Understanding the hydrologic processes is the first step in making sound watershed management decisions including designing Best Management Practices for non-point source pollution control. Over the past fifty years, various forest experimental watersheds have been instrumented across the Carolinas through collaborative studies among federal, state, and private organizations. One of the most notable theoretical hydrological advances that directly resulted from studies in this region perhaps was Variable Source Area Concept (VSAC) proposed by John Hewlett and others. VSAC offers a framework that explains the mechanisms of streamflow generation at the watershed scale and provides a basis for developing watershed management practices for minimizing negative impacts on stream water quality. Unfortunately, due to the dynamic nature of the variable source area (VSA), a zone that varies across space and time, it is rarely measured and quantified at the watershed scale. This paper presents findings from a stormflow monitoring study that spans a physiographic gradient from the mountain to the sea. This study suggests that the variable source area and stormflow characteristics were most influenced by antecedent soil moisture conditions, which reflect the controls of climate and topography. We found that the saturated source area was rather small in the Appalachians and piedmont upland watersheds, but it could be rather large and variable in the low gradient coastal plain watersheds. Implications of these contrasting differences in VSA to watershed management are discussed.


Theoretical PhysicsMany theorists think it is impossible to make a quantum theory of pointlike particles—a "quantum field theory"—that also incorporates Einstein's theory of general relativity. Try it, they say, and the theory will go mathematically haywire, spitting out meaningless infinities. That supposed inevitability has been a prime motivation for string theory, which assumes that every particle is actually an infinitesimal string vibrating in nine-dimensional space—and which is inherently immune to these infinities. But point particles and gravity may be compatible after all. For several years, a group of theoretical physicists has tried to show that one particular quantum field theory of gravity known as N = 8 supergravity gives sensible answers. In a paper in press at Physical Review Letters , they take another step to show that this theory works mathematically. The work doesn't disprove string theory, but it has string theorists backpedaling a bit in their criticism of quantum field theory.


This working paper describes and explains the historical origins of the division between the national and the foreigner in South America. In the early nineteenth century, all the previously Spanish possessions in South America as well as Brazil achieved independence. With this new freedom, countries turned their attention to asserting their statehood through the delineation of three constitutive elements: government, territory and population. The new governments had to define who were going to be considered as nationals, citizens and foreigners, and the rights that pertained to each of these categories. These countries were all concerned with attracting new settlers and very early on introduced constitutional provisions on open borders and equal treatment for foreigners. White, male Europeans were the principal addresses of open borders provisions in an effort to entice them to settle in territories presented as empty to the exclusion of indigenous groups, bring new industries, and contribute to the whitening of mixed race populations. Whilst weak statehood came with independence, forming nations was a much longer process and States used migration and citizenship policies as tools to define nationhood.


Abstract. Large-scale ocean transports of heat and freshwater have not been well monitored, and yet the regional budgets of these quantities are important to understanding the role of the oceans in climate and climate change. In contrast, atmospheric heat and freshwater transports are commonly assessed from atmospheric reanalysis products, despite the presence of non-conserving data assimilation based on the wealth of distributed atmospheric observations as constraints. The ability to carry out ocean reanalyses globally at eddy-permitting resolutions of 1/4 ° or better, along with new global ocean observation programs, now makes a similar approach viable for the ocean. In this paper we examine the budgets and transports within a global high resolution ocean model constrained by ocean data assimilation, and compare them with independent oceanic and atmospheric estimates.


Problematic aspects of intercultural communication are considered in the context of: an increasingly internationalized market for higher education; the globalization of knowledge; the compatibility of distinct national higher education cultures; and the capacity for successful cross‐cultural cooperation. This is exemplified by reference to a doctoral programme delivered by a UK‐based university, largely through distance learning, to students resident in a non‐anglophone country. Here, the challenges have concerned: cultural and linguistic barriers; the use of distance‐based supervision; and taken‐for‐granted knowledge related to learning and academic levels. Anecdotal evidence suggests diverse student experiences during the supervision process, in both face‐to‐face and distance learning contexts, reflecting the extent of familiarity with idiomatic and technical English, and the importance of non‐verbal communication. Given unequal power relations between students and university teachers, improved intercultural communicative competence may be achieved through a mutual construction of a discursive arena reflecting the dynamics of an increasingly globalized structure of academic intercourse. This may involve a critique of assumptions associated with 'national' academic cultures together with a pragmatic quest for a common lexicon. This in turn may contribute to the process of cross‐national collaboration and cooperation in higher education.


The overall purpose of this project was to develop and implement a manure application record system that was solely based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This system will have the ability to provide steering and position assistance for avoiding buffer areas and to keep accurate records of application location, dates and rates. The system had the ability to create electronic as well as hard copy application maps. The software portion system was also evaluated to determine how the collected electronic spreading can be used to generate regulatory required spreading reports. The first step was to select the necessary components of the system. Components for the system were selected on the basis of product availability, user friendliness, ability to communicate with one another, and dealer support. Once the needed components were selected, a prototype system could be assembled. The prototype system consisted of an Ag Leader Insight monitor, Raven flow control valve, Krohne electromagnetic flow meter, and a Trimble Autopilot system. Once the system had been assembled, calibration could take place. Once a proper calibration was achieved, the system operated with very successful results.


This study uses restricted-access employer-level microdata from the National Compensation Survey to examine the relationship between automatic enrollment and employee compensation. By boosting plan participation, automatic enrollment has the potential to increase employer defined contribution plan costs as previously unenrolled workers receive matching contributions. Using cross-sectional variation in employer compensation costs and the automatic enrollment provision within firms sponsoring DC plans, we examine differences in compensation between those with and without the provision. A significant negative correlation exists between the generosity of the employer match structure and the automatic enrollment provision. However, we find no evidence that total compensation costs or DC costs differ between firms with and without automatic enrollment, and no evidence that DC costs crowd out other forms of compensation.


Even though oceans are pivotal for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, they constitute a blind spot in the global non-proliferation regime. This article analyses how regional security governance mechanisms may fill such gaps by bringing a maritime focus to non-proliferation studies. With three nuclear-weapons-free zones and one zone of peace surrounding or covering its maritime space, the South Atlantic serves as an illustrative case to understand the provision of security governance for the seas. The article identifies a range of legal, political, and practical challenges that can impede regional initiatives from achieving security sovereignty over maritime spaces. However, while non-proliferation might remain precarious, these mechanisms are not without success, as they serve to establish the opposition to nuclear weapons as a recognised norm, both at the UN level and among the Global South. The narrative of non-proliferation also allows regional states to justify the pursuit of security objectives. The article concludes by outlining the conditions for regional maritime governance to become more effective in terms of non-proliferation.


Aim: Hydroxychloroquine HCQ is an antimalarial drug used to treat symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) diseases. This drug is having certain side effect on retina in visual system. The purpose of this study is to check the visual pathway of this patients using visual evoked potential (VEP).
Method: Thirty RA female patients with 25-35 of age range were selected. They were under 200 mg/day of HCQ treatment for at least three years. They had normal visual acuity. VEP test was examined in total subjects. Latency (msec) and amplitude (µv) were measured for each patient. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for total case group. The result obtained was compared with the control group with same demographical condition of the patients, but no HCQ intake.
Results: Two case and control groups had approximately same demographical conditions. The mean latency of VEP, P100 peak/S.D were 98/8.15 and 102/9.2 msec in control and case groups respectively. The mean amplitude of VEP, P100 Peak/S.D. were 8.2/2.25 and 7.4/2.18 µv in control and case group respectively. There were not statistical differences between mean latency and amplitude of VEP, P100 peak as far as case and control groups are concerned.
Conclusion: From the results of present study one can conclude that HCQ does not affect visual pathway which can be proved using visual evoked potential.


Recent debates about state-funded faith schools in England have focused on the way in which they either promote or discourage social cohesion between different cultural, ethnic and religious groups. While one argument suggests that children must experience interfaith and intercultural encounters in order to understand each other, another insists that values of tolerance and acceptance can instead be taught as part of the curriculum. Despite this, much research to date has tended to focus on macro-processes such as selection procedures and residential segregation at the expense of micro-processes within school space itself. This article seeks to address this conspicuous lack of empirical research, by drawing on qualitative fieldwork in a state-funded Community primary school and Roman Catholic primary school located in multi-faith districts of an urban area in the North of England. It will examine a number of ways in which the two schools tried to encourage positive and meaningful encounters between children of different religious backgrounds, as well as the extent to which such attempts were successful. The article will focus particularly on the role of bodies and emotions in making sense of these processes.


Growing seasons are getting longer, a phenomenon partially explained by increasing global temperatures. Recent reports suggest that a strong correlation exists between warming and advances in spring phenology but that a weaker correlation is evident between warming and autumnal events implying that other factors may be influencing the timing of autumnal phenology. Using freely rooted, field-grown Populus in two Free Air CO2 Enrichment Experiments (AspenFACE and PopFACE), we present evidence from two continents and over 2 years that increasing atmospheric CO2 acts directly to delay autumnal leaf coloration and leaf fall. In an atmosphere enriched in CO2 (by 45% of the current atmospheric concentration to 550 ppm) the end of season decline in canopy normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) – a commonly used global index for vegetation greenness – was significantly delayed, indicating a greener autumnal canopy, relative to that in ambient CO2. This was supported by a significant delay in the decline of autumnal canopy leaf area index in elevated as compared with ambient CO2, and a significantly smaller decline in end of season leaf chlorophyll content. Leaf level photosynthetic activity and carbon uptake in elevated CO2 during the senescence period was also enhanced compared with ambient CO2. The findings reveal a direct effect of rising atmospheric CO2, independent of temperature in delaying autumnal senescence for Populus, an important deciduous forest tree with implications for forest productivity and adaptation to a future high CO2 world.


We investigate the potential role of fathers in females' decision to choose a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) major in college. The main innovation of our paper is to analyze how sibling sex composition affects the probability of being a STEM major in college for females whose fathers are in a STEM occupation. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), we find that, for females, having brother(s) significantly decreases the likelihood of choosing a STEM major in college when their fathers are also in a STEM occupation. The inclusion of variables pertaining to respondents' attitudes toward traditional gender roles, birth order, and the presence of an older brother as well as frequently used cognitive skill measures does not change the results. Thus, the observed effect appears to be driven by change in the college major preferences of females. We replicate the analysis using a more recent data set from the U.S. and data from Australia, and find similar results. Our findings suggest that fathers are much more likely to transmit occupation-specific tastes and preferences to their daughters in the absence of a son potentially, contributing to the persistence of the gender gap in STEM majors in college.


Are We All Addicts Now? Digital Dependence is an artist-led enquiry by Katriona Beales into digital hyper-connectivity and the normalization of addictive behaviours through our everyday interactions with digital devices. While internet addiction is not yet considered an official psychiatric disorder, it is gaining increased recognition as a behavioral phenomenon in both scientific study and the popular press. This project is the first interdisciplinary exploration of this burgeoning diagnostic territory. The book combines visual and textual research, including artistic works from Katriona Beales and Fiona MacDonald : Feral Practice, alongside essays from contributors in the fields of anthropology, digital culture, psychology and philosophy. Informed by the latest scientific research, the book acknowledges the increasing difficulty many people experience in controlling their online habits. At the same time, it also thinks beyond the biological model of internet addiction toward the social and political dimensions that shape everyday online activities and habit-forming behaviour. This book is co-edited by curator Vanessa Bartlett and medical doctor and neuroscience researcher Henrietta Bowden-Jones. It is published to coincide with a major exhibition of new artwork by Katriona Beales at Furtherfield, London.


Abstract:

This paper examines the effective integration of online within the offline physical store in one holistic shopping experience in the fashion field. It explores the merging of three key dimensions in creating an integrated experience – physical store variables, advanced technologies implementation and consumer attitudes and motivations. An extensive literature review was conducted from which a conceptual framework ensued. A multi-method qualitative research utilising case study strategy was adopted. The data was collected by observation of fashion stores with advanced technology implementation, experiential consumer interviews to examine motivations, behaviour and interaction with advanced technologies inside the physical store. Finally, interviews with experts provided insights on the role of the store, experiential retailing and the implementation of advanced technologies. The study revealed that targeting more than one human sense positively impacts the shopping experience. Consumer motivations reflected that browsing and idea motivations were determinant drivers to visit the store, on and offline. The role of advanced technologies in the physical store suggests that research online and purchase offline is an essential step in shopping activities. The use of mobile has gained importance, providing opportunities for fashion retailers.The conceptual framework identified the elements that encompass an online-offline shopping experience and serves as a first step in generating an integrated experience. The findings presented are limited to UK fashion retail and cannot be generalised outside the examined cases. The study acknowledges that the research presented is a simplified version of the real shopping experience, as it may be affected by factors other than store design (e.g. service personnel, product). However, this study serves as a starting point for future research in this nascent field of study. This study contributes to knowledge by uniting three previously separate dimensions within the proposed conceptual framework. It provides useful practical insights and recommendations for retailers on the role and usage of technology inside the physical store to aid the consumer-shopping journey. The research makes a unique contribution to on-offline integration and the usage of advanced technologies literature, a relatively new field of academic research. It delivers a comprehensive understanding of advanced technologies, their current use by fashion retailers and the opportunities for their further integration.


Eddie Baker, who was blinded during WW I, played a key role in the founding of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Canada's first Eye Bank. The latter development meant that some soldiers blinded between 1914 and 1918 had their sight restored in 1956, when the bank opened.


Optimal power allocation for multi-user amplify-and-forward wireless relay networks in which multiple source-destination pairs are assisted by a set of relays is investigated. Two relay power allocation strategies based on maximization of either i) the minimum rate among all users or ii) the weighted sum of rates are developed. A distributed implementation of the maximum weighted-sum-rate power allocation strategy is also studied. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed strategies and reveal their interesting throughput-fairness tradeoff in resource allocation.


Covalent attachment of the anticancer drugs temozolomide (Temodal) and mitozolomide to triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) is a potential way of targeting these alkylating agents to specific gene sequences to maximise site-selectivity. In this work, polypyrimidine TFO conjugates of both drugs were synthesised and targeted to duplex DNA in an attempt to effect site-specific alkylation of guanine residues. Concurrently, in an attempt to enhance the triple helix stability of TFOs at neutral pH, the thermal stabilities of triplexes formed from TFOs containing isoguanine, 2-O-benzyl- and 2-O-allyl-adenine were evaluated. A novel cleavage and deprotection procedure was developed which allowed for the solid phase synthesis of the base-sensitive TFO-drug conjugates using a recently developed silyl-linked controlled pore glass (SLCPG) support. Covalent attachment of either temozolomide or mitozolomide at the 5'-end of TFO conjugates caused no destabilisation of the triplexes studied. The synthesis of a phosphoramidite derivative of mitozolomide enabled direct incorporation of this reagent into a model sequence during DNA synthesis. After cleavage and deprotection of the TFO-drug conjugate, the 5'-end mitozolomide residue was found to have decomposed presumably as a result of ring-opening of the tetrazinone ring. The base-sensitive antibacterial and antitumour agent, metronidazole, was also successfully incorporated at the 5'-end of the oligonucleotide d(T8) using conventional methods. Two C2-substituted derivatives of 2'-deoxyadenosine containing 2-O-benzyl and 2-O-allyl groups were synthesised. Hydrogenolysis of the 2-O-benzyl analogue provided a useful route, amenable to scale-up, for the synthesis of the rare nucleoside 2'-deoxyisoguanosine (isoG). Both the 2-O-allyl and 2-O-benzyl derivatives were incorporated into TFO sequences using phosphoramidite methodology. Thermal melting experiments showed that the 2-O-allyl and 2-O-benzyl groups caused marked destabilisation of the triple helices studied, in contrast to hexose-DNA duplexes, where aralkyl substituents caused significant stabilisation of duplexes. TFOs containing isoG were synthesised by Pd(O)-catalysed deallylation of 2-0-allyl adenine residues. These sequences containing isoG, in its N3- or 02-H tautomeric form, formed triple helices which were equally as stable as those containing adenine.


Stability results for an open economy DSGE adapted to an emerging market (SOEME) with a dualistic structure have the same structure as in the original model, but those derived for the simulated version turn out to impose no restriction on the coefficient of inflation, but rather a threshold on the coefficient of the output gap. Other rigidities, lags and some degree of backward looking behavior in the simulated SOEME model arising from its calibration to an emerging market, may be helping provide a nominal anchor. Estimation of a Taylor rule for India, simulations in the SOEME model itself and a variant with government debt, confirm the analytical result. Implications are, first, optimization can be as effective as following a monetary policy rule. Second, knowledge of the specific rigidities in an economy can give useful inputs for the design of policy-their effect on stability should be more carefully researched.


Traditionally, international law involved state actors and inter-state relations. Individuals, organizations, regional bodies, non-governmental institutions and the like were left outside the reach of international law. The United Nations was a forum open exclusively to state parties. The International Court of Justice, as well as its predecessor, the Permanent Court of International Justice, were for a reserved for state grievances only. It was inconceivable that a non-state actor would come before such tribunals, or that international law would govern anything but relations among state parties. Today, the converse is true. International law, in its transformed or globalized version, governs all sorts of relations, including those implicating states, regional bodies, non-governmental institutions, trade organizations, commercial actors, and private individuals. It spreads into a myriad of legal fields, including human rights law, international criminal law, and private international law. The above-described evolution of the international human rights field poses two significant questions. First, what has been its impact on state behavior, and second, how has it influenced individual behavior? States' sovereign powers have been eroded by "new" international legal norms, which have taken on a more predominant role in today's globalized world. States may now obey such international norms willingly, without the threat of sanctions, global ostracism or economic isolation, simply because if states misbehave, they have to account for a variety of different consequences that such misbehavior may produce. For one, states have to consider all the relevant international legal norms that they violated, as well as all the state- and non-state actors that may have been affected by such misbehavior. Moreover, states have to envision all the possible grievances that may be asserted against them, in different international as well as national tribunals, and under many different compliance procedures existing under international and regional conventions. In addition, besides willingly complying with international human rights norms, states seem ready to rely on international law in the domestic sphere in order to ensure that such norms are respected. For example, in the United States an Oklahoma criminal court recently relied on an International Court of Justice ruling to hold that an individual's right had been violated when his consulate was not notified of his arrest. In Europe, countries that are held in disrespect of human rights norms by the European Court of Human Rights routinely rely on those ruling to alter their offending practices. In addition to states, individuals are also heavily impacted by the globalization of human rights laws. For one, they have a higher expectation of protection of their individual rights, stemming from a distinct, supra-national body of laws. Individuals in this century know that they cannot be tortured, that their ethnic groups cannot be intentionally wiped out, and that they have certain political, religious, as well as educational rights. Conversely, individuals know that their parent states can no longer invoke the label of sovereignty to justify their derogatory practices. Moreover, private parties now have individual rights that are enforceable in different tribunals. In domestic systems, individuals can often rely on human rights conventions to enforce their rights and to ensure that such rights are protected. In addition, individuals can turn to international tribunals, like the European Court of Human Rights or the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with similar quests and grievances. This Article will focus on the impact of globalization of international law on the three above-mentioned fields, and in particular, it will examine how the evolution of international law has reshaped human rights law, international criminal law, and private international law. In its first part, this Article will focus on certain changes in the international law arena, including the proliferation of non-state actors, of international organizations and documents, and the expansion of different basis of jurisdiction in international law. In its second part, this Article will describe the role of globalized international law in the human rights field, international criminal law, and private international law. Finally, in its third part, this Article will examine two paradigms, state behavior and individual behavior, in order to assess the impact of globalized international law on the international arena. This Article will conclude that globalization has reshaped international law through an evolutionary process by transforming it into a global web of supra-national rules and regulations, which have in turn altered state and individual behavior.


Aims: The association of mild renal dysfunction (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] 60–89.9 ml/min/1.73 m2) with insulin resistance (IR) or metabolic syndrome (MS) needs be investigated in a population in which MS prevails. Methods: After excluding subjects with diabetes mellitus, 1,678 subjects from a representative cohort (median age 52 years) were studied cross-sectionally. eGFR was based on serum creatinine concentrations using the quadratic GFR equation and categorized by 90 and 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 as limits. MS was identified using the modified criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel-III. Results: In men, whereas MS was not significantly associated with a reduced eGFR category when controlled for homeostatic model assessment (HOMA), HOMA adjusted for MS or for its components was significantly associated with the likelihood of a reduced eGFR. This likelihood was increased by 14% with a doubling of HOMA in men. Age was the dominant correlate of reduced eGFR in women, whereby an association with HOMA was not significant. Conclusion: Mildly impaired kidney function is common in nondiabetic adults among whom MS prevails, and in men it is mainly associated with IR but not with central obesity and MS-related dyslipidemia. The quadratic GFR equation enables an acceptable estimation of GFR in a general population.


QUANTITATIVE UNCERTAINTY OF CONTAMINANT PLUME TRANSPORT IN LOW WIND SPEEDS USING MEASURED FIELD DATA AND STOCHASTIC MODELING Veronica E. Wannberg Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Master of Science Low wind speed conditions should be studied because these conditions can present risk, particularly for areas immediately surrounding the release point, where high concentrations can occur and not dissipate. The following research attempts to clarify the processes governing both the general and low wind speed cases by determining the accuracy and uncertainty of standard prediction methods for contaminant plume transport in low wind speed plume modeling. Multiple techniques were utilized to incorporate field measured data, previously gathered for a different purpose, to generate parameter distributions and ground-truth data that could be used in stochastic models for chemical plume prediction. These data were taken during a multi-day experiment performed on Frenchman Flats, a flat, dry lakebed, at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in February of 2007 and include weather data and chemical concentrations throughout the chemical release time. I organized these data into continuous time series for each sampling location, which were represented as vectors for the statistical and mathematical analysis. I then animated these vectors with respect to time and performed a stochastic analysis which I compared to these observed vectors. Predicted vectors of chemical concentrations, based on the statistical parameter distributions generated from the observed vectors were developed and a statistical analysis was performed on the results of the stochastic process to determine how well the model predicted the plume. It was found that stochastically modeling, with SCIPuff, of contaminant plume releases in low wind speed conditions is not accurate. This was expected because below 2 m/s, plumes no longer have a Gaussian distribution and are difficult to predict because of fluctuating winds. In fact, the model only accurately predicts the period before the plume arrives at the sensor when no plume is present. It is possible, and even probable, that stochastic modeling of contaminant plumes will provide a means to compute the bounds of a release, when coupled with a model that is accurate for low wind speed conditions and includes all the complexities of the wind field. An unexpected finding is the fact that the vertical dimension of wind movement cannot be ignored in low wind speed conditions. When planning future experiments, special attention should be paid to obtaining a good representation of the 3-D wind profile.


Background/Aims Transradial intervention (TRI) is becoming the preferred method over transfemoral intervention (TFI) because TRI is associated with lower incidence of major bleeding and vascular complications. However, there has been limited published data regarding the clinical outcomes of TRI versus TFI in Korean patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods A total of 689 consecutive STEMI patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DESs) from January to December of 2009 at nine university hospitals were enrolled in this study. Mid-term angiographic and 12-month cumulative clinical outcomes of the TRI group (n = 220, 31.9%) were compared to those of the TFI group (n = 469, 28.1%). Results After propensity score matching, in-hospital complications and the 12-month major clinical outcomes during follow-up in the two groups were similar to each other. However, the incidence rates of repeat revascularization (6.4% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.003), target vessel revascularization (6.4% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.003), and major adverse cardiac events (MACE; 11.6% vs. 4.6%, p = 0.018) in the TFI group were higher than those in the TRI group during the 12-month of follow-up. Conclusions In our study, TRI in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI with DESs was associated with lower incidence of access site hematoma, 12-month repeat revascularization, and MACE compared to TFI. Therefore, TRI might play an important role in reducing bleeding complications while improving major clinical outcomes in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI with DESs.


Significant advances are being made in earthquake prediction theory; however, a reliable method for forecasting the occurrence of earthquakes from space and/or ground based technologies remains limited to
no more than a few minutes before the event happens. Several claims of earthquake precursors have been put forward, such as ionospheric changes, electromagnetic effects, and ground heating, though the science behind these is far from complete and the successful application of these precursors is highly regionally variable. Existing and planned dedicated space missions for monitoring earthquake precursors are insufficient for resolving the precursor issue. Their performance does not satisfy the requirements of an
earthquake early warning system in terms of spatial and temporal coverage. To achieve statistically significant validation of precursors for early warning delivery, precursor data must be obtained from
simultaneous repeated monitoring of several precursors in focus regions over a long period of time and then integrated and processed. Data sources include historical data, data from ground-based units, airborne
systems, and space-based systems.
This paper describes methods of systematic evaluation of regionally specific, multivariable precursor data needed for the identification of the expected time, magnitude and the position of the epicentre. This data set forms the basis for a proposed operational early warning system developed at the International Space University and which is built in partnership with local and national governments as well as international
organizations.


The nonlinear and interactive nature of Internet searches makes them quite different from other types of reading acts. This chapter describes a study that investigated how English as a foreign language (EFL) Internet users in a Chilean university community approached English language websites and databases. Participants were observed in computer workshops, surveyed, interviewed, and asked to use a think-aloud protocol while navigating unfamiliar websites in English. Contrastive rhetoric and schema theory were used to interpret the findings. English-specific problems included word order confusions and incorrect interpretations of synonyms. Among the younger participants, level of English proficiency did not correlate highly with skill in finding information over the Internet. Differences between user schemata and Web page layouts were found to negatively affect some information search attempts. Pedagogical implications are discussed.


The use of different types of assessment to improve student learning needs to be balanced with reports that student perception, rather than the objective features of the task, significantly influences how students approach learning. The present study surveyed 492 undergraduate and postgraduate students from four health science disciplines (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and audiology) at a large Australian university on how helpful different types of assessment had been in assisting their learning. Between 73.4% and 90.4% of the students valued practical exams, individual tasks, written assignments, and written exams requiring application of knowledge. Between 29.1% and 59.7% of the students valued oral presentations, group tasks, portfolios, online assessment, and multiple choice exams. Entry level and type of program were found to influence perceptions. Postgraduate students valued tutorial participation more than undergraduate students (p


This paper proposes a space-time decision feedback equalization (ST-DFE) assisted multiuser detection (MUD) scheme for multiple receiver antenna aided space division multiple access systems. A minimum bit error rate (MBER) design is invoked for the MUD, which is shown to be capable of improving the achievable bit error rate performance and enhancing the attainable system capacity over that of the standard minimum mean square error (MMSE) design. An adaptive implementation of the MBER ST-DFE assisted MUD is proposed using a stochastic gradient-based least bit error rate algorithm, which is demonstrated to consistently outperform the classical least mean square (LMS) algorithm, while achieving a lower computational complexity than the LMS algorithm for the binary signalling scheme. Our simulation results demonstrate that the MBER ST-DFE assisted MUD is more robust to channel estimation errors as well as to potential error propagation imposed by decision feedback errors, compared to the MMSE ST-DFE assisted MUD


Abstract. Public welfare maps are thematic maps for macro-planning, emergency relief, decision-making and daily office work of government departments. Public welfare maps are used to serve the government.Public welfare maps are used to serve the government. In recent years, the state has become more and more demanding for the rapid guarantee service work of public welfare maps of surveying and mapping product. It shows that the demand for high-potential, high-quality geographic information high-efficiency and spiritual services is becoming more and more urgent. Therefore, research The rapid production technology of public welfare maps has also become an urgent requirement. In response to this demand, this paper studies the key issues of rapid map production, such as rapid positioning, projection and scale adaptation, layout and off-line adaptive self-adaptation, and its solutions.Firstly, this paper introduces the necessity of adaptive mapping, the model and algorithm of adaptive mapping. Then introduces projection and scale adaptation, layout and out-of-map integer adaptation. Finally, based on the above research results, a rapid producting system for public welfare maps is developed. We compile sample map and test performance using the system. The result show that the paper's methods can improve the efficiency of Public welfare map producting, and provide powerful technical support for quickly service.


The larger a closed-end fund's premium over its portfolio value, the more intensely it is sold short. However, the intensity of short selling affects neither the rate at which premia mean revert to fundamental values nor the rate of return on fund shares. Consequently, short selling does not appear to constrain the mispricings found among closed-end funds. However, closed-end fund factor loadings in Fama French (1992) regressions are consistent with fund portfolio risks, suggesting that some form of arbitrage is bringing fund prices into line with fundamentals—despite the apparent inability of short selling to limit closed-end fund mispricings.


The global financial crisis has prompted economists to rethink fundamental questions on how governments should intervene in the financial sector. Many countries have already begun to reform the taxation and regulation of the financial sector -- in the United States, for example, the Dodd--Frank Act became law in 2010; in Europe, different countries have introduced additional taxes on the sector and made substantial progress toward a banking union for the eurozone. Only recently, however, has a new field in economics emerged to study the interplay between public finance and banking. This book offers the latest thinking on the topic by American and European economists. The contributors first explore new conceptual ground, offering rigorous theoretical analyses that help us better understand how tax policy and regulation can contribute to avoiding another crisis or reducing its impact. Contributors then investigate the behavior of financial institutions in response to various forms of taxation and regulation, offering empirical evidence that is vital for policy design. ContributorsThiess Buettner, Jin Cao, Giuseppina Cannas, Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Jessica Cariboni, Brian Coulter, Ernesto Crivelli, Ruud de Mooij, Michael P. Devereux, Katharina Erbe, Ricardo Fenochietto, Marco Petracco Giudici, Timothy J. Goodspeed, Reint Gropp, Olena Havyrlchyk, Michael Keen, Lawrence L. Kreicher, Julia Lendvai, Ben Lockwood, Massimo Marchesi, Donato Masciandaro, Colin Mayer, Robert N. McCauley, Patrick McGuire, Gaetan Nicodeme, Masanori Orihara, Francesco Passarelli, Carola Pessino, Rafal Raciborski, John Vickers, Lukas Vogel, Stefano Zedda


In the United States, the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) has been one of the principal foci in the fight against human trafficking during the past decade with billions of dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of helping professionals trained in anti-trafficking best practices. Despite this attention, prosecutions, convictions and rescues have been scarce relative to funding, leading critical scholars to argue that CSEC is a moral panic. The following article, based on fourteen months of participant-observation between 2009 and 2010 with social service providers, law enforcement officials, not-for-profit directors and local clergy from a voluntary participation federal anti-trafficking taskforce in Atlantic City, New Jersey provides an ethnographic account of the ways that helping professionals confront the challenges and contradictions of implementing policy and advocating for an invisible target population that is rarely, if ever, visible in their work lives.


This article reports a review of the literature that focused on relationship between writing instruction and technology in the secondary classroom since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act over the past two decades. Based on the search, six themes have emerged across the fields of writing instruction and assessment. Within writing instruction, it was found that researchers often focused on a third space (Bhabha, 1994) where writing can take place in meaningful ways. Also, technology often served as a motivator during the instructional process of writing and worked to engage students in varied lessons. Finally, researchers found an increase in the amount of writing for secondary students when technology was introduced into the instructional classroom. Within writing assessment, the research focused on special populations including special education students, minorities, economically disadvantaged and English language learners. Next, technology served as a motivator in both the instruction and assessment of writing and tended to be a factor that increased writing assessment scores. Finally, researchers posit technology can be used to allow teachers to give effective and efficient feedback through the instructional and assessment cycles and tended to increase student assessment scores. These themes emerged across all articles reviewed and truly demonstrate where writing with technology research has occurred in the secondary classroom.


Extracted from text ... SHORT-TERM INSURANCE
Protecting your valuables
Gari Dombo, managing director of Alexander Forbes
Personal Services, advises on how to ensure that valuables
and collectibles are adequately insured.
By STEVEN JONES
MANY people may wonder how to
indemnify a collectable item and
how insurers determine the correct
replacement value of priceless, collectors
items such an art or stamp
collection, paintings or antiques.
"In taking out insurance, a client
expects to be indemnified ie to be
placed in exactly the same position
after suffering a loss as just before
the loss, " says Gari Dombo, managing
director of Alexander Forbes ..


What remains of moral judgment when truth itself is mistrusted, when the validity of every belief system depends on its context, when power and knowledge are inextricably entangled? Is a viable moral theory still possible in the wake of the postmodern criticism of modern philosophy? The Order of Evils responds directly to these questions and dilemmas with one simple and brilliant change of focus. Rather than concentrating on the age-old themes of justice and freedom, Adi Ophir offers a moral theory that emphasizes the existential and political nature of evil. Ophir's main contention is that evil is neither a diabolical element residing in the hearts of men nor a meaningless absence of the good. Rather, it is the socially structured order of "superfluous evils." Evils, like pain, suffering, loss, and humiliation, are superfluous when they could have been -- but were not -- prevented. Through close analysis of seminal works by modern and postmodern philosophers -- from Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Sartre, and Arendt to Foucault, Levinas, Derrida, and Lyotard -- Ophir forges a new perspective for thinking about what it means to be a moral being: to be moral, he argues, is to care for others, and to be committed to preventing, at all costs, their suffering and distress.A theoretically sophisticated work, The Order of Evils also bears the traces of Ophir's own political and personal experiences as an Israeli philosopher and activist. Two major events in recent Jewish history have profoundly influenced his thinking: the Holocaust and the prolonged Israeli domination of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Ophir does not compare the two events. Instead, he introduces a typology of disasters that allows them to be located within the wide spectrum of humanly generated calamities whose specificity and general patterns emerge clearly and distinctly as what they are and are not.


Abstract The article attempts to articulate Wittgensteinian and hermeneutic views of knowledge, language and understanding. Wittgenstein is not a member of the so-called hermeneutic tradition, but his late work has important affinities with the work of hermeneutic thinkers like Heidegger and Gadamer. Firstly, Wittgenstein and hermeneutics share a basic philosophical altitude that can be termed as "phenomenology of everydayness". An important result of such an approach is the acknowledgement of the pragmatic and social dimension of knowledge. Secondly, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Gadamer reject formal or systematic theories of meaning and claim that language is the universal medium of human experience. Thirdly, they conceive of understanding as a practical ability. Wittgenstein helps us to clarify some hermeneutic themes and develops them from an antimetaphysical standpoint. On the other hand, hermeneutics can refine some aspects of Wittgenstein's thought; a case in point is the Gadamerian doctrine of the fusion of horizons, which avoids the danger of relativism that lurks in Wittgenstein's late work. A comparative study of Wittgenstein and hermeneutics contributes therefore to effective philosophical progress.


The study of ideology hinges upon several important characteristics. First, the term "ideology" may connote different things to voters. To some, it indicates a preference for "conservatism" over "liberalism"; others adopt a more nuanced perspective, identifying ideology as "libertarianism," "environmentalism," and "populism" (among others). Some view it is an identity. Ideological labels are entrenched in political and non-political identities. The term "conservative" may signal a social orientation only loosely related to conservatism's philosophical tenets (e.g., limiting the size and scope of the federal government). "Liberalism" or "progressivism," signal a different worldview that also perhaps loosely related to the philosophical characteristics of modern (American) liberalism (e.g., "expanding the social safety net"). Ideology is also a means of cognitive organization; it is used to make sense of oftentimes complex public policy. Individuals organize policy beliefs around organizing principles, such as a preference for reducing the size of the federal government. Considering this heterogeneity, it is important to use the term with precision, in order to better understand how voters rely upon ideology in their decision calculus. Second, ideology is a central characteristic in the general structure of political beliefs. It acts as a lens through which the political and social world is interpreted. Third, ideology is functional in nature. Ideological preferences often fulfill a voter's unique psychological, motivational, and personality-oriented characteristics. Finally, ideology has unique consequences in contemporary politics, as evidenced by increased political polarization, partisan-ideological sorting, and ideologically divisive rhetoric.


Murine CD4 CD25 regulatory T cells (Treg cells) reduce acute graft-versushost disease (aGvHD). However, surface molecules critical for suppression are unclear. Deficiency of CD30 (CD30 / ) leads to impaired thymic negative selection and augmented T-cell autoreactivity. Therefore, we investigated the role of CD30 signaling in Treg-cell function during aGvHD. Treg cells derived from CD30 / animals were significantly less effective in preventing aGvHD lethality. Early blockade of the CD30/CD153 pathway with a neutralizing anti-CD153 mAb reduced Treg-mediated protection from proinflammatory cytokine accumulation and donor-type T-cell apoptosis. In vivo bioluminescence imaging demonstrated intact homing but reduced expansion of luciferase-expressing Treg cells when CD153 was blocked during the early phase after adoptive transfer. CD30 surface expression on Treg cells increased with alloantigen exposure, and CD153 expression on recipient-type dendritic cells increased in the presence of a proinflammatory environment. These data demonstrate that early CD30 signaling is critical for Treg-mediated aGvHD protection after major MHC-mismatch bone marrow transplantation. (Blood. 2007;109:2225-2233)


The score-based query attacks (SQAs) pose practical threats to deep neural networks by crafting adversarial perturbations within dozens of queries, only using the model's output scores. Nonetheless, we note that if the loss trend of the outputs is slightly perturbed, SQAs could be easily misled and thereby become much less effective. Following this idea, we propose a novel defense, namely Adversarial Attack on Attackers (AAA), to confound SQAs towards incorrect attack directions by slightly modifying the output logits. In this way, (1) SQAs are prevented regardless of the model's worst-case robustness; (2) the original model predictions are hardly changed, i.e., no degradation on clean accuracy; (3) the calibration of confidence scores can be improved simultaneously. Extensive experiments are provided to verify the above advantages. For example, by setting $\ell_\infty=8/255$ on CIFAR-10, our proposed AAA helps WideResNet-28 secure 80.59% accuracy under Square attack (2500 queries), while the best prior defense (i.e., adversarial training) only attains 67.44%. Since AAA attacks SQA's general greedy strategy, such advantages of AAA over 8 defenses can be consistently observed on 8 CIFAR-10/ImageNet models under 6 SQAs, using different attack targets, bounds, norms, losses, and strategies. Moreover, AAA calibrates better without hurting the accuracy. Our code is available at https://github.com/Sizhe-Chen/AAA.


Hair loss can have significant effects on patients' quality of life, and a prompt diagnosis of the different types of alopecias and early intervention are needed. This review highlights the main dermoscopic findings in the different types of alopecia, such as androgenetic alopecia, alopecia areata, trichotillomania, lichen planopilaris, and discoid lupus erythematosus of the scalp. We believe that this important tool has been demonstrated to help dermatologists in finding the right site for the biopsy or, furthermore, avoiding unnecessary biopsies. Data sources were medical text books, medical journals, and medical websites that have updated research with the key word Dermoscopy in the title of the paper. Systematic reviews that addressed dermoscopy, its impact on dermatological lesions, and the role of physicians in prevention and management were selected. A special search was conducted at midline with the key word Dermoscopy in the title of the papers; extraction was made, including assessment of the quality and the validity of papers that met the prior criteria that describe Dermoscopy and its use in the diagnosis of hair disorders. Each study was reviewed independently, and the data obtained were rebuilt in new language according to the need of the researcher and arranged into topics through the article. Hair and scalp dermoscopy (trichoscopy) is a fast and noninvasive technique that allows the identification of hair and scalp diseases on the basis of analysis of trichoscopy structures and patterns without the need for removing hair for diagnostic purposes or unnecessary biopsies. Dermoscopy may be useful in the differential diagnosis of various hair and scalp disorders such as alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, and tenia capitis and also in the differential diagnosis between discoid lupus erythematosus and lichen planopilaris.


In recent years, researchers have demonstrated negative refraction theoretically and experimentally by pumping optical power into photonic crystal (PhC) or waveguide structures. The concept of negative refraction can be used to create a perfect lens that focuses an object smaller than the wavelength. By inserting two-dimensional PhCs into the peripheral of a semiconductor light emitting structure, this study presents an electroluminescent device with negative refraction in the visible wavelength range. This approach produces polarization dependent collimation behavior in far-field radiation patterns. The modal dispersion of negative refraction results in strong group velocity modulation, and self-focusing and -defocusing behaviors are apparent from light extraction. This study further verifies experimental results by using theoretic calculations based on equifrequency contours.


Abstract Large effects of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) upon individual plants, plant populations and communities have been documented in a number of studies. However, well-supported experimental measures of the magnitude and geographical extent of these effects are still surprisingly scarce. Deer-caused changes in stem morphology and reductions in plant growth rates are well-documented in some parts of the North America. Furthermore, deer have been shown to affect the composition of several plant communities in the north-central and northeastern United States. There are some documented cases of deer-caused reductions in plant survival; most of these are tree seedlings and saplings. However, many studies have detected no effects on plant survival or fecundity, or have found that negative effects occur only in a fraction of years, seasons, sites or deer densities. Little is known about population-level or ecosystem-level impacts. Many regions and plant communities with large deer populations have not been studied. Whereas deer density is clearly important in determining spatial and temporal variation in the presence and magnitude of deer effects, other factors that may modify the effects of deer density are poorly understood.


Using Danish matched employer-employee data, I compare the relative pay of men and women to their relative productivity as measured by production function estimation. I find that the gender "productivity gap" is 8 percent, implying that almost two thirds of the residual gender wage gap is due to productivity differences between men and women. Motherhood plays an important role, yet it also reveals a puzzle: the pay gap for mothers is entirely explained by productivity, whereas the gap for non-mothers is not. In addition, the decoupling of pay and productivity for women without children happens during their prime-child bearing years. These estimates are robust to a variety of specifications for the impact of observables on productivity, and robust to accounting for endogenous sorting of women into less productive firms using a control-function approach. This paper also provides estimates of the productivity gap across industries and occupations, finding the same general patterns for mothers compared to women without children within these subgroups.


A thesis submitted to the School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology


Introduction: Accelerometers are used to quantify energy expenditure in field research. The ActiGraph™ GT1M (ActiGraph™) is a commonly used accelerometer for research. The FitBit ® Ultra (FitBit ® ) is a low-cost alternative to the ActiGraph™; however, there is limited research on the validity of this device. Purpose: The pilot study compares the FitBit ® against the ActiGraph™ and metabolic cart for measurement of energy expenditure and step counts during treadmill walking. Methods: Thirty-two (25 female) adults, mean age 22±2 years, performed two thirty-minute phases of walking (slow and brisk) on a treadmill while concurrently wearing the FitBit ® and the ActiGraph™. Energy expenditure estimates were compared against energy expenditure measured by a metabolic cart. The Pearson's correlation and t-tests determine the linear association and similarity between the accelerometers. Results: Energy expenditure estimate is moderately correlated between the two accelerometers during slow walking (r=0.584, p=0.011) and strongly correlated during brisk walking (r=0.910, p<0.001). Step count is strongly correlated between the accelerometers during slow (r=0.974, p<0.001) and brisk (r=0.996, p<0.001) walking. The FitBit ® significantly underestimated energy expenditure during brisk walking compared to metabolic cart data. There is no difference between the slow and brisk phases' step counts using either accelerometer. Conclusion: The results of this pilot study suggest that the FitBit ® and the ActiGraph™ can be used interchangeably to measure steps, but not to measure kilocalories. Furthermore, the FitBit ® underestimates energy expenditure, compared to a metabolic cart, as exercise intensity increases. This limits its ability to accurately measure energy expenditure in active populations.


LEGION is a lightweight C-language software library that enables distributed asynchronous data processing with a loosely coupled set of compute nodes. Loosely coupled means that a node can offer itself in service to a larger task at any time and can withdraw itself from service at any time, provided it is not actively engaged in an assignment. The main program, i.e., the one attempting to solve the larger task, does not need to know up front which nodes will be available, how many nodes will be available, or at what times the nodes will be available, which is normally the case in a "volunteer computing" framework. The LEGION software accomplishes its goals by providing message-based, inter-process communication similar to MPI (message passing interface), but without the tight coupling requirements. The software is lightweight and easy to install as it is written in standard C with no exotic library dependencies. LEGION has been demonstrated in a challenging planetary science application in which a machine learning system is used in closed-loop fashion to efficiently explore the input parameter space of a complex numerical simulation. The machine learning system decides which jobs to run through the simulator; then, through LEGION calls, the system farms those jobs out to a collection of compute nodes, retrieves the job results as they become available, and updates a predictive model of how the simulator maps inputs to outputs. The machine learning system decides which new set of jobs would be most informative to run given the results so far; this basic loop is repeated until sufficient insight into the physical system modeled by the simulator is obtained.


Adoption law in France and Italy is quite similar, and since the 1990s, these two countries have been among those which adopt the largest numbers of children from abroad. But over a longer timescale, what are the similarities and differences in their adoption practices? This article retraces the history of adoption law and practices in France and Italy since the nineteenth century. While adoption law in the two countries has followed a similar trajectory, the actual numbers of simple adoptions are very different, mainly because far fewer stepfamilies are formed after divorce in Italy than in France. By contrast, the number of full adoptions and the characteristics of the children concerned are similar in both countries. After facing a scarcity of domestic adoptable children, potential adopters have, since 2011, been confronted with a drop in the number of minors available for intercountry adoption. As a consequence, intercountry adoptees in France and Italy tend to be older, and more often have siblings and/or health problems or disabilities than in the past.


Background. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a potentially curable disease where success of the treatment depends on the timely detection of the disease; therefore, it is important to identify those influencing factors during the prediagnostic period. The objective of this study was to describe the interval time from onset of symptoms attributable to the disease to the diagnostic confirmation in terms of elapsed time (lag-time), iatrotropic stimulus and received medical care, as well as to estimate the association of these factors with mortality. Methods. We reviewed 182 clinical files from pediatric patients with ALL in nine cancer treatment centers in Mexico and conducted interviews with their families to rebuild the run-up time until diagnosis. Results. We included 99 living patients and 83 patients who died; average age of the patients was 7.3 ± 4.7 years. The average time between symptom onset and diagnosis was 43.5 ± 22.5 days. Patients had an average of 2.3 consultations prior to diagnostic confirmation. The main reasons for requesting medical attention were asthenia and adynamia (47.4%), fever (44.8%), pallor (44.3%), hyperoxia/anorexia (20.9%) and headache (19.9%). The number of non-oncological physicians surveyed and number of consultations until diagnosis were protective factors for mortality (OR 0.77 and 0.64, respectively). Conclusions. Time between symptom onset and diagnostic confirmation is longer than what has been reported in developed countries mainly due to medical attention received. The number of physicians and number of prior consultations were protective factors for mortality, probably as a result of early detection and medical surveillance of nonspecific symptoms that lead to the presence of the disease.


The digital transformation is not only revolutionising the world of business but also affecting geographical developments. Picking up on this trend, the thematic focus of this year's IW Regional Ranking is on the digital prospects of Germany's various regions. The results show that the digital affinity of a region's companies impacts on its economic growth. The most digitally literate parts of Germany are also best placed in the IW Regional Ranking 2018, while the least digitalized areas are located on the periphery. It is in the latter especially that high-performance broadband infrastructure would more than pay for itself, since the faster the local Internet is, the more digitally literate companies are. And such digital affinity has a significant positive effect on growth. This means that if they are to keep pace with the rest of the economy and attract both people and businesses, rural areas need to invest much more in establishing broadband infrastructure. The IW Regional Ranking, which reflects the level and dynamics of the regions' economic performance, provides important information on the various regions' different strengths and provides guidance on which measures offer the best chance of promoting economic prosperity.


It remains unclear which factors are instrumental in meeting the recommended physical activity in people with diabetes. We, therefore, aimed to determine the sociodemographic, health-related behavior and clinical factors associated with meeting the recommended levels of physical activity in Scottish adults with diabetes. The study was based on the nationally-representative cross-sectional Scottish Health Surveys (2014–2017). The study participants included a sub-sample of 1259 adults (≥16 years old) with diabetes. Physical activity was evaluated using international guidelines. Overall, 34.1% of the subjects met the recommended levels of physical activity. Independent determinants of meeting the recommended levels of physical activity include male gender (odds ratio (OR) 1.47; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–2.00) and being a non-smoker (OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.02–2.56). Furthermore, meeting the recommended physical activity levels decreased with age (OR 0.96; 95% CI 0.95–0.97), having a longstanding illness (OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.34–0.93) and body mass index (OR 0.94; 95% CI 0.92–0.97), but increased with higher fruit and vegetable intake (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.07–1.25) and mental wellbeing (OR 1.04; 95% CI 1.02–1.06). Implementation of health promotion programs that target the identified determinants is needed to improve the recommended levels of physical activity among adults with diabetes.


As a means of studying mechanisms of response to injury in glomerulonephritis, glomeruli from normal sheep and rabbits and from sheep and rabbits with experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis have been isolated and grown in tissue culture. The cellular outgrowths from the normal and diseased glomeruli have been compared. The outgrowth of glomeruli from normal animals contained only two cell populations whose microscopic and ultrastructural appearances were of epithelial and mesangial cells. The same cells were also observed in the outgrowths of glomeruli from animals with crescenti nephritis but in addition a third population of cells was present in large numbers. These cells were identified as macrophages by their mobility, ultrastructure, phagocytic capacity, and presence of Fc receptors. Glomerular outgrowth from sheep with crescentic glomerulonephritis contained 170 +/- 20 (SEM) macrophages and outgrowths from rabbits with crescentic nephritis contained 64 +/- 6 (SEM) macrophages per glomerulus. We have previously observed large numbers of macrophages in the outgrowth of isolated glomeruli from humans with rapidly progressive crescentic glomerulonephritis. The predominance of the macrophage in cultures of glomeruli from both human and animal crescentic glomerulonephritis suggests that this is an important cell in the inflammatory reaction occurring in crescentic glomerulonephritis and may comprise a substantial proportion of the cells forming the crescent.


Underground coal mine fires in the United States continue to present a significant hazard to the safety and health of mine workers. The leading causes of mine fires include flame cutting and welding operations, frictional heating and ignitions, electrical shorts, mobile equipment malfunctions, and spontaneous combustion The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is conducting an in-depth program of research to address mine fire prevention, early and reliable fire detection and mine fire suppression and control technologies. One segment of the research portfolio is focused on remote methods for addressing coal mine fires. This research is important because remote methods represent the primary means of fighting a mine fire when conditions are too dangerous to fight the fire directly underground. Technologies under investigation include remote methods for installing ventilation control devices (mine fire seals) and remote methods for suppressing the fire using, the injection of inert gas, gas-enhanced foam and jet engine exhaust gases into the fire zone. This paper presents a summary of remote mine firefighting technologies used in the U.S. and the results of completed NIOSH research.


In many applications we have to encountered with bounded dependent variables. Beta regression model can be used to deal with these kinds of response variables. In this paper we aim to study spatially correlated responses in the unit interval. Initially we introduce spatial beta generalized linear mixed model in which the spatial correlation is captured through a random effect. Then the performances of the proposed model is evaluated via a simulation study, implementing Bayesian approach for parameter estimation. Finally the application of this model on two real data sets about migration rate and divorce rate in Iran are presented.


Abstract. Mobility particle size spectrometers often referred to as DMPS (Differential Mobility Particle Sizers) or SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizers) have found a wide range of applications in atmospheric aerosol research. However, comparability of measurements conducted world-wide is hampered by lack of generally accepted technical standards and guidelines with respect to the instrumental set-up, measurement mode, data evaluation as well as quality control. Technical standards were developed for a minimum requirement of mobility size spectrometry to perform long-term atmospheric aerosol measurements. Technical recommendations include continuous monitoring of flow rates, temperature, pressure, and relative humidity for the sheath and sample air in the differential mobility analyzer. We compared commercial and custom-made inversion routines to calculate the particle number size distributions from the measured electrical mobility distribution. All inversion routines are comparable within few per cent uncertainty for a given set of raw data. Furthermore, this work summarizes the results from several instrument intercomparison workshops conducted within the European infrastructure project EUSAAR (European Supersites for Atmospheric Aerosol Research) and ACTRIS (Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network) to determine present uncertainties especially of custom-built mobility particle size spectrometers. Under controlled laboratory conditions, the particle number size distributions from 20 to 200 nm determined by mobility particle size spectrometers of different design are within an uncertainty range of around ±10% after correcting internal particle losses, while below and above this size range the discrepancies increased. For particles larger than 200 nm, the uncertainty range increased to 30%, which could not be explained. The network reference mobility spectrometers with identical design agreed within ±4% in the peak particle number concentration when all settings were done carefully. The consistency of these reference instruments to the total particle number concentration was demonstrated to be less than 5%. Additionally, a new data structure for particle number size distributions was introduced to store and disseminate the data at EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Program). This structure contains three levels: raw data, processed data, and final particle size distributions. Importantly, we recommend reporting raw measurements including all relevant instrument parameters as well as a complete documentation on all data transformation and correction steps. These technical and data structure standards aim to enhance the quality of long-term size distribution measurements, their comparability between different networks and sites, and their transparency and traceability back to raw data.


Utilizing the development and early history of the Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation as an example, this paper makes the case for expanding the number of and the level of support for such campus-based centers as critical resources for expanding deliberative democracy. Due to their ability to not only provide deliberative capacity to the community, but also to attract students to our field and equip with them with essential skills, to strengthen the connection of colleges and universities to their local communities, and to contribute to the further development of deliberative theory and practice, these local "hubs of democracy" represent a natural "win-win-win-win" that warrants significant focus as we work to develop the deliberative culture of our communities.


Although the international climate change regime represents a genuinely global policy process, some actors have a more pivotal role than others – either as dynamos that drive the process, or as barriers to further development. We focus on four pivotal actors, which also are the four largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world: the United States, China, the European Union, and Russia. We argue that the withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto process has led to a shift of strategies in the climate regime, with a more pronounced split between the EU and like-minded countries on one side and G77/China and the USA on the other, with Russia playing an even more pivotal role than it did earlier. We point out how understanding the role of domestic policies and pressure groups is vital for understanding the positions and strategies taken by countries examined here. We discuss how the current developments in their policymaking can explain the shift of alliances in the climate regime, and what it might mean for the future of international climate collaboration, and conclude on whether or not interests are becoming more polarized.


Lateralization of behaviors and information processing are common across species. Hypothesized to be crucial for more efficient responding to environmental stimuli, lateralization has been investigated for a number of topics. Cetaceans are proposed to be hemispheric specialists, given a small corpus callosum, complete decussation of the optic nerve, and the ability to respond to a different visual stimulus presented to each eye simultaneously. Research with cetaceans has shown strong biases in a number of behaviors, including swimming, foraging, social interactions, and responses to myriad visual stimuli. Given similar evolutionary pressures, different species of cetaceans should display similar lateralized preferences. Previous research with bottlenose dolphins in managed care and wild striped dolphins indicated a right eye preference when viewing unfamiliar objects. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the eye preference of belugas, bottlenose dolphins, and Pacific white-sided dolphins (lags) in managed care when viewing familiar and unfamiliar objects. The results from 11 belugas, 5 bottlenose dolphins, and 5 lags indicated that consistent group level eye preferences were not present. The belugas preferred to view both types of objects with both eyes, with the majority of the belugas showing a left-eye preference when a monocular gaze was used. Bottlenose dolphins tended to view both objects with their right eye while lags used their left eye when viewing objects. These results may have been affected by viewing objects below water versus above water. The belugas and the Pacific white-sided dolphins were able to view the objects below water, which may have elicited more naturalistic visual examinations of the objects (i.e., greater ecological validity). Viewing objects within one's habitat may facilitate the discrimination of an object rather than simply its detection, which is may be more likely when encountering stimuli above the surface of the water as the bottlenose dolphins had to do in the present and past research. Future research should compare if presentation of the stimulus above water versus below water affects the eye preference displayed.


This paper examined capacity building among engineering students in selected universities in south-western Nigeria. One hundred and fifty-one final year engineering students took part in the survey. A structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents as a tool for data collection. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using SPSS. The results showed that 66.9% of the respondents had passion for their choice of engineering courses. Out of 110 students that had access to computer system, about 87.4% had related engineering application software on their personal computer while only 76.2% could use them proficiently. Based on the students' responses, 93% of them expressed that their departments lacked adequate and state-of-the art equipment for practicals, 54% stated that practicals were carried out occasionally, while 95.6% indicated that Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) was very relevant to their study of engineering. The ANOVA conducted on the data showed that SIWES had significant effect on the understanding of their core courses (p<0.005). Also, the core values of the universities were significant to capacity building. The paper concluded that Nigerian universities had potentials to develop the needed human capacity in engineering but they can do better through provision of adequate equipment, strengthening the SIWES programme and laying more emphasis on vocational as well as entrepreneurial skills.


In the first two chapters of this book, the reader will find a complete and systematic exposition of the theory of hyperfunctions on totally real submanifolds of multidimensional complex space, in particular of hyperfunction theory in real space. The book provides precise definitions of the hypoanalytic wave-front set and of the Fourier-Bros-Iagolnitzer transform of a hyperfunction. These are used to prove a very general version of the famed Theorem of the Edge of the Wedge. The last two chapters define the hyperfunction solutions on a general (smooth) hypo-analytic manifold, of which particular examples are the real analytic manifolds and the embedded CR manifolds. The main results here are the invariance of the spaces of hyperfunction solutions and the transversal smoothness of every hyperfunction solution. From this follows the uniqueness of solutions in the Cauchy problem with initial data on a maximally real submanifold, and the fact that the support of any solution is the union of orbits of the structure.


Instructional design for Web-based teaching and learning environments causes problems for two reasons. Firstly, virtual forms of teaching and learning result in little or no direct contact between instructor and learner, making the evaluation of course effectiveness difficult. Secondly, the Web as a relatively new teaching and learning medium still requires more research into learning processes with this technology. We propose data mining – techniques to discover and extract knowledge from a database – as a tool to support the analysis of student learning processes and the evaluation of the effectiveness and usability of
Web-based courses. We present and illustrate different data mining techniques for the evaluation of Web-based teaching and learning systems.


In aspiring to become a true engineering discipline for the biological sciences, the field of synthetic biology has a unique opportunity to create and encourage the widespread adoption of standards to enhance innovation and social impact in the field. This article presents a study of the standards setting efforts by the institutions, firms, governments, and individuals within the field of synthetic biology.Numerous standards have been proposed in synthetic biology, including those relevant to structure, function, description, measurement, data, information exchange, software, biosafety and biosecurity, and even law. At the present time, the adoption of technical standards has been relatively modest and no one technical standard appears to have dominated the field. Standards covering policies in biosecurity, by comparison, are more firmly established and biosecurity practices governing commercial orders for synthetic DNA have been widely adopted. Among standards-setting groups within the synthetic biology community, most have expressed a preference that standards remain open and accessible to the community as a whole. Recent developments, including the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in AMP v. Myriad and the Leahy-Smith America's Invents Act, could help give greater clarity to the scope of patent rights covering innovations and standards in synthetic biology. Copyright and trademark may provide alternatives mechanisms for conferring rights in synthetic biology inventions, setting and reinforcing standards, or promoting open innovation.Whether formal policies requiring the disclosure and licensing of property rights covering technical standards could be made mandatory or would ultimately be beneficial to the field of synthetic biology remain open questions. What is certain is that the synthetic biology community is unusually attuned to debates surrounding intellectual property and standards setting, and views its engagement in these debates as vital to ensure the continued success of synthetic biology.


In marketing, the common view is that customer relationships enhance innovativeness. Regularly it involves doing something new or different in response to market conditions. However, previous studies have not addressed how customer relationship management (CRM) plays its role in product innovation process. This thesis proposes and tests how key CRM activities influence and relate to each stage in product innovation process. The objective of this study is to test how customer relations management activities influence four basic stages of product innovation process. Five practices of CRM is found in the literature (i.e., information sharing, customer involvement, long-term partnership, joint problem-solving and technology-based CRM). Furthermore, our literature review suggests four stages of innovation process (i.e., innovation initiation, input, thoroughput and output). The one-to-one relationship between CRM activities and innovation stages are established in four models. These associations are tested and some are verified in a survey-based study. Specifically data from 83 respondents were collected. All respondents represent a strategic business unit and work closely with R&D, product development or marketing. Regression analysis is conducted to examine the impacts of CRM on innovation process. The statistical results indicate that not all CRM activities make contributions to each stage within innovation process. It is found that 1) information sharing effectively enhances both innovation throughput and innovation output. 2) Customer involvement and joint problem-solving exert positive influence on innovation throughput stage, while long-term partnership has significant effects on innovation output. 3) CRM activities have no impact on innovation initiation and input. 4) Technology-based CRM is the least effective mechanism during the innovation process. The findings suggest the need for more research in this area and the statistical results provide corporate management with useful reference to align their CRM activities with a certain stage of innovation process.


We study the effect of superstar firms on an important human capital decision - college students' choice of major. Past salient, extreme events in an industry, as proxied by cross-sectional skewness in stock returns (or in favorable news coverage), are associated with a disproportionately larger number of college students choosing to major in related fields, even after controlling for the average industry return. This tendency to follow the superstars, however, results in a temporary over-supply of human capital. Specifically, we provide evidence that the additional labor supply due to salient, extreme events lowers the average wage earned by entry-level employees when students enter the job market. At the same time, employment size and employee turnover stay roughly constant in related industries, consistent with the view that labor demand is relatively inelastic in the short run. In the longer term, firms cope with the supply increase by gradually expanding the number of positions that require prior experience.


Cognitive style, measured by Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, was used to categorize deci sion makers. Information source in the form of different DSS types was provided to help the decision makers make more effective decisions. The research attempted to investigate system atically the effects of cognitive style and DSS usage on the decision maker's perception of risk in the context of capital expansion projects. The research encompassed analysis of behavior under conditions of uncertainty for two values of the cognitive dimension, sensing-intuition (S-N), and use of two types of information sources, data-bases DSS (DBDSS) and model based DSS (MBDSS). The behavior was studied within the boundaries of four decision scenarios (2 information sources x 2 cognitive styles). The research attempted to establish the interaction of decision support systems and cognitive style on perceived risk, in a decision-making situation under uncertainty. The decision maker's choice in a risky situation is influenced by the risk perceived by the decision maker. The perception of risk is a result of an interaction between a decision maker's personal characteristics and the environment in which he/she faces the problem. Each type of individual needs the kind of information to which he/she is psychologically attuned in order to use it most effectively. The information needed by the decision maker can come from different types of DSS. DSS supports the decision-making activity and enhances the decision maker's effectiveness. From the literature review, previous researchers have indicated that considering the human variable of cognitive style is very necessary for the successful design of decision support systems. The objective of this research was to study the level of risk perceived by people of different cognitive styles, using different types of decision support systems, when they face problems under uncertainty/. The following research hypothesis was supported in Experiment 2, when decision environment was introduced as a control variable. "Perceived risk will be influenced by the compatibility of the information source and the cognitive style of the decision maker."


Fibroids in the cervical region of the uterus are uncommon because of the rarity of smooth muscles. The aim of the study was to present this rare finding in our centre and to show our management and the challenges encountered. We present a 45-year-old multipara who before the presentation had 6-year history of abnormal vaginal bleeding and was previously managed in a peripheral hospital. Physical examination suggested a large cervical fibroid and a hydronephrosis on the right displayed on intravenous urogram. She had total abdominal hysterectomy with the urologist who repaired an inadvertent ureteric injury and inserted a stent. It was removed after 6 weeks, and she was discharged with no further complications. Management of such patients should involve other disciplines after careful evaluation has been carried out.


Belatacept, the CD28‐B7 costimulation pathway inhibitor, has been approved as a calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) alternative in kidney transplantation. Although costimulation blockade (CoB) allows for CNI avoidance, it is associated with increased rates of early rejection, prompting a search for agents to pair with belatacept. Methotrexate (MTX) is an antimetabolite that has been found to be complimentary with abatacept, a lower affinity CD28‐B7‐specific analogue of belatacept, in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We examined whether this synergy would extend to prevention of kidney allograft rejection. Rhesus macaques underwent kidney transplantation treated with abatacept maintenance therapy with either a steroid taper, MTX, or both. The combination of abatacept maintenance with steroids prolonged graft survival compared to untreated historical controls and previous reports of abatacept monotherapy. The addition of MTX did not provide additional benefit. These data demonstrate that abatacept with adjuvant therapy may delay the onset of acute rejection, but fail to show synergy between abatacept and MTX beyond that of steroids. These findings indicate that MTX is unlikely to be a suitable adjuvant to CoB in kidney transplantation, but also suggest that with further modification, a CoB regimen used for advanced RA may suffice for RA patients requiring kidney transplantation.


The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Convention No. 182, two of the main international legal instruments relating to child labour, both recognise children's right to be protected from forms of work that adversely affect their health and development, regardless of whether this activity is economic or non-economic, market or non-market, in nature. But these norms have not been translated into a universally-accepted statistical definition of child labour. Widely differing positions prevail among researchers about what kind of activities performed by children should be classified as children's work, and progressively, as child labour. The current study forms part of a broader research effort directed towards arriving eventually at an internationally acceptable consensus on the statistical definition of child labour. It looks specifically at children's non-market activity, its classification (i.e., economic or non- economic), its impact on health and education outcomes, and at some of the issues linked to the inclusion of non-market activity in the definition of child labour. The study should be seen as an initial contribution to the discussion, aimed at raising key measurement questions requiring further investigation and deliberation.


Voudou (an older spelling of voodoo)—a pantheistic belief system developed in West Africa and transported to the Americas during the diaspora of the slave trade—is the generic term for a number of similar African religions which mutated in the Americas, including santeria, candomble, macumbe, obeah, Shango Baptist, etc. Since its violent introduction in the Caribbean islands, it has been the least understood and most feared religion of the New World—suppressed, out-lawed or ridiculed from Haiti to Hattiesburg. Yet with the exception of Zora Neale Hurston's accounts more than a half-century ago and a smattering of lurid, often racist paperbacks, studies of this potent West African theology have focused almost exclusively on Haiti, Cuba and the Caribbean basin. American Voudou turns our gaze back to American shores, principally towards the South, the most important and enduring stronghold of the voudou faith in America and site of its historic yet rarely recounted war with Christianity. This chronicle of Davis' determined search for the true legacy of voudou in America reveals a spirit-world from New Orleans to Miami which will shatter long-held stereotypes about the religion and its role in our culture. The real-life dramas of the practitioners, true believers and skeptics of the voudou world also offer a radically different entree into a half-hidden, half-mythical South, and by extension into an alternate soul of America. Readers interested in the dynamic relationships between religion and society, and in the choices made by people caught in the flux of conflict, will be heartened by this unique story of survival and even renaissance of what may have been the most persecuted religion in American history.


OBJECTIVES
Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) reduces the muscular contractions by temporarily inhibiting the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the BTX-A injected into the masseter muscle of a developing rat mandible.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Four-week-old male (no. 80) Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: control group, saline group, BTX-A group and baseline control group. Rats of baseline group were sacrificed at 0 day to provide baseline values of the mandibular measurements. The masseter muscle of rats in the saline and the BTX-A group were administered with saline and BTX-A solutions respectively. Experimental animals were sacrificed after 4 weeks.

RESULTS
The BTX-A group demonstrated smaller mandibular dimension compared with the other groups (P < 0.05). Their condylar cartilages showed increased apoptosis at the proliferation stage of the reserve zone and masseter muscle fibers demonstrated atrophic changes.

CONCLUSIONS
The result demonstrated BTX-A influence on inhibitory action of the developing mandible because of apoptosis at the proliferation stage of the reserve zone of the condylar cartilage in developing rat mandible.


When piles are installed through soft, subsiding soils, a drag force is developed in the piles. The consolidation induced by e.g. lowering of the groundwater table or placing the fill around the piles causes settlements and thus a relative movement between the pile and the soil. As a consequence, negative skin friction develops in the upper part of the pile, which is resisted by positive shaft resistance in the lower part of the pile and the toe resistance. This phenomenon should be considered in the design of pile foundations. Previous studies on the development of negative skin friction have mainly been performed on driven piles installed in marine clay. Driven piles installed in gyttja, a typical of Denmark, have received little attention. Consequently, there is still insufficient documentation for the effect of bitumen coating in reducing the shear force between the pile and the soil in such ground conditions. Additionally, all the test piles in the reported studies were instrumented with spot sensors giving information only at discrete points. Therefore, the full distribution of strain along the piles was not possible to obtain. The present thesis investigates the soil-pile interaction in soft, subsiding soils using a distributed fibre optic sensing system, which provided a high spatial resolution. The development of and the controlling factors behind negative skin friction along uncoated and bitumen coated piles were of special focus. These objectives were obtained through a program of full-scale field tests, supplemented by laboratory soil-pile interface shear tests.
This PhD study has shown that the development and magnitude of negative skin friction was a function of effective stress and settlement. The soil-pile interface type had an impact on the magnitude of the shear stress in both full-scale and laboratory tests. The bitumen coating significantly reduced negative skin friction and its efficiency is related to the shearing rate. Finally, driven piles can be successfully instrumented with distributed fibre optic sensors providing continuous distribution of strain along piles.


This study explores the relationship between female body mass index (BMI) and fit issues for plus size female aged 18+ who wore size 14+. Participants were surveyed on their frequency of experiencing fit issues while shopping for apparel (Mintel, 2015). This study looks at how BMI classifications of overweight and obese effects the instances of fit issues among plus size consumers. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data regarding fit between the two populations. Results showed significance between the populations where obese women tend to have more difficulty than overweight women. This study looks to strengthen the apparel industry's concern with apparel fit for plus size women; thereby motivating manufacturers to implement changes to design processes to combat these issues.


This paper proposes a model to study the arrangement of Islamic project finance with the participation of the government as a provider of loan guarantees. The owner-shareholders (musharaka certificate holders) initiate a project and raise funds by issuing Islamic profit-loss sharing mudaraba certificates. The government intervenes in providing financial guarantees in order to enhance the creditworthiness and increase the mudaraba capital capacity of the project. Our work raises several policy implications related to the structuring of Islamic project finance and the participation of both government and multilateral public agencies such as the Islamic Development Bank. It provides a unifying framework for the improvement of access to funds for Islamic projects and gives a rationale for government intervention in the arrangement of these projects.


Objective: To document perinatal events, brain imaging, neurophysiology and clinical outcome in term infants with early postnatal collapse (PNC). Design: Tertiary referral centre, retrospective case review (1993–2006). Patients: Infants born at ⩾36 weeks' gestation with early (<72 h) PNC. Peri-partum and post-collapse data were collated with clinical, electrophysiological, neuroimaging and autopsy data and neurodevelopmental outcome. Results: Twelve infants were studied; median gestation 39 weeks (36–41), birth weight 3150 g (1930–4010). Ten were born vaginally (including occipitoposterior (1), breech (2), water birth (2), ventouse/forceps (3)), and two by emergency caesarean section. Median Apgar scores were 9 (3–9) and 10 (8–10) at 1 and 5 min; median cord pH was 7.29 (7.18–7.34). All were thought to be well after birth. The median age at PNC was 75 min (10 min to 55 h). All infants required extensive resuscitation. The median pH after PNC was 6.75 (6.39–7.05). Seven infants became severely encephalopathic, with severely abnormal EEG/aEEG recorded within 12 h. MRI showed acute severe hypoxic–ischaemic injury. All died. One infant showed rapid recovery, had mild encephalopathy, and good outcome. Four infants had severe respiratory illness, normal background EEG, and MRI showing slight white matter change (n = 3) or a small infarction (n = 1). All had a good 2-year outcome. Conclusions: In this term cohort, early PNC was generally followed by severe encephalopathy, acute central grey matter injury and poor outcome, or severe respiratory illness, slight white matter change and good outcome. Early EEG and MRI predicted outcome accurately. However, no antepartum, intrapartum or other aetiological factors were identified. Further investigation is needed in larger PNC cohorts.