This paper addresses the task of segmenting moving objects in unconstrained videos. We introduce a novel two-stream neural network with an explicit memory module to achieve this. The two streams of the network encode spatial and temporal features in a video sequence respectively, while the memory module captures the evolution of objects over time. The module to build a "visual memory" in video, i.e., a joint representation of all the video frames, is realized with a convolutional recurrent unit learned from a small number of training video sequences. Given a video frame as input, our approach assigns each pixel an object or background label based on the learned spatio-temporal features as well as the "visual memory" specific to the video, acquired automatically without any manually-annotated frames. The visual memory is implemented with convolutional gated recurrent units, which allows to propagate spatial information over time. We evaluate our method extensively on two benchmarks, DAVIS and Freiburg-Berkeley motion segmentation datasets, and show state-of-the-art results. For example, our approach outperforms the top method on the DAVIS dataset by nearly 6%. We also provide an extensive ablative analysis to investigate the influence of each component in the proposed framework.


Nanotechnology is a generic platform with potential applications in many sectors. It promises to be a motor of economic growth with inclusive development through innovation related to materials, foods, medicines, and so on. This book identifies the nature and magnitude of the nanotechnology divide between high-income countries and the rest of the world. It also studies the determinants of the evolution and functioning of state policy and technology clusters in developed regions like the USA and the EU in order to identify the strategies that can or cannot be replicated elsewhere. Tracing the trajectories in nanotechnology being carved out by four emerging countries: China, India, Brazil and Mexico, it identifies common as well as country-specific factors that influence the rates of return to public and private investment related to nanotechnology in emerging countries. The book also makes policy recommendations to bridge the nanotechnology divide while promoting economic growth and inclusive development.


Public health programs may be seriously affected in periods of federal retrenchment. During these times, state-based strategies provide an alternate pathway for advancing public health. A 12-year campaign to secure state support for a network of Centers of Excellence in Children's Environmental Health (CEH) promoting health of children across New York State is described. It was driven by rising rates of asthma, birth defects, developmental disorders, and other noncommunicable diseases in children; growing evidence associating hazardous environmental exposures with these conditions; and recognition that federal resources in CEH are insufficient. Critical campaign elements were (1) formation of a statewide coalition of academic health centers, health care providers, public health officials, community advocates, and other stakeholders; (2) bipartisan collaborations with legislative champions and government leaders; (3) assessment of the burden of developmental disorders and noncommunicable diseases associated with environmental exposures among children; (4) maps documenting the presence of environmental hazards in every county statewide; (5) iterative charting of a changing political landscape; and (6) persistence. The 2017 award of a 5-year, $10 million contract to establish Centers of Excellence in CEH demonstrates the value of this statewide strategy. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print November 29, 2018: e1-e5. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304742).


Citizens around the world look to the state for social welfare provision, but often struggle to access essential services in health, education, and social security. This book investigates the everyday practices through which citizens of the world's largest democracy make claims on the state, asking whether, how, and why they engage public officials in the pursuit of social welfare. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in rural India, Kruks-Wisner demonstrates that claim-making is possible in settings (poor and remote) and among people (the lower classes and castes) where much democratic theory would be unlikely to predict it. Examining the conditions that foster and inhibit citizen action, she finds that greater social and spatial exposure - made possible when individuals traverse boundaries of caste, neighborhood, or village - builds citizens' political knowledge, expectations, and linkages to the state, and is associated with higher levels and broader repertoires of claim-making.


In this Article, Professors Chang and Culp propose that the Supreme Court's decision in Romer v. Evans, viewed by some scholars as a progressive case about gay/lesbian/bisexual rights, has little to do with gay/lesbian/bisexual rights as such. They argue that whatever protection Romer provides to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals is provided not because of *their sexuality but, rather, despite it. The authors demonstrate their thesis by examining the racial underpinnings of the Court's opinion, which begins with Justice Harlan's famous dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson and which relies on a specific vision of color-blindness. This submerged racial jurisprudence provides the basic architecture for the Court's sexuality-blind constitutionalism. The authors are critical of color-blindness and sexualityblindness because they preclude the Court and this nation from dealing honestly with race and sex and leave intact deeply embedded racial and sexual structures of oppression.


In this paper, we review the concept of sustainability with regard to a single–species, age–structured fish population with density dependence at some stage of its life history. We trace the development of the view of sustainability through four periods. The classical view of sustainability, prevalent in the 1970s and earlier, developed from deterministic production models, in which equilibrium abundance or biomass is derived as a function of fishing mortality. When there is no fishing mortality, the population equilibrates about its carrying capacity. We show that carrying capacity is the result of reproductive and mortality processes and is not a fixed constant unless these processes are constant. There is usually a fishing mortality, FMSY, which results in MSY, and a higher value, Fext, for which the population is eventually driven to extinction. For each F between 0 and Fext, there is a corresponding sustainable population. From this viewpoint, the primary tool for achieving sustainability is the control of fishing mortality. The neoclassical view of sustainability, developed in the 1980s, involved population models with depensation and stochasticity. This view point is in accord with the perception that a population at a low level is susceptible to collapse or to a lack of rebuilding regardless of fishing. Sustainability occurs in a more restricted range from that in the classical view and includes an abundance th reshold. A variety of studies has suggested that fishing mortality should not let a population drop below a threshold at 10–20% of carrying capacity. The modern view of sustainability in the 1990s moves further in the direction of precaution. The fishing mortality limit is the former target of FMSY (or some proxy), and the target fishing mortality is set lower. This viewpoint further reduces the range of permissible fishing mortalities and resultant desired population sizes. The objective has shifted from optimizing long–term catch to preserving spawning biomass and egg production for the future. The use of discount rates in objective functions involving catch is not a suitable alternative to protecting reproductive value. As we move into the post–modern time period, new definitions of sustainability will attempt to incorporate he economic and social aspects of fisheries and/or ecosystem and habitat requirements. These definitions now involve 'warm and fuzzy' notions (healthy ecosystems and fishing communities, the needs of future generations, diverse fish communities) and value judgements of desired outcomes. Additional work is needed to make these definitions operational and to specify quantitative objectives to be achieved. In addition, multiple objectives may be incompatible, so trade–offs in what constitutes sustainability must be made. The advances made under the single–species approach should not be abandoned in the post–modern era, but rather enhanced and combined with new approaches in the multi–species and economic realms.


ABSTRACT This article analyses Dabiq magazine to explore the strategic logic of Islamic State (IS) appeals to English-speaking Muslims. It offers the field a conceptual framework through which to analyse IS's communications strategy and a top-down empirical study of Dabiq's contents. This paper argues that Dabiq appeals to its audiences by strategically designing in-group identity, Other, solution and crisis constructs which it leverages via value-, crisis- and dichotomy-reinforcing narratives. By fusing identity- and rational-choice appeals, IS provides its audiences with a powerful 'competitive system of meaning' that is designed to shape its readership's perceptions, polarise their support and drive their radicalisation.


Abstract. Changes in vehicle emission reduction technologies significantly affect traffic-related emissions in urban areas. In many densely populated areas the amount of traffic is increasing, keeping the emission level high or even increasing. To understand the health effects of traffic-related emissions, both primary (direct) particulate emission and secondary particle formation (from gaseous precursors in the exhaust emissions) need to be characterized. In this study, we used a comprehensive set of measurements to characterize both primary and secondary particulate emissions of a Euro 5 level gasoline passenger car. Our aerosol particle study covers the whole process chain in emission formation, from the tailpipe to the atmosphere, and also takes into account differences in driving patterns. We observed that, in mass terms, the amount of secondary particles was 13 times higher than the amount of primary particles. The formation, composition, number and mass of secondary particles was significantly affected by driving patterns and engine conditions. The highest gaseous and particulate emissions were observed at the beginning of the test cycle when the performance of the engine and the catalyst was below optimal. The key parameter for secondary particle formation was the amount of gaseous hydrocarbons in primary emissions; however, also the primary particle population had an influence.


We develop a dynamic model of a firm facing agency costs of free cash flow and external financing costs. An explicit solution for the firm's optimal balance sheet dynamics is derived. Financial frictions affect issuance and dividend policies, the value of cash holdings, and the dynamics of stock prices. The model predicts that the marginal value of cash varies negatively with the stock price, and positively with the volatility of the stock price. This yields novel insights on the asymmetric volatility phenomenon, on risk management policies, and on how business cycles and agency costs affect the volatility of stock returns


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the contemporary thinking on deliberate lookalikes and to provide a better understanding of its key forms (counterfeits, copycats and no-name imitations) and markets (deceptive and non-deceptive).

Design/methodology/approach
This editorial contains a review of current and past literature on deliberate lookalikes along with summaries of all the articles accepted for publication in the special issue on deliberate lookalikes. The guest editors used academic databases such as Web of Science to find the most representative scholarly work on deliberate lookalikes literature.

Findings
This editorial identifies pertinent research gaps in the literature on deliberate lookalikes. The five selected articles address some of these research gaps and provide useful insights on the purchase and usage of deliberate lookalikes along with directions for future research and ways to apply different research methods that could have important implications for scholars and managers.

Originality/value
The editorial and special issue extends the knowledge about the deliberate lookalikes and their effects on firms, brands and consumers. This work opens new avenues for the research about different forms and markets in the context of lookalikes.


The objective of this paper is to present the results of research that examined articles published in journals, whose subject matter was the accounting professors' pedagogical training within the Stricto Sensu postgraduate degree in accounting in Brazil. Thus, the research problem was to recognize and discuss the articles' contributions to the pedagogical training. The methodology was exploratory and the procedures involved a literature research with qualitative approach to content analysis. Based on Sacristan (1995), Brandao (2002), Santos Neto (2004), and Laffin (2005), the article presents a discussion about teaching and arguments from these authors about  the need for principles in pedagogical training for accounting professors in the Stricto Sensu postgraduate program. It appears that under the Stricto Sensu postgraduate programs in accounting the teachers' training does not assume an expression of working appropriation to teach. On the one hand, intellectual production, as a way to respond to the external evaluation, is emphasized; on the other, the ground work, under the aegis of teaching epistemology, is subsumed to the production to carry out their work.


Senior educators in Samoa who are currently studying towards a Master of Teaching and Learning degree through the Christchurch College of Education face the usual range of challenges encountered by students studying from a distance. In addition, they face a range of expectations from their jobs, their communities, their churches and their families that are not the norm in the western society through which they are studying. Despite such difficulties, these educators are successful and are leaders in their fields. I was interested to learn how they managed these challenges. This thesis therefore asks, How did a group of senior educators in Samoa undertake their educational journeys? It also traces my cultural and research learning journeys and the pathways I followed as a palagi (white person) undertaking cross-cultural research. It was important that I recognise my limitations as a palagi conducting research in the Pacific and that as far as possible I followed practices and research methodologies sensitive to Pasifika contexts. I therefore adopted a holistic and collaborative approach that entailed consultation with the community throughout the research process. During initial consultation community members confirmed they wished the research to occur, and that they approved of and accepted me as the researcher. We worked collaboratively to determine the topic and the nature of the study. The community drew clear parameters and established the main emphasis of the research as a narrative approach within an ethnographic framework. Ongoing consultation included regular visits to Samoa to meet with the participants where we discussed progress and worked together to co-construct their stories. My research approach O auala i le fa'aPasefika (Pasefika Pathways) guided me throughout the research. This approach, a combination of my own western social constructionist epistemology, Talanoa research methodology and Stephen Filipo's (2004) research approach O auala i le fa'aSamoa, enabled me to respect and value my participants while at the same time taking cognisance of the cultural limitations under which a palagi works. I was given cultural guidance and support by an advisor in New Zealand appointed by the College of Education. The participants voluntarily took on the role of cultural advisors during my time in Samoa. I gathered data through a combination of fono (interviews), and talanoa (informal conversations) conducted in Samoa, and supplemented this with data from the participants' journals and from my own research journal. I realised from an early stage that various aspects of the research such as the processes used, cultural aspects and the main themes drawn from the participants' stories were closely intertwined and difficult to separate. Consequently, I adopted the metaphor of an ietoga (fine mat) to present this thesis. The completed ietoga represents the participants' individual educational journeys together with my cultural and research learning journeys. I argue that the participants live between two worlds as they balance tensions between the requirements of the western institutions that provide their education and the requirements of fa'aSamoa. The participants' formal schooling did not take account of fa'aSamoa and its related values. Nor did it take account of Pasifika people's preference for oral and experiential learning. Codes of behaviour and expectations of fa'aSamoa such as fa'aaloalo (respect) for one's elders and those in authority have markedly constrained and influenced the participants' educational journeys. Their responsibilities to family, church and community, for example, have presented barriers to their success. Paradoxically, these same codes of behaviour and expectations have supported the participants and have made it possible for their educational journeys to be successful. I contend that if western institutions wish to provide meaningful programmes and learning experiences for their Pasifika students, it is important that they take cognisance of and plan for these students' cultural values, beliefs and codes of behaviour. This research determined factors that enabled a group of senior educators in Samoa to be successful. Two questions arise for me and present as opportunities for research to be undertaken by Samoan or other Pasifika peoples. Have the participants been successful in their postgraduate study because they are undertaking this while living in Samoa and therefore have ready access to fa'aSamoa's support systems? How have the participants' educational journeys differed from those of other educators who have not achieved the same success? Ietoga: Samoan educators' educational journeys


Since its earliest incarnations, video gaming can be seen as a form of 'participatory culture' (Jenkins, 1992). Besides exploring what can be done within the game itself, players also started to experiment with the soft- and hardware components, the artwork, or the narratives of games in order to create something themselves. The prompt emergence of practices like demos, remixes, chiptunes, or – of course – the creation of self-made levels or entire games is a vivid demonstration of the desire not just to play the games, but also to play with them.

The same holds true for video game music. Typing, for example, "Super Mario Bros theme" into the YouTube search will deliver a huge number of videos, in which people have played this tune or recreated it in every way imaginable (see Collins 2013). Furthermore, people also use the sound and/or visual style of the Mario video games in order to create tributes, crossover music videos or their own songs. With the "Automatic Mario" series, for example, a distinct subgenre of remix videos has been created.

But these forms and practises do not come out of nowhere. As Jose Zagal puts it: "In summary, games exist in a broader cultural context, and it is important to use this cultural context in order to help understand a game and vice versa." (Zagal 2010, p. 28) This also applies to video game music. When people play with the sounds, the music, or create music videos, etc. they not only remix the music – they also mingle several musical and cultural practises, using their knowledge of, and competencies regarding, the several cultural contexts they deal with.

After briefly surveying the field of the culture of video game music outside of video games, using the creative work which has arisen around the Super Mario games as an example case, the chapter will investigate how this activity interrelates with other musical cultures, and how such relations become manifest in the creative works people produce. "The Super Mario 8-bit Opera" by Jon and Al Kaplan and its further processing by the online community will be analyzed in the form of a case study. As a theoretical starting point, concepts of games literacy as introduced by Zagal (2010) and Zimmerman (2009), and its application to the field of game music (van Elferen, in this book) will be used.


The availability of large scale data sets of manually annotated predicate-argument structures has recently favored the use of machine learning approaches to the design of automated semantic role labeling (SRL) systems. The main research in this area relates to the design choices for feature representation and for effective decompositions of the task in different learning models. Regarding the former choice, structural properties of full syntactic parses are largely employed as they represent ways to encode different principles suggested by the linking theory between syntax and semantics. The latter choice relates to several learning schemes over global views of the parses. For example, re-ranking stages operating over alternative predicate-argument sequences of the same sentence have shown to be very effective. In this article, we propose several kernel functions to model parse tree properties in kernel-based machines, for example, perceptrons or support vector machines. In particular, we define different kinds of tree kernels as general approaches to feature engineering in SRL. Moreover, we extensively experiment with such kernels to investigate their contribution to individual stages of an SRL architecture both in isolation and in combination with other traditional manually coded features. The results for boundary recognition, classification, and re-ranking stages provide systematic evidence about the significant impact of tree kernels on the overall accuracy, especially when the amount of training data is small. As a conclusive result, tree kernels allow for a general and easily portable feature engineering method which is applicable to a large family of natural language processing tasks.


Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a global health problem. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 424.9 million people suffered from DM in 2017 and this number is expected to rise to 628.6 million by 2045. Although diabetes can affect every organ in the body, cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death and disability in people with diabetes. Diabetic patients frequently suffer from systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Within the ventricles, the electromechanical properties of cardiac myocytes vary transmurally. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate contraction and Ca2+ transport in epicardial (EPI) and endocardial (ENDO) myocytes from the left ventricle in the streptozotocin (STZ) – induced diabetic rat heart. Materials and Methods: Experiments were performed 5-6 months after STZ treatment. Ventricular myocytes were isolated by enzymic and mechanical dispersal techniques from EPI and ENDO regions of the left ventricle. Contraction and free intracellular Ca2+ concentration [Ca2+]i were measured by video edge detection and fluorescence photometry techniques, respectively. Results: Myocyte length and calculated surface area were smaller in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON. Time to peak (TPK) shortening was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON and in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON myocytes. Time to half (THALF) relaxation of shortening was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON. TPK Ca2+ transient was prolonged in EPI-STZ compared to EPI-CON, ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON, ENDO-STZ compared to EPI-STZ and in ENDO-CON compared to EPI-CON myocytes. THALF decay of the Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON. Fractional release of Ca2+ was increased in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON and in ENDO-STZ compared to EPI-STZ. Recovery of the Ca2+ transient was prolonged in ENDO-STZ compared to ENDO-CON. Conclusion: In conclusion the kinetics of contraction and Ca2+ transient and fractional release of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum are altered to different extents in EPI and ENDO myocytes from STZ-induced diabetic rat.


Shading appearance in illustrations, comics and graphic novels is designed to convey illumination, material and surface shape characteristics at once. Moreover, shading may vary depending on different configurations of surface distance, lighting, character expressions, timing of the action, to articulate storytelling or draw attention to a part of an object. In this paper, we present a method that imitates such expressive stylized shading techniques in dynamic 3D scenes, and which offers a simple and flexible means for artists to design and tweak the shading appearance and its dynamic behavior. The key contribution of our approach is to seamlessly vary appearance by using a combination of shading primitives that take into account lighting direction, material characteristics and surface features. We demonstrate their flexibility in a number of scenarios: minimal shading, comics or cartoon rendering, glossy and anisotropic material effects; including a variety of dynamic variations based on orientation, timing or depth. Our prototype implementation combines shading primitives with a layered approach and runs in real-time on the GPU.


Failure to adequately prepare teachers of emergent bilingual (EB) students could have devastating consequences for student achievement, EB reclassification, and eventually, high school and college completion. To enhance the policy discourse, we explore how teacher certification requirements relate to both EB student achievement and teacher self-efficacy in three states with similar EB student populations but disparate policies on ways to meet EBs' needs: Arizona, California, and Texas. To do this we ask: (1) How well do states prepare their teachers to meet the needs of EBs? (2) What knowledge specific to meeting EBs' needs do states require their teachers to demonstrate? (3) How are these requirements related to teacher perceptions of their preparedness to effectively teach EBs? We find that there are marked differences across the three states in terms of how well they prepare EBs, and these patterns can be discerned from their teacher preparation requirements. Although teachers' self-efficacy does not appear to be related to teacher training in the first three years of teaching, there is an advantage to more rigorous training over time. Implications for policy are discussed.


This paper is going to review the state-of-the-art of the high-speed 850/940-nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), discussing the structural design, mode control and the related data transmission performance. InGaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) was used to increase the differential gain and photon density in VCSEL. The multiple oxide layers and oxide-confined aperture were well designed in VCSEL to decrease the parasitic capacitance and generate single mode (SM) VCSEL. The maximal modulation bandwidth of 30 GHz was achieved with well-designed VCSEL structure. At the end of the paper, other applications of the near-infrared VCSELs are discussed.


This paper presents a critical survey of the literature on the 'resource curse', focusing on three main questions: (i) are natural resources bad for development?; (ii) what causes the resource curse?; and, (iii) how can the resource curse be overcome? In respect of these questions, three observations are made. First, while the literature provides considerable evidence that natural resource abundance is associated with various negative development outcomes, this evidence is by no means conclusive. Second, existing explanations for the resource curse do not adequately account for the role of social forces or external political and economic environments in shaping development outcomes in resource abundant countries, nor for the fact that, while most resource abundant countries have performed poorly in developmental terms, a few have done quite well. Finally, recommendations for overcoming the resource curse have not generally taken into account the issue of political feasibility. More generally, it is argued that the basic problem with the literature is that researchers have been too reductionist – they have tended to explain development performance solely in terms of the size and nature of countries' natural resource endowments. A consensus is emerging that various political and social variables mediate the relationship between natural resource wealth and development outcomes. But rather than acknowledge that these variables are shaped by a range of historical and other factors in each case, scholars have tended to see them as determined by the natural resource base. Put differently, scholars have been asking the wrong question: rather than asking why natural resource wealth has fostered various political pathologies and in turn promoted poor development performance, they should have been asking what political and social factors enable some resource abundant countries to utilise their natural resources to promote development and prevent other resource abundant countries from doing the same.


Objective: The long-term prognosis of patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is unknown with no reported prospective studies from the United Kingdom longer than 18 months. The CRPS-UK Network aims to study this by use of a Registry. The aims of this article are, to outline the CRPS-UK Registry, assess the validity of the data and to describe the characteristics of a sample of the UK CRPS population. Methods: A web-based CRPS-UK Registry was developed and made accessible to centres experienced in diagnosing and managing patients with CRPS. Pragmatic annual follow-up questions were agreed. Results: Up until July 2013, the Registry has recruited 240 patients. A blinded, validation study of 20 consecutive patients from two centres (10 each) demonstrated 95.6% completion and 99.4% accuracy of a random sample of the recorded data. These patients had chronic disease (median duration: 29 months); 72.5% were female (2.6:1), with a mean age at symptoms onset of 43 years, and were left-handed more than expected (21.8% versus 10% in the general population). Patients reported a delayed diagnosis, with the median time between symptom onset and diagnosis of 6 months. In all, 30 patients (12.5%) had multiple limb involvement and (83.3%) had a contiguous spread of CRPS. Conclusion: CRPS-UK Registry is a validated method for actively recruiting well-characterised patients with CRPS to provide further information on the long-term outcome.


The plasma plume emissions produced by pulsed (∼ 10 ns) laser ablation of liquid jets were monitored for spectrochemical analysis. Laser wavelengths at 532 and 193 nm were used, and sodium was the test analyte. As expected, the 532-nm laser pulse produced very intense plasma continuum emissions that masked the sodium signal for the first hundred nanoseconds, especially near the bright core of the vapor plume. Neither time-gating nor spatial masking could significantly improve the single-shot signal-to-noise ratio, since the transient nature of the emissions placed stringent demands on timing precision while the small size of the plume required accurate mask positioning—both antithetical to the inherent instability of jet ablation. In sharp contrast, the 193-nm laser pulse produced relatively dim plasma flash but intense sodium emissions, rendering it ideal for analytical applications.


Jeju Island comes second to only Seoul as Korea's most visited destination, yet most visitors do not have the chance to go beyond brief visits and immerse themselves in the island's history and cultural heritage. This project introduces the cultural heritage of Jeju Island to visitors through virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) model visualization technology, namely JejuView, which provides an intuitive way to experience cultural heritage sites on the island. The proposed VR/AR application is designed to introduce a series of heritage spots on Jeju Island through (i) a printed Jeju map with embedded QR code markers that enable viewers to experience the locations without being present at the site, (ii) a mobile device with WebGL supported browser which allows 3D content to be rendered, and (iii) an AR library (A-Frame.io) that enables enthusiasts to recreate similar work. To test the effectiveness of the proposed VR/AR application, the authors conducted an experiment with 251 participants to test the research model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and employed generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) for the analysis. Results show that when using sensory new media such as VR/AR, consumers are more focused on the hedonic value than on the utilitarian value of the information. In conclusion, the proposed VR/AR application is complementary to existing studies and provides significant support to researchers, engineers, and designers developing VR/AR technologies for use in cultural education and tourism marketing.


Bearing in mind the importance of the informed consent, flaws in this process may be a barrier to participants' recruitment. Our objective was to determine the relationship between the degree of comprehension of the informed consent document plus the importance given to individual elements by potential participants of a hypothetical trial and their willingness to participate in such trials. We performed an Online Survey simulating an emergency department trial recruitment, posteriorly evaluating participants' ratings of importance and self-assessed comprehension of specific topics of the informed consent document. Only 10% of the sample read the entire document. Some specific topics were associated with willingness to participate in the hypothetical trial, but simple composite additive scores of comprehension and importance were not. We concluded that participants in general do not read the entire informed consent document and that importance given to specific topics may influence willingness to participate.


This pilot study was undertaken to investigate whether presently available methods were capable of generating useful information on the relative contribution of microtexture and macrotexture to stopping distance at different speeds. All trials were conducted using the same late model Holden Commodore Station Wagon fitted with anti-lock braking (ABS), a Global Positioning System (GPS), an accelerometer and a computer. Testing was carried out at four sites with different combinations of macrotexture and skid resistance. Data were analysed using a full factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) design., i.e. four levels of site x four levels of speed x two levels of conditions, with five replications at each site. Significant effects were found for all speed variables, all two way interactions and the three way interaction. However, it was clear that by far the largest effect was speed, based on the mean squares and the Partial Eta Squared statistic. The next largest effect was the three way site x speed x condition interaction, which is probably due to the large increases in stopping distance in wet conditions at site 3, which only occurred at higher speeds. Site 3 had low macrotexture and was the only site to have low skid resistance. It may have been possible to obtain better combinations of skid resistance and macrotexture for testing purposes if the minimum length specified for sites (300 metres) had been shorter. The test results suggest that 80 metres of road with consistent surface characteristic would be sufficient. Further investigation of the relation between crash occurrence and road surface characteristics, taking into account geometric characteristics and travel would seem to be the most productive direction for the immediate future.


THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BOVINE CORPUS LUTEUM Heather A. Talbott, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2017 Supervisor: John S. Davis, Ph.D. This dissertation describes a study of the mechanisms regulating the genesis and subsequent involution of the temporary endocrine structure, the corpus luteum (CL), through the use of a bovine model. The CL is essential for maintaining a suitable uterine environment for embryo implantation and early development through secretion of the steroid hormone progesterone. The "Rise and Fall" of the CL occurs within each estrous cycle whereby the CL must form from the ruptured follicle, secrete sufficient progesterone for uterine maturation, and at the end of the cycle (or pregnancy) regress to allow new follicular development. During the rise of the CL, the composition and regulation of lipid droplets (LDs) were studied and it was determined that LDs are a common luteal cell structure formed by day 3 post-ovulation, and store both cholesteryl esters and triglycerides. Additionally, the LD-associated proteome was examined and established that steroidogenic enzymes are enriched in purified LD fractions. Demonstrating that luteal LDs may serve as critical mediators of steroidogenesis by storing steroid precursors in close association with steroidogenic enzymes. At the fall of the CL, alterations in the luteal transcriptome revealed changes consistent with early activation of cytokine signaling. One such cytokine, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 8 (previously IL-8), was assessed for its ability to regulate luteal cell function. CXCL8 expression was determined to be induced in bovine luteal cells via p38 and JNK signaling and could induce bovine neutrophil migration. However, neutrophils had no effect on progesterone secretion unlike activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells which could inhibit luteal cell progesterone secretion. In total, the studies described herein indicate that both LDs and cytokines play important roles in CL development, function, and regression.


Business processes under authorization control are sets of coordinated activities subject to a security policy stating which agent can access which resource. Their behavior is difficult to predict due to the complex and unexpected interleaving of different execution flows within the process. Therefore, serious flaws may go undetected and manifest themselves only after deployment. This problem may be tackled by applying formal methods to reason about business process models. In this paper we outline the main contributions in this application domain of (Armando et al. 2012), that uses the action-based planning language C and the Causal Calculator tool CCalc. C is used to specify a business process from the banking domain that is representative of an important class of business processes of practical relevance, and proved to be a rich and natural formal specification language in this domain. CCalc is then used to automatically solve three reasoning tasks that arise in this context. We also compare C with the SMV specification language used in model-checking: the comparison highlights some key advantages of C in the business process domain.


The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of corporate governance quality (namely board size, board independence, managerial ownership, institutional ownership, and CEO duality) on the profitability and viability of European Union's football clubs over the period 2005-2009. Empirical results documented that corporate governance quality (higher managerial and institutional ownership, increased board size and independence, and the separation of the CEO and chairman roles) leads to greater levels of profitability and viability. Further analysis based on clubs' profitability and viability indicates that sound governance mechanisms are also important for those clubs with intense problems of insolvency and low financial performance. The results of this study dictate the necessity of corporate governance principles for protecting the interests of shareholders and various stakeholders and for maximizing the clubs' economic results and social return. The empirical findings are robust to several sensitivity tests concerning the specification of the models and the measures of financial performance.


IN A LANGUID, COMFORTABLE drawl that he says has notes of Virginia and Biloxi, MS, but is native to Key West, FL, Robert Parks is recounting how he landed his first job. A statewide strike had left Florida's Broward County desperate for teachers. Owning a newly minted education degree, Parks walked into Pompano Beach High School and asked the principal if he had any openings. "He said, 'Can you teach?' I said, 'Sure!' He said, 'What do you know about track?' I said, 'Well, they run in a circle.' He said, 'Good. You can coach track.'" And so a career in education was launched, one that has taken Parks through 40 years of service to Broward County schools, the last 22 of them as a member of the county school board, developing technology initiatives that have turned Broward County Public Schools, the country's sixth-largest district, into a model modern school system. Broward schools have wireless networks, electronic newsletters, and online school newspapers. Every teacher has a laptop. Parks refers to a band teacher at one school who puts guitar lessons onto his students' MP3 players that they take home to learn to play guitar. "We believe in technology," he says. Parks' job is to translate that belief into policy, and it was his conceiving of and orchestrating the development of Broward County's strategic technology plan in 2003 that is guiding the district's use of technology in the 21st century. He calls the plan "the best thing I've ever done," noting that there was no precedent for it in the district's history. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Our technology was spread out in bits and pieces all over the county," Parks says. "There was a lack of communication and coordination. The divisions and departments didn't talk with one another. This was the first time we looked at things comprehensively. Curriculum, Facilities, ETS [Education Technology Services]--everybody began to talk the same language. The one comment that came out as I went to meetings and talked to people about the plan was, 'It's about time.'" Parks called together the superintendent, fellow board members, administrators, and faculty and staff to hammer out a plan for the coordinated implementation of technology in the district. "My biggest challenge was making sure that the task force was made up of the right people, the experts in that field," he says. "What we discovered was that those experts were already employed by the Broward County school system." That is an abiding principle of Parks': He believes in the people he works with. "That's the operative word--with. I don't tell people anything; I work with them. We all know what our mission is: to use technology with a purpose. And that purpose is to increase student achievement. "If this were an election year, I'd take all the credit, but it's been a real collaborative effort on everybody's part. Everybody knew the need for the plan. I just happened to be the force to bring people together to bring it forward." By his own admission, Parks is no techie. His savvy extends to being able to edit an iMovie and create a podcast. Any further out than that and he's in too deep. His strength is in seeing what can be, convincing others on the school board to back that vision, and then executing a strategy for implementation. "I may not know some of the vocabulary," Parks says, "but I know what the results should look like." He has his own kernel of homespun wisdom to define his approach: "I know what I know, I know what I don't know, but I always know who knows what I don't know." The person who most knows what he doesn't know and so is the one he leans on most is Jeanine Gendron, Broward County's instructional technology director. For instance, Parks recently hired a public relations firm to create a website to pull together all aspects of the district's green initiative. The firm sent him an outline of what the effort would entail. …


International air travel has increased during the recent century, and the number of pregnant women who travel internationally by air is on the rise. Most pregnant women are able to fly safely, but general considerations must be taken into account. Prior to traveling, pregnant women should be assessed for gestational age, fetus and placenta status, blood group and Rh status by laboratory evaluation or with diagnostic ultrasound imaging. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that pregnant women travelers carry a copy of their medical records with them on their trip.1 The latest recommendation of the ACOG indicates that occasional travel by air during pregnancy is safe. Specifically, occasional air travel by women with a singleton pregnancy can be done until 36 weeks gestation. Women with an uncomplicated multiple pregnancy are allowed to fly up to the end of the 32nd week. As emergencies usually happen in the first and third trimesters, the safest time to travel is probably the middle of the pregnancy, between 14-18 weeks.2,3 Almost all women with a normal pregnancy can travel without limitation up to 28 weeks, but there are few contraindications for air travel, including obstetric complications, severe anemia (Hb<7.5 g/dL), recent hemorrhage, sickle cell anemia, acute otitis media and sinusitis, uncontrolled cardiac or respiratory disease, and a post-operative condition as with recent gastrointestinal surgery.3 Although air travel is safe, there are specific risks during pregnancy. The incidences of miscarriage and preterm birth are greater among flight attendants than the general population. Exposure to cosmic radiation is not hazardous to the fetus for the occasional pregnant air traveler. One other concern is venous thromboembolism for which flight duration is a key factor. Air travel of more than 4 hours at a time may increase the risk of venous thromboembolism, but this is a weak risk factor. Immobility during long flights can lead to such a condition.4,5 There are some general suggestions for the pregnant traveler to minimize the risk of an adverse outcome related to air travel during pregnancy. Before planning to travel, women should check the airline's policy about air travel during pregnancy. The traveler's seat belt should be closed during a flight, and unnecessary traffic should be avoided. Because of the necessity of take occasional walks, pregnant women should have an aisle seat to facilitate movement. Women should drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration. Furthermore, the pregnant traveler should avoid gassy foods and drinks preflight.1-3


The introductory article provides a conceptual background of the special issue of Methis focusing on the role of "life writing" (omaelulookirjutus) in Estonian cultural history, examining it from the perspective of different disciplines and theoretical and critical frameworks. Functioning as an umbrella term for the issue, omaelulookirjutus is largely a synonym for the term "life writing". While referring, in its widest usage, to a diverse body of texts that take life as its subject, the gradual adoption of the term life writing to refer both to a field of study and its subject also denotes a self-conscious turn away from a more narrow notion of autobiography. In European cultural contexts of a certain time period, autobiography conveys certain conceptions of the nature of truth and selfhood (the Enlightenment subject). Life writing, on the other hand, can be understood as a concept that facilitates a wide range of textual practises, both literary and nonliterary, that represent a diverse array of cultural contexts and categories of identity. The Estonian near equivalent of the term life writing, omaeluloolisus, is used with regard to the conceptualisation of the term by Jaan Kross, a canonical Estonian contemporary novelist in his Omaeluloolisus ja alltekst (Autobiographism and Subtext, 2003). Although mainly an attempt at constructing a systematic interpretational frame for the consideration of the trajectory of his own work, Kross' observations have wider implications, addressing some central concerns of the development of Estonian life writing. Delineating a scale of manifestations of "the autobiographical" (omaeluloolisus) in the literary work of an author and the autobiographical essence of language, Kross also makes visible its functioning and uses as a socio-politically charged entity in everyday contexts, in particular with regard to the experience of the Soviet regime. In its wide range of manifestation and application possibilities, omaeluloolisus, as outlined by Kross, in many aspects relates to the conceptualisation of life -writing and life narrative by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, the notion of "the autobiographical" by Jeanne Perreault and Marlene Kadar, and "autobiographics" by Leigh Gilmore, whose theoretical perspectives have also informed terminological situating processes of Estonian life writing texts and practises in the current volume. Taking as its starting point life writing as an interdisciplinary field of study, this special issue aims at presenting Estonian life writing research from the viewpoint of different disciplines (literary and cultural studies, theatre studies, folklore and sociolinguistics) and different types of texts ranging from the work of canonical authors and lesser-known literary figures to different types of archival material. With regard to life writing studies' relation to autobiography studies that consolidated in Europe and the USA as a distinct field of study in the 1960s and 1970s, it is important to point out that regardless of the existence of a rich and diverse body of Estonian life writing texts, life writing has so far received minimal systematic critical attention in Estonian literary history and criticism. The special issue aims at advancing the initiatives taken in the field by a number of individual researchers, most of whom are also represented in the current volume. It also aims to facilitate a critical forum for Estonian life writing and contribute to the establishment of life writing as a legitimate object of Estonian literary and cultural studies, aiming for its enhancement in Estonian cultural history.


Runic inscriptions, particularly those dedicated to the deceased, generally commence with a reference to its initiator and furthermore mentions the (usually highly regarded) rune writer by name, before the person that the monument is dedicated to is even named or related to his/her actions or the way he/she met his/her death. Language-wise the formulation is characterised by full sentences with action verbs mostly in the active voice. It is argued that the register of the inscriptions has much in common with oral narrative, which in itself has several iconic characteristics, such as taking the 'I' as point of departure, employing action verbs to describe activities and dealing with events in their order of occurrence. Therefore if certain distinctions between signifier and signified were not sharply drawn in the minds of those erecting memorials, signifier and signified must necessarily resemble each other to a sufficient extent to have an iconic relationship. The persistent presence and prominence of the initiator of the memorial and the rune writer in the inscriptions create the impression that the very raising and inscribing of a stone was tantamount to honouring the deceased, and therefore one and the same act.


This study investigated the factors that influence university students' intention to use a smartphone. The study proposed and validated a research model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). The TAM was modified and extended with four new constructs: social norms, perceived enjoyment, perceived value and ease of access. The constructs for the instrument of the study were adapted from previous related studies which had validated the instruments. Data were collected from 110 participants via a survey. The collected data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple-regression using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 22.0). The model demonstrated a good fit where six independent variables together contributed 56.2% of the variance to the outcome or prediction. The results of the analysis were used to test a set of research hypotheses and to answer research questions. The following independent variables were found to be significant in determining university students' intention to use mobile devices: perceived usefulness, social norms, perceived enjoyment, perceived value and ease of access. The control variables gender and degree level and the independent variable ease of use were not significant predictors. The results of this study may be useful to understand which factors are more important to the students. This understanding can be utilized by the University administrators for developing policies related to mobile learning and by the IT departments for planning organizational technology services.


This article reports on a research program that has developed new methodologies for mapping the Australian blogosphere and tracking how information is disseminated across it. The authors improve on conventional web crawling methodologies in a number of significant ways: First, the authors track blogging activity as it occurs, by scraping new blog posts when such posts are announced through Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Second, the authors use custom-made tools that distinguish between the different types of content and thus allow us to analyze only the salient discursive content provided by bloggers. Finally, the authors are able to examine these better quality data using both link network mapping and textual analysis tools, to produce both cumulative longer term maps of interlinkages and themes, and specific shorter term snapshots of current activity that indicate current clusters of heavy interlinkage and highlight their key themes. In this article, the authors discuss findings from a yearlong observation of the Australian political blogosphere, suggesting that Australian political bloggers consistently address current affairs, but interpret them differently from mainstream news outlets. The article also discusses the next stage of the project, which extends this approach to an examination of other social networks used by Australians, including Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. This adaptation of our methodology moves away from narrow models of political communication, and toward an investigation of everyday and popular communication, providing a more inclusive and detailed picture of the Australian networked public sphere.


Solid state superconducting devices coupled to coplanar transmission lines offer an exquisite architecture for quantum optical phenomena probing as well as for quantum computation implementation, being the object of intense theoretical and experimental investigation lately. In appropriate conditions the transmission line radiation modes can get strongly coupled to a superconducting device with only two levels -for that reason called artificial atom or qubit. Employing this system we propose a hybrid two-quantum bit gate encoding involving quantum electromagnetic field qubit states prepared in a coplanar transmission line capacitively coupled to a single charge qubit. Since dissipative effects are more drastic in the solid state qubit than in the field one, it can be employed for storage of information, whose efficiency against the action of an ohmic bath show that this encoding can be readily implemented with present day technology. We extend the investigation to generate entanglement between several solid state qubits and the field qubit through the action of external classical magnetic pulses.


ABSTRACT A historical specimen of plesiosaur, discovered by Mary Anning and kept in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, under the number MNHN A. C. 8592 is here described. Discovered in 1824 by the first palaeontologist woman, Mary Anning, the specimen was sold by her to Constant Prévost who took it to Paris. This specimen is the second ever discovered plesiosaur and is here described for the first time even though it was figured by Cuvier (1825). The specimen is preserved in articulation and retained almost the entire post cranium but lacks the skull and most part of the neck. It preserves 56 vertebrae, most of the pectoral and pelvic girdles and most of the limbs. It was referred to Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus by Storrs (1997). Comparison with other specimens of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus indicates that MNHN A. C. 8592 is an adult of advanced age. It reveals some unique features that may be attributed to ontogenetical and/or intraspecific variations. A better understanding of these variations among several individuals of the same species may help to clarify the problematic taxonomy and phylogeny of plesiosaurs.


ABSTRACT In this review essay, Earl Aguilera compares two recent contributions to the growing body of literature on technology in education, Christo Sims' Disruptive Fixation and Antero Garcia's Good Reception, to examine the conceptual and practical contributions of each text, along with points of divergence through which readers might glean additional insights. Sims and Garcia both address efforts rooted in a growing area of work around integrating digital media technologies into K-12 schools, but present contrasting perspectives and differing notions of technological disruption and integration. While Sims' ethnographic work on the "school for digital kids" is rich in conceptual tools that help readers understand what he calls cycles of disruptive fixation that have occurred throughout the history of public education in the United States, Garcia's embedded perspectives as high school teacher provide practical guidance for integrating new media technologies with responsive and critical pedagogical practices. Taken together, these texts highlight both the promises and the pitfalls of integrating new media technologies into existing models and contexts of education often labeled as outmoded for life and work in the 21st century.


While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well researched, very little effort has been expended to do such comparisons for college level introductory chemistry. The existing literature has only one study that investigated chemistry lectures at an entire course level as opposed to particular course components such as individual topics or exams. Regarding lab courses, only one study is available and it involves moderating variables that are largely uncontrolled. In this work, we compared the student pass rates, withdrawal rates, and grade distributions between asynchronous online and traditional formats of an introductory chemistry lecture as well as its associated lab course. The study was based on the 823 university records available for the 2015–2016 academic year. Student pass and withdrawal rates between the two modes were quite similar and did not appear to be statistically significant. However, grade distributions for both the lecture and lab differed between the two learning modes, showing significant statistical associations. Online students were more likely to earn As in both lecture and lab while traditional in-person students were more likely to earn Cs or Ds. Further research should include replication of this study with a larger data set. Additionally, this study should be repeated in three to five years to determine if advances in course design, standardization and delivery platforms further reduce or eliminate differences between learning modes. Future studies should also use qualitative tools for a better understanding of why students fail or withdraw from courses.


Engineering students benefit from an active and interactive classroom environment where they can be guided through the problem solving process. Typically faculty members spend class time presenting the technical content required to solve problems, leaving students to apply this knowledge and problem solve on their own at home. There has recently been a surge of the flipped, or inverted, classroom where the technical content is delivered via online videos before class. Students then come to class prepared to actively apply this knowledge to solve problems or do other activities. In this paper, recommendations are made for applying this educational technique to large engineering classrooms. These recommendations are based both on a literature review of flipped classes and the evaluation of a case study of a large Introduction to Environmental Engineering class. The case study evolved from a traditional lecture-based classroom through two different versions of a flipped classroom. Evaluation of students' interaction, preferences and performance are used to make rec ommendations about the video time, use of class time, course organization and student assessment.


Automobile growth has created severe problems such as traffic congestion, air pollution, and carbon emission worldwide. To address these problems, Chinese local governments implemented a series of automobile regulations to slow down auto growth. They set up a yearly quota of license plates and require potential car buyers to obtain a license plate before buying an automobile. Local governments end up with three modes of allocating the scarce license plates: only lotteries, only auctions, and a mix of lotteries and auctions. The main debate is the tradeoff between the efficiency represented by auctions and the equity represented by lotteries. By drawing on two survey results in Beijing and Guangzhou, this thesis analyzes the automobile regulations with respect to the normative aspect, the empirical aspect and the behavioral aspect of the debate. I structure this thesis in three separate essays. The first essay focuses on the normative aspect. It provides different ways of interpreting fairness, which is a guiding principle of the lottery-based allocation scheme adopted in Beijing. The essay builds up a three-layer framework to evaluate the fairness of the lottery-based allocation scheme. I conclude that the lottery is superficially fair because it only narrowly conforms to the equality rule, which generates a positive public view. The findings suggest that fairness is an extraordinary broad concept, and thus any policy can at most only conform to certain aspects of fairness, as in the Beijing case. The second essay focuses on the empirical aspect. It analyzes how people chose between lotteries, auctions, and non-participation in Guangzhou, where a mixed mode of lotteries and auctions is adopted. This essay focuses on the marginal effects of socio-demographics, especially income, on choice. It turns out that high-income people chose both lotteries and auctions, in contrast to the common belief that lotteries benefitted the poor and auctions benefitted the rich. In fact, people responded strongly to the fluctuation of the number of participants and winning rates of lotteries and auctions. People speculated in both lotteries and auctions, instead of making decisions based on their needs or economic status. The third essay focuses on the in-depth behavioral aspect. I analyzed the impact of risk biases on the choice between lotteries, auctions and non-participation under three different policy scenarios. Consistent with theories, people over-estimated the winning rates of lotteries and under-estimated the winning rates of auctions. When faced with a choice between only lotteries and non-participation or between only auctions and non-participation, the risk biases dominated the decision-making process. On the contrary, the cognitive biases did not influence decisions much if people were faced with lotteries, auctions, and non-participation, as in the Guangzhou case. Thesis Supervisor: Jinhua Zhao, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Reader: Chris Zegras, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning


STUDY OBJECTIVES
To describe the most commonly used treatments in pediatric narcolepsy and their perceived effectiveness, as well as to elicit key stakeholder perspectives on the most optimal manner in which care ought to be delivered to youth with narcolepsy.

METHODS
A cross-sectional survey of youth with narcolepsy, parents, and sleep physicians.

RESULTS
Complete survey results were available for 35 youth with narcolepsy, 116 parents, and 30 sleep physicians. Overall there was general agreement among family and physicians regarding most effective treatments, including both pharmacologic (stimulants, sodium oxybate, and modafinil/armodafinil) and non-pharmacologic (sleep schedule, exercise, diet) approaches. There was a stronger interested in cannabidiol oil (CBD) from families compared to physicians. Both families and physicians also endorsed a need for multispecialty care, ideally delivered in a same day setting and including specialists in mental health, social work, and nutrition. Quality measures were felt to be important but are not currently tracked by most sleep physicians. Qualitative responses highlight the value families place on providers who listen well and remain open-minded.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest strong support by key stakeholders for an interdisciplinary approach to care for youth with narcolepsy.


Flow data across regions can be modeled by spatial econometric models, see LeSage and Pace (2009). Recently, regional studies became interested in the aggregation and disaggregation of flow models, because trade data cannot be obtained at a disaggregated level but data are published on an aggregate level. Furthermore, missing data in disaggregated flow models occur quite often since detailed measurements are often not possible at all observation points in time and space. In this paper we develop classical and Bayesian methods to complete flow data. The Chow and Lin (1971) method was developed for completing disaggregated incomplete time series data. We will extend this method in a general framework to spatially correlated flow data using the cross-sectional Chow-Lin method of Polasek et al. (2009). The missing disaggregated data can be obtained either by feasible GLS prediction or by a Bayesian (posterior) predictive density.


This study examines employment and educational outcomes for justice-involved adolescents with and without mental health disorders in the Pathways to Desistance study. We examine the patterns of education and employment and the effects of several factors, including the presence of a mental health disorder, on these positive outcomes. Three findings emerge: (a) youth with mental health problems have a relatively high number of other criminogenic risk factors, (b) education and employment patterns do not differ by disorder status, and (c) the presence of a mental health disorder is not independently linked to poorer employment outcomes, but educational achievement is. These analyses provide information needed to target services for these adolescents in the juvenile justice system, who are at high risk for poor educational and employment outcomes. Results indicate a need for increased emphasis on higher levels of academic attainment as a way to promote positive employment outcomes in these youth.


"Statistical significance," a technique that dominates medicine, economics, psychology, and many other scientific fields, has been a huge mistake. The outcome is a case study in bad science - how it originates and how it grows. These sciences, from agronomy to zoology, the authors find, engage "testing" that doesn't test and "estimating" that doesn't estimate. Heedless of magnitude and of a genuine engagement with alternative hypotheses, they "testimate." "Null hypothesis significance testing" is in other words a scientific train-wreck, about which a small group of statisticians have been warning for a century.Ziliak and McCloskey's book shows field by field how the wreck happened, reports on the fatalities, and offers a quantitative way forward. The facts will startle the outside reader: how could a group of brilliant scientists wander so far away from scientific magnitudes? And it will inspirit the scientists who seek conscious interpretations of "oomph" rather than arbitrary columns of t-tests: how can the statistical sciences get back on track, and fulfill their quantitative promise?Ziliak and McCloskey measure the disaster in their home field of economics, and in psychology, epidemiology, and medical science. They touch as well on law, biology, psychiatry, pharmacology, sociology, political science, education, forensics, and other fields in the grip of "significance." The book shows for the first time how wide the disaster is, and how bad for science, and it traces the problem to its historical, sociological, and philosophical roots. Many statisticians have complained about it before, but have complained science-by-science.


In this short paper we present and discuss the findings of a case study aimed at developing social security metrics for modeling the security culture of certain individuals. Using these metrics we have modeled the security culture of IT workers individuals from Saudi Arabia. We suggest these metrics can be used for modeling and comparing different security cultures to develop a global security culture required for effective global response to cyber security issues. We start by reviewing the latest research on the social aspects of information security. Then we highlight the history of the under-development social security metrics. Afterward we discuss the setup of the case study and the methodology used. Finally, we discuss the experiment results and suggested further research work.


Many countries employ a range of policies to support their drug development industry. The support is primarily because of the perceived potential benefits from wealth creation, employment, and international trade related to a high‐technology industry. New Zealand (NZ) has a growing drug development industry; this article reports on the results of interviews with people representing the industry. The NZ industry reported that government policies that included funding of scientific, medical, and drug development research, a robust regulatory system, and strong patent laws have created a cluster of expertise for specialized drug development services. This is similar to those that have been reported to encourage the biotechnology industries of many countries. Threats to the industry in NZ include insufficient funding, small industry size, insufficient supportive policies, and stakeholders' lack of understanding of the industry. These barriers differ from those of developing countries such as China and India, probably because NZ's industry is built on its scientific and medical research rather than its manufacturing capability. The specific policies requested to further support the NZ industry include increased government investment, improved management of funding, and support for research, education, and career development. Drug Dev Res 73: 1–10, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Media is a big part of people's everyday lives. It influences both how we see ourselves and the world to some extent. There are many different types of media, for example: television shows, movies, the radio, newspapers, advertisements which are placed in random places and the internet. In these different forms of media, there are images of men and women, which are represented in different ways and with different characteristics. Research has been made on a lot of movies and television shows and this thesis will be adding to this vast amount of research by analysing gender representation in the movies Sex and the City 1 and 2. By using discourse analysis, the results show different types of gender representation and whether the characters in Sex and the City challenge the patriarchal privilege. Assuming social constructivism, we believe that these images of gender representation in movies affect our perception of what a man or a woman is. Our results suggest that the characters do still follow the patriarchal privilege but some characters do on occasion challenge them. However the outcome is rarely successful.


Turkey's choice to become the member of the GATT and later the WTO lay in her fundamental choice to be a part of the West and integrate with the global economy, modernize her economy and improve her external trade relations. Although a founding member of another international organization, primarily regarded as the social club of wealthy nations (OECD), Turkey has the status of a developing country in the WTO system. It is also important to note that Turkey's EU candidate country status has a crucial effect on its policy options in the WTO. Some of the most important elements of the world economy and trade are at the heart of current discussions/negotiations in the WTO, such as the elimination of trade-distorting domestic agricultural support and export subsidies, transparency in government procurement, , technical barriers to trade and other areas. The WTO's decisions are binding for all of its members and influence the global economy. Thus, it is not an exaggeration to say that the WTO directly impacts our daily lives.


This thesis studies metabolites in Atlantic salmon (S.salar) and their effect on the quality and the spoilage of the fish fillets. Of special interest is how the concentrations of metabolites can be assayed using NMR spectroscopy, and how metabolite concentrations can be used as a measure of quality and spoilage. We have conducted a literature review that reflects the current state of knowledge about metabolites and their effect on the quality and spoilage of fish fillets. Also some indices that are currently in use, or have been proposed for the measurement of metabolite concentrations, are presented. In our discussion of the literature, we suggest to further study metabolites and a combination of indices for the evaluation of quality, and the state of spoilage of Atlantic salmon fillets. NMR spectroscopy as a method has both advantages and disadvantages for the detection and quantification of metabolites. Even though NMR has its disadvantages, the technique yields large amounts of precise data in a short time, and therefore should be used more frequently in metabolite studies and more generally for the development of indices for quality and spoilage of fish. To further illustrate the point of this conclusion, we present a short case study of Atlantic salmon fillets based on NMR data recorded by Shumilina (2014). We have analyzed this data for some of the metabolites covered in our literature study in order to assess the fillets quality and the state of spoilage.


Contemporary surveillance is constant, pervasive, and invasive. Many contend that this creates a current, society-wide threat to the self. However, there are many cases in which surveillance, if appropriately constrained, appears to promote self-realization, at least for a range of social subgroups. So where is the society-wide threat? We contend that surveillance creates such a threat by undermining relational privacy. Relational privacy consists in people voluntarily limiting their knowledge of each other as they interact in a wide variety of social and commercial roles. The group coordination ensures group — and hence "relational" — control over the selective flow of information. Adequate self-realization requires an adequate degree of coordination-enabled control. Surveillance undermines that control. The key to seeing how this happens across society as a whole lies in seeing how group coordination depends on a special form of knowledge — common knowledge, "the recursive belief state in which A knows X, B knows X, A knows that B knows X, B knows that A knows X, ad infinitum." People succeed in coordinating their efforts at voluntary restraint because they know they will coordinate appropriately, they know they know, know they know they know, and so on. When surveillance undermines such knowledge, it strikes at relational privacy's foundation and thereby threatens self-realization.


Additive manufacturing technology has been developed in the manufacturing industry; however, limited choice of materials and low printing speeds in large-scale production make 3D printing challenging in the industry. Wood and cellulose-based materials have recently drawn a lot of attention for use as 3D printing materials due to their unique properties such as environmental friendliness, cost-effectiveness and abundancy. However, because these compounds are derived from various natural sources, their different particle sizes can result in low 3D printing quality. The objective of this study is to resolve the mentioned deficiencies in the packaging industry by designing a novel 3D printer nozzle based on the material extrusion method (FDM technique), which provides higher printing speed and enhanced quality for wood and cellulose-based materials. The packaging industry can significantly benefit from 3D printing technology for cellulose-based materials by producing high-quality recyclable economical packaging on a large scale according to the clients' demand. The proposed nozzle design enables selecting different geometrical cross-sections of the nozzle dies and any number of extrusion points along the nozzle die simultaneously during the 3D printing process. These capabilities lead to advanced performance and improved speed of 3D printing in large scale manufacturing. The proposed nozzle design provides a novel technique for 3D printing of plant-derived compounds with remarkable advantages such as providing selective variable extrusion and multiple nozzle dies. Compared to other existing 3D printing techniques, the proposed nozzle abilities make it a promising option with higher speed and better functionality for the packaging industry.


Does death row incarceration for upwards of thirty years or more impermissibly impose the suffering of additional punishment or permissibly bestow the benefit of death delayed and thus the enjoyment of life extended? Most commentators conceive of it as an unconstitutional additional punishment that is either cruel and unusual or disproportionally excessive. Most courts construe it as a constitutional nonpunishment that the death row prisoner opts for and benefits from. Sparking a long-running debate at the Supreme Court, Justices Stevens and Breyer view prolonged death row incarceration as unconstitutional additional punishment. Terming their view as "meritless" and "a mockery of our system of justice," Justice Thomas finds it constitutional. Attempting to break this impasse, this Article undertakes the first comprehensive assessment of death row incarceration under what the Supreme Court enthrones as the primary justification for the constitutionality of capital punishment — retributivism. Assuming that retributivism does justify capital punishment per se, this Article demonstrates that the combination of capital punishment plus substantial death row incarceration violates retributivism. Whether such incarceration constitutes additional punishment aggravating capital punishment or a life-extending, beneficial mitigation of capital punishment, the combination is unjustified under retributivism and thus perhaps unconstitutional.


Tourism appeal includes natural places like beaches, eco-parks, lakes, valleys, rivers, islands etc., archeological sites, historic mosques and monuments, resorts, picnic spots, forest and wildlife. Bangladesh is a riverine country having attractive panoramic beauty. There are hills, valley, canals, lake, eco-park and mangrove forests, rivers, so many islands and the longest beach in the world. In this country, the scope of nature based tourism, resource based tourism, culture based tourism and eco-tourism is quite evident. Bangladesh is trying hard to develop its tourism industry. Therefore the whole situation deserves to be seen from right perspectives. Role of government is positive since the last twenty years both private and public organizations have come forwarded to attract the local and foreign tourists. The cracks of problem could not identify accurately because of the paucity number of researches and investigations in our country. Developed and organized tourism industry could change the economic condition and contribute a big share in the GDP of Bangladesh. This study will impede the opportunities of developing tourism industry in the light of existing resources.


A metabasite lens with eclogite-facies relics discovered within high-grade gneisses, at Punta Orvili (Posada) in NE Sardinia, has proven to be the first example of within-plate basalt among the eclogite-derived, tholeiitic metabasites from the Variscan belt in Sardinia. The composition of the Punta Orvili metabasite is unusual: SiO 2 2 O 3 2 O 3tot >13 wt%, Cr > 550 ppm, Ni > 270 ppm, Mg # 68–70. Detailed investigation of the major and trace element content rules out any significant geochemical modification of the protolith by alteration and/or metamorphic processes. Normative contents of mafic minerals up to 55–79 wt%, very small amounts of Al 2 O 3 and Na 2 O and very high concentrations of MgO, Cr and Ni suggest a protolith of picritic nature. The steeply sloping REE patterns, with La N /Yb N = 13.0–17.3, suggest low-degree partial melting and the presence of garnet, as retention phase of HREE in the mantle source. Enrichment factors are 60–180 times higher for LREE, 30–60 times for MREE, 10–20 times for HREE. The primitive manntle-normalized trace element abundance patterns of the Punta Orvili metabasite show enrichment in Ba, Th, Nb, La, Ce, compared to eclogite-derived metabasites. Values of La/Nb, La/Ta, Ce/Nb, Th/Nb, Sm/Yb, Ce/Sm, Th/Y, Nb/Y, Th/Yb and Ta/Yb differ significantly from those of average crust, upper, lower and mid-crust, indicating an OIB-like source. Two values of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (i) were obtained around 0.709 with e Sri = +69–71. The corresponding values of the 143 Nd/ 144 Nd (i) are about 0.51197 with e Ndi ~ −1.50 assuming an age of 460 Ma, i.e . the mean age of Sardinian eclogite. Isotope and geochemical data suggest that the Punta Orvili protolith was generated by interaction of OIB-like melts with an enriched sub-continental lithospheric mantle, similar in composition to Group II kimberlites and/or to their garnet peridotite xenoliths.


Interactions between actins and microtubules play an important role in many fundamental cellular processes in eukaryotes. Although several studies have shown actins and microtubules to be involved in specific cellular activities, little is known about how actins and microtubules contribute together to a given process. Preprophase band formation, which plays an essential role in plant division site determination, is a cellular process that lends itself to studies of actin-microtubule interactions and how they contribute to important cellular functions. Recently, we have analyzed microtubule-associated microfilaments during preprophase band formation in onion cotyledon epidermal cells using a combination of high-pressure freezing/freeze substitution and electron tomography. Quantitative analysis of our electron tomography data showed that relatively short single microfilaments form bridges between two adjacent microtubules in the process of narrowing of the preprophase microtubule band. Two types of microtubule-microfilamentmicrotubule connections are observed, and these microfilament-microtubule interactions suggest a direct role of F-actins in microtubule bundling. Based on these observations, we discuss how different actin-microtubule linkers might contribute to preprophase band narrowing and to other changes in microtubule organization in plant cells.


When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension of the user. It creates meaning and a new language. Design-Inspired Innovation takes a unique look at the intersection between design and innovation, and explores the novel ways in which designers are contributing to the development of products and services. The book's scope is international, with emphasis on design activities in Boston, England, Sweden, and Milan. Through a rich variety of cases and cultural prisms, the book extends the traditional design viewpoint and stretches the context of industrial design to question — and answer — what design is really all about. It gives readers tools for inspiration, and shows how design can change language and even create human possibilities.


This study seeks to describe and evaluate the Constitution's implicit normative structure. The first part of the argument distinguishes the Constitution's intention from the subjective intentions of the framers and teases out the implications of this distinction for uncovering the Constitution's moral meaning. This distinction indicates rejecting the standard method of the intellectual historian, which aims to classify the Constitution as classical, modern or positivist based upon an examination and classification of the most important writings of the framers. Instead, if we want to ascertain the Constitution's intended moral meaning, then we should apply a logical method known as inference to the best explanation. To apply this methodology, I tease out possible Constitutional presuppositions concerning the nature of sovereignty, the common good, natural law and natural rights and use inference to the best explanation to identify the best possible presupposition in each of these areas. The argument reveals that the Constitution presupposes a constrained popular sovereign. Constrained popular sovereignty in turn entails a  real common good. The Constitution presupposes that the common good is also thick and teleological. However, while the common good specifies the content of morality, it does not impose obligations upon human persons unless it is prescribed. The natural law provides this prescription. Because the Constitution is prescriptive, it seeks to obligate individuals. But the obligation of human law presupposes a source of obligation external to human law and normative for it. The Constitution therefore presupposes a natural law to which human law must conform to receive what binding power it has. I argue that the Constitution presupposes that this law is promulgated through non-instrumental reason. Moreover, the presupposition of a moral law together with constrained popular sovereignty entails that this law is known at least to most. Finally, moral obligation entails moral right. Because the Constitution presupposes obligations antecedent to human law, it also presupposes rights antecedent to human law. I conclude with  the argument that the moral framework just outlined is in fact a good one. Department Government


Closed kinematic chains (CKCs) are constrained multibody systems that contain closed kinematic loops. Nowadays, CKCs are used in a variety of applications ranging from flight simulators to medical instruments, and are becoming increasingly popular in the machine-tool industry and haptic interfaces due to their better performance in terms of accuracy, rigidity and payload capacity as compared to open-chain mechanisms. This document intends to present a novel methodology for the modeling and control of general CKCs. The dynamics of CKCs are characterized by index-3 differential algebraic equations (DAEs). Dynamic models in the form of DAEs pose difficulties in model-based control because most existing control design techniques are devised for explicit state space models. The control methodology presented in this document is based on a singular perturbation formulation (SPF), which has attractive properties including the minimum dimension of its slow dynamics and the large validity domain that contains the entire singularity-free workspace of the CKCs. The key issue of the model approximation error is addressed under different stability conditions. Explicit error bounds are derived and sufficient conditions for the exponential convergence of the approximation errors are established. For the control of CKCs, our approach transfers the control of the original DAE system to the control of an artificially created singularly perturbed system. Compared to control methods which directly solve the nonlinear algebraic constraint equations, the proposed method uses an ODE solver to obtain the dependent coordinates, hence eliminating the need for Newton type iterations and is amenable to real-time implementation. The closed loop system, when controlled by typical open kinematic chain schemes, achieves asymptotic trajectory tracking. The efficacy of the approach is illustrated by simulating the dynamics of a CKC mechanism, the Rice Planar Delta Robot, and then by validating the simulation results with experimental data. Thus, this work establishes a framework in which the control of CKCs can be systematically addressed.


This article examines the professional responsibilities and ethical dimensions of the role of the family lawyer to serve as a counselor and as a "gatekeeper," particularly in the context of working with clients considering or involved in dissolution proceedings. Family lawyers, as a class, seem to have abandoned their responsibilities to help their clients solve their marital problems and, instead, primarily seek to facilitate their clients dissolve the marriage with minimal difficulty and maximal ease. The article addresses the professional responsibility guidelines concerning the attorney's ethical responsibilities to screen clients seeking or involved in divorce concerning their prior efforts to solve marital problems, to counsel clients getting a divorce, channel the client into exploring all reasonable options. Family law attorneys have a role as a gatekeeper in divorce. The article discusses the powerful public interest in having the legal profession perform some channeling function to help clients identify, understand and consider a range of options that may facilitate the avoidance of harms and distress. This article presents an overview showing that counseling and gatekeeping by family lawyers in divorce cases is well within and an important part of the legitimate professional and ethical role and responsibilities of attorneys, but raises more issues than answers. It provides the family lawyer with a general perspective and identify the general context of professionalism in which difficult decisions may be considered.


Drastic growth in computer simulation complexity and 3D scanning technology has boosted the size of geometry data sets used in visualization. Conventional (in-core) simplification techniques are sufficient in data reduction to accelerate graphics rendering. However, some powerful graphics workstations are sometimes unable to load or even generate the smooth rendering of these extremely large data. In this thesis, out-of-core simplification algorithm is introduced to overcome the limitation of conventional technique. Surface attributes such as normals, colors and textures, which are essentials to bring out the beauty of 3D object are preserved and discussed. The first process is to convert the input data into a memory efficient format. Next, the datasets are organized in an octree structure and later the partitioned meshes are kept in secondary memory (hard disk). Subsequently, submeshes are simplified using a new variation of vertex clustering technique. In order to maintain the surface attributes, a vertex clustering technique that collapses all triangles in every leaf node using the generalized quadric error metrics is introduced. Unlike any other vertex clustering methods, the knowledge of neighbourhood between nodes is unnecessary and the node simplification is performed independently. This simplification is executed recursively until a desired levels of detail is achieved. During run-time, the visible mesh is rendered based on the distance criterion by extracting the required data from the previously generated octree structure. The evaluated experiments show that the simplification is greatly controlled by octree's subdivision level and end node size. The finer the octree, the finer will be the mesh being generated. Overall, the proposed algorithm is capable in simplifying large viii datasets with pleasant quality and relatively fast. The system can run efficiently on low cost personal computer with small memory footprint.


The severity of the Russian financial crisis of August 1998 came as a surprise to many foreign investors and Russia watchers. Its roots and inevitability, however, were detectable to anyone who cared to look beyond Moscow and observe closely the state of economic deterioration in Russian regions. An unreformed domestic industry, loss-making agricultural sector, and dysfunctional financial system were clear signs of what was to come. An ineffective tax system was not the only cause of the fiscal crisis that brought about the 17 August devaluation of the ruble, default on government short-term debt, and a moratorium on commercial foreign debt service. The crisis was the natural result of an unreformed and politically unstable economy that did not turn out taxable profits. The extent of Russia's irresponsible politics and deteriorating economic conditions was most apparent in the regions. The financial crisis of summer 1998 exposed and exacerbated social and economic problems that had been mounting since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Prices for imported goods increased, collapsing banks halted wage and pension payments, suppliers ran low on food and medicine, and inflation corroded people's real income. Each region reacted differently, but none was able to shield itself completely from the crisis. The economic turmoil and Moscow's weakness encouraged governors' ambitions. As regional leaders reached for more political power, however, they inevitably confronted their own economic dependency on the shrinking federal budget. Thus, the crisis abruptly upset the precarious balance of power that had been evolving from the tug-of-war between center and periphery. At the same time, no serious threats to the integrity of the federation materialized, separatism remaining an unsustainable policy for most regions, which still depend heavily on federal subsidies. Regions in Pre-Crisis Distress Since the beginning of market reforms in 1992, regional economies have been subjected to structural changes that ripped apart the old functional and trade ties supporting the Soviet economy. The abolition of central planning, the liberalization of prices, and privatization were expected to create market conditions that would spur entrepreneurial activity and transform backward production facilities into competitive and modern firms. That did not happen. A misconstrued mass privatization scheme, a debilitating tax system, and delayed institutional and financial sector reforms created perverse incentives for economic agents across the regions. Enterprise and farm managers as well as private entrepreneurs were forced to or chose to focus on short-term gain and survival, instead of corporate restructuring, investment in production, and growth. The government and the banking sector did little to help industrial reorganization. Taxes were kept high to provide subsidies to politically important, but unprofitable factories. Most banks financed energy exports (and vice versa), instead of production and preferred to speculate in government securities rather than engage in corporate lending. As a result, industrial production fell 60 percent since 1992 (to put things in perspective, during the Great Depression output fell 35 percent in the United States). Regions dependent on heavy industries, such as Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Vologda, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Orenburg, Volgograd, Omsk, and Lipetsk, suffered the most. Small and medium enterprises were choked by heavy and arbitrarily assessed taxes and by an oppressive and frequently corrupt bureaucracy. The fate of the agricultural sector was even more distressing. Delay in land reforms, lack of financing for agricultural equipment and fertilizers, and depressed producers' prices (often manipulated by corrupt rings of middlemen) caused a 50 percent drop in agricultural produce. According to Agriculture and Foodstuffs Minister Viktor Semenov, the utilized arable land in the country declined by a quarter since early 1990s, the number of cattle was halved, mineral fertilizer use dropped to 15 percent of its former level, and the fleet of agricultural machinery decreased between 45 and 55 percent. …


This department provides a space for current and past PK–12 teachers of mathematics to connect with other teachers of mathematics through their stories that lend personal and professional support.


The accumulation of particles in the internal cooling channel reduces the cooling effectiveness of the turbine blades and even affects the safe operation of the aero engine. Discrete phase-CFD simulations of particles deposition were performed in the U-bend ribbed passage by applying Euler–Lagrange method. Reynolds Average Navier–Stokes method was used for the gas phase calculation. The realizable k–ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment were adopted. The discrete phase was solved by using Lagrangian with random walk model. A particle deposition model was implemented by using user-defined functions. The Reynolds numbers of 30,000, 23,000, and 15,500 were studied. Particles diameters in the range 1–20 μm were considered. The particles deposition distribution of different locations is obtained in this study, and the influence of the Reynolds numbers and particle diameters on particles deposition performance are analyzed. Results show that the first row of ribs has a protective effect on the back row of ribs. The increased Reynolds number and increased particles diameter promote the deposition of particles on the wall.