This study sought to investigate the role of Prisons in the administration of custodial rehabilitation to men and women inmates in Thika Main Prison. Although, the role of Kenya Prison Service (KPS) is generally to rehabilitate and reform prisoners to control recidivism, contain and keep offenders in safe custody, facilitate administration of justice and promote prisoners' opportunities for social integration, there has been a lot of concern raised on the administration and management of Prison systems in Kenya including the effectiveness of the rehabilitation programmes offered. The objectives of the study were to identify the existing programmes for rehabilitation of inmates, assess the impact of the programmes offered to men and women inmates in rehabilitation, investigate the gender-specific challenges encountered by prison officers in rehabilitating men and women inmates and come up with strategies on how to address the challenges encountered thereof. The study was done at Thika Main Prison situated in Thika West District, Kenya. The participants in the study were 350 men and 200 women inmates serving sentences ranging from 2 and 7 years; and 60 prison officers dealing with rehabilitation. Simple random sampling was used to select 70 men and 40 women inmates while purposive sampling was applied to select 39 prison officers to participate. The main data collection instruments included; (1). Questionnaires administered to prison officers, (2). Focused Group Discussion (FGD) guide applied to inmates, (3). Observation checklist was prepared simultaneously to compliment the information gathered in the questionnaires and FGDs. Data was analyzed qualitatively through coding guided by themes generated through research questions and presented through descriptive statistics using tables and figures. The study established that vocational training, formal education, counseling and spiritual rehabilitation were the major rehabilitation programmes which positively changed inmates' lifestyles through promotion of behaviour change and that despite the rehabilitation programmes being offered, various challenges hampered effective service delivery by prison officers to inmates. The study therefore recommends that the prison institutions should uphold the best practices of good governance and management in their institutions so that the best prisons can be taken as a role model to others to replicate the rehabilitation programme services across other prisons in Kenya while inmates should be sensitized to develop positive attitude towards rehabilitation programmes as this would give room for peer counseling; among other recommendations.


Wireworms, particularly Agriotes lineatus and A. obscurus are becoming a problem in organic crop production causing economically severe damage on potatoes and other arable crops. Since pesticide application for direct control is not allowed in organic farming, reliable methods for quantifying wireworm infestation levels and forecasting damage are urgently needed for any control strategy. In the present work, the assessment of the range of attractiveness of pheromone traps to male A. lineatus and A. obscurus beetles was investigated in 2006 and 2007. The results indicated that the trap recovery rate of released beetles was more dependent on release distance than on time. Recovery rates greater than 40% were only noted for short release distances (up to 10 m), while less than 10% of the beetles released at a distance of 60 m returned to the traps. Recovery rates of click beetles were also negatively affected by cold and wet weather conditions. Most of the beetles were recovered within the first 3 days.


A series of pipe impact on concrete slab tests have been performed at the CEA's Cadarache Laboratory using the AQUITAINE II facility. The testing program was jointly sponsored by EPRI, CEA and FRAMATOME. The main objective of these tests is to quantify pipe impact load, concrete response, and pipe-concrete interaction under a pressurized water reactor (PWR) system condition. A total of five tests were performed. The pipe is three inch schedule 80 and the impact distance between the whipping pipe and the slab is five feet. The concrete slab characteristics are the parameters of study which include thickness, compressive strength, and reinforcement ratio. Concrete responses ranging from no damage to severe penetration were observed. There was strong interaction between pipe impact (crushing) and concrete reaction. Two different analytical methods qualified for impact on a very stiff structure were used to correlate experiment and analysis. For more quantified determination of impact loads, it is found that an explicit modeling of concrete slab may be necessary.


Background and purpose: The prevalence of maxillary missing lateral incisor (MMLI) is 1-2% which is responsible for 20% of all missing teeth. Increased knowledge about causes and clinical manifestations of cases with this situation can be helpful for diagnosis and treatment planning. The aim of the present study was to determine dental and skeletal features of patients with missing maxillary lateral incisors. Materials and methods: The material consisted of pre-treatment dental casts and cephalograms of 26 patients with unilateral or bilateral MMLI. The following parameters were measured on dental casts: the maxillary and mandibular intercanine width (ICW) and intermolar width (IMW), overjet, overbite, missing or anomalous of other teeth. Parameters that were measured on cephalogram included: SNA, SNB and ANB angle and Wits. The parameters were finally compared to a control group with normal occlusion using paired t-test. Results: Eight subjects with MMLI had bilateral missing and in 18 subjects with unilateral missing, 66.67% (n=12) had lateral missing on the right side. MMLI was associated with other anomalies or congenital tooth absence in 12 subjects. The overject was significantly lower compared to that in the control group (P=0.05) and upper and lower ICW were smaller. Both ANB angle and Wits significantly decreased in this group (P=0.05). Conclusion: Absence of maxillary lateral incisor was highly correlated with other tooth anomalies. Most of patients with this situation had skeletal and dental Class III tendency.


Lee, W. R. (1973).British Journal of Industrial Medicine,30, 118-124. Emergence of occupational medicine in Victorian times. The events surrounding the establishment and development of legislation to protect the health of people at work in Victorian times are already well documented. This paper deals with some other aspects of the development of occupational medicine. Medical opinions at the time did not always see the misuse of child labour as due simply to avaricious mill owners, but in part due to the parents and in part to the workmen subcontractors. The establishment of the certifying surgeons is briefly reviewed and their coming together to form an association in 1868 may be related to questions about the need for medical certificates of age which were being requested by the many factory owners brought under factory legislation for the first time in 1864 and 1867. The plight of injured workmen and their dependents was early recognized, although it was late in the Victorian era before any statutory provision was made for them. The idea of linking compensation with preventive measures came to the fore in 1845 when some Manchester doctors, later supported by Edwin Chadwick, examined the workings at the Woodhead railway tunnel across the Pennines. When compensation legislation was passed some half a century later the idea was lost, and to this day compensation for and prevention of industrial injury and disease remain separated. The change of industrial diseases from a medical curiosity to a problem requiring State intervention is traced over the latter part of the Victorian era. The whole piecemeal pattern illustrating the precept that `social problems come first, social philosophy after' has persisted until the far-reaching changes in health and safety legislation of the present day.


[1] Gridded monthly precipitation data for 1979-2006 from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project are used to investigate interannual summer precipitation variability over Europe and its links to regional atmospheric circulation and evaporation. The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of European precipitation, explaining 17.2%-22.8% of its total variance, is stable during the summer season and is associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The spatial-temporal structure of the second EOF mode is less stable and shows month-to-month variations during the summer season. This mode is linked to the Scandinavian teleconnection pattern. Analysis of links between leading EOF modes of regional precipitation and evaporation has revealed a significant link between precipitation and evaporation from the European land surface, thus, indicating an important role of the local processes in summertime precipitation variability over Europe. Weaker, but statistically significant links have been found for evaporation from the surface of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. Finally, in contrast to winter, no significant links have been revealed between European precipitation and evaporation in the North Atlantic during the summer season.


Impure tricalcium silicate (C3S) in portland cement may contain various foreign ions. These ions can stabilize different polymorphs of C3S at room temperature and may affect its reactivity. In this paper, the effects of magnesium and zinc on the polymorph type, hydration kinetics, and the hydrate morphology of C3S were investigated. The pure C3S has the T1 structure while magnesium and zinc stabilize polymorphs M3 and T2/T3, respectively. The two elements have distinct effects on the hydration kinetics. Zinc increases the maximum heat released. Magnesium increases the hydration peak width. The C-S-H morphology is modified, leading to longer needles in the presence of zinc and thicker needles in the presence of magnesium. Zinc is incorporated into C-S-H, while magnesium is only incorporated slightly, if at all, but rather seems to inhibit nucleation. Implementing experimentally measured parameters for C-S-H nucleation and growth in the ic hydration model captured well the observed changes in hydration kinetics. This supports C-S-H nucleation and growth to be rate controlling in the hydration of C3S.


In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, it is urgent to assess accurately the various options proposed to restore wild salmon. For the past 150 years, a variety of analytic approaches have been employed to assess the ecological consequences of salmon management options. Each approach provided useful information to decision makers, but each also suffered from limitations, some relatively minor, others sufficient to undermine any potential utility. Risk assessment has become the most widely used analytic approach to evaluate environmental policy options. To date its use in ecological policy has been largely constrained to evaluating relatively simple technical questions (e.g., regulatory actions associated with specific chemicals or hazardous waste sites). Recently, however, there has been interest in applying risk assessment to more complex ecological policy problems (e.g., the decline of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest). Although its use has become commonplace and widely accepted, especially among regulatory and land management agencies, risk assessment remains contentious. The most heated debates revolve around delineating the specific meaning of risk; that is, framing the risk "question" to be answered.


Throughout the world, high-profile large organizations (aerospace and defense, automotive, banking, chemicals, financial service providers, healthcare, high tech, insurance, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, retail, telecommunications, and utilities) and governments are using SAP software to process their most mission-critical, highly sensitive data. With more than 100,000 installations, SAP is the world's largest enterprise software company and the world's third largest independent software supplier overall.

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The discovery of specific endothelial inhibitors such as angiostatin and endostatin not only increases our understanding of the functions of these molecules in the regulation of physiological and pathological angiogenesis, but also provides an important therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. Recent studies have demonstrated that the angiostatin protein significantly suppresses the growth of a variety of tumors in mice. However, the dosages of angiostatin protein used in these animal studies seem to be too high for clinical trials. In addition, repeated injections and long-term treatment with angiostatin are required to reach its maximal antitumor effect. In this article, I will discuss several alternative approaches that may become feasible to move angiostatin therapy from animal experiments into the clinic. In particular, I will emphasize the therapeutic potentials of angiostatin gene therapy and more potent angiogenesis inhibitors that are related to angiostatin.


Resonanceenergy transfer (RET) is the principal mechanism for the intermolecular or intramolecular redistribution of electronic energy following molecular excitation. In terms of fundamental quantum interactions, the process is properly described in terms of a virtual photon transit between the pre-excited donor and a lower energy (usually ground-state) acceptor. The detailed quantum amplitude for RET is calculated by molecular quantum electrodynamical techniques with the observable, the transfer rate, derived via application of the Fermi golden rule. In the treatment reported here, recently devised state-sequence techniques and a novel calculational protocol is applied to RET and shown to circumvent problems associated with the usual method. The second-rank tensor describing virtual photon behavior evolves from a Green's function solution to the Helmholtz equation, and special functions are employed to realize the coupling tensor. The method is used to derive a new result for energy transfer systems sensitive to both magnetic- and electric-dipole transitions. The ensuing result is compared to that of pure electric-dipole–electric-dipole coupling and is analyzed with regard to acceptable transfer separations. Systems are proposed where the electric-dipole–magnetic-dipole term is the leading contribution to the overall rate.


The fastness properties of the flower of Thespesia populnea dyed cotton fabric have been studied using different combination (1:3,1:1 and 3:1) of various mordants, such as myrobolan:nickel sulphate, myrobolan: aluminium sulphate, myrobolan: potassium dichromate, myrobolan: ferrous sulphate and myrobolan:stannous chloride. The wash, rub, light and perspiration fastness of the dyed samples have been evaluated. Comparing thefastness properties and colour strength of flower of Thespesia populnea dyed cotton by using combination of mordants. In the comparative study of fastness properties and colour strength of the dyed cotton samples Thespesia populnea in simultaneous mordanting method with 1 : 3 mordant combination gives better results.


A simple gas chromatographic method for the estimation of paclobutrazol residues in soil was standardized using electron capture detector and megabore column. No derivatization was required for GLC-ECD determination of paclobutrazol. Soils were simply extracted in methanol, filtered twice, methanol was evaporated completely and residues were redissolved in 1ml methanol before analysis. An average recovery of 86.82 per cent of paclobutrazol was obtained from soils fortified with 0.1, 1.0 and 2.0 ppm solutions with a minimum detection limit of 0.0001 ppm.


Original oral history data shows that during the import-substituting industrialisation, state capitalist period delimited by the independence in 1956 and the structural adjustment program in 1982, Moroccan manufacturers were operating in an environment characterised by a high risk of contractual breach, and by long-term, face-to-face relationships with few trade partners. The judicial system was seldom used to enforce contracts, because it was dysfunctional, and would break up a valuable relationship. To avoid contractual problems, entrepreneurs were largely relying on their acquaintances: economic life was embedded in social life. Social capital was derived from the business network and social connections rather than from connections with the state, kin-based and ethno-geographic groups. Private enforcement does not work as the Maghribi traders suggest. It is a way of screening customers and suppliers based on on-demand, reciprocal exchange of imprecise information, rather than a way of inflicting collective punishment. Its efficiency depends on the structure of the business network and on the individual social capital that agents hold within this structure. The institutional environment deteriorated after the period, because an increased number of players disrupted the structure of the business network and decreased the efficiency of private enforcement.


In this paper, a new method named Alternative Decision Trees (ADT) for the generation of decision trees is introduced. This proposed method generated a decision tree based in concepts of minimum covering, obtained of concepts or properties of each class described in the data set. Starting from the limitations of others decision tree algorithms, we worked in the development of new techniques that allow us to improve those limitations. A simplification of these concepts, and a split criterion are introduced. Besides, the performance of ADT method is presented. Keywords— decision trees, conceptual algorithms, classification.


It is often remarked that most of the western US (Figure 1) is "always in drought," especially by visitors from wetter climates. The plants and landforms of the West, however, are more or less adapted to the region's relatively dry but variable climates, and so important variations in the levels of drought, or aridity, characterize the landscape. During "real" droughts, broad areas of the West are subjected to drier conditions than normal, imposing—at least temporarily—arid climatic conditions on many semiarid and even humid areas. In response to these climatic conditions, the hydrologic balances between waters that run off and those that evaporate back into the atmosphere are transformed temporarily in ways that color the entire region's water supplies and vegetation. In this article, we describe the major changes that droughts wreak on the "normal" partitioning of precipitation between evaporation and runoff, as depicted by a hydrological model that simulates historical variations of the region's surface hydrology.


The inclusion of digital multimedia into teaching and learning has changed instructional strategies in the classroom. While this course has been traditionally given in lecture-based environment, an attempt was made to move it towards a more multimedia-mediated environment to provide a student-centred approach in teaching the principles of animation. The aim of this project is to incorporate Gagne's 9 Events of Instructions in a multimedia-mediated student-centred learning environment to teach an animation course and to study its impact on student learning. The study assesses the effects the learning environment has on the students' learning outcome as well as their perceptions in this learning environment. Therefore, data was gathered through various research instruments including surveys and questionnaires to garner their perceptions and their feedback on the learning environment. Furthermore, tests were administrated to the students to gauge their learning outcome. The results were later analysed using a paired t-test. The results were positive and encouraging. They show that the students were motivated and were actively pursuing their learning at their own pace. They enjoyed this self-directed learning approach and liked using multimedia to stimulate and enhance their learning process. The paper also provides evidence that will benefit those wanting to switch from traditional classroom to a more technological and multimedia oriented student-centred learning environment as this learning environment proves to be a viable alternative teaching approach to learning the principles of animation.


The genus Meristogenys (Anura: Ranidae), endemic to Borneo, presents serious taxonomic problems despite being one of the commonest frogs in the mountainous regions of this island. We investigated molecular and morphological variations in Meristogenys whiteheadi (Boulenger, 1887) using larval and adult specimens from Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysia). We found three allopatric lineages in this species. We regard each of these as a distinct species because they are separated by a large genetic distance, and do not form any monophyletic group. Their morphological characters indicate that the distributional range of M. whiteheadi s.s. is divided into two disjunct areas: Mt Kinabalu (northern Sabah) and northern Sarawak. The two other lineages occupy ranges between those of M. whiteheadi, and represent undescribed cryptic species. One of these, Meristogenys stigmachilus sp. nov., collected from the northern part of the Crocker Range, is distinguished from M. whiteheadi by black spots on the upper lip and dark dots scattered on the back. A second undescribed species, Meristogenys stenocephalus sp. nov., was collected mainly from the southern part of the Crocker Range, and is characterized by the large body size of males and a relatively narrow head. Meristogenys stenocephalus sp. nov. also differs from M. stigmachilus sp. nov. and M. whiteheadi in larval morphology, but larvae of the latter two cannot be differentiated morphologically. We discuss relative tibia length, a diagnostic specific characteristic in the genus Meristogenys, and the relationships between body size and sexual size dimorphism in this genus.© 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 161, 157-183. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London.


Hyper-Kamiokande is a large water Cherenkov detector planned in Japan with improved photo-detectors. A 50 cm-diameter photomultiplier tube (PMT) was initially developed for Kamiokande, and improved for Super-Kamiokande, where a Venetian blind dynode was adopted for a wide acceptance. Further improvement with a high charge and time resolutions was achieved for Hyper-Kamiokande with a box-and-line dynode as an R12860 PMT by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. The collection efficiency reaches 95%, superior to 67% of the PMT in Super-Kamiokande. It also gives a higher quantum efficiency of 30% at peak compared to a typical 22% for the Super-K PMT. In addition, we developed a 50 cm-diameter hybrid photo-detector (HPD), R12850 by Hamamatsu, with an avalanche diode that resulted in a higher resolution and detection efficiency. A preamplifier and high voltage module were designed to be equipped inside. Detailed performance evaluation was performed with a stability measurement in a water tank. Many accessories such as a cable, connector and cover, and alternative candidates of photo-detectors for Hyper-Kamiokande are being developed. The development and performance of the improved photo-detectors will be presented.


An attempt was made to induce callus mediated regeneration of Cissampelos pariera plants using leaf explants along with induction of hairy root for increasing the secondary metabolites. A4, MSU 440, K599, NCIM 5140 and 9402 strains of A. rhizogenes was used for hairy root induction. Transformation using liquid co-cultivation, direct introduction of cultures into wound site and also sonication assisted cocultivation methods. The leaf explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with NAA (2mg/l) showed proliferation of callus. But the callus failed to show organogenesis on MS media enriched with any growth hormones. The plant species were highly recalcitrant. Among the methods and strain used for hairy root culture, the leaves co-cultured with A. rhizogenes strain MSU440 using sonication-assisted method alone showed callus formation on MS Medium devoid of growth hormones. The callus subjected to HPLC analysis showed the increase in Berberine content.


In this Thesis, I report my Ph.D. research on two major issues that are devoted towards constructing more realistic earthquake source model using computational tools: (1) constructing physically consistent dynamic rupture models that include complexities in fault geometry as well as heterogeneous stress and frictional properties inferred from observations; (2) study the effect of subducting slab structure on earthquakes that occur inside it with a special focus on the teleseismic waveforms. Fault step over is one of the most important geometric complexities that control the propagation and arrest of earthquake ruptures. In Chapter 2, we study the role of seismogenic depth and background stress on physical limits of earthquake rupture across fault step overs. We conclude that the maximum step over distance that a rupture can jump is approximately proportional to seismogenic depth. We also conclude that the pre-stress conditions have a fundamental effect on step over jump distance while the critical nucleation size has a secondary effect. Seismic wave carries information of source as well as structures along the path it travels. It was found that seismic waves generated by shallow events in subduction zones whose ray path coincide with the down going slab structure display waveform complexities that feature multipathing. In Chapter 3, we study deep earthquakes whose depth phases sample the slab structure on their way up to the surface. Differential travel time sP-P analysis shows a systematic decrease of up to 5 seconds from Europe to Australia and then to Pacific which is indicative of a dipping high velocity layer above the source region. Finite-difference simulations showed that a slab shaped structure that follows the Benioff zone at shallow depth and steepens beyond 400 km produces a model that can account for the sP-P differential travel times of 5 seconds for oceanic paths. In Chapter 4, we design a slab operator that can be applied on the 1D synthetics to generate 2D synthetics with slab structure. We hope this operator can be used for generating more accurate Green's functions that could potentially serve earthquake source inversion. In Chapter 5, we design a dynamic rupture model of the Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake. We employ a novel approach of integrating kinematic inversion results which provide low frequency stress distribution and stochastic high frequency stress motivated by earthquake cycle models and observations. By doing this, we are able to reproduce the observed frequency dependent rupture processes, in particular the concentration of high-frequency radiation in the down-dip part of the rupture. In Chapter 6, I report my on going work on the spectral element method based earthquake cycle simulator. Large scale earthquake cycle simulation with consideration of complicated velocity structure and fault geometry is a great challenge for numerical modeling. I tried to push forward this boundary by extending the existing spectral element earthquake cycle simulator to enable cycle simulations on bi-material faults. This chapter includes a benchmark test in 2D that demonstrates the correctness of this new algorithm and an application of this method on bi-material fault earthquake cycle modeling.


A mathematical procedure is herein developed for obtaining exact solutions of shear-lag problems in flat panels and box beams: the method is based on the assumption that the amount of stretching of the sheets in the direction perpendicular to the direction of essential normal stresses is negligible. Explicit solutions, including the treatment of cut-outs, are given for several cases and numerical results are presented in graphic and tabular form. The general theory is presented in a from which further solutions can be readily obtained. The extension of the theory to cover certain cases of non-uniform cross section is indicated. Although the solutions are obtained in terms of infinite series, the present developments differ from those previously given in that, in practical cases, the series usually converge so rapidly that sufficient accuracy is afforded by a small number of terms. Comparisons are made in several cases between the present results and the corresponding solutions obtained by approximate procedures devised by Reissner and by Kuhn and Chiarito.


This project report concerns the developing o f a series of adult Sabbath School Lessons on the book of Zechariah. The lessons endeavor to address the major themes in Zechariah and cover each of the fourteen chapters in sequential order. However, due to the scope and limitation of this study, the lessons do not deal in detail with every verse. These lessons are primarily devotional in nature designed to build up spiritually the body o f Christ. They are also designed to draw the world-wide Seventh-day Adventist church members to focus attention on this book in daily study for one quarter. Daily study of Scripture enables church members to treasure it as the source of encouragement, revival, and reformation. This study of Zechariah has greatly benefited me both intellectually and spiritually. It has helped me to sharpen my skills in interpreting, teaching, and communicating effectively the inspired Word of God. There is such a great spiritual value in simply taking the Word o f God for what it is, studying it, praying and meditating on it, and, as a result, experiencing the Holy Spirit's enlightenment. I have attempted to make clear several important points to the readers. Among these points are: the Christ-centeredness of the book of Zechariah; it s relevant and timely messages to the present and future life and mission of the Adventist church; and its potential as a rich resource for a spiritual awakening among God's people in these last days. In its fourteen chapters, Zechariah's messages are particularly appropriate to Seventh-day Adventists. The themes of salvation by faith, the judgment, and the three advents of Christ, etc. all are to be found. The book complements, clarifies, and reinforces the messages o f Daniel and Revelation.


Walking is an increasingly important travel mode, especially in highly urbanised areas. High levels of pedestrian activity occur in Melbourners Central Business District (CBD), and associated with this is a substantially high level of pedestrian trauma. Between 2000 and 2011, 451 pedestrian casualty collisions were recorded within the CBD, comprising 10 fatalities, 316 hospitalisations, 87 requiring medical treatment and 38 uninjured. For sustained population health, the environment and liveability of cities, it is desirable to promote walking, however, it is also essential that safe walking environments are provided. In order to apply lbest-practicer countermeasures within a Safe System framework, an understanding of collision types and contributing factors is required. An analysis of Victorian Police-reported casualty pedestrian casualty collisions in the CBD between 2000 and 2011 was undertaken to identify key factors in pedestrian collision involvement in the CBD area. The findings showed that almost half of crash-involved pedestrians were young adults, and half occurred at signalised intersections. Results also indicated differences in characteristics of collisions occurring at night and during business hours. During night hours, particularly on weekends, collisions were clustered around night clubs and bars and involved a higher proportion of young adult males crossing at intersections. In contrast, collisions occurring during business hours were evenly distributed throughout weekdays, across multiple locations on streets, more prevalent around public transport facilities and with less severe injury outcomes than those occurring during night hours. These findings have implications for the development of engineering and behavioural countermeasures in the built environment to target priority collision types including reducing vehicle travel speed, improvements to intersection design and operation, and measures to separate pedestrians from vehicles around drinking venues at night and around public transport facilities during the day.


This article examines the challenges posed by system specialization, as illustrated by the difficulties of coordinating the roles of the mental health and law enforcement agencies working with people with severe mental illness. Dealing with the needs of clients in one system when they are most appropriately served by the other may make both law enforcement and mental health systems appear ineffective and inefficient. This could increase the incidence of disorderly or violent behavior, which forments the myth that the seriously mentally ill are inherently dangerous. Despite the evident need to manage these issues, conventional methods of coordinating services have failed. This article concludes by developing a contracting model that creates more appropriate incentives for the two systems and bridges the gap between them.


AIM
To find if patients are interested in obtaining a video recording of their colonoscopy procedure.

METHODS
We conducted a survey of outpatients presenting for colonoscopy regarding their interest in obtaining a video recording of their colonoscopy.

RESULTS
Two hundred and forty-eight patients (mean age 57.9 years; 57% male) were surveyed. Two hundred and one patients (81%) were interested in obtaining a video recording. No significant predictors of patients' interest in the video recording were identified. After reading a brief educational paragraph explaining missed lesions during colonoscopy, 135 patients (54%) were more interested in having a video recording, and none were less interested. One hundred and fifty-six patients (63%) were willing to pay for a video recording. In multivariable analyses, younger age was predictive of willingness to pay for a video recording. Prior history of colorectal cancer and a family history of colorectal cancer were predictive of willingness to pay a greater amount.

CONCLUSION
Patients undergoing colonoscopy expressed substantial interest in obtaining a videorecording of their procedure. Awareness of missing lesions during colonoscopy increased interest in having a videorecording.


Wavefront reconstruction via multiple-plane phase retrieval relies on intensity variation. The lack of which leads to the problem of stagnation in the iterative calculations. Modified bi-histogram equalization is used to produce a scaling mask which, in turn, is used to adjust the variation of the wave amplitudes. The technique enhanced the intensity measurements, thereby improving the phase reconstructions at faster convergence rates. The technique requires one-time application, does not entail experimental cost, and can be extended to the different phase retrieval methods.


Active queue management (AQM) is broadly accepted as the tool of choice for tackling bufferbloat (the accumulation of large queueing delays) in network buffers. CoDel and PIE are considered two of the most promising AQM schemes, but little has been done to adopt them in cellular networks, which are particularly plagued by bufferbloat. This is partly due to the lack of adequate evaluation of their performance on links where the data rate varies quickly and widely. Past studies have used simplistic link models and thus do not provide a strong case for the adoption of either scheme in cellular networks. We study the performance of CoDel and PIE on a recently introduced emulator that accurately reproduces the highly variable nature of cellular links. We discover that both schemes incur link utilization losses up to 60% in return for reducing queueing delay. This trade-off is undesirable for network providers and applications, yet it is inherent to the design of both CoDel and PIE. We argue that AQM schemes designed around the primary goal of maximizing network power (the ratio between throughput and queuing delay) are not the most effective tool for tackling bufferbloat in cellular links. We propose a new queue balance metric as the driving criterion for designing more effective congestion control solutions for cellular networks.


The prominence of weakly labeled data gives rise to a growing demand for object detection methods that can cope with minimal supervision. We propose an approach that automatically identifies discriminative configurations of visual patterns that are characteristic of a given object class. We formulate the problem as a constrained submodular optimization problem and demonstrate the benefits of the discovered configurations in remedying mislocalizations and finding informative positive and negative training examples. Together, these lead to state-of-the-art weakly-supervised detection results on the challenging PASCAL VOC dataset.


OBJECTIVE Various cutoff levels of hemoglobin A1c (A1C) have been suggested to screen for diabetes, although more consensus about the best level, especially for different ethnicities, is required. We evaluated the usefulness of A1C levels when screening for undiagnosed diabetes and as a predictor of 6-year incident diabetes in a prospective, population-based cohort study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total 10,038 participants were recruited from the Ansung-Ansan cohort study. All subjects underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test at baseline and at each biennial follow-up. Excluding subjects with a previous history of diabetes (n = 572), the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the A1C cutoff. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to predict diabetes at 6 years. RESULTS At baseline, 635 participants (6.8%) had previously undiagnosed diabetes. An A1C cutoff of 5.9% produced the highest sum of sensitivity (68%) and specificity (91%). At 6 years, 895 (10.2%) subjects had developed incident diabetes. An A1C cutoff of 5.6% had the highest sum of sensitivity (59%) and specificity (77%) for the identification of subsequent 6-year incident diabetes. After multivariate adjustment, men with baseline A1C ≥5.6% had a 2.4-fold increased risk and women had a 3.1-fold increased risk of new-onset diabetes. CONCLUSIONS A1C is an effective and convenient method for diabetes screening. An A1C cutoff of 5.9% may identify subjects with undiagnosed diabetes. Individuals with A1C ≥5.6% have an increased risk for future diabetes.


A newly developed, combined penetrometer–moisture probe (CPMP), together with two conventional geophysical methods, electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) and ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), was used to determine soil depth, soil type, and water distribution of a forested slope underlain by granitic bedrock. Profiles of volumetric water content (θ) measured using the CPMP accurately depicted alternations of sandy, loamy, and gravelly layers above the water table. In most cases soil–bedrock interfaces were successfully detected by ERI because of the high contrast between the electrical resistivity of dry surface soil and lightly weathered bedrock. In some areas, the soil–bedrock interface was obscured by the presence of pore water or by heavily weathered bedrock. Although a good match was obtained between θ, as directly measured using the CPMP, and θ estimated from electrical resistivity (ρ), as measured with ERI, the CPMP was more accurate than ERI for detecting heterogeneous θ distributions caused by alternations of sandy, loamy, and gravelly soil layers. Using the CPMP and ERI together is effective in quantifying soil depth, soil material, and water content distribution on a forested slope. Although soil thickness, distribution, and groundwater depth were not successfully detected using GPR on the forested slope studied, it may be possible to achieve quantitative estimates of the soil thickness and water table by calibrating GPR data with CPMP data obtained from the same locality at the same time.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common behavioral disorders in children. Children with ADHD have difficulties regarding the regulation of their emotions and activities and of the maintenance of attention and impulse control. Families with children with ADHD encounter many challenges, and the public health nurse is highlighted as helping and supporting these families. The aim of this study was to investigate families with a child having ADHD from the parents' perspective. A cross-sectional study was performed. In total, N = 264 parents of children with ADHD, 217 mothers and 47 fathers (48.2%), responded on a questionnaire regarding psychological distress, family sense of coherence, and family functioning. Parents with ADHD and parents with children not medicated for ADHD seemed most vulnerable. Parents' well-being and psychological distress seem to influence family functioning the most, with the behavior of the child with ADHD and support from the community health services had importance.


This empirical study analyzes the experience of the parties described above, specifically the power, representation, and strategic expertise they bring to a dispute. Our analysis of these factors clarifies how representation may be a solution to the access to justice crisis. We find that a representative helps most parties most of the time. We also find that the other party's representation and the representative's strategic expertise are significant factors for understanding representation for civil litigants. This study analyzes a database of 1,700 unemployment insurance appeals in the District of Columbia over a two-year period, the broadest and deepest collection of data about representation in recent years. The analysis shows wide disparity in representation, with employers (the more powerful party to a dispute or the quintessential "haves") represented twice as often as claimants (the less powerful party or the "have nots"), as well as a notable difference in parties' use of procedures in hearings. Using difference-in-proportions tests, this Article examines the interaction of party power and representation and finds that represented parties have better case outcomes than unrepresented parties, though employers see less benefit from legal representation than claimants. In addition, the Article confirms the intuitive result that represented parties are more likely to use procedures than unrepresented parties. Yet, surprisingly, the Article finds that represented claimants who use certain evidentiary procedures have worse case outcomes than represented claimants who do not use those same procedures.We recommend that any policy solution to the country's civil litigation crisis, whether it is a right to civil counsel, unbundled legal services, lay advocacy, or pro se court reform, must account for these factors. To achieve this goal, we call for a deeper understanding of representation in context.


In this broad historical and critical overview based on a lifetime of scholarship, James Alfred Martin, Jr., examines the development of the concepts of beauty and holiness as employed in theories of aesthetics and of religion. The injunction in the Book of Psalms to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" addressed a tradition that has comprehended holiness primarily in terms of ethical righteousness--a conception that has strongly influenced Western understandings of religion. As the author points out, however, the Greek forbears of Western thought, as well as many Eastern traditions, were and are more broadly concerned with the pursuit of beauty, truth, and goodness as ideals of human excellence, that is, with the "holiness of beauty." In this work Martin describes a philosophical stance that should prove to be most productive for the dialogue between aesthetics and religion.Beginning with the treatment of beauty and holiness in Hebrew, Greek, and classical Christian thought, the author traces the emergence of modern theories of aesthetics and religion in the Enlightenment. He then outlines the role of aesthetics in the theories of religion proposed by Otto, Eliade, van der Leeuw, and Tillich, in the cultural anthropology of Geertz, and in the thought of Santayana, Dewey, Whitehead, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. In a global context Martin explores the relation of aesthetic theory to religious thought in the traditions of India, China, and Japan and concludes with reflections on the viability of modern aesthetic and religious theory in the light of contemporary cultural and methodological pluralism.Originally published in 1990.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Since 2006 Singur in West Bengal has been the centre of a controversy over land acquisition for a Tata Motors car manufacturing unit. A local rural movement challenging the land acquisition soon attracted the support of various activist groups and political parties from across India, and in late 2008 it succeeded in forcing Tata Motors to abandon Singur. This article uses the Singur controversy as a prism on the contested and contentious nature of development in contemporary India. I analyse the arguments raised respectively for and against the model of development embodied in the Singur factory by five sets of actors, who have been involved in the Singur controversy: (1) West Bengal's Left Front government; (2) economists; (3) Singur farmers opposed to the factory; (4) social activists and NGOs; and (5) and opposition political parties in West Bengal. I argue that in spite of massive public attention that the Singur controversy received, and the fierce criticism of the Left Front that it generated, the voices of those who fundamentally challenged the policy of industrialising through private capital in the name of development have been rather marginal. Rather than opposing and / or promoting alternatives to the 'neoliberal' post‐reform models of development pursued in India, the Singur controversy should be seen as part of a popular effort to civilise rather than substitute contemporary forms of capitalist development to ensure that some of the benefits do trickle down.


Turbidite deposition of Oligocene to Early Miocene age occurred in the foreland basin to the Pindus mountains which formed the NNW-trending Hellenide thrust front. Deposition was interrupted by the migration of the deformation front westwards through the foreland basin itself. The Kalamitsi Thrust, exposed in West Levkas, became active in late Early Miocene times. A Miocene to Pliocene piggy-back basin developed, fed both from the thrust front to the west and the mountain belt to the east. During the mid–Late Miocene, deformation remained confined to the Ionian and Gavrovo zones, possibly related to the presence of lubricating evaporites which terminate in the Pre-Apulian zone to the west. During the Late Plio-Quaternary, inner arc extension (trenchward of the Hellenic arc) caused a system of ENE and WNW basins to open under the N-S tensional regime. These were linked by NNW and NE transtensional faults and the system is still active in the Lake Trikhonis and Gulf of Corinth areas today. In the west of the study area, however, post-Pliocene NW-SE compressional faults dissected the piggy-back basin. This compressional phase must have been either contemporaneous with or interrupted the extension active in the east from Late Pliocene times.


Masonry has a widespread use in the construction of the buildings even in reinforced concrete or steel frames. Past earthquakes have demonstrated the vulnerability of masonry infills resulted in the human life losses and economic costs. Recently innovative strengthening techniques such as Textile Reinforced Mortar technique (TRM) is used for enhancing the seismic response of the infills. Different procedures were suggested to enhance the bond between rendering mortar of the TRM technique and infilled frame to prevent its detachment. In this study commercial glass fiber shear connectors were used for connecting the TRM layer to the infilled frame and their response were investigated by testing the samples in the in-plane direction. The quasi static in-plane test was performed cyclically on two specimens; one without strengthening layer and another strengthened with commercial textile meshes. The results showed that TRM technique enhances the in-plane response of the infilled frames but the effectiveness of the shear connectors could be improved using proper materials.


In this information-rich age, online auctions have become an important procurement tool in either commercial or personal use. As the number of auctions increases, the process of monitoring, tracking bid and bidding in multiple auctions become a problem. The user needs to monitor many auctions sites, picks the right auction to participate, and makes the right bid in making sure that the desired item
satisfies the user's preference. All these tasks are somewhat complex and time consuming. The task even gets more complicated when there are different start and end times and when the auctions employ different protocols. Due to the complex and dynamic nature of the online auction, one of the strategies employed is using genetic algorithm to discover the best strategy. Hence, this work attempts
to improve an existing bidding strategy by taking into accounts the evolution of various model of generic algorithm in optimizing the parameter of the bidding strategies. In this work, three different models of genetic algorithms are considered. In the first model, the crossover and the mutation rate of the genetic algorithms are varied in order to create different combination of crossover and mutation rate. The new combination of genetic probabilities from this investigation will eventually perform better than the recommended genetic probabilities adopted in the previous work. The second model is the dynamic adaptation model namely the dynamic deterministic adaptive model. The bidding strategy from the experimental result of this experiment will eventually perform better than the bidding strategy that applied fixed static genetic operator's probabilities. Self adaptation genetic algorithm is the last model that will be used to evolve the bidding strategy. The bidding strategies applying self-adaptation model are expected to perform better than the deterministic dynamic adaptation because of the nature of the algorithm itself. The evaluations are conducted in a simulated online auction framework with multiple auctions running concurrently. The effectiveness of the bidding strategies is measured based on the average fitness of the individuals, the success rate and average payoff in obtaining the item in the auctions. The performance of these bidding strategies will be empirically demonstrated in this thesis.


This paper develops the models for the structural performance of the loading and probabilistic characterization for the fatigue and the serviceability limit states for the support structure of offshore wind energy converters. These models and a sensitivity study are part of a risk based assessment and monitoring framework and will be applied for establishing the "as designed and constructed" reliability as prior information for the assessment and the design of monitoring systems. The constitutive physical equations are introduced in combination with the fatigue and serviceability limit state requirements as the starting point for the development of the structural performance and loading models. With these models introduced in detail, several modeling aspects for both limit states are analyzed. This includes analyses of the influence on the hot spot stresses by applying a contact formulation for the pile guide brace connection and the application of a finite element formulation using solid elements. Further, the comparison of the natural frequencies of a discrete rotor model with a continuous rotor model is documented. To account for uncertainties associated with the structural and loading models, a probabilistic model is derived on the basis of literature review and measurement data from a prototype Multibrid M5000 support structure. The sensitivity study is based on the calculation of a nonlinear coefficient of correlation in conjunction with predetermined designs of experiments. This is conducted by a systematic analysis of the influence of the random variables on limit state responses and hence on the structural reliability. Integrating the analyses and sensitivity studies of the fatigue and serviceability limit state models developed in this paper as well as the ultimate limit state models in Thons et al. ("Ultimate Limit State Model Basis for Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Converters," ASME J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng.), the model basis for the assessment is completed. The process of establishing and analyzing such a model basis contributes to a detailed understanding of the deterministic and probabilistic characteristics of the structure and provides valuable insights in regard to the significance of available data.


Problem statement: Plant antioxidants are natural plant products that inhibit the adverse effects of the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) produced in plants. Thus, antioxidants enable plants to survive. Depending on this principle, human beings started using some plants' parts to cure from diseases many centuries ago, even before the discovery of microbes or disclosing the etiology of many human diseases. Shed light on the importance of diet and natural products that have proved of great health impact on human traditionally and scientifically, disclosing the central role of natural antioxidants in this matter. Moreover, this review tried to give an overview on the research has so far done in Asian countries particularly in the field of natural antioxidants during the period 2000-2008. Therefore, the aim of this review is to present a comprehensive index for the antioxidant property of herbs and plants that have been traditionally used as well as experimentally proved beneficial in these countries. Approach: We had compared Asian and other nation's diet in the popularity of the traditional medicine and the type of daily meal in respect to their antioxidants contents and valuable health promoting effects. Many literatures had been collected using online search engines and the main library of University Putra Malaysia. The gathered data had been arranged alphabetically in a table depending on the plant's scientific name, common name, the used part(s) and the family name. Results: The research had shown that there were seventy-six plants with proved antioxidant activity which had been well studied by Asian scientists in the chosen period of time. Conclusion: The antioxidant components of the natural products constitute the major source of human health promotion and maintenance. The nature is still the perfect source for health promotion and for the supplementation of safe drugs. Great attention is mandatory from all the scientists around the world to explore many underestimated plants with highly effective antioxidant activity.


This paper presents a variational method to generate cell complexes with local anisotropy conforming to the Hessian of any given convex function and for any given local mesh density. Our formulation builds upon approximation theory to offer an anisotropic extension of Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations which can be seen as a dual form of Optimal Delaunay Triangulation. We thus refer to the resulting anisotropic polytopal meshes as Optimal Voronoi Tessellations. Our approach sharply contrasts with previous anisotropic versions of Voronoi diagrams as it employs first-type Bregman diagrams, a generalization of power diagrams where sites are augmented with not only a scalar-valued weight but also a vector-valued shift. As such, our OVT meshes contain only convex cells with straight edges, and admit an embedded dual triangulation that is combinatorially-regular. We show the effectiveness of our technique using off-the-shelf computational geometry libraries.


Bimodal volcanism and rhyolite migration along the High Lava Plains in central Oregon (United States) lie above a broader feature defined by low seismic velocity in the upper mantle that emanates from the Yellowstone hotspot (northwest United States) and extends westward across the northern Basin and Range. It was emplaced by a westward current, driven in part by rapid buoyancy-driven flow across the east-west cratonic boundary of North America. Geothermometry studies and geochemical considerations suggest that the low-velocity feature may be composed of moderately hot, low-density mantle derived from the Yellowstone plume but diluted by thermomechanical erosion and entrainment of colder mantle lithosphere. Finger-like conduits of plume-modified mantle beneath Quaternary eruption sites delineate flow-line channels that have developed across the broader mantle structure since 2 Ma. These channels have allowed low-density mantle to accumulate against the Cascades arc, thus providing a heated mantle source for mafic magmatism in the Newberry (Oregon) and Medicine Lake (California) volcanic fields.


Changes in the earth in million of years brought about changes on living organism. As a result, the fauna and flora of an area had been subject to changes in geographic and climatic conditions in that particular area. Thus the flora and fauna of Anatolia had been changed parallel to the changes in the topography and climate. In this sudy, geographic evolution of Anatolian Peninsula has been investigated and starting from this point of wiev the distribution and the speciation of Spalax species and subspecies connected with geographic isolation in the Anatolian Peninsula is discussed. At present seven subspecies belonging to one genus of Spalacidae family is being found in Anatolian Peninsula. If the distribution ranges of these subspecies has been examined the geographic connection comes into sight. That is to say that the geographic isolation has been played a determining role in the speciation of these group of animal. The striking point is that the effect of the geographical fault so-called Anatolian Diagonal which extend from Amanos Mountains to Erzurum-Kars Plateau on the isolation of Spalax subspecies considered tremendous.


Abstract In the Three Gorges major landslides are the primary disasters, and endanger the normal running of the Three Gorges Dam and the life and property of the residents in the region. Hence, it is very important to formulate effective strategies for the prevention and remediation of landslides in this region, as part of which landslide mechanism analysis is an important task. In this paper, landslide mechanism analysis in the Three Gorges is carried out based on spatial data mining and knowledge discovery. The 1:50000 geological map, 1:10000 relief map and China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (Cbers) images were adopted to produce the key factors influencing landslide development, including engineering rock group, reservoir water fluctuation, vegetation coverage, slope structure, elevation, slope and aspect. A soft partition method was adopted to elevate the knowledge levels and formulate the quantification factors qualitatively based on the cloud model. In terms of these qualitative factors, a concept grid is built based on formal concept analysis and a concept grid algorithm. Based on this concept grid, the knowledge related to landslide mechanism is mined from the multi-theme landslide data, including the associations between the various factors that influence a landslide, the circumstances in which a landslide is easily triggered, and the relationship between landslide probability and factor combination. The experimental results show that the knowledge of landslide causes mined by our method possesses high confidence and is in agreement with the field circumstances. Therefore, the spatial data mining method proposed in this paper is suitable for landslide mechanism analysis. It can achieve the transformation between quantitative detection data of landslides and qualitative human mind, thereby leading to an innovative approach for landslide mechanism analysis.


Background Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus) is a bacterial pathogen that causes severe intrauterine infections leading to fetal morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of GBS infection in this environment is poorly understood, in part because we lack a detailed understanding of the adaptation of this pathogen to growth in amniotic fluid. To address this knowledge deficit, we characterized the transcriptome of GBS grown in human amniotic fluid (AF) and compared it with the transcriptome in rich laboratory medium. Methods GBS was grown in Todd Hewitt-yeast extract medium and human AF. Bacteria were collected at mid-logarithmic, late-logarithmic and stationary growth phase. We performed global expression microarray analysis using a custom-made Affymetrix GeneChip. The normalized hybridization values derived from three biological replicates at each growth point were obtained. AF/THY transcript ratios representing greater than a 2-fold change and P-value exceeding 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Principal Findings We have discovered that GBS significantly remodels its transcriptome in response to exposure to human amniotic fluid. GBS grew rapidly in human AF and did not exhibit a global stress response. The majority of changes in GBS transcripts in AF compared to THY medium were related to genes mediating metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, and nucleotides. The majority of the observed changes in transcripts affects genes involved in basic bacterial metabolism and is connected to AF composition and nutritional requirements of the bacterium. Importantly, the response to growth in human AF included significant changes in transcripts of multiple virulence genes such as adhesins, capsule, and hemolysin and IL-8 proteinase what might have consequences for the outcome of host-pathogen interactions. Conclusions/Significance Our work provides extensive new information about how the transcriptome of GBS responds to growth in AF, and thus new leads for pathogenesis research.


The paper describes a versatile machine vision system for correcting off-line programmed nominal robot trajectories for advanced welding. Weld trajectory corrections are needed due to slight variations in weld joints. Such variations occur naturally because of varying tolerances in parts and to heat induced deformations during earlier weld sequences. The developed system uses one camera and a weld tool mounted on the robot hand. As a first step, the whole system, including the camera, is calibrated. Then the system takes images of the weld joint from different positions and orientations, and determines the weld joint geometry in 3D using a stereo vision algorithm and a novel camera model. The weld trajectory is then updated in the robot control system, and weld operation is performed. These steps are repeated for all weld sequences of the work piece. The strategy has successfully been demonstrated for a standard industrial welding robot and a standard Fire Wire CMOS camera. The maximum deviation of the trajectory found by the system compared to a reference (coordinate measuring machine) is 0.7 mm and the mean deviation is 0.23 mm. Thus, the system shows high potential for industrial implementation.


Objective : The aim of this study was to validate the well-recognized outcome measure instruments (Medical Outcome Study Short Form-SF-36, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index-WOMAC, McMaster Toronto Arthritis Patient Preference Disability Questionnaire -MACTAR) for patients who had undergone total knee arthroplasty in Iran, with its cultural and ethnic differences and compare them with the reports from other parts of the world. Methods: Sixty patients, 56 women and 4 men, who had undergone total knee arthroplasty by a single surgeon, were recruited for clinical evaluation and for filling out the questionnaires on 3 outcome instrument systems, namely SF-36, WOMAC and MACTAR. Two control groups consisting of 44 cases of similar age from general population with knee discomfort and susceptible to osteoarthritis as well as 26 patients scheduled for knee arthroplasty filled out the same questionnaires. Results : The health status measurement (SF-36), disease-specific outcome measure and patient preference arthritis scores all showed significant improvement in operated cases, in both short and long term follow-up groups. Certain aspects of function like socialization with others, attending religious ceremonies and similar activities, often requiring full knee bending and/or sitting on the carpeted floor, were the main reasons for dissatisfaction with the procedure. Conclusion : The knee arthroplasty increased quality of life, improved function and produced great satisfaction in the majority of cases in our society. This is, however, a viable option for people who could change their lifestyle and household and are able to make the adjustments mentally and financially.


The book consists of a collection of works on utilising the automatic identification technology provided by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to address the problems of global counterfeiting of goods. The book presents current research, directed to securing supply chains against the efforts of counterfeit operators, carried out at the Auto-ID Labs around the globe. The collection of works and the organisation of the book assume very little knowledge on the part of the reader on Networked RFID systems as the material provided in the introduction familiarises the reader with concepts, underlying principles and vulnerabilities of modern RFID systems. The collection of works presented on highlighting the counterfeiting problem and problems with existing low cost RFID technology is an important guide to practitioners, professionals and graduates in the area of RFID systems application, implementation and integration.


This chapter describes computational linguistic work which deals with phraseological units. This includes both computational support for human-use tools and resources in the field of phraseology, such as electronic learners' dictionaries, and work in natural language processing aimed at the automatic treatment of phraseological units, for example in the analysis of texts, or in machine translation. It points to a number of issues which have received attention from computational linguists, but space prevents a detailed account of them. The issues are grouped around the phenomena targeted (Section 2), questions of how to represent phraseological units in lexicons and corpora (Section 3), as well as methods for automatically identifying and/or classifying phraseological units in texts (Section 4). The chapter gives an overview of the current approaches in these fields and points to relevant literature.


Abstract There is a constant drive to increase machine speed in the production of kraftliner and most other major paper grades, but the separate effect of the machine speed on the paper properties has been unclear. The effect of machine speed in twin-wire roll forming of never-dried unbleached softwood kraft pulp was evaluated here in a pilot machine investigation by examining three machine speed levels (500, 750, and 1000 m/min) over a series of jet-to-wire speed differences. Similar headbox consistency and draw from wire section to winding were employed at the different machine speed levels. An increase in the machine speed had a favorable effect on formation and Z-strength efficiency over a wide range of jet-to-wire speed differences, whereas the machine speed had an insignificant effect on tensile strength efficiency and tensile stiffness efficiency. For all properties, the overall shape of the jet-to-wire speed difference curve remained similar when changing the machine speed.


Globalisation in the contemporary world has become a common catch phrase despite lack of consensus on this phenomenon. There are different ideological dispositions on this issue; that is, whether globalisation is good or bad and/or whether it leads to convergence or divergence. Other deficiencies in the globalisation concept are limited agreement on its causes and ramifications. Nonetheless, it is evident that the global economy has been accompanied by numerous changes in the world of work. The changes have included: liberalisation of markets; decrease of protectionism; the removal of other trade barriers, such as tariffs; disappearance of international boundaries; and an increase in trade among different countries. It has been suggested that the changes be accompanied with matching industrial relations institutions. In view of these factors, the paper evaluates contemporary changes that have taken place in the African context pursuant to the globalisation process. Finally, perceived potential ramifications of these developments on employment relationship are evaluated.


Cinema projectors need to compete with home theater displays in terms of image quality. High frame rate and spatial resolution as well as stereoscopic 3D are common features today, but even the most advanced cinema projectors lack in-scene contrast and, more important, high peak luminance, both of which are essential perceptual attributes of images appearing realistic. At the same time, HDR image statistics suggest that the average image intensity in a controlled ambient viewing environment such as the cinema can be as low as 1% for cinematic HDR content and not often higher than 18%, middle gray in photography. Traditional projection systems form images and colors by blocking the source light from a lamp, therefore attenuating between 99% and 82% of light, on average. This inefficient use of light poses significant challenges for achieving higher peak brightness levels. In this work, we propose a new projector architecture built around commercially available components, in which light can be steered to form images. The gain in system efficiency significantly reduces the total cost of ownership of a projector (fewer components and lower operating cost), and at the same time increases peak luminance and improves black level beyond what is practically achievable with incumbent projector technologies. At the heart of this computational display technology is a new projector hardware design using phase modulation in combination with a new optimization algorithm that is capable of on-the-fly computation of freeform lens surfaces.


Teacher agency is an important topic in educational research, but its theoretical observations have not filtered down into practical Vietnamese teaching contexts. The action research project described here showcases a training-based intervention for teacher educators in various disciplines at eight universities in Vietnam. The intervention aimed to develop teaching skills and increase knowledge for teacher educators by helping them explore their students' learning needs and facilitate their professional development. This study occurred within the context of changing Vietnamese political, cultural, economic, and social ways of being. Eight Vietnamese teacher educators of different cultural backgrounds, and working across a variety of subjects were invited to participate in the project. Two stages of research sought to help educators in higher education reflect on their exploration and perception of their teacher agency. The first stage involved training sessions that offered educators necessary knowledge and skills to exercise agency effectively. In the second stage, educators' promotion of their agency in classrooms was analytically observed. Data collected included observation notes, reflective journals, and recordings from semi-structured interviews. Analysis of this data suggested that educators became more knowledgeable, intercultural, and inspirational agents in their classrooms after the educational intervention. Educators exhibited that the more positive attitudes, the more active participation. Conclusions discussed the benefits of fostering teacher agency and how this can be facilitated through professional development.


Religion, Law, and the Present Water Crisis documents current and impending global water shortages and opposes policies of commodification and privatization of water ownership by multinational water corporations. On the basis of the religions of the world, Richard A. Hughes appeals to pure, running water as a symbol of the sacred. Furthermore, he argues that all bodies of freshwater are commons and that they should be protected by the public trust doctrine. In addition, he contends that there is a right to water and that this right is independent, free-standing, and the prerequisite of other human rights, applying to all states and occupied territories. The increasing acidification of the oceans makes it mandatory to protect them under the reserved water right doctrine and to designate them as «national parks» of the seas. More generally, this book presents a synthesis of water studies and encompasses the religions of the world, theologies of baptism, American water law doctrines, public trust doctrine with special attention to Islamic water law, and international water law treaties. Clean water is a necessity of life. Therefore, it is compelling to recognize the urgency of water scarcity and the need to guarantee the purity of and accessibility to water for all people.


U-shaped or channel-shaped walls are frequently used as lateral strength providing members in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings since their form does not only provide strength and stiffness in any horizontal direction but is also well suited to accommodate elevator shafts or staircases. Despite this popularity, experimental results on the seismic behavior of U-shaped walls are scarce. For this reason a research program with the objective to provide additional experimental evidence for such walls under seismic loading was developed. It included quasi-static cyclic testing of two U-shaped walls at the structural engineering laboratories of the ETH Zurich. The walls were built at half-scale and designed for high ductility. The main difference between the two walls was their wall thickness. The project was chiefly focusing on the bending behavior in different directions and therefore the walls were subjected to a bi-directional loading regime. This article discusses the design of the test units, the test setup and the test predictions. Finally the main results are summarized in terms of failure mechanisms and force-displacement hystereses.


THE consciousness that the far north is an area of great strategic importance to the United States is no longer limited to the small group of men who began to listen to Vilhjalmur Stefansson's gospel of the "northward course" more than twenty years ago. These men did not then pretend to be advancing thoughts which were entirely new. They aimed at a rebirth of the visions which led William Henry Seward to pur chase Alaska in the middle of the nineteenth century and made him wish to secure America's position in the North Atlantic through the purchase of Iceland and Greenland from Denmark. For a long time the concept of the American Far North had little effect on our foreign policy. But airmindedness has brought about a revival of Seward's ideas and has given them wide popularity and a new meaning. It is no longer necessary to deplore the lack of a national awareness of the north, but rather to warn against over-enthusiastic generalizations which threaten to cloud realities. The strategy of this war has accelerated the pace of Arctic prog ress, but there are certain barriers raised by nature against the development of this area; and political realities set limits to the possibilities of an American march northward. Iceland is today an outpost of our strategic system as a result of agreements which are clearly understood as having only temporary validity. There is no warrant for our looking upon her bastions as an automatic part of our permanent defense position. The relationship of Greenland with the United States creates a comparable situation there. What, then, are the specific condi tions in these zones with which our need for military security in the northern sector and for the development of commercial air transportation in the north must be harmonized ?


Do voters reward politicians for the quality of public services? We address this question by studying voters' responses to signals of municipal school quality in Brazil, a setting particularly favorable to electoral accountability. Findings from a regression discontinuity design and a field experiment are strikingly consistent. Contrary to expectations, signals of school quality decrease electoral support for the local incumbent. However, we find the expected effect among citizens for whom school quality should be most salient—parents with children in municipal schools. Using an online survey experiment, we argue that voters who do not value education interpret school quality as an indicator of municipal policy priorities and perceive trade-offs with other services. Voters may hold politicians accountable not only for their competence but also for their representation of potentially conflicting interests—a fact that complicates the simple logic behind many accountability interventions.


Farley was invited by the Director of World Stage Design 2013 and OISTAT (International Organisation for Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) to select and curate the 'World Stage Design' (WSD) Exhibition 2013. The output was co-authored with Reija Hirvikoski, Chair of OISTAT Performance Design and a member of OISTAT Governing Board and Aby Cohen, Founder-member of CenografiaBrasil and Vice President of OISTAT. 100 exhibitors were chosen from over 600 submissions from 57 countries. For the first time in the UK, WSD 2013 was an international exhibition of performance design, incorporating theatre, opera and dance. It consisted of a ten-day academic and professional practice event comprising talks, workshops and performances centred on the WSD Exhibition and was open to the public. The aim of World Stage Design 2013 was to offer an international platform to celebrate the multi-disciplinary nature of current performance practice and to examine the interface of performance design with new technologies, media, architecture, sustainability and fine art. International professional practitioners from all creative sectors worked alongside students and teachers to share knowledge and understanding of current practice on a global scale. This exhibition is a continuation of Farley's research into how Theatre Design practice can be exhibited, documented, archived and disseminated to theatre specialists, students and the general public. 'WSD' enabled Farley to extend this research, which sets out to reveal the working practices and conceptual processes of designers, to a global context. The educational events associated with World Stage Design drew on and interrogated the Design for Performance practice demonstrated in the exhibition. Farley's reflections, and those of the co-curators of WSD are published in the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition.


Elimination by aspects (EBA) is a probabilistic choice model describing how humans decide between several options. The options from which the choice is made are characterized by binary features and associated weights. For instance, when choosing which mobile phone to buy the features to consider may be: long lasting battery, color screen, etc. Existing methods for inferring the parameters of the model assume pre-specified features. However, the features that lead to the observed choices are not always known. Here, we present a non-parametric Bayesian model to infer the features of the options and the corresponding weights from choice data. We use the Indian buffet process (IBP) as a prior over the features. Inference using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) in conjugate IBP models has been previously described. The main contribution of this paper is an MCMC algorithm for the EBA model that can also be used in inference for other non-conjugate IBP models---this may broaden the use of IBP priors considerably.


Pornography is often compared to pollution. But little effort has been made to consider what it means to describe pornography as a pollution problem, even as many legal scholars have concluded that the law has failed to control internet pornography. Opponents of pornography maintain passionate convictions about how sexually-explicit materials harm both those who are exposed to them and the broader cultural environment. Viewers of pornography may generally hold less fervent beliefs, but champions of free speech and of a free internet object to anti-pornography regulations with strong convictions of their own. The challenge is how to address the widespread concern about pornography while recognizing the limits of government regulation. This article responds to the law's failures by framing pornography as a pollution problem. It begins by explaining how pornography is like pollution, and how it is not. It then considers the obstacles to relying on regulation to combat pornography, and conversely, the difficulty with simply instructing internet users to tolerate pornography. The goal of the article is to show how viewing pornography as a problem of pollution may assist in devising new ways of responding to the widespread concerns about internet pornography. Generally, environmental law seeks to prevent some pollution from occurring at all, controls other pollution so that does not enter the environment, facilitates the separation of pollution that does reach the environment from those it could harm, and tolerates the presence of some pollution. The experience of environmental law suggests that the victims of pollution should not be burdened with avoiding it, and that filtering and zoning strategies can play in a role in helping people avoid exposure to the effects that pornography has on the internet environment.


Behavioral performances of our legged robots are still far behind those of biological systems. Energy efficiency and locomotion velocity of our robots, for example, are orders of magnitude lower than those of animals, and in order to fill the gap, it requires a radically new approach in the design and control processes. From this perspective, we have been exploring a novel approach to design and control of legged robots which makes use of free vibration of elastic curved beams. We found that this approach not only simplifies the design and manufacturing processes of locomotion robots, but also substantially improves their energy efficiency, which is comparable to those of animals. In this paper, we explain the novelty and principles of this approach through the four representative case studies that we have been exploring, and discuss challenges and perspectives toward the future.


Abstract does not appear. First page follows.
 Introduction
 Originally, the main objective of the taxonomic project on Pseudococcidae was to describe and
 delineate new California species, and to comment, if necessary, on the systematic
 status of other named forms occurring in the state. It has been necessary, for obvious
 reasons, to consider species beyond the California boundaries. Even in the first study3 of this series it was desirable to recast and revise the key to North American genera
 of Pseudococcidae because of changes in the classificatory status of certain generic
 categories. This key also included two new genera described at that time, which further
 justified its alteration. In addition, keys to species of certain North American groups
 were modified to include the 28 new California segregates. The second study4 of this series presented the description of an additional 13 new California mealybugs,
 and, like the first publication, keys were altered to accept them.
 This study includes the descriptions of two new North American pseudococcid genera,
 one discovered in Arizona, the other in Texas. With the discovery of these two new
 genera, it seemed advisable once again to revise the generic key to North American
 Pseudococcidae; the key follows at the conclusion of this introduction. Sixteen new
 species of mealybugs are described from the following areas: 3 from Arizona, 3 from
 California, 4 from Mexico, 4 from Nevada, 1 from Peru, and 1 from Texas. Specific
 keys to certain of these groups, particularly where two or more new forms are involved,
 are amended to include the new North American species herein described. Since the
 new Puto described in this paper is South American in origin, no attempt was made to revise
 the key to North American components of this group. The number of new species for
 California described in the series of three studies now totals 44.


Paradoxides jemtlandicus Wiman, 1903, from strata near the boundary between the oelandicus Stage and the paradoxissimus Stage of the middle Cambrian in central Sweden, is redescribed using more complete specimens than were known hitherto. It is one of the earliest species of the genus Paradoxides sensu stricto, and though the form of the dorsal exoskeleton and the transverse shape of the hypostome are normal for the genus, compared with typical Paradoxides such as P. paradoxissimus it shows features that can be regarded as primitive. These features include the shape of the glabella, the lack of strong fusion of the rostrum with the hypostome, the acute inner spine angle of the librigena and the short pygidium; they are reminiscent of some species of Hydrocephalus.


Madhya Pradesh is home to sizeable proportion of Socio Economically Disadvantaged population of India. Human Development Index of the state is 0.375 which depicts poor socioeconomic conditions. Infant Mortality Rates in some of the areas of the state have been compared to the Sub-Saharan countries as per the World Bank Report titled "India: Achievement and Challenges in Reducing Poverty" It depicts a challenging situation and calls for massive Educational Upliftment of the people working in rural and tribal areas. Government of India has sincerely prioritized these issues through successive five year plans, however the situation on the ground leaves a lot to be desired. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have placed renewed emphasis on the capacity building of these communities. India Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) which is the biggest role player of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in India has a mandate to bring such disadvantaged groups in to fold of Higher Education. However it has been a challenging job from several points of views as most of the target groups requiring immediate attention are too vulnerable, poorly capacitated to adopt new practices and nearly cut off from the urban centred educational facilities. The areas inhabiting such communities have low penetration of Newspapers, TV or Radios and ODL systems with their paradigmatically different ways of teaching learning are yet to take roots in these areas. It has been a big challenge for IGNOU to reach out to such Disadvantaged Communities, sensitize them through suitable Confidence Building Measures and involve them in the ODL Programmes to strengthen their livelihoods. Despite various initiatives taken up by ministry and other institutions, there is a vacuum of information among the disadvantaged communities. It is now well realised and understood that capacity building systems for such target groups need to be radically different from "Business as Usual Approach". Authors of this paper have the experience of working for the Promotion, Monitoring and Supervision of ODL programmes in these areas. During 2012-13 a series of "Out of Box Approaches" were initiated by the authors for sensitising these communities. Results have been overwhelming with sizeable participation of people from disadvantaged communities. This paper highlights such new participatory approaches to sensitise the communities and results of such interventions. The paper has been divided in to Four Parts. Part-I describes the socio economic conditions of these areas and the constraints by the people in accessing information. Part-II describes the Confidence Building Measures like "Khula Manch" [Open Interactive Sessions with Community] initiated by the IGNOU Regional Centre Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and the response of the communities for such interventions. Part-III describes the initiatives taken by the Regional Centre to sensitise Slum Dwellers in Bhopal. This section also highlights Academic Support Services extended to Slum Dwellers in Slum Areas and the results of such interventions. Part –IV describes the experiences of joint initiatives with "Village Panchayats" in rural areas of District –Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh and lastly Part-V describes overall Conclusions and Recommendations. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5p538


Innovations in communications and information technology and the related globalization of financial markets have created the potential for important changes to the structure of Canadian equity markets. Established marketplaces can now compete more effectively on an inter-regional and international basis. At the same time, reduced costs have lowered the barriers to entry faced by new competitors known as alternative trading systems (ATSs). In response to this heightened competition, established Canadian stock exchanges have taken measures to improve market quality. While regulators see innovation as positive for the development of Canadian markets, there is some concern that market liquidity may be fragmented in the short run. The Canadian Securities Administrators have proposed a framework that attempts to address this issue and that would allow ATSs to compete with traditional exchanges for the first time. The authors provide an overview of the Canadian equity market and its structure, focusing on these recent developments.


Abstract Purpose: This article deals with the problem of forming Pareto non-optimal norms of mutual behavior of investors and government in the process of decision-making related to financing designed to reduce risks in investment activity. Methodology: Considering the interdependent type (nature) of interactions between related parties, game theory tools were used to model such interactions. Much attention was directed to search for parameters of interaction leading to certain Nash equilibriums in pure strategies. The formal results obtained with the model were verified by statistical analysis. Findings: Analysis showed that the rational behavior of related parties can lead to unexpected results. Powerful investors will aim to work in socially-oriented economies, whereas primarily small investors will operate in most liberal economies with a minimum tax burden but with a higher level of risk. As for governments' behaviors, the images are the same: small economies tend to liberalize their tax systems and to secure investment faster than powerful ones. Empirical verification based on statistical data of groups of countries generally confirmed the conclusions. These formal and logical conclusions were from statistical analysis of 124 countries divided into 5 groups: OECD countries, post-socialist countries, Latin American countries, APAC countries and ACP countries. Provided that the more powerful ones are covered economies, there was stronger interdependence between the size of economies and tax burden and also between total investment and tax burden, where this dependence is positive. Originality: The results obtained used Nash equilibriums in pure strategies as models of behavioral norms to define behaviors of related parties and also to explain assumptions concerning the behaviors of investors and government.


This paper finds the root of the difficulty of practically every group comprising the Philippine Left to predict the growing importance of the local struggle for democracy in their basic theoretical and analytical perspectives, which allowed for the identification of the main sources of power only outside of the political sphere. The Philippine Left did not believe that reformation of the organs of the state would create significantly better preconditions for democracy. Instead, they believe that the members of the dominating class holding genuine economic and political power need to be tackled head on. While many critics emphasized of the lack of democracy within the Philippine Left, and while some of them suggested alternative tactics that would include, for instance, participation in elections, no primary, long-term interest in the issues of democracy followed from any of the contending approaches.


A growing body of evidence has shown that incorporating behavioral economics principles into the design of financial incentive programs helps improve their cost-effectiveness, promote individuals» short-term engagement, and increase compliance in health behavior interventions. Yet, their effects on long-term engagement have not been fully examined. In study designs where repeated administration of incentives is required to ensure the regularity of behaviors, the effectiveness of subsequent incentives may decrease as a result of the law of diminishing marginal utility. In this paper, we introduce random-loss incentive -- a new financial incentive based on loss aversion and unpredictability principles -- to address the problem of individuals» growing insensitivity to repeated interventions over time. We evaluate the new incentive design by conducting a randomized controlled trial to measure the influences of random losses on participants» dietary self-tracking and self-reporting compliance using a mobile web application called Eat & Tell. The results show that random losses are significantly more effective than fixed losses in encouraging long-term engagement.


The 15N/14N and 18O/16O ratios of nitrate in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) (Summit, Greenland) ice core are much higher in ice from the last glacial period than in the pre‐industrial Holocene, despite the lack of a significant glacial/interglacial change in nitrate concentration. While both the 15N/14N and 18O/16O records are anticorrelated with snow accumulation rate, neither is satisfactorily explained by accumulation changes or post‐depositional processes. The similarity in the glacial/interglacial change in 15N/14N from several different Greenland ice cores and the large amplitude of this change relative to observed seasonal variation raise the possibility that the isotopes of nitrate in ice cores indicate a large‐scale glacial/interglacial change in the isotopic composition of atmospheric NOx. The glacial/interglacial change in 18O/16O is best explained by a greater contribution of HNO3 production from hydrolysis of N2O5, which has implications for reconstruction of past atmospheric oxidant levels. Although isotope effects associated with NOx photochemistry and nitrate scavenging have not been fully characterized, the 15N/14N data may indicate glacial/interglacial changes in the relative contributions from different natural sources of NOx on a hemispheric or global scale.


This paper describes the materials properties of galvanised fencing wire, as used in the fabrication of knotted wire fences. A range of physical properties are investigated: tensile strength, ductility in tension, Young's modulus, three-point bending, and bending span. A range of commercially available wire products were tested. The results show that most, but not all, high tensile wire samples met the minimum tensile and ductility requirements. Young's modulus results failed to provide any meaningful insights into wire quality. Flexural modulus results also failed to provide any insight into wire quality issues, with no statistically significant differences existing between acceptable and problematic wire batches. The implications are that premature fence failures are unlikely to be caused solely by reduced tensile properties. Existing test methods, including tensile strength and ductility, are somewhat incomplete, perhaps even unreliable, as measures of wire quality.