This dissertation explores the implications of non-volatile memory (NVM) for database management systems (DBMSs). The advent of NVM will fundamentally change the dichotomy between volatile memory and durable storage in DBMSs. These new NVM devices are almost as fast as DRAM, but all writes to it are potentially persistent even after power loss. Existing DBMSs are unable to take full advantage of this technology because their internal architectures are predicated on the assumption that memory is volatile. With NVM, many of the components of legacy DBMSs are unnecessary andwill degrade the performance of the data intensive applications. We present the design and implementation of a new DBMS tailored specifically for NVM. The dissertation focuses on three aspects of a DBMS: (1) logging and recovery, (2) storage management, and (3) indexing. Our primary contribution in this dissertation is the design of a new logging and recovery protocol, called write-behind logging, that improves the availability of the system bymore than two orders of magnitude compared to the ubiquitous write-ahead logging protocol. Besides improving availability, we demonstrate that write-behind logging extends the lifetime and increases the the space utilization of the NVM device. Second, we propose a new storage engine architecture that leverages the durability and byte-addressability properties of NVM to avoid unnecessary data duplication. Third, the dissertation presents the design of a range index tailored for NVM that supports near-instantaneous recovery without requiring specialpurpose recovery code.


Although lizards are more diverse in arid environments, many lizard taxa have independently invaded aquatic habitats. Adaptations in aquatic lizards are often straightforward (e.g., dorsolaterally compressed tails facilitate swimming), but what made these species invade aquatic habitats in the first place? Although this question is not directly testable, one possible reason is to reduce predation risk. Here we examine the fit of a species' antipredator behaviors to the predation risk associated with its known and suspected predators. We reviewed the literature for records of predation on the Australian Water Dragon, Physignathus lesueurii, a semi-aquatic lizard that uses aquatic escape and aquatic sleeping, but does not forage underwater. We then examined these two behaviors in relation to the patterns of predation revealed by our review. Our review identified 25 species of predators, most of which were aerial (mainly raptors) or terrestrial/arboreal (snakes, lizards, and mammals). Aquatic predators were rare. Our review supports the hypothesis that Water Dragons invaded and persist in aquatic habitats to decrease predation risk from terrestrial and aerial predators, although we cannot rule out the exploitation of an abundance of available (riparian) food as the primary reason for invading aquatic habitats. Future studies should test how well Water Dragons can thermoregulate by sleeping underwater (vs. in air), and could test the antipredator responses of Water Dragons to mock predators.


Many real-life problems such as distributed meeting scheduling, mobile frequency allocation and resource allocation can be solved using multi-agent paradigms. Distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DisCSPs) is a framework for describing such problems in terms of related subproblems, called a complex local problem (CLP), which are dispersed over a number of locations, each with its own constraints on the values their variables can take. An agent knows the variables in its CLP plus the variables (and their current value) which are directly related to one of its own variables and the constraints relating them. It knows little about the rest of the problem. Thus, each CLP is solved by an agent which cooperates with other agents to solve the overall problem. Algorithms for solving DisCSPs can be classified as either systematic or local search with the former being complete and the latter incomplete. The algorithms generally assume that each agent has only one variable as they can solve DisCSP with CLPs using "virtual" agents. However, in large DisCSPs where it is appropriate to trade completeness off against timeliness, systematic search algorithms can be expensive when compared to local search algorithms which generally converge quicker to a solution (if a solution is found) when compared to systematic algorithms. A major drawback of local search algorithms is getting stuck at local optima. Significant researches have focused on heuristics which can be used in an attempt to either escape or avoid local optima. This thesis makes significant contributions to local search algorithms for DisCSPs. Firstly, we present a novel combination of heuristics in DynAPP (Dynamic Agent Prioritisation with Penalties), which is a distributed synchronous local search algorithm for solving DisCSPs having one variable per agent. DynAPP combines penalties on values and dynamic agent prioritisation heuristics to escape local optima. Secondly, we develop a divide and conquer approach that handles DisCSP with CLPs by exploiting the structure of the problem. The divide and conquer approach prioritises the finding of variable instantiations which satisfy the constraints between agents which are often more expensive to satisfy when compared to constraints within an agent. The approach also exploits concurrency and combines the following search strategies: (i) both systematic and local searches; (ii) both centralised and distributed searches; and (iii) a modified compilation strategy. We also present an algorithm that implements the divide and conquer approach in Multi-DCA (Divide and Conquer Algorithm for Agents with CLPs). DynAPP and Multi-DCA were evaluated on several benchmark problems and compared to the leading algorithms for DisCSPs and DisCSPs with CLPs respectively. The results show that at the region of difficult problems, combining search heuristics and exploiting problem structure in distributed constraint satisfaction achieve significant benefits (i.e. generally used less computational time and communication costs) over existing competing methods.


This study examines the role of management practices in the internationalisation of domestic firms through directly exporting and/or supplying to local affiliates of multinationals. An original survey of manufacturing firms in Viet Nam was conducted, investigating their management practices such as human resource management and internationalisation status. The survey results shed light on similarities and dissimilarities among firms in several dimensions of management practices. Findings reveal that internationalised firms tended to be more enthusiastic about the formal training of production workers, the modernisation of production and operation, and product and process innovation. Differences in skills and experience requirements for newly employed managers were less recognisable, but internationalised firms tended to have managers who studied overseas. Furthermore, the use of public support to employee training, teamwork in production, and unionisation of employees did not show a significant difference between internationalised and non-internationalised firms.


Many government telecommunications needs, especially those that support National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) missions, are becoming increasingly dependent on commercially available equipment and services. This is consistent with the goals and concepts of the National Information Infrastructure. This report examines the use of an advanced satellite–in this case, NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS)–with ISDN and frame relay protocols to support NS/EP communications requirements. A network using three ACTS Earth stations was established as a research facility. With this small network, several experiments were performed. Using new objective methods, voice quality was measured over the satellite and compared to other connections such as commercial, terrestrial lines. The performance of applications–desktop conferencing, file transfer, and LAN bridging–that are likely to be useful in NS/EP situations, was determined. The performance of TCP/IP running over frame relay was examined. The results indicate that advanced satellites can be very useful for emergency communications due to the rapidity that Earth stations can be deployed, the ease of reconfiguring the satellite, and the practicality of using commonly available applications running over commonly used protocols. However, there are some limitations to the performance of some applications or parts of applications due to the propagation delay of a satellite channel. Telecommunications protocols such as TCP/IP must be significantly modified to perform well over a satellite channel and to take full advantage of bandwidth–on–demand capabilities of an advanced satellite.


On May 20, 2012, at 02:03 UTC, a moderate earthquake of local magnitude, Ml 5.9 started a seismic sequence in the central Po Plain of northern Italy The mainshock occurred in an area where seismicity of comparable magnitude has neither been recorded nor reported in the historical record over the last 1,000 years. The aftershock sequence evolved rapidly near the epicenter, with diminishing magnitudes until May 29, 2012, when at 07:00 UTC a large earthquake of Ml 5.8 occurred 12 km WSW of the mainshock, starting a new seismic sequence in the western area; a total of seven earthquakes with Ml >5 occurred in the area between May 20 and June 3, 2012. Immediately after the mainshock, the Italian Department of Civil Protection requested the Italian Space Agency to activate the Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) to provide Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) coverage of the area. COSMO-SkyMed consists of four satellites in a 16-day repeat-pass cycle, with each carrying the same SAR payload. In the current orbital configuration, within each 16-day cycle, image pairs with temporal baselines of 1, 3, 4 and 8 days can be formed from the images acquired by the four different sensors. Combined with the availability of a wide range of electronically steered antenna beams with incidence angles ranging from about 16˚ to 50˚ at near-range, this capability allows trade-offs between temporal and spatial coverage to be exploited during acquisition planning. A joint team involving the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and the Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell'Ambiente (IREA-CNR) was activated to generate InSAR-based scientific products to support the emergency management. In this framework, the ASI and DPC requested that INGV activated the Space-based Monitoring System for Seismic Risk Management (SIGRIS). SIGRIS consists of a hardware/software infrastructure that is designed to provide the DPC with value-added information products in the different phases of the seismic cycle. During earthquake emergencies, its goal is to rapidly provide decision-support products, such as validated ground-displacement maps and seismic source models. This study reports the details of the activation of the SIGRIS system in the case of the Emilia sequence. It provides a description of the COSMO-SkyMed datasets and processing procedures, as well as selected interferometric results for the coseismic and post-seismic ground deformation. […]


We examined the influence of food availability and population density on the morphometry and shell length body mass relationship of Mytilus edulis. Mussels were reared in the laboratory for 22 mo at 8 different density levels in 11 chambers supplied with natural seston at 2 different concentrations. This allowed us to assess separately the effects of food availability and mussel density. The shell length/width and shell height/width ratios were affected by food, density and time. Mussels tended to be narrower (flatter) at high density and at low food level. Therefore, narrow shells could result from reduced food concentration in high density situations without implying physical interference. Shell mass was also influenced by both food and density levels, but to a lesser extent than tissue dry mass. In contrast with soft tissue mass, shell mass increased significantly for all food and density levels between October 1995 and October 1996, The elevation of the shell length-body mass-population density relationship was lower at low food availability, The slope of the tridimensional relationship, however, increased with decreasing food level, indicating apparent asymmetric competition for all food-density treatments pooled together, This pattern, however, is misleading because mussels obviously cannot interact among chambers. Since the slopes of length mass relationships are used in predicting self-thinning exponents in space-regulated situations, it follows that self-thinning exponents in mussels should be sensitive to background food level, thus limiting the use of self-thinning relationships for resolving factors regulating growth.


The first 18 months of Vladimir Putin's presidency turned out to be a period of unprecedented activity in Russian-Ukrainian relations. A number of problems were seriously approached, among these the issue of Ukrainian gas debts. At the same time, it remains unclear whether the new cooperative dynamics will prevail or whether the conflictual legacy of the 1990s will become an insurmountable impediment to further improvement. This article attempts to analyse the factors which determined the ongoing evolution in Russian-Ukrainian relations in order to demonstrate that the positive dynamics had to do with changes in the views of the Russian leadership and in the export strategies of Russia's big businesses, as well as the evolution of Ukraine's posture vis-à-vis Europe, rather than with the internal political situation in Ukraine in 2001. The article also examines the main remaining controversies between the two countries in the economic and humanitarian spheres and offers a view on whether reciprocally pragmatic approaches are possible.


Abstract Background and purpose: The purpose is to investigate whether regular and temporary staff differ in their perceptions of preconditions for learning and if there are some qualitative aspects that can be considered particularly significant in these differences. Design/Methodology/Approach: The approach consists of a case study based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online questionnaire and individual interviews. Results: The paper question the understanding of the organization as a singular and more or less cohesive unit. On an organizational level, the project owner who hires staff does not care for competence transfer between regulars and temps, or between different groups of staff. At the individual level, temps are more focused on their specific task compared to regulars. Regulars' seems to safeguarding a community or an organizational perspective, while temps are looking for their own good. Conclusions: There is a risk that one social unit differs, in attention payed to preconditions for learning, from another, when an organization use temporary staff. Therefore, the scientific value of this paper is that using temps may result in or be a consequence of a fragmented organization. The findings show no competence transfer in projects with both temps and regulars, and the project owner takes no active responsibility for human resource planning in terms of competence transfer between different groups of staff. The implications underline that long-term efficiency and rationality in an organization does not always have priority over organizational affiliation even with the hiring of expertise. When this happens, it may lead to a fragmented personnel group that is divided in thinkers/organizers and, performers/doers. When this happens, important practical skills fall outside of the organization, which in a metaphorical sense means that the hand is separated from the brain. Therefore, organizations with temporary staff need to plan for how to enable competence transfer between temporary and regular staff.


This multidisciplinary collection explores three key concepts underpinning psychiatry-explanation, phenomenology, and nosology-and their continuing relevance in an age of neuroimaging and genetic analysis. An introduction by Kenneth S. Kendler lays out the philosophical grounding of psychiatric practice. The first section addresses the concept of explanation, from the difficulties in describing complex behavior to the categorization of psychological and biological causality. In the second section, contributors discuss experience, including the complex and vexing issue of how self-agency and free will affect mental health. The third and final section examines the organizational difficulties in psychiatric nosology and the instability of the existing diagnostic system. Each chapter has both an introduction by the editors and a concluding comment by another of the book's contributors. Contributors: John Campbell, Ph.D.; Thomas Fuchs, M.D., Ph.D.; Shaun Gallagher, Ph.D.; Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D.; Sandra D. Mitchell, Ph.D.; Dominic P. Murphy, Ph.D.; Josef Parnas, M.D., Dr.Med.Sci.; Louis A. Sass, Ph.D.; Kenneth F. Schaffner, M.D., Ph.D.; James F. Woodward, Ph.D.; Peter Zachar, Ph.D.


For floating bridge construction, the transition span from shore to the floating portion of the structure is subject to longitudinal movement in combination with horizontal and vertical rotation. These large movements pose special problems for the expansion joint system at both ends of the transition span. The expansion joint system selected for these conditions must accommodate the wide range of movements involved and remain watertight, corrosion free, durable, require little or no maintenance, and have a useful life of 25 to 30 years. The purpose of this experimental project is to gain knowledge about the effectiveness of the modular expansion joint system over time and to obtain knowledge about field installation techniques and structural performance. Due to weld cracking in similar expansion joints used in the existing SR 90 Third Lake Floating Bridge, it was deemed prudent to require a five-year warranty on the expansion joints on this project. The state will monitor the performance during the warranty period. The evaluation of warranty provisions for these expansion joint systems has been FHWA approved as Special Experimental Project No. 14. This experimental project is a part of FHWA's program of encouraging innovative concepts in contracting procedures.


Homogeneous surface is usually assumed in aerosol retrieval for the dark target method. Retrieved aerosol optical depth can thus be overestimated. This error will also be propagated into retrieved surface reflectance during atmospheric correction, especially for high spatial resolution of 8 m for FORMOSAT-2 (also known as ROCSAT-2) RSI. The error in retrieved surface reflectance during atmospheric corrections induced by retrieved aerosol optical depth error due to adjacency effect over a dark target is studied in the green and red bands of FORMOSAT-2 RSI. The results show that significant errors in retrieved surface reflectance, i.e., larger than 0.01, may occur in most cases except at low contrast for a bright target. Such an error for a dark target is larger than that for a bright target for given contrast and haziness. Relatively, the error of retrieved surface reflectance is enhanced by the introduced error of aerosol optical depth in atmospheric correction for dark targets. The error can be larger than 35% for dark targets and less than 10% for bright targets. Hence, it is suggested that adjacency effect be considered from aerosol optical depth retrieval to surface reflectance retrieval in atmospheric correction except at low contrast for bright targets.


Abstract Objectives To determine whether incidence rates of cancer are higher in UK service personnel who were deployed in the Gulf war than in those not deployed and whether any increased risk of cancer is related to self reported exposures to potentially hazardous material during the period of deployment. Design A cohort study with follow up from 1 April 1991 (the end of the Gulf war) to 31 July 2002. Participants 51 721 Gulf war veterans and 50 755 service personnel matched for age, sex, rank, service, and level of fitness who were not deployed in the Gulf (the Era cohort). Main outcome measures Incident cancers, identified on the NHS central register. Results There were 270 incident cancers among the Gulf cohort and 269 among the Era cohort (incidence rate ratio 0.99, 95% confidence interval 0.83 to 1.17). There was no excess in site specific cancers among the Gulf cohort. Adjustment for lifestyle factors (smoking and alcohol consumption) did not alter these results. In the Gulf cohort, risk of cancer was not related to multiple vaccinations or exposure to pesticides or depleted uranium during deployment. Conclusion There is no current excess risk of cancer overall nor of site specific cancers in Gulf war veterans. Specific exposures during deployment have not resulted in a subsequent increased risk of cancer. The long latent period for cancer, however, necessitates the continued follow up of these cohorts.


Identifying similar professionals is an important task for many core services in professional social networks. Information about users can be obtained from heterogeneous information sources, and different sources provide different insights on user similarity. This paper proposes a discriminative probabilistic model that identifies latent content and graph classes for people with similar profile content and social graph similarity patterns, and learns a specialized similarity model for each latent class. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on identifying similar professionals in professional social networks, and the first work that identifies latent classes to learn a separate similarity model for each latent class. Experiments on a real-world dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed discriminative learning model.


Over the past half century, the SEC's regulations have become key determinants of the way in which stocks trade and the fees that exchanges charge for their services. The current equity market structure rules are contained primarily in the SEC's Regulation NMS. The theory behind Regulation NMS is that a system of dispersed markets operating pursuant to SEC-mandated information and order routing links will provide the benefits of consolidation and competition simultaneously.

This paper argues that Regulation NMS has failed in that quest. It has produced fragmented markets and created questionable incentives for market participants, possibly producing socially excessive investments in speed and secrecy. It discourages exchange innovation, provides insufficient incentives for traders to price orders aggressively, requires brokers to act against their customers' interests, and forces the SEC to act as a price regulator.

The paper contends that the SEC should replace Regulation NMS with three simple design principles—issuer choice, exchange autonomy, and regulatory consistency. These would allow market forces rather than regulatory mandates to determine the design and pricing of trading platforms and the trading strategies of broker-dealers. They would better align the private incentives of trading platforms with the social objectives of improving liquidity and price discovery.


Although multi-responsive materials have the potential to revolutionize a wide spectrum of technologies, the design of systems that combine a range of responses to a variety of different external changes without the associated property trade-offs has remained elusive. We herein demonstrate a new family of multi-responsive nanocomposites that leverage the dynamic and reversible nature of electrostatic interactions present in ionic systems with the reinforcement ability of nanoparticles in nanocomposites. This new design leads to a unique property profile that combines simultaneous improvements in stiffness, toughness and extensibility. In addition to their exceptional stretchability, the new, ionic nanocomposites exhibit unique strain-dependent behavior (i.e. the deformation increases with increasing strain rates) and return to the normal state after deformation including shape-memory and scratch recovery.


The present study examined how species-specific attributes of the invasive alga Codium fragile ssp. fragile (hereafter Codium) and eelgrass Zostera marina influenced faunal assemblages associated with eelgrass ecosystems in iles de la Madeleine, eastern Canada. Direct association of species with Codium (<1 m) was evaluated and compared to eelgrass faunal assemblages from invaded beds. Potential neighborhood effects (ca. 10 m) were assessed by comparing invertebrates associated with eelgrass in invaded and non-invaded beds. The influence of Codium on more mobile species was evaluated by comparing fish assemblages associated with macrophytes in invaded and non-invaded beds. In addition, species-area relationships for low mobility species associated with Codium were contrasted between beds where Codium or eelgrass was the dominant structuring macrophyte. Codium had distinct invertebrate species assemblages, as there was a greater abun- dance and diversity of invertebrates associated with Codium than with eelgrass, and multivariate assemblage structure differed between macrophyte types. In contrast, no neighborhood patterns were observed as invertebrate assemblages associated with eelgrass did not differ between invaded and non-invaded beds, suggesting that the mechanisms that account for differences between the invertebrate assemblages are a function of the macrophyte's nature and operate at small spatial scales. Fish community structure differed between invaded and non-invaded beds, largely due to a greater abundance of 2 fishes, Apeltes quadracus and Tautogolabrus adspersus, in invaded beds. Epifaunal abundance and species richness were positively correlated with Codium thallus biomass, and the abundance relative to biomass correlation was greatest where Codium was the dominant macrophyte. Experimental manipulation of thallus structure to create straight or branched Codium fronds with similar surface area showed that associated invertebrate and gastropod abundance was not influenced by this factor and indicated that factors other than macrostructure complexity influ- enced the presence of epifauna on the introduced alga. Overall, the present study suggests that the invasion of eelgrass beds by Codium increases faunal density and diversity. However, longer-term effects of Codium invasion in this and other eelgrass ecosystems require further assessment, as the severity of the invasion effects on faunal communities likely depends on the interaction between Codium and eelgrass.


The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in 1992 approximately 4.5% of all high school students dropped out of grades 10 through 12, and 11% of all persons in the age group 16 through 24 had not completed high school and were not currently enrolled. The Communities in Schools (CIS) network is a web of local, state, and national partnerships that work together to fight the dropout problem and to bring the basics every child needs to at-risk youth. Most CIS programs take place inside traditional schools, but some are delivered through a CIS academy, a free-standing facility that is sponsored largely by an individual organization. The CIS classroom model allows students to sign up for the program as an elective class, while the academy model is organized as an alternative school. The Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of CIS from 1991 through early 1994, tracking 594 CIS enrollees and evaluating the CIS programs as they existed 5 years earlier. The evaluation found that CIS had effectively promoted its model of social service delivery and had provided leadership that led to the expansion of CIS from 26 programs in 128 school sites to 93 programs with 612 schools by the end of 1993. High proportions of CIS students remained in school or graduated. The majority of students interviewed believed that participation has helped them. Five other programs that work with high-risk students are profiled, and the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network is described. Local, state, and federal agencies, through programs like these, are making strides to keep youth in school and support them through graduation and beyond. (Contains eight references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention


INTRODUCTION
In spite of significant changes in the management policies of intersexuality, clinical evidence show that not all pubertal or adult individuals live according to the assigned sex during infancy.

AIM
The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical management of an individual diagnosed as a female pseudohermaphrodite with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) simple virilizing form four decades ago but who currently lives as a monogamous heterosexual male.

METHODS
We studied the clinical files spanning from 1965 to 1991 of an intersex individual. In addition, we conducted a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of the abdominoplevic cavity and a series of interviews using the oral history method.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Our analysis is based on the clinical evidence that led to the CAH diagnosis in the 1960s in light of recent clinical testing to confirm such diagnosis.

RESULTS
Analysis of reported values for 17-ketosteroids, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, from 24-hour urine samples during an 8-year period showed poor adrenal suppression in spite of adherence to treatment. A recent MRI study confirmed the presence of hyperplastic adrenal glands as well as the presence of a prepubertal uterus. Semistructured interviews with the individual confirmed a life history consistent with a male gender identity.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that XX intersex individuals with CAH should be assigned to the female sex, this practice harms some individuals as they may self-identify as males. In the absence of comorbid psychiatric factors, the discrepancy between infant sex assignment and gender identity later in life underlines the need for a reexamination of current standards of care for individuals diagnosed with CAH.


Analysis of contemporary accounts indicates that several small to moderate central California earthquakes preceded the great 1857 earthquake by 1 to 9 hr. The earliest events apparently were felt only in the San Francisco area or the Sacramento and Sierran Foothills region. Two later and much more widely felt foreshocks were experienced within the region bounded by San Francisco, Visalia, Fort Tejon, and Santa Barbara. A comparison with felt areas and intensity distributions of modern events of known source and magnitude indicates that these later two shocks were 5 ≦M ≲ 6 and probably originated at some point within an area of radius ≈60 km that includes the southeastern 100 km of the historically creeping segment of the San Andreas fault. The northwestern terminus of the 1857 rupture is probably located along this segment.

If the location of these foreshocks is indicative of the epicenter of the main event, then the several-hundred-kilometer main-event rupture propagated principally in a unilateral fashion toward the southeast. This implies that, like many great earthquakes, the 1857 rupture originated on a fault segment historically characterized by moderate activity and propagated into an historically quiet segment.

There is a strong possibility that the foreshock activity represents a moderate Parkfield-Cholame sequence similar to those of 1901, 1922, 1934, and 1966. To the extent that such premonitory activity is characteristic of the failure of the 1857 segment of the fault, studies of the creeping segment of the fault may be relevant to the prediction of large earthquakes in central and southern California.


The RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 signature algorithm is the most widely used digital signature scheme in practice. Its two main strengths are its extreme simplicity, which makes it very easy to implement, and that verification of signatures is significantly faster than for DSA or ECDSA. Despite the huge practical importance of RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures, providing formal evidence for their security based on plausible cryptographic hardness assumptions has turned out to be very difficult. Therefore the most recent version of PKCS#1 (RFC 8017) even recommends a replacement the more complex and less efficient scheme RSA-PSS, as it is provably secure and therefore considered more robust. The main obstacle is that RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures use a deterministic padding scheme, which makes standard proof techniques not applicable. We introduce a new technique that enables the first security proof for RSA-PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures. We prove full existential unforgeability against adaptive chosen-message attacks (EUF-CMA) under the standard RSA assumption. Furthermore, we give a tight proof under the Phi-Hiding assumption. These proofs are in the random oracle model and the parameters deviate slightly from the standard use, because we require a larger output length of the hash function. However, we also show how RSA-PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures can be instantiated in practice such that our security proofs apply. In order to draw a more complete picture of the precise security of RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures, we also give security proofs in the standard model, but with respect to weaker attacker models (key-only attacks) and based on known complexity assumptions. The main conclusion of our work is that from a provable security perspective RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 can be safely used, if the output length of the hash function is chosen appropriately.


Background Periodontitis is reported to be associated with preterm birth (spontaneous preterm labor and birth). Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is common during pregnancy and is expected to be related to periodontitis. However, little research has been done on the association among preterm birth, GERD and periodontitis. This study uses popular machine learning methods for analyzing preterm birth, GERD and periodontitis. Methods Data came from Anam Hospital in Seoul, Korea, with 731 obstetric patients during January 5, 1995 - August 28, 2018. Six machine learning methods were applied and compared for the prediction of preterm birth. Variable importance, the effect of a variable on model performance, was used for identifying major determinants of preterm birth. Results In terms of accuracy, the random forest (0.8681) was similar with logistic regression (0.8736). Based on variable importance from the random forest, major determinants of preterm birth are delivery and pregestational body mass indexes (BMI) (0.1426 and 0.1215), age (0.1211), parity (0.0868), predelivery systolic and diastolic blood pressure (0.0809 and 0.0763), twin (0.0476), education (0.0332) as well as infant sex (0.0331), prior preterm birth (0.0290), progesterone medication history (0.0279), upper gastrointestinal tract symptom (0.0274), GERD (0.0242), Helicobacter pylori (0.0151), region (0.0139), calcium-channel-blocker medication history (0.0135) and gestational diabetes mellitus (0.0130). Periodontitis ranked 22nd (0.0084). Conclusion GERD is more important than periodontitis for predicting and preventing preterm birth. For preventing preterm birth, preventive measures for hypertension, GERD and diabetes mellitus would be needed alongside the promotion of effective BMI management and appropriate progesterone and calcium-channel-blocker medications.


Although the First Amendment explicitly protects individuals only against laws made by "Congress," the Supreme Court has long held that, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the states are forbidden from "depriving" persons of the fundamental individual liberties protected by the First Amendment. Thus, under the so-called doctrine of incorporation, a particular provision of the First Amendment (as well as of the rest of the Bill of Rights) "is made applicable to the states [only] if the Justices are of the opinion that it was meant to protect a fundamental aspect of liberty.'"Sadly, however, in the landmark decision of Everson v. Board of Education, rather than incorporating a fundamental individual liberty under the Establishment Clause, Justice Black and the Supreme Court instead incorporated an extra-constitutional metaphor with a very tainted historical pedigree. Sometimes the Court even applies the metaphorical "Wall of Separation Between Church and State" in ways that actually restrict, rather than protect, liberty. Remarkably, in one class of cases the Court has gone so far as to interpret the Establishment Clause as requiring it to act as a judicial censor issuing heckler's vetoes, judicial decrees which grant one group of citizens the power to deprive another group of citizens of an opportunity to view and enjoy a state-sponsored display or memorial in a public park or building. The purpose of this article is to search for liberty under the incorporated Establishment Clause and to seek to discern when liberty is advanced and when it is restricted by Supreme Court decisions concerning passive displays and monuments erected by state government as part of a pluralistic public culture.


Student-recruited sampling (SRS), which typically involves students soliciting participants from predetermined populations to assist in data collection, has become an increasingly common and important research design feature. As evidence, many of the top occupational science journals have published studies with SRS as an important research component in recent years. Supportive evidence notwithstanding, SRS has been subjected to considerable consternation – Arguments that often have taken a one-sided, and highly pejorative, tone. Wheeler, Shanine, Leon, and Whitman's (2013, J. Occup. Organ. Psychol.) recent meta-analysis, which compared data from SRS and non-SRS contexts, challenged the legitimacy of these claims. Findings opposed the persistent 'non-representativeness' criticism documenting comparable effect sizes for politics perceptions and engagement across designs. In this commentary, I briefly discuss implications of their findings and then offer my opinions regarding the use of SRS as informed by the last decade of personal involvement.


Field trials were conducted at the research farm of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike (07° 33΄ E, 05° 29΄ N) in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 cropping seasons to determine the effect of cowpea planting density on growth, yield and productivity of component crops in cowpea/cassava intercropping system. Cassava at a density of 10,000 plants per hectare was intercropped with cowpea at four planting densities (20,000; 40,000; 60,000 and 80,000 plants per hectare). Both crops were also planted in monoculture and in intercrop. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The leaf area index (LAI) of cassava was highest with the highest cowpea planting density in 2005/2006, but in 2004/2005 cropping season both cropping system and planting density did not influence the LAI of cowpea. Cowpea LAI was similar in the 2 seasons with the highest planting density (80,000 plants/ha) producing the highest LAI. Similarly, fresh root yield (t/ha) of cassava was influenced by cropping system and population density in 2005/2006, but not in 2004/2005 cropping season. Cassava tuber yield was highest with the cowpea planting density of 80,000 plants/ha. Cowpea grain yield (kg/ha) was not significantly (P>0.05) affected by intercropping in the two cropping season. Grain yield of cowpea was highest with the highest cowpea density in 2005/2006 but in 2004/2005 season, there was no cowpea density effect. The relative yield total, expressed as land equivalent ratio of the two crops was greater than 1.0 in all intercrops. At the prevailing market price level (N 7.50 per kg for cassava and N 33 per kg for cowpea), cassava intercropped with 80,000 cowpea plants/ha gave a higher monetary returns than when intercropped with other population densities of cowpea or in monoculture of the two crops. Similarly, cowpea at highest population density gave the highest monetary returns. Agro-Science Vol. 7 (2) 2008: pp. 106-113


The Baker Institute's Presidential Elections Program held its inaugural conference, "Social Media, Changing Demographics and Implications of the 2016 Presidential Election," in March 2018. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions of the more than two dozen individuals who participated in the conference's four thematic panels as well as a lunch conversation featuring veteran political consultants David Axelrod and Karl Rove, who served as the conference's honorary directors. The event was part of the 25th anniversary commemorative programs featuring the centers and research of Rice University's Baker Institute.


It has been shown that in vivo glucose level changes affect the dielectric characteristics of the skin and underlying tissue, which can be measured non-invasively by impedance spectroscopy (IS). For a successful implementation of such an impedance sensor it is necessary that the sensor, when placed in contact with human skin, has a sufficient field penetration depth so that it is not only sensitive to changes in the dielectric properties of the upper skin layer, but also has a higher sensitivity to changes in the deeper skin layers. This is due to the fact that the upper layers of the skin are poorly vascularised, therefore their dielectric properties have a low sensitivity to changes associated with blood and intravascular fluids. A simplified model of the human skin and underlying tissue has been developed using electromagnetic field finite element simulations. This model can be used to optimise the electrode design of the impedance sensor. Initially, the applicability of the simulation concepts has been tested by comparing simulations with measurements of reference materials using sensors of various sizes. Subsequently, simulations of the skin model are compared with measurements on human subjects using two experimental procedures. In the first procedure, the blood perfusion of the deeper skin layers is changed by the restriction of the blood outflow (using a pressure cuff). It is shown that the sensitivity to these changes is larger with the sensor with the deeper field penetration, in agreement with simulation results. Similar sensors are then used in a second procedure where the blood glucose concentration is changed. The largest sensitivity to this glucose change is again obtained with the sensor that has the deepest field penetration. Future work will concentrate on quantifying perturbing factors, their effects on the different electrode geometries and the differences between various skin types.


This article examined the ecological and population validity of research on reading interventions for adolescents in Grades 6 through 12. The 26 studies meeting selection criteria were analyzed to determine the characteristics of the students, interventionists, classroom structures, and school environments used, as well as whether there were differential effects of treatments across those characteristics. In the 20+ years since the calls by the Council for Learning Disabilities and National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities for greater specificity in descriptions of study participants and contexts, the findings of this study suggest that researchers have provided greater detail on participants, but many questions remain about the extent to which findings can be generalized. Specifically, gaps in the research exist with regard to African American and Native American students; English language learners; students in suburban, rural, and adjudicated schools; students in high school; interventions delivered by regular classroom teachers; interventions focused on vocabulary; and interventions in large groups and general education classrooms.


The College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston, South Carolina is an archival repository, museum, and center for public programming dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making public the history of African-Americans in Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. Currently, the social media strategy consists of maintaining a blog called "Not Just in February" and a Facebook page, but we are investigating other mediums. These platforms were chosen by the administration to promote the programs and archival collections at the institution. The effort to create an indelible Web presence is imperative if the institution wishes to stay engaged and current. The Avery Research Center's staff uses Facebook to upload photos of its programs, highlight current news and events happening around Charleston, and share information on African-American history and archives on a national scope. Alternatively, the blog is a behind-the-scenes look at what archivists do, highlighting items within collections as well as bringing historical context to the records. The blog is used as a space for African-American and Charleston history scholars to engage the public with their history. As a result of using social media, the Avery Research Center has been able to connect with individuals and organizations locally and nationally to inform them of local African-American history that was hidden while concurrently getting people interested in preserving their own collections. However, some of the main challenges in using social media have been staffing and time to commit to updating the page and the blog.


In the late nineteenth century, while advocates garnered support for a law protecting America's archaeological resources, the U.S. government was seeking to dispossess Native Americans of traditional lands and eradicate native languages and cultural practices. That the government should safeguard Indian heritage in one way while simultaneously enacting policies of cultural obliteration deserves close scrutiny and provides insight into the ways in which archaeology is drawn into complex sociopolitical developments. Focusing on the American Southwest, this article argues that the Antiquities Act was fundamentally linked to the process of incorporating Native Americans into the web of national politics and markets. Whereas government programs such as boarding schools and missions sought to integrate living indigenous communities, the Antiquities Act served to place the Native American past under the explicit control of the American government and its agents of science. This story of archaeology is vital, because it helps explain the contemporary environment in which debates continue about the ownership and management of heritage.


Experimental investigation was carried out in low pressure steam turbine cascade to determine the effect of exit pressure on two phases of saturated vapor and fine water droplet. Numerical investigation was also presented by assuming the flow is two dimensional, compressible, turbulent, viscous, with the aid of the classical nucleation model applied for the mass transfer in the transonic conditions to predict the two phases behavior in the cascade. Comparison between experimental and theoretical results for the cascade flow was found to be fairly acceptable. Experimentally it was found that the most important influence of rapid condensation on the pressure distribution is on the suction surface. Also when the outlet is termed supersonic the heat release causes a pressure rise in the zone of rapid condensation, therefore the term "condensation shock" for this feature is misleading. In the numerical approach when the flow is regard subsonic the rapid condensation zone occurs downstream the throat and not accompanied by a pressure rise, while in the experimental test for the same case there is no sign of this condensation.


This document provides some analysis of threats against the Geopriv protocol architecture. It focuses on protocol threats, threats that result from the storage of data by entities in the architecture, and threats posed by the abuse of information yielded by Geopriv. Some security properties that meet these threats are enumerated as a reference for Geopriv requirements.


We present a new geometrical method aimed at determining the members of open clusters. The methodology estimates, in an N-dimensional space, the membership probabilities by means of the distances between every star and the cluster central overdensity. It can handle different sets of variables, which have to satisfy the simple condition of being more densely distributed for the cluster members than for the field stars (as positions, proper motions, radial velocities and/or parallaxes are). Unlike other existing techniques, this fact makes the method more flexible and so can be easily applied to different datasets. To quantify how the method identifies the cluster members, we design series of realistic simulations recreating sky regions in both position and proper motion subspaces populated by clusters and field stars. The results, using different simulated datasets (N = 1, 2 and 4 variables), show that the method properly recovers a very high fraction of simulated cluster members, with a low number of misclassified stars. To compare the goodness of our methodology, we also run other existing algorithms on the same simulated data. The results show that our method has a similar or even better performance than the other techniques. We study the robustness of the new methodology from different subsamplings of the initial sample, showing a progressive deterioration of the capability of our method as the fraction of missing objects increases. Finally, we apply all the methodologies to the real cluster NGC 2682, indicating that our methodology is again in good agreement with preceding studies.


The future of non-marital relationship recognition is in jeopardy. This is largely due to the current state of the movement responsible for the prior advancements enjoyed by non-marital relationship statuses, the LGBT rights movement, which in recent years has come to prioritize marriage equality over all other goals. The movement's prioritization of marriage equality remains a source of contention. Many people believe that it is more important to pursue the goal of pluralistic relationship recognition, which involves acquiring legal protections for the diverse relationship and familial forms in existence today without regard to marriage eligibility. While most individuals involved in the movement would not dispute that both marriage equality and pluralistic relationship recognition are important goals, the fear that these two goals cannot coexist successfully has come to fruition recently. Marriage equality supporters increasingly engage in rhetoric that disparages non-marital statuses, and marriage equality advancements have led to measurable setbacks to pluralistic relationship recognition through the repeal of non-marital statuses in a number of states that have legalized same-sex marriage. Occurrences such as these are unfortunate and unnecessary, but will not cease until the movement adopts specific strategies to advance both goals simultaneously. This article argues that ignoring the current disharmony between these two goals would be a costly mistake that would hurt many individuals both within and outside of the LGBT community. It proposes a number of strategies, such as the restructuring of non-marital relationship statuses and the reconfiguring of the movement's messages, to aid the movement in successfully advancing both goals and ensuring that marriage equality advancements do not result in the eradication of pluralistic relationship recognition.


Autoantibodies like Rheumatoid factor (RF), Anticardiolipin antibody (ACLA) normally used in diagnosing autoimmune diseases have also been identified in healthy individuals . The presence of such autoantibodies could alter their diagnostic and predictive value. Oc-currence of these autoantibodies have been shown to vary with age, geographical location and other environmental factors. This study was done as an attempt to find the occurrence of RF,ACLA and ANA in healthy adults in South Indian population and to analyze the variations in occurrence between different adult age groups. The study was done in 150 subjects in three age groups of 50 each. Individuals between 20 to 39 years were under group 1, 40 and 59 years under group 2 and 60 years and above were under group3. Sub-jects were selected from health camps and blood donation camps in and around Bangalore. Rheumatoid factor was tested by latex agglutination method, Anticardiolipin antibodies by ELISA and Antinuclear antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence method. Frequency of occurrence of all three autoantibodies especially that of ACLA was greater than ex-pected frequency in both group1 and 2 .The frequency in elderly(group3) was increased as expected. Results also show that co-occurrence of more than one autoantibody in the same individual increases as age advances. Increase in RF , ACLA, ANA in apparently healthy individuals should be assessed carefully to prevent unnecessary treatment but at the same time they may need follow up to avoid missing early diagnosis of autoimmune disease.


n marked contrast to literary, historical and cultural studies, there has been a limited engagement with the concepts and politics of trauma by political science and peacebuilding research.This book explores the debate on trauma and peacebuilding and presents the challenges for democratization that the politics of trauma present in transitional periods. It demonstrates how ideas about reconciliation are filtered through ideological lenses and become new ways of articulating communal and ethno-nationalist sentiments. Drawing on the work of Jacques Ranciere and Iris Marion Young and with specific reference to the Northern Irish transition, it argues for a shift in focus from the representation of trauma towards its reception and calls for a more substantive approach to the study of democracy and post-conflict peacebuilding.


Singing has long been credited with a wide variety of physical, mental, and social health benefits (Hunter, 1999). Recent scientific inquiry points to the efficacy of singing toward enhanced cardiovascular and pulmonary performance (Bonilha, Onofre, Vieira, Prado, & Martinex, 2009), verbal communication (Wan, Ruber, Hohmann, & Schlaug, 2010), and immune functioning and attendant affective states (Kreutz, Bongard, Rohrmann, Hodapp, & Grebe, 2004; Kuhn, 2002; Unwin, Kenny, & Davis, 2002). Among older adults, singing has been linked with improved mood, better quality of life, greater happiness, stress reduction, and emotional wellbeing (Clift et al., 2010).In our own work, we have noticed repeatedly the benefits of singing with older adults with Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias (ADRD). Individuals who show signs of hyper-arousal (i.e., restlessness, agitation, and/or purposeless or perseverale behavior) tend to become calmer and more meaningfully involved after just 20 to 30 min of active engagement in singing. Individuals who are hypo-aroused (i.e., sleepy, depressed, and/or nonresponsive) tend to become more alert, physically active, and socially interactive by the end of a session in which singing has been a primary focus. In this way, singing appears to serve a regulative function, as posited by Aldridge (2007) - that is, it has the capacity to compose and soothe individuals who are disorganized or anxious and arouse those with abnormally diminished levels of physical and cognitive activity, thereby moving both profiles to more optimal functioning. Additionally, our perception has been that this improved functioning often "carries over" into other daily activities. These observations regarding singing led us to question whether pre-meal singing might be an efficacious way to combat the malnutrition to which so many individuals with ADRD are vulnerable.Review of LiteratureADRD and MalnutritionADRD are progressive, neurodegenerative disorders that affect the part of the brain that controls memories, thoughts, and language skills (Alzheimer's Association, 2011). As such, a person's ability to complete critical daily activities is typically compromised. One of these daily activities is eating; in fact, feeding difficulties and resulting malnutrition become pressing concerns as dementia progresses (Volicer & Hurley, 1 997). Individuals in the middle stages of ADRD may forget to eat or how to feed themselves. Those in the later stages are at particular risk for malnourishment in that they may lose their ability to chew and swallow (Rouse & Gilster, 1994) and food may fall out of their mouths due to lack of proper oral manipulation (Watson & Green, 2006). Poor communication between patients and their caregivers may also be a factor contributing to malnutrition, as those affected by dementias grow increasingly dependent on others and yet are less able to verbally express their needs and understand others' directions (Athlin & Norberg, 1989; Lou, Dai, Huang, & Yu, 2007). Without a doubt, malnutrition can compromise physical and cognitive functioning, thereby negatively affecting the quality of life for individuals with ADRD and contributing to terminal decline (Hurley & Volicer, 2002).Background Music in the Dining EnvironmentThe incorporation of recorded background music in the dining environment has been found to decrease agitation and other characteristic symptoms of ADRD that impede productive eating, such as wandering, irritability, and depression (Chang, Huang, Lin, & Lin, 2010; Denney, 1997; Goddaer & Abraham, 1994; Ragneskog, Brane, Karlsson, & Kihlgren, 1996; Ragneskog, Kihlgren, Karlsson, & Norberg, 1996; Richeson & Neill, 2004; Thomas & Smith, 2009). In fact, background music appears to be the most frequently studied intervention toward the alleviation of feeding difficulties among individuals with various dementias, according to a systematic review by Watson and Green (2006). …


BACKGROUND
Many women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will discontinue HRT and lose its bone-protective effect. Methods to preserve bone density in these women need to be explored. This multicenter, international, randomized, blinded, 12-month study was conducted to assess the effect of alendronate sodium on bone density in women who had recently discontinued HRT.

METHODS
The 144 postmenopausal women included in the study were diagnosed as having low bone mineral density (BMD) and had recently discontinued HRT. They were randomized to receive either a daily dose of 10 mg of alendronate sodium or matching placebo. The main outcome measures were spine, hip, and total body BMD; biochemical markers of bone turnover; and tolerability.

RESULTS
Alendronate treatment was associated with a 2.3% mean increase (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7%-3.0%) in spine BMD compared with a mean loss of 3.2% (95% CI, - 4.6% to - 1.7%) in patients receiving placebo, for a difference of 5.5% (95% CI, 4.2%-6.8%) between alendronate and placebo. Greater hip and total body BMD preservation was also observed with alendronate use. Bone turnover decreased significantly with alendronate (bone-specific alkaline phosphatase levels decreased by 20% and urinary N-telopeptide/creatinine ratio by 47%), but increased in the placebo group (by 18% and 36%, respectively). Alendronate was well tolerated, with no increase in adverse events compared with placebo.

CONCLUSIONS
A high rate of bone loss was observed in the first 12 to 15 months after discontinuation of HRT in postmenopausal women with low BMD. Treatment with alendronate increased or maintained both spine and hip BMD and prevented the increase in bone resorption seen with withdrawal of HRT in this population.


Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, ]865-1920. By Gaines M. Foster. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 318. Acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95, cloth; $19.95, paper.) Gaines Foster examines the formation of a dedicated cadre of "Christian lobbyists" who emerged in post-Civil War America to enlist national power to uphold religious principles. These largely forgotten figures pioneered nonpartisan pressure-group politics in an era of powerful party organizations. Foster asserts their efforts promoted the expansion of federal authority, a development generally associated with later Progressive economic and social welfare reforms. Some figures, such as Margaret Dye ElHs of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Edwin Dinwiddie of the Anti-Saloon Eeague, represented organizations with large followings, while others, such as Wilbur J. Crafts, a proponent of Sabbath observance, and Anthony Cornstock, the anti-obscenity activist, independently pushed their agendas in Washington. These lobbyists envisioned a Christian America and often cooperated in buttonholing members of Congress to enact measures against polygamy, gambling, alcohol, and mailing of obscene materials. These victories for a moral order breached church-state separation but did not destroy the constitutional barrier. Congress proved willing to regulate commercial distributors of vice but balked at extending its powers to control individual behavior. Foster's dogged research and close analysis of legislative voting patterns are impressive. The focus on Washington battles makes the study reminiscent of traditional accounts of the congressional phase of the other, better-known Reconstruction. This volume contrasts with Foster's Ghosts of the Confederacy, his highly regarded examination of the organizations and ideology associated with the southern Lost Cause. In the earlier book, Foster astutely traced the membership patterns, rituals, and social context of the successive Confederate memorial associations. Moral Reconstruction portrays the religious shock troops as a self-contained movement with few links to antebellum evangelical reformers and little in common with the social justice advocates tied to urban Progressivism. Foster also fails to locate the moral activists within the currents of American religious history or clarify their conception of a Christian polity. …


Security is at the core of any communication system and, in particular, of wireless (radio) networks. In this thesis, we focus on three important security aspects in the framework of wireless networks: selfish (noncooperative) behavior at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, "radio channel jamming"-based Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks against sensor networks and secure key agreement in peer-to-peer wireless networks. In the context of selfish behavior at the MAC layer, we focus on single collision domain Carrier-Sense Multiple-Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) networks. We use both cooperative and non-cooperative game theory to model and analyze the co-existence of multiple CSMA/CA selfish users. Using insights from the game theoretic analysis, we propose a simple channel access protocol that discourages selfish behavior and results in the optimal and fair allocation of the available bandwidth. We perform an extensive evaluation of the proposed protocol. We then consider two types of malicious behavior. The first type deals with an adversary who tries to obstruct the operation of a wireless network by jamming the used radio channel. The second type is concerned with an adversary who interferes with a key agreement protocol executed between parties that use a radio link, in an attempt to learn their private information or to fool them into accepting fake messages as genuine. Concerning the first kind of malicious behavior, we focus on wireless sensor networks, perhaps the most vulnerable category of wireless networks to this kind of threat. An adversary can mask the events that the sensor network should detect by stealthily jamming an appropriate subset of the nodes; in this way, he prevents them from reporting what they sense to the network operator. Therefore, in spite of the fact that an event is sensed by one or several nodes (and the sensor network is fully connected), the network operator cannot be informed on time – we call this the coverage paradox. To mitigate this problem, we propose a reactive defense mechanism based on wormholes, which were so far considered to be a security threat. In our solution, thanks to channel diversity, the nodes under the jamming attack are able to create (probabilistically) a communication route that is resistant to jamming; thus, appropriate information can be conveyed out of the jammed region. We develop appropriate mathematical models to study the proposed mechanisms. Concerning the second kind of malicious behavior, we focus on the problem of a user-friendly key agreement (and message authentication) in settings where the users do not share any authenticated secret or certified public key in advance. We base our approach on the Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol, which is known to be vulnerable to the "man-in-the-middle" attack if the users involved in the protocol do not share any authenticated information about each other (e.g., public keys, certificates, passwords, shared keys, etc.) prior to the protocol execution. We solve the problem by leveraging on the natural ability of users to authenticate each other by visual and verbal contact. We propose three techniques: the first is based on the visual comparison of short strings, the second on distance bounding, and the third on a novel concept called integrity codes (I-codes). In each case, the users do not need to enter any password or other data, nor do they need physical or infrared connectivity between their devices. We analyze our protocols using a well-established methodology that leads us to a rigorous modularization and a thorough robustness proof of our proposal. We also provide an implementation of I-codes.


Given a positive value r, a distance-based range query returns the objects that lie within the distance r of the query location. In this paper, we focus on the distance-based range queries that continuously change their locations in a euclidean space. We present an efficient and effective monitoring technique based on the concept of a safe zone. The safe zone of a query is the area with a property that while the query remains inside it, the results of the query remain unchanged. Hence, the query does not need to be reevaluated unless it leaves the safe zone. Our contributions are as follows: 1) We propose a technique based on powerful pruning rules and a unique access order which efficiently computes the safe zone and minimizes the I/O cost. 2) We theoretically determine and experimentally verify the expected distance a query moves before leaving the safe zone and, for majority of queries, the expected number of guard objects. 3) Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach is close to optimal and is an order of magnitude faster than a naïve algorithm. 4) We also extend our technique to monitor the queries in a road network. Our algorithm is up to two order of magnitude faster than a naïve algorithm.


Previous research has shown that mental health issues in the work place lead to absenteeism, lost productive time (LPT), and unemployment. This study examined the utility of the Work Potential Profile (WPP) in assessing depression, anxiety, and preoccupation with health as part of a measure of work potential. The main purpose of this study was to establish convergent validity for the WPP by correlating selected WPP profile scores with the MMPI-2 scales of depression (Scale 1), psychasthenia (Scale 7), and hypochondriasis (Scale 1), and to establish divergent validity by correlating the WPP profile scores with the MMPI-2 masculinityfemininity scale (Scale 5). The WPP and MMPI-2 were administered to 202 participants during a psychological evaluation in a private practice, and then selected scales were correlated to determine convergent and divergent validity. It was found that the profile scores of the WPP correlated significantly with their corresponding MMPI-2 scales but did not correlate significantly with the masculinity-femininity scale. In addition step-wise multiple regressions were used to establish which of the selected MMPI-2 scales best predicted selected WPP profile scores. It was found that the combination of MMPI-2 Scale 2 and Scale 7 best predicted the WPP profile score of Stress and Anxiety. Also the same combination of MMPI-2 Scale 2 and Scale 7 best predicted the WPP profile score of Depression/Resentment. Furthermore, the combination of MMPI-2 Scale 7 and Scale 1 best predicted the WPP profile score of Preoccupation with Health. This validates that the WPP helps in better identifying those with decreased absenteeism, LPT, and unemployment because of mental health needs, and to formulate better interventions. Mental Health and Work iv


Bifacial cells and modules collect light falling not only on the front side of the panels but also on the rear; this additional collection of light increases the total absorbed irradiance, and accordingly the generated current. One of the remaining questions is: what temperature do bifacial solar panels operate at compared with monofacial panels? The extra light absorption at the rear will heat up the modules more, but at the same time, the parasitic heating by the absorption of infrared light is reduced, because infrared light is mostly transmitted through the glass–glass panels. In this paper, different bifacial and monofacial cell and module architectures are considered for the calculation of the energy spectra for all heat loss and absorption processes and the effective heat input. The heat transfer coefficients and the heat capacities of modules with different rear panels are given. Actual module temperatures for different layouts are presented and discussed for low- and high-irradiance (diffuse/direct) conditions in the Netherlands.


The Jewish legend of the golem is often considered the prototype as the "original" superhero (influencing the creation of Superman and other characters). During the 1970s Marvel Comics used the golem legend to create their own unique brand of "monster" superhero. This essay describes the various ways Marvel has used the golem motif in its sequential art stories. First appearing in the pages of Strange Tales, this golem differed from the original stories of Rabbi Loew's supernatural savior. The character really did not resonate with the comic book-buying public, lasting only three issues and one guest appearance. Yet the concept of the golem was too powerful a metaphor to be discarded. Marvel Comics brought back another type of golem for their Invaders World War II series. The creators (specifically writer Roy Thomas) tried to answer the question, what if a golem had been there to protect Jews during the Holocaust? This golem was a man/ clay hybrid who was also a Rabbi.


System developers have used modeling languages for decades to specify, visualize, construct, and document systems. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is one of those languages. UML makes it possible for team members to collaborate by providing a common language that applies to a multitude of different systems. Essentially, it enables you to communicate solutions in a consistent, tool-supported language. Today, UML has become the standard method for modeling software systems, which means you're probably confronting this rich and expressive language more than ever before. And even though you may not write UML diagrams yourself, you'll still need to interpret diagrams written by others. UML 2.0 in a Nutshell from O'Reilly feels your pain. It's been crafted for professionals like you who must read, create, and understand system artifacts expressed using UML. Furthermore, it's been fully revised to cover version 2.0 of the language. This comprehensive new edition not only provides a quick-reference to all UML 2.0 diagram types, it also explains key concepts in a way that appeals to readers already familiar with UML or object-oriented programming concepts. Topics include: The role and value of UML in projectsThe object-oriented paradigm and its relation to the UMLAn integrated approach to UML diagramsClass and Object, Use Case, Sequence, Collaboration, Statechart, Activity, Component, and Deployment DiagramsExtension MechanismsThe Object Constraint Language (OCL) If you're new to UML, a tutorial with realistic examples has even been included to help you quickly familiarize yourself with the system.


Software patents have been controversial since the days when "software" referred to the crude programs that came free with an IBM mainframe. Different perspectives have been presented in judicial, legislative, and administrative fora over the years, and the press has paid as much attention to this issue as it has to any other intellectual property topic during this time. Meanwhile, a software industry developed and has grown to a remarkable size, whether measured by revenues or profitability, number of firms or employees, or research expenditures. The scope of software innovation has become even broader, as an increasing number of devices incorporate information technology, requiring modern manufacturing firms outside the software industry to employ developers and programmers to ensure that increasingly diverse functions are performed more efficiently. Although inventors have consistently asserted their need for patents in order to compete with industry incumbents, patent protection has not been easily or consistently available for much of this period. Rather, the legal system has responded gradually to the burgeoning software industry by broadening the scope and strength of protection for software-related inventions in fits and starts. The explosive growth of the industry is largely attributable to demand generated by the efficiency of software solutions; the expansion of the venture capital industry over the same period largely explains the lack of industry concentration. The "garage" mentality can be explained by the fact that even some of the largest industry incumbents began with one or two (largely unfunded) inventors. Also, there is every reason to believe that increased patent protection has contributed to the ability of independent inventors and smaller firms to compete. Moreover, the ability to obtain patents on software always has been important to some of the industry incumbents, while others have exhibited little need for patents and, displayed in some cases, strenuous opposition to the patentability of software. The incumbents are a diverse group. Some produce only software; others have substantial hardware product lines. Some sell to other technology firms and others sell applications to end users in a broad range of markets. And some sell prepackaged software products, while others focus on services - custom programming, installation, or maintenance. Regardless of the sector in which they participate, the incumbents spend massive amounts on research and development (R&D) - about 14% of their annual revenues, more than $60,000 per employee. However, there are important patterns in patenting practices that raw data on R&D investments cannot explain.


Word-classing has been used in language modeling for two distinct purposes: to improve the likelihood of the language model, and to improve the runtime speed. In particular, frequency-based heuristics have been proposed to improve the speed of recurrent neural network language models (RNN-LMs). In this paper, we present a dynamic programming algorithm for determining classes in a way that provably minimizes the runtime of the resulting class-based language models. However, we also find that the speed-based methods degrade the perplexity of the language models by 5-10% over traditional likelihood-based classing. We remedy this via the introduction of a speed-based regularization term in the likelihood objective function. This achieves a runtime close to that of the speed based methods without loss in perplexity performance. We demonstrate these improvements with both an RNN-LM and the Model M exponential language model, for three different tasks involving two different languages.


Abstract Islamic banks create an interest in their own right as a rising branch in financial intermediation, particularly in the post-crisis era. In addition, they also deserve the attention of students of Islamism due to their possible connection with Islamic movements. Through a comparison of Islamic and conventional banking, we analyze the motivations and behavior of Islamic economic actors who determine the cash flow to Islamic banks. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to popular views that portray these actors as ideologues or financiers of radical Islam, they have pragmatic motivations and may adapt to liberal systems in order to seize economic incentives.


TranSIC AB needs to conduct High Temperature Operating Life (HTOL) tests on silicon carbide transistors in order to ensure product reliability and gather information for development purposes. The goal of this master thesis was to select measurement related hardware and develop LabView software capable of controlling and monitoring up to 48 transistors during HTOL tests. National Instruments cDAQ and Agilent 34972A were compared for data acquisition purposes. Calculations and hardware requirements resulted in the purchase and system integration of a Agilent 34972A data logger with three 34901A 20 channel multiplexer expansion cards. LabView software was programmed using a extended Producer/Consumer Design Pattern as the main structure. Software requirements was fulfilled using SubVIs for both user visible windows and functionality related data handling. The finished software fulfilled all initial requirements but several possible future improvements are suggested. The system is now in full scale use at TranSIC AB.


125I-Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) 1-38 is able to bind a factor in human plasma, which can be displaced by unlabelled PACAP 1-38 and PACAP 28-38 but not by the other biologically active form, PACAP 1-27. Likewise, 125I-PACAP 28-38 binds this plasma factor, whereas 125I-PACAP 1-27 does not. Apparent Kd values were measured to be 12.0+/-1.3 and 3.4+/-1.5 nM for PACAP 1-38 and PACAP 28-38, respectively, using a competition assay with 125I-PACAP 28-38. Purification of the PACAP 1-38-binding factor from human blood was made by ethanol precipitation of serum followed by Ni2+-chelating and anion-exchange chromatography. A 120-kDa band on SDS/PAGE, as well as some proteolytic products, was blotted on to PVDF membrane and their N-terminal amino acid sequences determined. In combination with a mass-spectrometric fingerprinting of a tryptic digest of the 120-kDa band, this PACAP 1-38-binding factor was identified as ceruloplasmin. Purified commercial ceruloplasmin shows identical mobility on SDS/PAGE to the PACAP 1-38-binding factor and the same binding characteristics to PACAP 1-38, 1-27 and 28-38, using the same amount of ceruloplasmin as was expected to be found in the human plasma. Furthermore, the ability of plasma to bind 125I-PACAP 1-38 or 28-38 disappeared when ceruloplasmin was immunoprecipitated from plasma with rabbit anti-human ceruloplasmin Ig.


Markov Random Fields, or undirected graphical models are widely used to model highdimensional multivariate data. Classical instances of these models, such as Gaussian Graphical and Ising Models, as well as recent extensions (Yang et al., 2012) to graphical models specified by univariate exponential families, assume all variables arise from the same distribution. Complex data from high-throughput genomics and social networking for example, often contain discrete, count, and continuous variables measured on the same set of samples. To model such heterogeneous data, we develop a novel class of mixed graphical models by specifying that each node-conditional distribution is a member of a possibly different univariate exponential family. We study several instances of our model, and propose scalable M -estimators for recovering the underlying network structure. Simulations as well as an application to learning mixed genomic networks from next generation sequencing and mutation data demonstrate the versatility of our methods.


We assessed the usefulness of magnetic properties for tracing sediment erosion in a deltaic environment. Surface and core sediments from the Yangtze River subaqueous delta were subjected to magnetic, granulometric, geochemical, and radionuclide analyses. Based on magnetic properties and particle size, the surface sediments can be divided into three groups. Groups I and II have a similar particle size distribution and geochemical composition, but the former has higher values of magnetic susceptibility (χ) and saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM). We interpret Group I as consisting of modern sediments, while Group II represents previously buried sediments that have undergone significant reductive diagenesis and that have been subsequently exposed by erosion. Group III has coarser particle size, which reflects the mixing of delta sediments with Pleistocene relict sands. Two cores from the areas occupied by Groups I and II have significantly different magnetic profiles. Core A3‐4 (Group II) records a partial loss of magnetic mineral concentration due to diagenesis and has much lower χ, SIRM, and S−300 values than core A6‐2 (Group I). Radionuclide dating reveals that core A3‐4 sediments are older. We conclude that core A3‐4 location has undergone erosion, which is consistent with recent bathymetric survey results. We propose that the ratio of SIRM/Fe can be potentially used to trace mobilized old sediment in this environment. Our study demonstrates that magnetic properties provide a robust approach for studying sediment dynamics in this type of environment. In addition, our findings provide insights into the nature of biogeochemical processes associated with deltaic erosion.


Introduction: Borreria ocymoides (Burm F) DC is a weak, erect and decumbent herb that has several folkloric, ethno medicinal uses and is included in antimalarial preparations by some traditional healers. It is also used in treatment of ring worm, eczema and microbial infections. Objectives: To evaluate antimalarial activity of extract and fractions of Borreria ocymoides in Plasmodium berghei infected mice and to investigate their antioxidant activity using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazile (DPPH). Methods: The methanol extract of aerial part of B. ocymoides and the solvent fractions obtained from partition between organic solvents were assessed for antimalarial activity against chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei NK65 infected mice using the suppressive and curative test procedures. Chloroquine (10 mg/ml) was used as positive control. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH radical scavenging ability and determination of total phenolic content. Results: The crude extract (250 and 500 mg kg-1) produced a dose dependent anti-plasmodial activity in the suppressive and curative tests. The chemo suppression activity was best in the ethyl acetate fraction (87.31%) and in the order ethyl acetate >dichloromethane > hexane > aqueous fraction. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the extract increased with concentration. The antioxidant activity was less than ascorbic acid used as positive control. Oral administration up to 5 g/kg produced no noticeable deleterious effect 24 hours after dosing and up to 7 days afterwards. Conclusion: The results indicated that the extract has a potent anti-plasmodial activity against Plasmodium berghei and the activity seems to reside in the mid-polar fractions. Thus, the plant is a potential source of new antimalarial agents.


A large size of legal knowledge base which consists of entangled inference rules, facts, and arbitrary interpretations may latently include inconsistency within them. In this paper, we propose a method to find the source of such inconsistency by supplying hypothesized facts into a set of rules. With this, we put those rules in the order of reliability and show a stable part of the legal knowledge. First, we define an argument as a chaining of rules to support a certain proposition. Thereafter, we compose a minimal inconsistency set (MIS) combining two disagreeing arguments. Among such a MIS, we can distinguish stable rules that is indifferent to the source of inconsistent from unstable rules, which can be candidates of future amendment. A knowledge-base which consists of stable rules can be also distinguished from that which may contain unstable rules.


BACKGROUND
Experimentally, arginine enhances immune function and promotes wound healing. In this randomized double-blind study we investigated the effect of oral arginine supplementation on wound healing and T-cell function in elderly human beings (more than 65 years of age).

METHODS
Thirty elderly, healthy, human volunteers (15 men and 15 women) received daily supplements of 30 gm arginine aspartate (17 gm free arginine). Fifteen volunteers (nine men and six women) received a placebo syrup. Fibroplastic wound responses were assessed by inserting a polytetrafluoroethylene catheter subcutaneously into the right deltoid region. Epithelialization was examined by creating a 2 x 2 cm split thickness wound on the lateral aspect of the upper thigh. Mitogenic response of peripheral blood lymphocytes to concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen, and allogeneic stimuli was assayed at the beginning and end of supplementation. Polytetrafluoroethylene catheters were analyzed for alpha-amino nitrogen (assessment of total protein accumulation), hydroxyproline (index of reparative collagen synthesis), and DNA accumulation (index of cellular infiltration).

RESULTS
Arginine supplementation for 2 weeks significantly enhanced wound catheter hydroxyproline accumulation (26.49 +/- 2.39 nmol/cm vs 17.41 +/- 2.04 nmol/cm) and total protein content (43.47 +/- 3.85 micrograms/cm vs 21.95 +/- 2.5 micrograms/cm). Arginine did not influence the DNA content of the catheters or the rate of epithelialization of the skin defect. Peripheral blood lymphocyte responses to mitogenic and allogenic stimulation were greater in the arginine supplemented group. Serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels were significantly elevated in the arginine group.

CONCLUSIONS
The data suggest that arginine supplementation may improve wound healing and immune responses in the elderly.


A model for predicting composite material strength degradation under elevated and high temperatures is proposed. This model is based on the morphology of the mixture of materials in different states. The degradation of resin-dominated shear strength can be well described by the rule of mixture while the degradation of nominal compressive strength tends to follow the lower bound of strength defined by the inverse rule of mixture. Composite materials under tension may exhibit fiber- or resin-dominated behavior. In a lower temperature range, strength is dominated by the fiber tensile strength, while at higher temperatures, tensile components may exhibit resin-dominated failure in joint regions. The parameters required in the model can be obtained on the basis of kinetic analysis of dynamic mechanical analysis results. The fitting of experimental curves of material strength degradation is not necessary. The proposed modeling scheme can easily be incorporated into structural theory to predict mechanical responses and time-to-failure.


Microglial inflammatory responses affect Parkinson's disease (PD) associated nigrostriatal degeneration. This is triggered, in measure, by misfolded, nitrated alpha-synuclein (N-alpha-syn) contained within Lewy bodies that are released from dying or dead dopaminergic neurons into the extravascular space. N-alpha-syn-stimulated microglial immunity is regulated by CD4+ T cell subset. Indeed, CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) induce neuroprotective immune responses. This is seen in rodent models of stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, human immunodeficiency virus associated neurocognitive disorders, and PD. To elucidate the mechanism for Treg-mediated microglial neuroregulatory responses, we used a proteomic platform integrating difference gel electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry peptide sequencing. These tests served to determine consequences of Treg on the N-alpha-syn stimulated microglia. The data demonstrated that Treg substantially alter the microglial proteome in response to N-alpha-syn. This is seen through Treg abilities to suppress microglial proteins linked to cell metabolism, migration, protein transport and degradation, redox biology, cytoskeletal, and bioenergetic activities. We conclude that Treg modulate the N-alpha-syn microglial proteome and, in this way, can slow the tempo and course of PD.


This paper analyzes whether information on high school quality published by a national newspaper affects school choice in the Netherlands. For this purpose, we use both school level and individual student level data. First, we study the causal effect of quality scores on the influx of new high school students using a longitudinal school dataset. We find that negative (positive) school quality scores decrease (increase) the number of students choosing a school after the year of publication. The positive effects are particularly large for the academic school track. An academic school track receiving the most positive score sees its inflow of students rise by 15 to 20 students. Second, we study individual school choice behaviour to address the relative importance of the quality scores, as well as potential differences in the quality response between socio-economic groups. Although the probability of attending a school is affected by its quality score, it is mainly driven by the travelling distance. Students are only willing to travel about 200 meters more in order to attend a well-performing rather than an average school. In contrast to equity concerns that are often raised, we cannot find differences in information responses between socio-economic groups.


The Mala (Lagorchestes hirsutus) is a little known but charismatic wallaby, rescued from imminent extinction in the 1980s when the last 22 animals were secured in predator-proof enclosures. The last mainland wild population perished in a wild fire in 1991. Mala numbers remain critically low, dispersed among six predator-free sites, isolated from each other and located in three different States and Territories. From 3-5 November 2015, the Mala Recovery Team which comprises thirteen people from eight organisations, met to take a national view of Mala management and to identify and agree what it would take to move beyond saving the species from extinction and towards securing its long-term future. The workshop was funded by public donations and was facilitated by the IUCN SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group.


In most animals, the brain controls the body via a set of descending neurons (DNs) that traverse the neck and terminate in post-cranial regions of the nervous system. This critical neural population is thought to activate, maintain and modulate locomotion and other behaviors. Although individual members of this cell class have been well-studied across species ranging from insects to primates, little is known about the overall connectivity pattern of DNs as a population. We undertook a systematic anatomical investigation of descending neurons in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and created a collection of over 100 transgenic lines targeting individual cell types. Our methods allowed us to describe the morphology of roughly half of an estimated 400 DNs and create a comprehensive map of connectivity between the sensory neuropils in the brain and the motor neuropils in the ventral nerve cord. Like the vertebrate spinal cord, our results show that the fly nerve cord is a highly organized, layered system of neuropils, an organization that reflects the fact that insects are capable of two largely independent means of locomotion – walking and fight – using distinct sets of appendages. Our results reveal the basic functional map of descending pathways in flies and provide tools for systematic interrogation of sensory-motor circuits.


This report presents the results of a comparative study conducted in 1986-87 in San Diego, California, of the adaptation of refugee youth from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The project examined both successes and problems of these refugee youth regarding their educational and occupational attainments and aspirations, and evaluated their prospects for economic self-sufficiency in the United States. Data were drawn from the Indochinese Health & Adaptation Research Project (IHARP) longitudinal surveys, the San Diego City Schools (including complete academic histories), the San Diego County Probation Department, and intensive qualitative interviews with 76 informants. Findings are presented in the following areas: (1) characteristics of San Diego high school students; (2) grade point averages of San Diego high school students; (3) characteristics of Southeast Asian students and their parents; (4) grade point averages of Southeast Asian students; (5) standardized test achievement scores; (6) determinants of educational attainment; (7) occupational aspirations of Southeast Asian students; (8) problem areas: student dropouts, school suspensions, and juvenile delinquency; (9) adaptive resources: social class and cultural characteristics; (10) adaptive contexts: family, school, and community; and (11) adaptive strategies: acculturation and coping. Data are presented in 50 figures and tables.


Web traffic analysis is a well-known e-marketing activity. Today most of the news agencies have entered the web providing a variety of online services to their customers. The number of online news consumers is also increasing dramatically all over the world. A news website usually benefits from different acquisition channels including organic search services, paid search services, referral links, direct hits, links from online social media, and e-mails. This article presents the results of an empirical study of analyzing referral traffic of a news website through data mining techniques. Main methods include correlation analysis, outlier detection, clustering, and model performance evaluation. The results decline any significant relationship between the amount of referral traffic coming from a referrer website and the website's popularity state. Furthermore, the referrer websites of the study fit into three clusters applying K-means Squared Euclidean Distance clustering algorithm. Performance evaluations assure the significance of the model. Also, among detected clusters, the most populated one has labeled as "Automatic News Aggregator Websites" by the experts. The findings of the study help to have a better understanding of the different referring behaviors, which form around 15% of the overall traffic of Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) website. They are also helpful to develop more efficient online marketing plans, business alliances, and corporate strategies.


Aim: To determine the efficacy of intervention with high‐dose vitamin A as an adjunct to standard treatment on outcome in acute lower respiratory tract infection in children in developing countries. Methods: A systematic review of double‐blinded, randomized, controlled intervention studies of high‐dose vitamin A or placebo in children aged between 1 mo and 6 y presenting with acute non‐measles lower respiratory tract infection. Results: Five studies fulfilling the criteria were identified and included a total of 2177 children (1067 intervention, 1110 control). The main outcome measures were time to normalization of fever, respiratory rate and oxygen dependence, time to discharge, and mortality. On meta‐analysis, there were no significant differences in any of the recovery measures or mortality between the intervention and control groups. Pooled results for recovery times are given showing difference in days to recovery days and 95% confidence intervals. Positive summary measures indicate faster recovery in the vitamin A group and negative in the placebo: fever: 0.03 (—0.10 to 0.17); oxygen requirement: —0.08 (—0.31 to 0.16); raised respiratory rate: —0.09 (—0.38 to 0.19); hospital stay: —0.06 (—0.52 to 0.40). Mortality was below 2% in both groups, with a non‐significantly higher risk in the intervention group (odds ratio 1.16, 95% CI: 0.61—2.21).


Thinking on the Brink: Facilitating Student Teachers' Learning Through In-the-Moment Interjections Travis L. Lemon Department of Mathematics Education Master of Arts In order to investigate ways pre-service student teachers (PSTs) might learn to teach with high-level tasks and effectively incorporate student thinking into their lessons a teaching experiment was designed and carried out by the cooperating teacher/researcher (CT). The intervention was for the CT to interject into the lessons of the PSTs during moments of opportunity. By interjecting a small question or comment during the lesson the CT hoped to support the learning of both the students of mathematics in the class and the PSTs. This in-themoment interjecting was meant to enhance and underscore the situated learning of the PSTs within the context of actual practice. Essentially the PSTs learned how to manage and improve the discourse of the classroom in the moment of the discourse. This study utilized both an ongoing analysis of the data during collection in order to inform the instruction provided by the CT and a retrospective analysis of the data in order to develop an understanding of the developmental sequence through which PSTs progressed. The results suggest the interjections provided to the PSTs served multiple roles within the domains of mathematical development for the students of mathematics and pedagogical development for the PSTs. A classification of the interjections that occurred and the stages of development through which PSTs passed will be discussed. Implications from this work include increased attention to the groundwork leading up to the student teaching experience as well as an adjustment to the role of cooperating teacher to be more that of a teacher educator.