model. The algorithm is derived from ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) and is referred to as RenFIS. Like all other modelling techniques, RenFIS performance is sensitive to the training data. In this study, RenFIS is used to model two different heating systems, hot water heating system and forced warm-air heating system. The training data is collected under different operational conditions. RenFIS gives better performance if trained with the data set representing overall qualities of the whole universe of the experimental data. The robustness analysis is conducted by introducing simulated noise to the training data. Results show that RenFIS is less sensitive than ANFIS to the quality of training data. The RenFIS based inferential sensor is then applied to design and inferential control algorithm that can improve the operation of residential heating systems. In current practice, the control of heating systems is based on measurement of the air temperature at one point within the building. The inferential control strategy developed through this study allows the control to be based on an estimate of the overall thermal performance. This is achieved through estimating the average room temperature using a RenFIS based inferential sensor and incorporating the estimate with conventional control technology. The performance of this control technology has been investigated through simulation study.


In response to the recent financial crisis, the U.S. Government introduced new rules which allow Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to issue elective stock dividends (ESDs), i.e., noncash dividends, to satisfy their distribution requirements. The purported goal of these rules was to provide temporary relief to REITs facing cash flow problems. We investigate how the introduction of these rules affects dividend policy of REITs. Surprisingly, we document that only 17 REITs chose to issue elective stock dividends. We examine the characteristics of these REITs and find that their cash flows are similar to REITs that do not select these dividends. This suggests that cash flow problems are unlikely to be the primary determinant of the ESD issuance decision. Instead, our findings indicate the decision to pay ESDs is related to the level of loans that are close to maturity, REIT size, growth prospects and poor performance during the financial crisis. Furthermore, we find that the same factors determine the ratio, amount and frequency of stock dividends issued by these REITs. We also examine the response of shareholders to ESDs announcements and find positive abnormal returns surrounding these dividend announcements.


On April 22, 2014 the Supreme Court heard argument in American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., a case involving such technological boondogglery, such Rube Goldbergian skullduggery, such naked and unapologetic circumvention of the perceived purposes and aims of the Copyright Act and its enactors, that it will strike Textualism at the very core. In doing so, however, Aereo offers an occasion for deeper reflection on how we should understand the Copyright Act. Is there space for equity in the Copyright Act? The answer is an emphatic yes. But that equity is not to be found in judicially fashioned equities, spun from abstract incantations of the Act's purposes or values. The answer is in its text.


When adopting multi-core systems for safety-critical applications, certification requirements mandate bounding the delays incurred in accessing shared resources. This is the case of global memories, whose access is often regulated by memory controllers optimized for average-case performance and not designed to be predictable. As a consequence, worst-case bounds on memory access delays often result to be too pessimistic, drastically reducing the advantage of having multiple cores. This paper proposes a fine-grained analysis of the memory contention experienced by parallel tasks running on a multi-core platform. To this end, an optimization problem is formulated to bound the memory interference by leveraging a three-phase execution model and holistically considering multiple memory transactions issued during each phase. Experimental results show the advantage in adopting the proposed approach on both synthetic task sets and benchmarks.


To elucidate the pathogenic mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration in AIDS patients with cognitive deficits, we have examined the toxic effect of the lentivirus lytic peptide 1 (LLP-1) corresponding to the carboxyl terminus of HIV-1 transmembrane glycoprotein gp41 on human neuronal and glial cell lines. LLP-1 induced a significant lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, a marker of cell death) release from these cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, while the noncytolytic LLP-1 analog 2 had little effect. Application of LLP-1 to SH-SY5Y, a well-characterizedhuman neuronal cell line, causedthe decline of intracellular glutathione (GSH) content that appeared to occur before a significant LDH release. Furthermore, LLP-1 elicited a significant loss of mitochondrial function as measured by mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP). Among the reducing agents and antioxidants tested, GSH and a GSH prodrug N-acetylcysteine (NAC) provided protection against LLP-1-induced neuronal cell death, evidently by restoring the intracellular GSH levels and blocking the disruption of mitochondrial integrity. Thus, gp41-derived LLP-1 may be a potential neurotoxic agent capable of causing the intracellular GSH depletion and disturbing the mitochondrial function, possibly contributing to the neurodegenerative cascade as seen in HIV-1-associated dementia. Our data indicate that restoring both GSH concentration and mitochondrial function may hold promise as possible therapeutic strategies for slowing disease progression of dementia in AIDS patients.


The current BTS/SIGN asthma guideline emphasises that the diagnosis of asthma is a clinical one with no standardised definition of the type, severity or frequency of symptoms, nor of the findings on investigation that invariably leads to a diagnosis of asthma.1 However, central to all definitions of asthma is the presence of variable airflow obstruction. Documenting a history of changes in airflow obstruction either after bronchodilator treatment (reversibility) or spontaneously (variability) is an essential part of an asthma diagnosis, as well as contributing to assessment of asthma control.

The variability of asthma in an individual has led to management strategies that educate and empower patients, or parents, to adjust their own therapy within a framework agreed with their clinician. This approach of 'guided self- management' has been shown to be effective in adults and children.2 ,3

Clark and Gong note that using a self-management approach acknowledges that clinicians cannot provide direction for every disease contingency. For effective disease control, patients need to exercise a high degree of independent decision making about adjusting their treatment. To do so, patients need to develop their own skills in self-management. Self-management is underpinned by the behavioural theory of self-regulation that has at its heart a cycle of 'observation—judgment—reaction/s'.4 It is by repeated iterations of this cycle that patients develop their personal repertoire of asthma management strategies.

Two important questions necessarily arise. First, what observations best allow the patient/parent to monitor their asthma? Studies of self-management training programmes have commonly based asthma plans on assessment of symptoms and/or peak flow monitoring.2 ,3 ,5 ,6

Then, second, how best do clinicians ensure that patients are appropriately guided towards effective disease control? One problem is that, over time, a large number of patients fail to take prescribed medications in …


Abstract A new great game is under way in Myanmar. The huge offshore gas findings stretching from the borders of Bangladesh down to Thailand have resulted in a flurry of diplomatic manoeuvring with China, Thailand and other ASEAN countries as well as United States, India, the European Union, Australia and Russia all playing key roles. The equations are bound to change and many countries, for fear of losing influence with Yangon, are seeking a more 'pragmatic' approach. As a result, the ruling regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SDPC), saturated with natural gas, finds itself at the centre of unexpected attention and unaccustomed wooing. Whether it be the Sino-Indian economic contests and resource competition in the Burmese gas sector or Thailand's increasing interest and growing influence in Myanmar, together this presents important leverage points for the SPDC, which has no doubt made it easier for the regime to withstand pressure for political reforms.


The introduction of third generation (3G) public wireless network infrastructures, such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), enable the development of innovative mobile services. For example, deploying m-health services which embed tele-monitoring and tele-treatment services become feasible with the role-out of 3G networks. These services allow healthcare professionals to monitor a mobile patient's vital signs and provide feedback to this patient anywhere and any time. The performance of m-health services perceived by endusers depends on the serviceableness of 3G networks to support these services. Hence, the performance of 3G networks is a critical factor for successful development of m-health services. In this paper, we present a methodology for measurements-based performance assessment of 3G networks that aim to support m-health services. This methodology has been applied to evaluate end-user perceived service performance, in relation to the performance (i.e. serviceableness) of a 3G network. In addition, we analyse the measurements with the purpose to improve the end-to-end delay characteristics of the telemonitoring service as well as optimize the (derived) goodput behaviour of this 3G network. Our results show that the goodput behaviour is asymmetric and depends on a bearer assignment policy of the network. Based on our results we provide guidelines for the design of application protocols for m-health services and how these protocols deal with the changing performance behaviour of 3G networks.


Muriel Spark was a poet before she was a novelist: All the Poems presents the full range of the poetry of one of the most acclaimed modern British writers. Here are villanelles, ballads and epigrams, as well as freer forms, all marked by brilliantly precise observation and command of her medium. Her poems are witty, idiosyncratic and haunting, transforming the familiar into glittering moments of strangeness, revealing the dark music beneath the mundane. The edge of danger and wry insights in Muriel Spark's poems are equally unforgettable. 'Although most of my life has been devoted to fiction, I have always thought of myself as a poet. I do not write poetic prose, but feel that my outlook on life and my perceptions of events are those of a poet, Whether in prose or verse, all creative writing is mysteriously connected with music and I always hope this factor is apparent throughout my work.' Muriel Spark


The relationship between social class and nutritional status, although frequently presumed true, has scarcely ever been studied empirically. The health and nutritional status of a sample of children from different social classes in the city of S. Paulo (Brazil) are studied by means of an on operational classification of social class. Through the analysis of the height for age distribution normal growth--and, therefore, favourable health status--as found only among the burgeoisie and the small-burgeoisie, these two classes together constituting about 30% of the total population. Significant divergences from an expected anthropometric standard were found among all the segments of the working-class population. Differences in income and schooling among the classes corroborate the empirical link found between social class and health and nutritional status.


The Outer Hebrides Fault Zone is a major ESE-dipping detachment exposed within basement gneisses of the Archaean–Palaeoproterozoic Lewisian Complex, northwest Scotland. The fault zone exhibits a long-lived displacement history and was active during Proterozoic, end-Silurian, Carboniferous and Mesozoic times. The earliest deformation event preserved onshore was associated with top-to-the-NW ductile thrusting. A previous study proposed that thrust-related protomylonitic and mylonitic fabrics are cross-cut by amphibolites ('Younger Basics') and Laxfordian granite and pegmatite sheets. This evidence was used to suggest that ductile thrusting occurred during the Palaeoproterozoic Inverian event at c. 2500 Ma. Our observations demonstrate, however, that mylonitic fabrics within the ductile thrust zone are superimposed on all components of the gneiss complex including amphibolites and Laxfordian intrusions. It therefore follows that the Outer Hebrides Fault Zone cannot be older than c. 1685 Ma, the age of recently dated Laxfordian granites in the Outer Hebrides. Geochronological studies have shown that the basement blocks of the northern Outer Hebrides and Scottish mainland have different geological histories and were amalgamated during Proterozoic times at or after c. 1700 Ma. We propose that early ductile thrusting along the Outer Hebrides Fault Zone formed part of this amalgamation process leading to burial and reheating of the footwall gneisses in Lewis and north Harris. This would account for the c. 1100 Ma thermal event recorded by previous workers and implies that ductile thrusting along the Outer Hebrides Fault Zone is of Grenvillian age.


One purpose of this article is to shed light upon the concept of voice in writing, related to genres and sources in humanities. Another purpose is to participate in the academic discussion on voice. We want to raise awareness about the use of voice, in general, among students and supervisors. We want to inspire and motivate students to voice their texts explicitly and naturally – by using different genres and by entering into dialogue with central sources. Such sources can be used to create new meaning and for sense making, but they do not carry a given answer (Dervin, 1999; Holliday & Rogers, 2013). The variation and complexity of voice is present in the variety of sources students find and use, such as articles, textbooks, dissertations, interviews, films, pictures, etc. Voices are explicit or implicit in all kind of sources used. Voices emerge as authoritative and experienced within academia, for instance in textbooks and articles. Voices may be creative and inviting. Some are attractive and believable, others hesitant or uncertain, as voices in many texts written by students. Students, at all academic levels, express insecurity when working with academic writing and genres. However, by analysing and practicing different academic genres and by attending to voice(s) in others' texts, students are empowered to explore genres and sources and to voice their own texts. By using and entering into dialogue with various sources, students make choices about how to present and interact with sources. In these ways, students develop their voices and improve their texts. Our theoretical point of departure deals with voice, dialogue (Elbow, 2007; Bakhtin, 1986) and the use of sources combined with the search for information (Dervin, 1999; Holliday & Rogers, 2013). We analyse and compare two examples of the use of sources in academic texts, in order to show how texts representing two genres, use voices and sources in different ways. We present supervisors' guidance strategies, representing supervisors' voices. We – and supervisors – mention students' general challenges with academic writing. Finally, we present dialogic "Students Can Write!" How can Students Explore and Improve their Writing by Using Different Academic Genres, Sources and Voices? 40 strategies and propose a new dialogic strategy. This new strategy combines and unites reading and writing in different genres, drawing on and entering into dialogue with central sources, with different and clear ways of voicing; explicit and implicit voicing. Our dialogic strategy – and other intended dialogic strategies – can be used by students and all supervisors who assist students in writing, when dealing with voice(s) and sources.


The brash and outrageously funny autobiography of music legend Frank Zappa--now in trade paperback. Here is the real story of how he became the state of the art in weirdness, as only he can tell it: wild rock 'n' roll road stories, confrontations with bureaucratic idiocy, and more. Black-and-white photographs and line drawings throughout.


This paper presents the critical issues and methodologies to improve robotic machining performance with industrial robots. A complete solution using active force control is introduced to address various issues arouse during the robotic machining process. Programming complex contour parts without a CAD model is made easy using force control functions such as lead-through and path-learning. The problem of process control is treated with a novel methodology that consists of real-time deformation compensation for quality and controlled material removal rate (CMRR) for process efficiency. Experimental results show that higher productivity as well as better surface quality can be achieved, indicating a promising and practical use of industrial robots for machining applications that is not available at present.


This article is an attempt to give readers a place to start when confronted with the problems particular to plastics. Only a few aspects of the care of plastics can be presented in a newsletter format. However, I have listed the following sources and the references at the end of the article for those who need more in-depth coverage of the subject. The resources noted below should be surveyed regularly to keep abreast of rapidly accumulating new developments.


Abstract : This project on patterns of failure is based on experiences with actual programs and employs concepts from systems thinking to analyze dynamics that have been observed in software development and acquisition practice. The software acquisition and development archetypes, based in part on the general systems archetypes, have been created as part of an ongoing effort to characterize and help manage patterns of counterproductive behavior in software development and acquisition. This report introduces key concepts in systems thinking and the general systems archetypes, and then applies these concepts to the software-reliant acquisition domain. Twelve selected software acquisition and development archetypes are each described and illustrated by a real-life scenario, and guidance is provided on both recovering from and preventing these dynamics. Finally, the authors consider implications of the work and future directions for research.


Abstract Does neorealism offer a convincing account of great power balancing behavior? Many scholars argue that it does not. This conclusion rests on a misunderstanding of neorealist theory and an erroneous reading of the evidence. Properly specified, neorealism holds that great powers place an overriding emphasis on the need for self-help. This means that they rely relentlessly both on arming and on imitating the successful military practices of their peers to ensure their security. At the same time, they rarely resort to alliances and treat them with skepticism. There is abundant historical evidence to support these claims. Since 1816, great powers have routinely achieved an effective balance in military capabilities with their relevant competitors and promptly copied the major military innovations of the period. Case studies show that these outcomes are the product of states' efforts to ensure security against increasingly capable rivals. Meanwhile, the diplomatic record yields almost no examples of firm peacetime balancing coalitions over the past 200 years. When alliances have formed, great powers have generally doubted the reliability of their allies and of their opponents' allies. Thus neorealism provides a solid foundation for explaining great power balancing behavior.


As wireless technologies are competing with wired solutions in delivering information, there is a clear shift of e-learning towards mobile learning (m-learning). M-learning, which involves both wireless communications and mobile computing, provides learning opportunities to people without wire-based Internet infrastructure or that are continually on the move. At the same time, a large number of educational e-content providers produce and distribute materials that cover a wide range of topics (very often different providers may cover the same topic), differ in quality or presentation format and have different cost.

In this context this paper presents a COST-efficient PERsonalised Wireless based E-LEARNing Service (Cost/We-Learn) that provides support for the selection of personalised educational rich media content (e.g. multimedia, pictures, graphics and text) that best suits user goals, device and cost constraints. Assuming that the user has simultaneous access to multiple wireless networks, Cost/We-Learn enables the selection of that access network over which the selected personalised content will be delivered such as the overall cost matches user budget constraints. This overall cost includes both the price paid for the selected educational material and the delivery cost.


There is a growing trend among some internet software companies to involve users in the translation process by inviting or enabling them to shape the way the final product reads in their native languages. This is called translation crowdsourcing, and an increasing number of user-translators are willing to dedicate their spare time to contribute to such undertakings. What motivates them to do so, and how could their motivation be boosted? In order to answer these questions, this article looks at Facebook and Skype, examples of the two most common translation crowdsourcing models: open community and closed community. The first part of the article describes these two models, highlighting their principal differences and the business needs that help determine which model is adopted. The second part examines the origins of user-translator motivation and the ways that these two software companies maintain and boost motivation.


Multivariate image analysis tools are used for analyzing dynamic or multidimensional Positron Emission Tomography, PET data with the aim of noise reduction, dimension reduction and signal separation. Principal Component Analysis is one of the most commonly used multivariate image analysis tools, applied on dynamic PET data. Independent Component Analysis is another multivariate image analysis tool used to extract and separate signals. Because of the presence of high and variable noise levels and correlation in the different PET images which may confound the multivariate analysis, it is essential to explore and investigate different types of pre-normalization (transformation) methods that need to be applied, prior to application of these tools. In this study, we explored the performance of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to extract signals and reduce noise, thereby increasing the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in a dynamic sequence of PET images, where the features of the noise are different compared with some other medical imaging techniques. Applications on computer simulated PET images were explored and compared. Application of PCA generated relatively similar results, with some minor differences, on the images with different noise characteristics. However, clear differences were seen with respect to the type of pre-normalization. ICA on images normalized using two types of normalization methods also seemed to perform relatively well but did not reach the improvement in SNR as PCA. Furthermore ICA seems to have a tendency under some conditions to shift over information from IC1 to other independent components and to be more sensitive to the level of noise. PCA is a more stable technique than ICA and creates better results both qualitatively and quantitatively in the simulated PET images. PCA can extract the signals from the noise rather well and is not sensitive to type of noise, magnitude and correlation, when the input data are correctly handled by a proper pre-normalization. It is important to note that PCA as inherently a method to separate signal information into different components could still generate PC1 images with improved SNR as compared to mean images.


Meningoencephalitis and community endocarditis caused by Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia) is uncommon, with a poor prognosis. This severity is related to the virulence of the organism. Associated fragile terrain is frequent and participates in infection prognosis. We report the first Moroccan case involving meningoencephalitis and community endocarditis K. pneumonia in adults with craniofacial trauma and chronic alcoholism history. The history and clinical data associated with imagery are in favor of a complicated meningitis endocarditis K. pneumoniae. The early management of our patient resulted in a cure without sequelae. This case illustrates the severity of community acquired K. pneumoniae infection. It also helps to emphasize the search of heart and neuromeningeal location in front of any sepsis related to this germ.


The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that administration of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a polyphenol present in abundance in widely consumed tea, inhibits cell proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis in breast cancer patients. EGCG in 400 mg capsules was orally administered three times daily to breast cancer patients undergoing treatment with radiotherapy. Parameters related to cell proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis were analyzed while blood samples were collected at different time points to determine efficacy of the EGCG treatment. Compared to patients who received radiotherapy alone, those given radiotherapy plus EGCG for an extended time period (two to eight weeks) showed significantly lower serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and reduced activation of metalloproteinase-9 and metalloproteinase-2 (MMP9/MMP2). Addition of sera obtained from patients treated with combination of radiotherapy and EGCG feeding for 2-8 weeks to in vitro cultures of highly-metastatic human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells resulted in the following significant changes: (1) suppression of cell proliferation and invasion; (2) arrest of cell cycles at the G0/G1 phase; (3) reduction of activation of MMP9/MMP2, expressions of Bcl-2/Bax, c-Met receptor, NF-κB, and the phosphorylation of Akt. MDA-MB-231 cells exposed to 5-10 µM EGCG also showed significant augmentation of the apoptosis inducing effects of γ-radiation, concomitant with reduced NF-κB protein level and AKT phosphorylation. These results provide hitherto unreported evidence that EGCG potentiated efficacy of radiotherapy in breast cancer patients, and raise the possibility that this tea polyphenol has potential to be a therapeutic adjuvant against human metastatic breast cancer.


Electrically stimulated migration of silver ions has been used to fabricate microlens arrays in K8 glasses. A theoretical model has been developed for the dependence of the parameters of the microlenses on the technological regimes for fabricating them. These microlens arrays were used in Shack–Hartmann sensors to determine the wave-front distortions.


This exhaustive and yet enthralling study considers the life and work of al-Mutanabbi (915-965), often regarded as the greatest of the classical Arab poets. A revolutionary at heart and often imprisoned or forced into exile throughout his tumultuous life, al-Mutanabbi wrote both controversial satires and when employed by one of his many patrons, laudatory panegyrics. Employing an ornate style and use of the ode, al-Mutanabbi was one of the first to successfully move away from the traditionally rigid form of Arabic verse, the 'qasida'.


In this paper we describe a face detection algorithm, the key idea being to determine roughly the skin regions of a 2D color image and searching for eyes through them. The technique is based on a support vector machine trained to separate sub images representing eyes from others. The algorithm can be used in face image database management systems both as a first step of a person identification, and to discriminate the images on the basis of the number of faces in them.


In a series of mesocosm experiments, with barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grown on podzolic soil material, we have investigated inorganic carbon cycling through the gaseous and liquid phases and how it is affected by different soil amendments. The mesocosm amendments comprised the addition of 0, 9.6, or 21.2 kg m−2 of crushed concrete waste (CCW) or 1 kg lime m−2. The CCW and lime treatments increased the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) percolation flux by about 150 and 100%, respectively, compared to the controls. However, concurrent increases in the CO2 efflux to the atmosphere (ER) were more than one order of magnitude higher than increases in the DIC percolation flux. Analysis of soil solutions, coupled reactive‐transport modeling studies, and a decrease in soil carbonate contents over the experiment altogether suggested that the increased ER from amended mesocosms was derived from the carbonate contained in the amendments, which, hence, mostly escaped to the atmosphere. Our results are important in the context of climate change due to the widespread application of lime to acidic soils. The CCW amendment had no adverse effects on plant growth and groundwater quality.


Distributed computing systems are increasingly being created as self-organizing collections of many autonomous (human or software) agents cooperating as peers. Peer-to-peer coordination introduces, however, unique and potentially serious challenges. When there is no one "in charge", dysfunctions can emerge as the collective effect of locally reasonable decisions. In this paper, we consider the dysfunction wherein inefficient resource use oscillations occur due to delayed status information, and describe novel approaches, based on the selective use of misinformation, for dealing with this problem. A model of several servers offering equivalent service to independent clients is presented and studied numerically and analytically; the spreading of misinformation about the queue status is found to dampen oscillations and improve system performance for a wide range of parameters.


summary: in this paper some hypotheses on an inverse relationship between favourite attitudes against the law, sanction expectations and deviant behavior are tested on shoplifting data. the data are collected through written interviews of 245 university students and students visiting a vocational school. the multivariate analysis shows that there are very weak effects of subjective sanction fear on the number of delinquent acts. in accordance with the more complex "interaction-hypotheses" stronger sanction effects are expected in groups not loyal to the law than in groups with loyal attitudes. although the data conform the hypothesis, the absolute magnitude of the sanction effect is quite low even in the "unloyal" group. the important roleof the reference groups is stressed by the large contribution of the factor "attitudes and deviant behavior of friends" in explaining shoplifting.;


The effects of prostaglandin F2 alpha on renal function were studied in hydropenic dogs. Peak responses occurred in 45 to 60 min. PGF 2 alpha (0.3 microgram.kg-1.min-1) increased urine flow by 1.3 +/- 0.3 ml/min and increased sodium excretion by 27.1 +/- 4.6 microEq/min. Papillary nonurea solute concentration was decreased from 981 +/- 153 to 347 +/- 58 mOsm/kg of H2O and the corticomedullary urea gradient was abolished. Although renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, peritubule capillary hydrostatic pressure and renal venous pressure were not changed by PGF2 alpha, urine from the infused kidney became distinctly hypotonic. A "washout" of medullary solutes was not supported by the data since the volume of distribution of 125I-albumin, an index of papillary perfusion rate, was not changed by PGF2 alpha. The contribution of decreased salt reabsorption from Henle's loop was evaluated in dogs that received furosemide and produced essentially isotonic urine. Subsequent intrarenal PGF2 alpha, increased CH2O and produced hypotonic urine with no significant further change in UNaV. These studies suggest that inhibition by PGF2 alpha of salt reabsorption from the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop may account for the modest natriuretic effect and contribute to the dissipation of the nonurea solute gradient. Additionally, there is an inhibition of both vasopressin-mediated water and urea reabsorption which contributed to the diuretic and hyposthenuric effects of infused prostaglandins.


Aims: To describe the clinical features, diagnosis and management of children with tuberculosis in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Methods: Cases of culture-confirmed and clinically diagnosed tuberculosis were reported to the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit from December 2003 to January 2005. Results: 385 eligible cases were reported. Pulmonary disease was present in 154 (40%) children. Just over half (197, 51%) of children presented clinically and most of the remainder (166, 43%) at contact tracing. A probable source case was identified for 73/197 (36%) of the children presenting clinically. The majority (253, 66%) of children had a microbiological and/or histological investigation, and culture results were available for 240 (62%), of whom 102 (26%) were culture positive. Drug resistance was reported in 15 (0.4%) cases. 44% (128/292) of non-white children did not receive the recommended quadruple drug therapy. Seven children died. Only 57% (217) of children were managed by a paediatric subspecialist in respiratory or infectious diseases or a general paediatrician with a special interest in one of these areas. Fewer than five cases were reported from 119/143 (83%) respondents and 72 of 96 (75%) centres. Conclusions: Many paediatricians and centres see few children with tuberculosis. This may affect adherence to national guidelines. Managed clinical networks for children with tuberculosis may improve management and should be the standard of care.


More and more college students are turning to Web resources for gathering information for their report writing. Many of them, however, use websites inefficiently and seem unaware of their limitations. Existing Website evaluation tools show lack of effectiveness. Furthermore, at present there are only a few website evaluation tools developed in Japan. The purpose of this study is to introduce the process of making an evaluation scale for websites as information resources, and to examine the effectiveness of the scale. A literature review of previous studies has made it clear that evaluation criteria for websites have two main dimensions. They are: (1) information reliability and (2) accessibility to information. The former dimension consists of five sub-dimensions: authority, accuracy/objectivity, coverage, currency/stability, and purpose/audience. For each of the five sub-dimensions and the second main dimension, twenty evaluation items were chosen. A 20-item/6-point Likert-scale Website evaluation scale was then created. Effectiveness of the Website scale was examined using two experiments. In the first experiment, subjects were 110 Japanese college students and 5 specialists. The subjects assessed two kinds of Websites by using the scale. The two Websites were deliberately created so that their quality differed, one of a higher quality, and the other, a lower quality. The results of the experiment have shown the scale to possess a high level of stability, and that individual differences did not have significant effect in Website evaluation. The Website scale was found to be easy-to-use and suitable for most users. In the second experiment, subjects used in the experiments were 91 Japanese college students. The subjects went over the 60 items in the checklist for Website evaluation before and after assessing the Website using the Website scale. The results of the checklist taken before and after the evaluation of website were compared. The result also suggests that the student's consciousness in Website evaluation has risen, and essential skill in evaluating websites as information resources was acquired by using the Website scale. These findings have indicated that the Website scale is indeed an effective tool for persons who use websites as information resources.


Alpine rivers have been channelized by significant river training works in the past two centuries and are now disconnected from their natural environment. In addition, their flow regime is often affected by hydropower plant operation. Also the risk of flood damages is increasing continuously due to urbanization requiring additional flood protection measures. Nevertheless, such trained rivers still have high potential for renewable energy production. Furthermore, there is often a need for biotope restoration and creation of leisure infrastructures. New hydraulic schemes on such rivers have a chance to obtain public acceptance only if they are designed as multipurpose projects, which can alone ensure high synergies between different goals. Multipurpose projects are complex systems and have to be assessed with an appropriate global approach. Based on a network thinking approach, this article presents a global qualitative system analysis specially adapted for a typical multipurpose run-of-river power plant for the six project themes involved: (1) hydraulic scheme and river flow regime, (2) energy, (3) economy, (4) leisure activities, (5) groundwater and (6) ecology. The qualitative network thinking method developed by Gomez and Probst for business strategies is, for the first time, applied and enhanced for the assessment of such a multipurpose hydraulic scheme. Each theme, i.e. purpose of the project, is analysed separately, followed by a comprehensive study of the six themes combined together. Based on a network representation of the global system, three groups of factors are distinguished describing the sizes, the operations and the goals of the project. The size factors characterize the main geometrical aspects of the hydraulic structures, which can define the best layout of the project. The operation factors allow the optimization of the management of the reservoir. Finally, the objective factors characterize the synergies obtained by the multipurpose project. The developed methodology is illustrated with a case study of a multipurpose hydroelectric run-of-river power plant.


This paper presents an overview of the SOE sector in Peru, with special focus on the fiscal risks that it may create. The analysis suggests that such risks have generally been contained through a centralized system of governance and controls, including through the holding company, FONAFE. However, this system has also had costs in terms of the SOEs' efficiency and their ability to plan, finance, and execute needed investments in both the maintenance and the expansion of existing infrastructure. Therefore, the challenge for the Peruvian authorities is to design and implement reforms that, while safeguarding fiscal responsibility and sustainability, would strengthen the SOEs' incentives to operate efficiently, compete effectively with private
enterprises in the same sector, and improve the access to and the quality of their services to the population. The paper makes a number of suggestions for such reforms.


The evaluation of physical education (PE) multimedia teaching refers to the prediction of physical education multimedia teaching quality in the absence of initial multimedia teaching information. Therefore, the evaluation method of PE multimedia teaching based on unsupervised feature learning has achieved good performance. But, its quality prediction accuracy decreases significantly with the reduction of the feature dimension. In order to overcome this defect, the author combines the active learning strategy with the unsupervised feature learning and proposes a kind of data assimilation framework to improve the discriminability of the representation of teaching features. The results show that the proposed method can enhance the accuracy of teaching quality prediction by 8%. Experiments show that, when feature dimension is relatively low, the proposed method can improve the teaching quality prediction accuracy by 8% compared with the method based on unsupervised feature learning. At the same time, the performance of the proposed method is superior to that of the other physical education multimedia teaching evaluation methods at present.


Aim  Estimates of geographic range size derived from natural history museum specimens are probably biased for many species. We aim to determine how bias in these estimates relates to range size.

Location  We conducted computer simulations based on herbarium specimen records from localities ranging from the southern United States to northern Argentina.

Methods  We used theory on the sampling distribution of the mean and variance to develop working hypotheses about how range size, defined as area of occupancy (AOO), was related to the inter-specific distribution of: (1) mean collection effort per area across the range of a species (MC); (2) variance in collection effort per area across the range of a species (VC); and (3) proportional bias in AOO estimates (PBias: the difference between the expected value of the estimate of AOO and true AOO, divided by true AOO). We tested predictions from these hypotheses using computer simulations based on a dataset of more than 29,000 herbarium specimen records documenting occurrences of 377 plant species in the tribe Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae).

Results  The working hypotheses predicted that the mean of the inter-specific distribution of MC, VC and PBias were independent of AOO, but that the respective variance and skewness decreased with increasing AOO. Computer simulations supported all but one prediction: the variance of the inter-specific distribution of VC did not decrease with increasing AOO.

Main conclusions  Our results suggest that, despite an invariant mean, the dispersion and symmetry of the inter-specific distribution of PBias decreases as AOO increases. As AOO increased, range size was less severely underestimated for a large proportion of simulated species. However, as AOO increased, range size estimates having extremely low bias were less common.


The arrival of the Black Death in England, which killed around a half of the national population, marks the beginning of one of the most fascinating, controversial and important periods of English social and economic history. This collection of essays on English society and economy in the later Middle Ages provides a worthy tribute to the pioneering work of John Hatcher in this field. With contributions from many of the most eminent historians of the English economy in the later Middle Ages, the volume includes discussions of population, agriculture, the manor, village society, trade, and industry. The book's chapters offer original reassessments of key topics such as the impact of the Black Death on population and its effects on agricultural productivity and estate management. A number of its studies open up new areas of research, including the demography of coastal communities and the role of fairs in the late medieval economy, whilst others explore the problems of evidence for mortality rates or for change within the village community. Bringing together broad surveys of change and local case studies based on detailed archival research, the chapters offer an assessment of previous work in the field and suggest a number of new directions for scholarship in this area.


In constructing normative scenarios images of the f uture are generated illustrating potential ways of living, travelling and consuming products a nd services where certain goals such as a reduced climate impact are fulfilled (Börjeson et a l, 2006; Myers and Kitsuse, 2000). This paper analyses the sustainability framing of behavi oural changes in such normative scenarios (Larsen and Höjer, 2007) and how it relates to the participatory processes used to generate the scenarios. We discuss this building on concepts of deliberative planning processes as a means to achieve legitimate, effective and sustainable fu tures (Connelly and Richardson, forthcoming; Hendriks et al., 2007). The theoretica l arguments are combined with examples from environmental scenario construction in practic e (Carlsson-Kanyama et al., 2003, Dreborg et al., forthcoming). This illustrates fiel ds of tension arising when either sustainability or process values are veneering goal s f a scenario making process. When focus is on content values such as reduced climate impact , the process values might be depreciated. On the other hand, when focus is on process values s ch as legitimacy, content sustainability and possibilities for actual change might be downgr aded. Paper presented at the UK-Ireland Planning research conference 2008, Sustainability, space and social justice , Queens University, Belfast, 18-20 March 2008.


The purpose of this article is to examine the cultural change needed by universities, as identified by LERU in its report Open Science and its role in universities: a roadmap for cultural change.1 It begins by illustrating the nature of that cultural change. Linked to that transformation is a necessary management change to the way in which organizations perform research. Competition is not the only, or necessarily the best, way to conduct this transformation. Open science brings to the fore the values of collaboration and sharing. Building on a number of Focus on Open Science Workshops held over five years across Europe, the article identifies best practice in changing current research practices, which will then contribute to the culture change necessary to deliver open science. Four case studies, delivered at Focus on Open Science Workshops or other conferences in Europe, illustrate the advances that are being made: the findings of a Workshop on Collaboration and Competition at the OAI 11 meeting in Geneva in June 2019; alternative publishing platforms, exemplified by UCL Press; open data, FAIR data and reproducibility; and a Citizen Science Workshop held at the LIBER Conference in Dublin in June 2019.


This thesis seeks to examine the politics of building resilience to climate change by analysing the manner in which policy contexts and initiatives to build climate change resilience interact.

For analysis, the 'policy context' is broken into its three constituent parts- actors, policy spaces and discourses. This permits the addition of new knowledge on how discourses attached to resilience are dissonant with those prevailing in ossified policy environments in developing countries; the influence of actor networks, epistemic communities, knowledge intermediaries and policy entrepreneurs in helping climate change resilience gain traction in policy environments; and the dynamic interaction of interest, agendas and power within decision-making spaces attached to resilience-building processes.

This analysis takes place by employing a case-study of a major, international climate change resilience initiative unfolding in two Indian cities. Using data gathered through a variety of rigorous qualitative research methods employed over 14 months of empirical inquiry the thesis highlights issues of politics and power to argue that they are significant determinants of processes to deal with climate impacts.

More specifically, it expands current understandings of engaging with climate impacts by exposing gaps in resilience thinking and argues against a technocratic approach to designing and executing resilience policies. In doing so it also demonstrates that resilience, with its emphasis on systems thinking, dealing with uncertainty and community engagement brings new challenges for policy makers. As the study is located in the urban context, it highlights the manner in which fragmented urban policy environments, dense patterns of settlement in cities, urban livelihood patterns and prevailing epistemic cultures can pose obstacles for a policy initiative aimed at building resilience to climate change. Finally, the research underlines the importance of coupling resilience with local narratives of dealing with shocks and stresses, argues for genuine iteration and shared learning during decision-making and highlights the need to celebrate multiple visions of resilience.

Findings from this research can help inform a growing number of policy initiatives aimed at deploying resilience to help those battling the exigencies of a changing climate in some of the world's most vulnerable areas.


Abstract The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is one of three Square Kilometre Array Precursor telescopes and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Murchison Shire of the mid-west of Western Australia, a location chosen for its extremely low levels of radio frequency interference. The MWA operates at low radio frequencies, 80–300 MHz, with a processed bandwidth of 30.72 MHz for both linear polarisations, and consists of 128 aperture arrays (known as tiles) distributed over a ~3-km diameter area. Novel hybrid hardware/software correlation and a real-time imaging and calibration systems comprise the MWA signal processing backend. In this paper, the as-built MWA is described both at a system and sub-system level, the expected performance of the array is presented, and the science goals of the instrument are summarised.


We describe our preliminary experience with the half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) sequences for MR imaging of the salivary gland ducts. In the majority of patients, the main parotid and/or submandibular gland ducts and large branches within the glands were detectable on MR images obtained in 2 seconds per section and within 3 minutes for the entire examination. MR sialography using HASTE sequences can be combined with conventional MR studies for the salivary glands.


Grassroots innovations (GI) are promising examples of deliberate transformation of socio–technical systems towards resilience and sustainability. However, evidence is needed on the factors that limit or enable their success. This paper set out to study how GI use narratives to empower innovation in the face of incumbent socio–technical regimes. Institutional documents were comparatively analysed to assess how the narratives influence the structure, form of action and external interactions of two Italian grassroots networks, Bilanci di Giustizia and Transition Network Italy. The paper finds an internal consistency between narratives and strategies for each of the two networks. The paper also highlights core similarities, but also significant differences in the ethical basis of the two narratives, and in the organisations and strategies. Such differences determine different forms of innovation empowerment and expose the niche to different potentials to transform incumbent regimes, or to the risk of being co–opted by them.


In many Western societies, there is a concern about the tendency of young people not choosing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and occupations. In response, different initiatives have been launched. If one believes that science should have a place in more young people's lives, an important question is to what extent recruitment campaigns communicate messages that open up for STEM education to become relevant in young people's identity formation. Here, we analyse a Swedish government-initiated, primarily Internet-based recruitment attempt ('The Broad Line Campaign') aimed at increasing the number of young people choosing the natural science programme in upper secondary school. The campaign is based on marketing principles and deliberately draws on identity issues. The data analysed consists of campaign films and written resources describing the campaign. Data are analysed by use of the constant comparative approach in order to produce categories describing different messages about why to engage in STEM education. These messages are then analysed from an identity perspective using the concept of subjective values. Our results show that the messages communicated in the Broad Line campaign emphasise utility value, attainment value and relative cost rather than interest-enjoyment. The campaign communicates that the natural science programme is to be associated with a high attainment value without establishing relations to the field of science. Finally, potential consequences of the communicated messages in the campaign are discussed in light of previous research.


The sustained value of a next generation network (NGN) application to customers depends critically upon how economically it is delivered. The application go-to-market (GTM) deployment strategy adopted by the service provider addresses the location and ownership of the application platform, as well as its financing. It ranges from hosting the applications through a third party for a fixed fee per subscriber, through pay-as-you-grow arrangements that involve varying degrees of revenue share, to outright purchase of the hardware and application platform. Each strategy offers a unique mix of returns and risk mitigation. This study investigates the dependence of the optimal GTM delivery strategy on the underlying marketing parameters-such as application adoption rate and time to market advantages, and operational factors-such as platform synergy and time to deliver. It constructs an overarching model to position the different GTM delivery strategies for the service provider as stages of the application delivery life cycle. This study also presents a paradigm to understand application-specific risk through market demand and supply uncertainties, and uses it to characterize the risk that the service provider is exposed to under various GTM delivery strategies


The constructs from A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism (Paradis 2004) that have implications for attrition are outlined and predictions are explored: The activation threshold hypothesis predicts that, all other factors being equal, language disuse leads to gradual loss; the most frequently used elements of L2 will replace their (less used) L1 counterparts; comprehension of forms will be retained longer than the ability to produce them. Elements sustained by declarative memory (e.g., vocabulary) are more vulnerable to attrition than those sustained by procedural memory (i.e., phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon). Declarative items are also more susceptible to interference (and hence to attrition by substitution) than implicit items. Pragmatics and conceptual representations are also modified by attrition. Motivation impacts the rate of attrition.


In this paper, we explore the idea of weak ties in networked learning. We go back to the original conception of the strength of weak ties and relate this to Bakhtin and a dialogic understanding of networked learning. These theoretical ideas are applied to the examination of two networked settings in which educational leaders exchange ideas and have the potential to create knowledge. We examine these networks from the point of view of the overall pattern of interaction and from an interest in the kinds of dialogues engaged in by participants in the network. We identify an area for further research in a comparison of the dimensions of links that appear to be weaker in these networks, those concerning affective aspects of the relationship, with those concerned with the sharing of knowledge which appear to be relatively well developed. We suggest that presence and proximity become forms of telepresence and tele-proximity and rely more heavily on interactional means to achieve identity formation. Finally we note that knowledge is negotiated and the marks of its personal and situated origin are essential parts of the exchange through dialogue.


This paper presents an internally consistent analysis of the economic determinants of the term structure of credit spreads across different credit rating classes and industry sectors. Our analysis proceeds in two steps. First, we extract three economic factors from 13 time series that capture three major dimensions of the economy: inflation pressure, real output growth, and financial market volatility. In the second step, we build a no-arbitrage model that links the dynamics and market prices of these fundamental sources of economic risks to the term structure of Treasury yields and corporate bond credit spreads. Via model estimation, we infer the market pricing of these economic factors and their impacts on the whole term structure of Treasury yields and credit spreads. ; Estimation shows that positive inflation shocks increase both Treasury yields and credit spreads across all maturities and credit rating classes. Positive shocks on the real output growth also increase the Treasury yields, more so at short maturities than at long maturities. The impacts on the credit spreads are positive for high credit rating classes, but become negative and increasingly so at lower credit rating classes. The financial market volatility factor has small positive impacts on the Treasury yield curve, but the impacts are strongly positive on the credit spreads, and increasingly so at longer maturities and lower credit rating classes. ; Finally, when we divide each rating class into two industry sectors: financial and corporate, we find that with in each rating class, the credit spreads in the financial sector are on average wider and more volatile than the spreads in the corporate sector. Estimation further shows that the term structure of credit spreads in the financial sector is more responsive to shocks in the economic factors.


In today's turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies. Academics have generated a large body of research that addresses part of that challenge—with a particular focus on predicting customer churn. However, several other equally important aspects of managing retention have not received similar level of attention, leaving many managerial problems not completely solved, and a program of academic research not completely aligned with managerial needs. Therefore, our goal is to draw on previous research and current practice to provide insights on managing retention and identify areas for future research. This examination leads us to advocate a broad perspective on customer retention. We propose a definition that extends the concept beyond the traditional binary retain/not retain view of retention. We discuss a variety of metrics to measure and monitor retention. We present an integrated framework for managing retention that leverages emerging opportunities offered by new data sources and new methodologies such as machine learning. We highlight the importance of distinguishing between which customers are at risk and which should be targeted—as they are not necessarily the same customers. We identify trade-offs between reactive and proactive retention programs, between short- and long-term remedies, and between discrete campaigns and continuous processes for managing retention. We identify several areas of research where further investigation will significantly enhance retention management.


We propose a novel methodology to generate domain-specific large-scale question answering (QA) datasets by re-purposing existing annotations for other NLP tasks. We demonstrate an instance of this methodology in generating a large-scale QA dataset for electronic medical records by leveraging existing expert annotations on clinical notes for various NLP tasks from the community shared i2b2 datasets. The resulting corpus (emrQA) has 1 million questions-logical form and 400,000+ question-answer evidence pairs. We characterize the dataset and explore its learning potential by training baseline models for question to logical form and question to answer mapping.


While the effects of virtual agents in terms of likeability, uncanniness, etc. are well explored, it is unclear how their appearance and the feedback they give affects people's reactions. Is critical feedback from an agent embodied as a mouse or a robot taken less serious than from a human agent? In an intercultural study with 120 participants from Germany and the US, participants had to find hidden objects in a game and received feedback on their performance by virtual agents with different appearances. As some levels were designed to be unsolvable, critical feedback was unavoidable. We hypothesized that feedback would be taken more serious, the more human the agent looked. Also, we expected the subjects from the US to react more sensitively to criticism. Surprisingly, our results showed that the agents' appearance did not significantly change the participants' perception. Also, while we found highly significant differences in inspirational and motivational effects as well as in perceived task load between the two cultures, the reactions to criticism were contrary to expectations based on established cultural models. This work improves our understanding on how affective virtual agents are to be designed, both with respect to culture and to dialogue strategies.


What makes Silicon Valley tick? If you build a research park, will they come? For over half a century, regions around the world have been trying to find the answers to these questions and to build high-tech success stories of their own. While most places have fallen short of their silicon dreams, the search for the next Silicon Valley has helped export a particularly Californian aesthetic and way of doing business across the globe. It also has shown the degree to which the Valley's success was not only an American phenomenon, but also a Californian one – rooted in this state's history, its politics, and its culture.


The alpha-glucosidase inhibitor voglibose (VO) was recently reported to have a protective effect against weight gain as well as affect various metabolic changes related to food intake and gut–brain signaling. We hypothesized that VO prevents weight gain by altering neurometabolome profiles in the hypothalamus to reduce food intake. To test this hypothesis, we assessed metabolite profiles in the hypothalamus of standard diet- or high-fat (HF) diet-fed mice in the absence or presence of VO. In total, 29 male C57BL/6 mice were divided into 3 groups: (1) lean control, (2) HF, and (3) HF + VO. Vehicle or VO was administered for 12 weeks. The results showed that there were alterations in levels of metabolites across several metabolic pathways in the hypothalamus. VO treatment increased levels of many amino acids including arginine, glutamine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and valine in the hypothalamus. In addition, levels of 2-hydroxy-2-methyl-butyric acid in the hypothalamus were significantly increased after VO administration in HF diet-fed mice. Among lipid metabolites, levels of fatty acids were higher in the hypothalamus of VO-treated mice than in that of HF diet-fed mice. In terms of the energy status, the ATP/ADP ratio was higher in the hypothalamus of VO-treated mice (P < 0.001), thereby indicating an energy surplus. In conclusion, VO supplementation altered metabolite profiles in the hypothalamus to enhance catabolism, which is possibly responsible for the hypophagic effect of VO in HF diet-fed mice.


This brief was filed by law professors and legal scholars from across the country with expertise in the areas of civil procedure, conflict of laws, and transnational litigation. The amici curiae have an interest in the proper interpretation of the constitutional restrictions on personal jurisdiction and their effect on civil adjudication. Amici believe that the Supreme Court's well-established principles confirm that New Jersey courts may permissibly exercise jurisdiction in this case. The Court's fractured decision in Asahi Metal Industry Co. Ltd. v. Superior Court, 480 U.S. 102 (1987), has spurred some uncertainty about whether U.S. courts may constitutionally exercise jurisdiction over foreign manufacturers whose products are sold to U.S. customers and cause injury in the United States. Although Asahi divided 4-4 on whether the foreign manufacturer in that case had established minimum contacts with California, both sides of the split endorsed this long-standing consensus: a manufacturer establishes minimum contacts with the forum when it purposefully seeks to serve – directly or indirectly – the market in the forum state and its product thereby causes injury in that state. This Court should reaffirm this principle and conclude that New Jersey courts may properly assert jurisdiction over Petitioner, a British manufacturer of large metal shearing machines. There is no question that Petitioner purposefully sought to serve and profit from the U.S. market for its products by, among other things: directly engaging a U.S.-based company to be the exclusive distributor for Petitioner's machines in the territory of the United States; touting in its literature that its machines comply with American safety standards; and having its own high-level officials attend dozens of U.S. trade shows in an effort to promote the sales of its machines in the United States. By taking these purposeful steps to reach the entire U.S. market, Petitioner necessarily sought to serve, at least indirectly, the particular states that comprise the United States. The shear machine at issue in this case went directly from the Petitioner, to its U.S. distributor, to the New Jersey business where Mr. Nicastro worked and was injured. Given Petitioner's efforts to reach and profit from the U.S. market as a whole, sales to customers in particular U.S. states are hardly the kind of random, fortuitous, or attenuated contacts that cannot be fairly attributed to the Petitioner. To refuse jurisdiction on these facts, on the other hand, would embrace a logical impossibility: that a manufacturer can purposefully target the U.S. market generally without also targeting the states that make up the territory of the United States. Moreover, it would immunize such a manufacturer from jurisdiction in any U.S. state, despite its deliberate efforts to access the entire U.S. market. This would create an undesirable and unnecessary disparity between a foreign manufacturer's purposeful conduct directed at the U.S. market and the power of U.S. courts to exercise jurisdiction over claims arising from that conduct.


A unique strategic opportunity beckons Bangladesh. Dhaka, the economic powerhouse of the country, stands on the cusp of a dramatic transformation that could make it much more prosperous and livable. Today, Dhaka is prone to flooding, congestion, and messiness, to a point that is clogging its growth. But toward its east, where two major highway corridors will one day intersect, is a vast expanse of largely rural land. And much of it is within 6 kilometers of the most valuable parts of the city. The time to make the most of this eastward opportunity is now. Many parts of East Dhaka are already being developed in a haphazard way at an alarmingly rapid pace. Private developers are buying land and filling it with sand so they can build and sell new houses and apartments. Canals and ponds are disappearing, and the few narrow roads crossing the area are being encroached by construction. This spontaneous development could soon make East Dhaka look like the messy western part of the city, and retrofitting it later will be more difficult and costlier than properly planning and developing it now. Toward Great Dhaka: A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward seeks to analyze how the opportunity of East Dhaka could be realized. Using state-of-the-art modeling techniques, the study simulates population, housing, economic activity, and commuting times across the 266 unions that constitute Greater Dhaka. It does so under various scenarios for the development of East Dhaka, but always assessing the implications for the entire city. The simulations suggest that pursuing a strategic approach to the development of East Dhaka would make Greater Dhaka a much more productive and livable city than continuing with business as usual. Based on current trends, Greater Dhaka would have a population of 25 million in 2035 and an income per capita of USD 8,000 at 2015 prices. However, embracing a strategic approach would add 5 million people to the city. And, it would be a more productive city, with nearly 1.8 million more jobs and an income per capita of more than USD 9,200 at 2015 prices, enough to put Dhaka on the map of global cities.


Ever since the removal of Affirmative Action in California from Proposition 209, the UC system has struggled with increasing the enrollment numbers of underrepresented minorities on their campuses. In response to this, many of the UC schools are adopting different policies to help counteract the negative effects of Proposition 209. This paper examines the effects of Proposition 209 on the underrepresented minority population in the UC system, specifically focusing on the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The areas of focus for addressing the issues of Proposition 209 at UCI are outreach programs, admissions policies, and recruitment programs. This paper examines different policy options that other universities have utilized in each of these areas, and if it would be feasible for these policies to be adopted at UCI. The area the UCI is weakest in is recruitment, and it is also the area in which it is most feasible to implement change.


The evolution of city growth is usually studied for relatively short time periods. The rise and decline of cities is, however, typically a process that takes many decades or even centuries. In this article we study the evolution of Italian cities over the period 1300–1861. Using an existing data set, we perform panel estimations where the development of city size and urban patterns can be explained by various geographical, institutional and other determinants of city size for the period under consideration. Although large shocks such as the plague epidemics are clearly visible in the data, our baseline estimation results show that the main determinants of Italian city growth are physical geography and the predominance of capital cities. With respect to geography, being a seaport or having access to navigable waterways increases city size whereas a city's relative location, measured by its urban potential, is not significant. Being a capital city also increases city size. The estimation results reveal strong century-specific effects on city growth and these effects differ markedly between the North and South of Italy. Additional estimations show that these time effects can be linked to the political and institutional developmental changes over time in Italy. Our findings that the capital city bonus increases and non-capital cities suffer when the political power and the institutions of the state are more centralised corroborate the idea that institutions are a key factor in explaining Italian city growth.


Potentiometric measurements of the entropy and enthalpy of reaction at 298 K as a function of state of charge for LiMn 2 O 4 and LiAl 0.2 Mn 1.8 O 4-δ F 0.2 are presented. Lithium resides on nearest neighbor or next-nearest neighbor sublattices in lithium manganese oxide. The entropy of reaction is positive when a sublattice is nearly empty and negative when a sublattice is nearly full, and ranges from 0.25 to -0.35 mV/K in the undoped spinel and from 0.1 to -0.4 mV/K in the doped spinel. The potentiometric method includes a correction for self-discharge. Potentiometric measurements of entropy are compared to calorimetric measurements, The potentiometric method is most accurate for thermally thin cells, while calorimetric methods require large cells to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.


The First Amendment expressive associational freedom analysis of the 2000 mid-culture-wars case of Boy Scouts v. Dale adopts an understanding of conventions permitting, or mandating, silence and frames them as a basis for constitutional supervision of customs of silence and speech. The holding in Dale allowed the Scouts to exclude openly gay scout masters, despite a New Jersey statute barring such discrimination from a "public accommodation." The Court explained that organizational rights to exclude an openly gay Scout, whose presence speaks where silence is preferred, would enrich discourse by enabling organizations to claim a shield of silence with which to strengthen the freedom of speech and association that flourishes in voluntary associations. The silence principle, embraced at the time by legal commentators as a win for free speech and the construction of identity, had the dichotomous effect of engendering more elite speech, as among academics, but silencing non-elite speech, that is, among young men excluded from a group that their peer group could join without identity-based barriers. The effect of the teaching by the Court was to affirm a preference for speech and identity silos, in which customs of silencing enjoyed immunity from unwanted messages and in which certain persons could be deemed inherently unwelcome embodiments of a breach of silence. This Article revisits Dale to explore the implications of Dale for civic engagement — for maintaining open civic space for contact and speech as a First Amendment value. Awarding a shield against contact with contrary views and identities disables policy-makers from supporting principles that, on empirical examination, may enrich discourse and enhance overall civic space. The failure of the Court to engage with a sociology of civic space will be examined for its import for the meeting point between social customs of control and the aspiration of the First Amendment to an engaged, expressive citizenry and to the dissemination of knowledge.


Abstract Pre-/early folding fracture patterns were recognized in several anticlines from three structural domains in the Simply Folded Belt of the Fars arc. These fracture sets were characterized in terms of opening mode and relative chronology and used to reconstruct the main compressional trends related to the early Zagros collisional history. The palaeostress reconstructions based on these fracture sets were further refined by combination with newly collected or already available fault-slip and calcite twin data. As an alternative to previous models of rigid block rotations or regional stress rotation, we propose that the complex pattern of pre-folding fractures and the contrasting palaeostress orientations through time in the different domains investigated are related to the presence of basement faults with N–S and WNW trends, above which basement and cover were variably coupled during stress build-up and early deformation of the Arabian margin. Beyond regional implications, this study draws attention to the need to carefully consider pre-existing fractures, possibly unrelated to folding, to build more realistic conceptual fold–fracture models.


When children are in distress or at risk in their homes, social service agencies may institute a number of measures. The most drastic entails removing such children from their homes and placing them in foster care. But placement often fails. Many children, some with severe and long-standing psychological, social, and educational handicaps, simply leave one unstable environment for another. In many cases, things just get worse.Paul Steinhauer, a child psychiatrist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, argues that foster placement has suffered from a lack of proven or generally acceptable models of intervention. It has further been impeded by decreases in the funding of social services and by ambivalence, on the part of both society and the mental health professions, towards the child welfare system. These factors have combined to produce a high failure rate, decreasing morale, and widespread disillusionment and burn-out in both foster parents and child welfare workers.In this book Steinhauer brings together the fragmented research that has been done in a number of different disciplines. From this body of work he develops a model of intervention based on an understanding of attachment theory, development theory, and the practice of mental health consultation. The model provides a basis for pragmatic decision making and step-by-step guidelines for implementation of many of its components.Steinhauer provides an important tool in the struggle to protect society's most vulnerable population.


In the past two decades, a major paradigm shift has taken place in the field of cancer therapy. From non-specific cytotoxic chemotherapy that damages both tumor and normal cells, to more specific targeted agents directed against specific genetically mutated proteins that tumor cells rely on for their uncontrollable expansion. However, although successes have been achieved with this strategy, its major limitation lays in the extensive heterogeneity within tumors. Most tumors harbor multiple oncogenic mutations, making them less dependent on a single driver, acquired resistance may emerge through new mutations, and as many molecular signaling pathways are interconnected, inhibiting one may activate the other. The research described in this thesis mainly focused on novel anticancer agents and combination strategies to improve the anticancer efficacy of the genotype-directed treatment strategy. In this regard, we made great progress for patients with BRAF mutated (BRAFm) colorectal cancer (CRC), a patient group with a very poor prognosis and for whom no effective treatment options are available. Whereas in patients with BRAFm melanoma, pharmacological inhibition of BRAF resulted in dramatic responses and a significant survival benefit compared to standard chemotherapy, the antitumor activity of BRAF inhibitors in patients with BRAFm CRC was disappointing. Preclinical work demonstrated the presence of a negative feedback activation loop that activates the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and thereby reactivates the MAPK- and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathways upon BRAF inhibition in BRAF mutated CRC cells, explaining their resistance against single-agent BRAF inhibitor. Following these findings, we investigated the concept of combined BRAF plus EGFR inhibition in human patients for the first time, in multiple clinical phase I/II studies. In these studies, we demonstrated that combinations of BRAF inhibitors plus anti-EGFR antibodies are safe and tolerable, we established the recommended phase II doses, and we obtained early evidence of clinical antitumor activity, showing a promising progression-free survival benefit compared to historical data on the current standard treatment options. A second research focus of this thesis comprised rational combinations of targeted therapy and chemotherapy. Given the critical role of the Wee1 tyrosine kinase in maintaining genomic stability upon DNA damage, inhibition of Wee1 combined with DNA-damaging chemotherapy has become a promising strategy for the treatment of cancer. Because cells that lack a functional p53 protein rely on Wee1 function for DNA repair, p53-deficient tumors are particularly sensitive to Wee1 inhibition combined with chemotherapy. Following our large phase I study in which we investigated the safety of Wee1 inhibitor AZD1775 combined with different chemotherapeutic agents and established the recommended phase II doses, we conducted a proof of concept phase II study with AZD1775 plus carboplatin in patients with p53-deficient platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The data collected in this study demonstrated encouraging efficacy as AZD1775 plus carboplatin compared favorable to first-line and second-line treatment options in this patient population. Therefore AZD1775 combined with carboplatin could improve clinical outcome in a patient population that has shown poor prognosis and very limited response to currently available treatment options.


This paper explores the potential of video capture to generate a collaborative space for teacher preparation; a space in which traditional hierarchies and boundaries between actors (student teacher, school mentor and university tutor) and knowledge (academic, professional and practical) are disrupted. The study, based in a teacher education department in an English university, is contextualised in the policy context of school–university partnerships. Video capture is used as a vehicle to promote dialogue and collaborative practice between partners during school-based elements of a teacher preparation course. Analysis highlights the power of this space to promote reciprocal learning across the partnership.


In this work, we address the question of how to enable a system to operate despite the presence of misbehavior. Specifically, in a mobile ad-hoc network, how can we keep the network functional for normal nodes when other nodes do not route and forward correctly? Node misbehavior due to selfish or malicious reasons or faulty nodes can significantly degrade the performance of mobile ad-hoc networks. Existing approaches such as economic incentives or secure routing by cryptographic means alleviate some of the problems, but not all. For instance, nodes can still forward packets on bogus routes. We propose a protocol called CONFIDANT (Cooperation Of Nodes — Fairness In Dynamic Ad-hoc NeTworks) to cope with misbehavior. It enables nodes to detect misbehavior by first-hand observation and use of second-hand information provided by other nodes. The view a node has about the behavior of another node is captured in a reputation system, which is used to classify nodes as misbehaving or normal. Once a misbehaving node is detected, it is isolated from the network. Reputation systems can, however, be tricked by the spread of false reputation ratings, be it false accusations or false praise. Simple solutions such as exclusively relying on one's own direct observations have drawbacks, as they do not make use of all the information available. To solve this problem, we propose a fully distributed reputation system that can cope with false information and effectively use second-hand information in a safe way. Our approach is based on a modified Bayesian estimation and classification procedure. In our approach, each node maintains a reputation rating and a trust rating about all other nodes it cares about. Reputation ratings capture the quality of the behavior of a node as an actor in the network performing routing and forwarding tasks. From time to time first-hand reputation information is exchanged with others; using a modified Bayesian approach we designed, second-hand reputation information is only accepted if it is compatible with the current reputation rating. Reputation ratings are only slightly modified by accepted information. Trust ratings capture the quality of a node as an actor in the reputation system and reflect whether the reported first hand information summaries published by node are likely to be true. Trust ratings are updated based on the compatibility of second-hand reputation information with prior reputation ratings. We enable node redemption and prevent the sudden exploitation of good reputation built over time by introducing reputation fading. Data is entirely distributed, the reputation and trust value of a node is the collection of ratings maintained by others. We use simulation to evaluate and demonstrate the performance. We found that CONFIDANT can keep the network performance high even when up to half of the network population misbehaves. We show that our approach of using second-hand information significantly speeds up the detection of misbehaving nodes while keeping the number of false positives and negatives negligibly low.


Abstract. Analysis of coastal marine algae communities enables us to adequately estimate the state of coastal marine environments and provides evidence for environmental changes. Hyperspectral remote sensing provides a tool for mapping macroalgal habitats if the algal communities are spectrally resolvable. We compared the performance of three classification approaches to determine the distribution of macroalgae communities in the rocky intertidal zone of Heligoland, Germany, using airborne hyperspectral (AISAeagle) data. The classification results of two supervised approaches (maximum likelihood classifier and spectral angle mapping) are compared with an approach combining k-Means classification of derivative measures. We identified regions of different slopes between main pigment absorption features of macroalgae and classified the resulting slope bands. The maximum likelihood classifier gained the best results (Cohan's kappa=0.81), but the new approach turned out as a time-effective possibility to identify the dominating macroalgae species with sufficient accuracy (Cohan's kappa=0.77), even in the heterogeneous and patchy coverage of the study area.


This article has as an objective to identify the presence of books in Capes Evaluation System, in the quadrennium 2013-2016, on the topic qualified publications in relation to the permanent faculty of the Program, from item Intellectual production of the area document, which guides the filling out of the evaluation form. Research corpus is made of 49 documents available at Sucupira Platform. Results show that, in the documents under analysis, despite the presence of books as a research line of communication in 32 (65.3%) areas, it is the article in scientific journal that prevails as a research line of communication in all areas investigated. The indication of the article in scientific journal in the area document for the process of evaluation may be associated to the socio-political factor that influences science-making.


Thin films of GeAsS glass are prepared by e-beam evaporation technique. Photoinduced birefringence (PIB) is studied as function of the As content with concentrations ranging from 10% to 40%. Raman spectroscopy is used as additional tool to explain the corresponding changes undergone by the material system. The breakdown of homopolar bonds is suggested as a possible mechanism of photo induced structural changes leading to the creation of the PIB.


The scientifijic assessments of the Arctic Council (AC) have been widely regarded as the most efffective products of the AC. Yet, so far comparatively little scholarly attention has been given to this primary area of the Council's work. This paper examines the most recent assessment work within the Arctic Council. In order to do this, we build on the literature on global environmental assessments to analyze whether this work exhibits design features and is carried out in a way that enhances the potential for AC assessments to be efffective. We understand the efffectiveness of assessments to influence decision and policy-making in the Arctic Council itself, but we also look beyond its structures. This paper focuses on four case studies: Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA), Arctic Human Development Report-II (ADHR-II), Arctic Resilience Report/Arctic Resilience Assessment (ARR/ARA) and Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA). Whereas detailed examination of such influence is at this point not possible due to either very short time from their completion (ABA, ADHR-II) or the fact that the projects are still ongoing (ARA, AACA), the analysis of those assessments through the lens of a series of their design features provides us with some guidance in relation to their expected efffectiveness in bridging science with decision-making in the AC and beyond. The article fijinds that whereas diffferent processes exhibit diffferent individual characteristics, all the studied assessments rank from relatively high to very high in terms of how their design may afffect their salience, credibility and legitimacy. However, their actual policy influence will depend fijirst and foremost on the political will of those ordering the assessments and wielding decision-making power in the


Design a complete Voice over IP (VoIP) or traditional PBX system with Asterisk, even if you have only basic telecommunications knowledge. This bestselling guide makes it easy, with a detailed roadmap that shows you how to install and configure this open source software, whether youre upgrading your existing phone system or starting from scratch.Ideal for Linux administrators, developers, and power users, this updated edition shows you how to write a basic dialplan step-by-step, and brings you up to speed on the features in Asterisk 11, the latest long-term support release from Digium. Youll quickly gain working knowledge to build a simple yet inclusive system.Integrate Asterisk with analog, VoIP, and digital telephony systems Build an interactive dialplan, using best practices for more advanced features Delve into voicemail options, such as storing messages in a database Connect to external services including Google Talk, XMPP, and calendars Incorporate Asterisk features and functions into a relational database to facilitate information sharing Learn how to use Asterisks security, call routing, and faxing features Monitor and control your system with the Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI) Plan for expansion by learning tools for building distributed systems


A few "hit" cultural products tend to dominate consumer attention. Yet, it is notoriously hard to predict ex ante which products will become "hits". What are the decision-making processes that lead to these patterns of collective behavior? We advance a novel process model in which agents with diverse yet correlated preferences search the alternatives in order of popularity and choose the first alternative with utility higher than a certain satisficing threshold. The model goes beyond existing accounts of the popularity dynamics in that (i) it suggests a cognitive process through which social influence plays out in these markets, (ii) it allows us to study how inequality and unpredictability in the market change as a function of the diversity of preferences in the consumer population and the satisficing threshold, (iii) it is amenable to welfare analysis, and (iv) it facilitates comparisons with scenarios without social influence. In agent-based simulations we found that social influence led to an increase in inequality and unpredictability in the market, especially when agents employed a low satisficing threshold. In addition, we found that social influence led to a larger increase in the average consumer welfare when there was at least some diversity of preferences among consumers.


Abstract. While quantitative assessment of the climate change impact on hydrology at the basin scale is quite addressed in the literature, extension of quantitative analysis to impact on the ecological, economic and social sphere is still limited, although well recognized as a key issue to support water resource planning and promote public participation. In this paper we propose a framework for assessing climate change impact on water-related activities at the basin scale. The specific features of our approach are that: (i) the impact quantification is based on a set of performance indicators defined together with the stakeholders, thus explicitly taking into account the water-users preferences; (ii) the management policies are obtained by optimal control techniques, linking stakeholder expectations and decision-making; (iii) the multi-objective nature of the management problem is fully preserved by simulating a set of Pareto-optimal management policies, which allows for evaluating not only variations in the indicator values but also tradeoffs among conflicting objectives. The framework is demonstrated by application to a real world case study, Lake Como basin (Italy). We show that the most conflicting water-related activities within the basin (i.e. hydropower production and agriculture) are likely to be negatively impacted by climate change. We discuss the robustness of the estimated impacts to the climate natural variability and the approximations in modeling the physical system and the socio-economic system, and perform an uncertainty analysis of several sources of uncertainty. We demonstrate that the contribution of natural climate uncertainty is rather remarkable and that, among different modelling uncertainty sources, the one from climate modeling is very significant.


Firstly, the concepts of game situations, game, game theory, theory of game playing and gaming are introduced. Game theory and gaming are presented as system analysis tools, complementing each other, for the analysis of decisions in game situations.

Next, the great amount of game situations existing in regional planning are discussed. An attempt at a taxonomy is given, to indicate what kind of models can be brought in from other areas. Some examples of different situations are given.

Finally, the application of game theory and gaming to a specific problem, namely cost allocation in regional water resources management, is discussed and a small game is presented. The playing of this game in Italy by Tuscan regional planners is presented, and the outcome of this gaming experiment is compared with the solutions suggested by some game theoretical methods.


A theoretical basis is presented for a new method for determining the aerosol size distribution from aureole measurements around a point source. The method involves the determination of the angular scattering coefficient from radiance measurements at different observation angles between 1° and 10° around a source in the solar blind spectral region. The results are used to determine the aerosol size distribution by applying the Twomey-Chahine inversion algorithm. The derived size distribution has the desirable features of being accurate for large particles up to radii of 10 μm and being insensitive to their complex refractive index.


Objectives: To assess the psychological morbidity and illness beliefs in newly referred patients with chest pain, and to compare the psychological morbidity of patients with pain of cardiac origin with that of patients with pain of non-cardiac origin. Design: Longitudinal cohort study. Setting: Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic in a tertiary referral centre in Leicester, United Kingdom. Participants: 246 patients with acute, undifferentiated, chest pain followed up 1 week and 2 months subsequent to clinic attendance. Main outcome measures: Levels of affective disturbance, health anxiety and illness perception. Results: Levels of anxiety before clinic attendance exceeded community norms but did not differentiate the two groups. However, after clinic attendance levels of anxiety for those with a non-cardiac diagnosis significantly exceeded those of patients whose pain was of cardiac origin and remained above community norms 2 months hence. Non-cardiac patients viewed their condition as significantly less controllable and less understandable than those whose pain was cardiac in origin. Levels of depression for those with cardiac pain also significantly increased to above community norms after clinic attendance. Conclusions: Clinical levels of psychological morbidity are evident in the immediate and long-term aftermath of a visit to a Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic, despite early access and provision of reassurance. More structured interventions appear necessary to deal with both distress and illness beliefs that may influence future healthcare use.


Within the field of species distribution modelling an apparent dichotomy exists between process‐based and correlative approaches, where the processes are explicit in the former and implicit in the latter. However, these intuitive distinctions can become blurred when comparing species distribution modelling approaches in more detail. In this review article, we contrast the extremes of the correlative–process spectrum of species distribution models with respect to core assumptions, model building and selection strategies, validation, uncertainties, common errors and the questions they are most suited to answer. The extremes of such approaches differ clearly in many aspects, such as model building approaches, parameter estimation strategies and transferability. However, they also share strengths and weaknesses. We show that claims of one approach being intrinsically superior to the other are misguided and that they ignore the process–correlation continuum as well as the domains of questions that each approach is addressing. Nonetheless, the application of process‐based approaches to species distribution modelling lags far behind more correlative (process‐implicit) methods and more research is required to explore their potential benefits. Critical issues for the employment of species distribution modelling approaches are given, together with a guideline for appropriate usage. We close with challenges for future development of process‐explicit species distribution models and how they may complement current approaches to study species distributions.


A nonlinear phase shift is applied to a spectrum of an ultrafast input signal after dispersing it in space. It is shown that when the input is a pulse pair, the output contains new pulses, which are formed both in front of and behind the original pair. We show the analogy between this experiment and photon echoes and discuss the causal properties of this system.