Language is by no means in a static condition. It changes all the time. The close relation between language and culture makes the changes of a society can be reflected in its language. English writer Jane Austin's novel Pride and Prejudice has been adapted into movie twice in the year of 1940 and 2005. Characters' dialogues in the two movie versions are the subject of this research. In this thesis, characters' dialogues in the two movies are compiled into two copra (Corpus 1940 and Corpus 2005). The relevant theories of sociolinguistics and pragmatics are employed to compare and analyze the differences in language in the 1940 version and 2005 version. The research findings offer suggestions to English language teaching and learning. Most English learners learn English for communicating, and they communicate with modern English speakers, so it's important for English teachers and learners to realize that what they teach and learn should be modern language which is changing all the time, and their language teaching and learning activities should always keep pace with the constant change of language to avoid being out of date.


In radiographic methods, the attenuation of an incident beam on passing through an object is used to study the internal structure of this object. The availability of techniques to "look inside" large, optically intransparent objects without having to destroy them is obviously appealing and has had a profound impact in many fields, most clearly in medicine, but also in condensed matter studies. The development of radiography started with Rontgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895, where the absorption of X-rays by bones were demonstrated publicly in 1896 by obtaining a radiograph of a hand. The medical applications were obvious, and already in World War I, mobile X-ray units were routinely deployed. The main shortcoming of X-ray radiography in early medical applications is that often it cannot be used to distinguish different kinds of soft tissue and that the two dimensional projections are sometimes difficult to interpret. This changed dramatically with the development of "computerized axial tomography" for which the Nobel prize was awarded in 1979 to Hounsfield and Cormack. Computed tomography, as it is now frequently called, is the three-dimensional reconstruction of the interior of an object from many radiographs taken at different angles, and this combination of data sets enables to distinguish between different soft tissues, such as kidneys and liver.

Medical computed X-ray tomography scanners were used soon afterwards to investigate minerals and rocks, for example in an early study of chondritic meteorites (Arnold et al. 1983). These had a comparatively poor spatial resolution of ~1 mm. As there is no need for low radiation doses in material science studies, and as the penetrating power of high energy X-rays is larger and higher spatial resolutions can be obtained, dedicated scanners for material science have been developed. Commercially available "table top" scanners now offer spatial resolution of less than 1 …


Abstract Since the 1980s, tax depreciation allowances are used less as instruments of macroeconomic stabilization and more as long-term measures to stimulate investment. This paper tabulates the types of accelerated depreciation allowances in South Africa and calculates the magnitude of these benefits in addition to standard across-the-board accounting depreciation by companies. Using anonymized tax assessment data from the South African Revenue Service, the analysis generates the aggregate and sectoral composition of tax depreciation and tax investment allowances for 2014–2017. An estimate is offered of the cost to the treasury of these tax expenditures, and the reduction in the statutory corporate income tax rate should these depreciation allowances be terminated.


Due to the high cost and the toxicity of widely used corrosion inhibitors and the ever-tightening environmental regulations surrounding their use and disposal, there is great interest in replacing harmful inhibitors with effective non-hazardous alternatives. Over the past two decades, extensive research and development have led to the discovery of new classes of corrosion inhibitors, and the importance on the use of several drugs as corrosion inhibitors has grown. There are great efforts to use drugs as corrosion inhibitors for metals, but the use of the expired drugs as corrosion inhibitors for metals is limited. The present review reports the new trends aimed to recycling of expired drugs and using it as corrosion inhibitors for metals in different corrosive media.


ABSTRACT Growth substrates containing an s-triazine ring are typically metabolized by bacteria to liberate 3 mol of ammonia via the intermediate cyanuric acid. Over a 25-year period, a number of original research papers and reviews have stated that cyanuric acid is metabolized in two steps to the 2-nitrogen intermediate urea. In the present study, allophanate, not urea, was shown to be the 2-nitrogen intermediate in cyanuric acid metabolism in all the bacteria examined. Six different experimental results supported this conclusion: (i) synthetic allophanate was shown to readily decarboxylate to form urea under acidic extraction and chromatography conditions used in previous studies; (ii) alkaline extraction methods were used to stabilize and detect allophanate in bacteria actively metabolizing cyanuric acid; (iii) the kinetic course of allophanate formation and disappearance was consistent with its being an intermediate in cyanuric acid metabolism, and no urea was observed in those experiments; (iv) protein extracts from cells grown on cyanuric acid contained allophanate hydrolase activity; (v) genes encoding the enzymes AtzE and AtzF, which produce and hydrolyze allophanate, respectively, were found in several cyanuric acid-metabolizing bacteria; and (vi) TrzF, an AtzF homolog found in Enterobacter cloacae strain 99, was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli, and shown to have allophanate hydrolase activity. In addition, we have observed that there are a large number of genes homologous to atzF and trzF distributed in phylogenetically distinct bacteria. In total, the data indicate that s-triazine metabolism in a broad class of bacteria proceeds through allophanate via allophanate hydrolase, rather than through urea using urease.


At the end of the nineteenth century, white Australians found themselves in a turbulent and rapidly changing world. As British settlers in a vast, often-perplexing and under-populated continent, they were increasingly aware that they lived in a crowded and predominantly Asian neighbourhood. Their supposedly empty spaces seemed to invite the unwanted attention of hostile outsiders, fertile soil for speculation about vulnerable borders, invasion and violation. It was commonplace of the period for white females to be considered at once particularly vulnerable and also innocent symbols of the new nation. They needed to be protected against Asian males allegedly bent on conquest and violation. It does not follow that these "invasion narratives", however persistent, meant that the entire population was disabled by fear and dread, but there is convincing evidence of a deeply embedded cultural anxiety about the destructive possibilities and hostile intentions of Asian outsiders. In this article, the authors examine recent representations of Muslims as hostile outsiders in Australia, focusing in particular on the veil as a marker of female oppression under Islam and a sign of the threat attributed to the Islamic community in Australia. While it would be misleading to propose a simple line of progression from late nineteenth century apprehensions to those a century or more later, there are nonetheless intriguing parallels and recurrent expressions of survivalist anxiety across the period examined in this article.


This paper extends the framework of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) to multi-agent settings by incorporating the notion of agent models into the state space. Agents maintain beliefs over physical states of the environment and over models of other agents, and they use Bayesian updates to maintain their beliefs over time. The solutions map belief states to actions. Models of other agents may include their belief states and are related to agent types considered in games of incomplete information. We express the agents' autonomy by postulating that their models are not directly manipulable or observable by other agents. We show that important properties of POMDPs, such as convergence of value iteration, the rate of convergence, and piece-wise linearity and convexity of the value functions carry over to our framework. Our approach complements a more traditional approach to interactive settings which uses Nash equilibria as a solution paradigm. We seek to avoid some of the drawbacks of equilibria which may be non-unique and do not capture off-equilibrium behaviors. We do so at the cost of having to represent, process and continuously revise models of other agents. Since the agent's beliefs may be arbitrarily nested, the optimal solutions to decision making problems are only asymptotically computable. However, approximate belief updates and approximately optimal plans are computable. We illustrate our framework using a simple application domain, and we show examples of belief updates and value functions.


A large literature has evolved in the thirty years since the seminal work on combining forecasts. Despite this, when evaluating performance we only look at measures of accuracy and thus ignore most of the rigour of time series analysis. Furthermore, the output from a combination of forecasts is just a single point estimate which is insufficient for business planning models that take explicit account of risk and uncertainty. In this paper, we review evidence on the performance of different combining methods with the aim of providing practical guidelines based on three properties of the forecast errors: variance, asymmetry and serial correlation. The evidence indicates that using different criteria leads to distinct preferences, and that the properties of the individual forecast errors can strongly influence the characteristics of the combination's errors. We show that a practical approach to combining also requires a degree of judgement on the attributes of error specification.


Do we know what's really going on?

The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) in the United States has described the increased use of crystal methamphetamine among men who have sex with men (MSM) as a "public health crisis."1 However, outside the United States, evidence concerning recreational drug use and it implication in the rising rates of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV among MSM is much more patchy.2–4 In the United Kingdom, data on changing patterns and practice of recreational drug use in the post-HAART era are incomplete, often disjointed, and generally inconsistent.5–7 If, as seems apparent from reports from other industrialised countries, there are important emerging issues concerning recreational drug use and MSM, then there is an urgent need in the United Kingdom to address the deficit in our knowledge. We set out a case for redressing the gap in our evidence base and propose simple strategies for developing better surveillance of this key behavioural aspect of STI/HIV transmission risk.

In North America and Australia the contribution of crystal methamphetamine and other recreational substance use to high risk behaviour is becoming an increasing focus of public health research.8,9,10,11 Crystal methamphetamine (CMA) is a potent stimulant drug, chemically related to amphetamine. It is similar to cocaine in its euphoric effects; but CMA is more potent, much cheaper, and longer lasting (the half life of cocaine is 50 minutes while that of CMA is up to 12 hours).12 Recent community studies have revealed important associations between the growing popularity of CMA and other recreational drugs and an apparent sexual culture shift towards more high risk behaviour.4,13,14

Although prevalence of use in individual studies varies, there is substantial evidence of widespread recent (3–6 months) non-injecting …


Abstract. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), together with The Energy and Resources Institute of India (TERI), contributed to the European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions, EUCAARI, by conducting aerosol measurements in Gual Pahari, India, from December 2007 to January 2010. This paper describes the station setup in detail for the first time and provides results from the aerosol in-situ measurements, which include PM and BCe masses, aerosol size distribution from 4 nm to 10 μm, and the scattering and absorption coefficients. The seasonal variation of the aerosol characteristics was very distinct in Gual Pahari. The highest concentrations were observed during the winter and the lowest during the rainy season. The average PM10 concentration (at STP conditions) was 216 μgm−3 and the average PM2.5 concentration was 126 μgm−3. A high percentage (4–9%) of the PM10 mass consisted of BCe which indicates anthropogenic influence. The percentage of BCe was higher during the winter; and according to the diurnal pattern of the BCe fraction, the peak occurred during active traffic hours. Another important source of aerosol particles in the area was new particle formation. The nucleated particles grew rapidly reaching the Aitken and accumulation mode size, thus contributing considerably to the aerosol load. The rainy season decreased the average fraction of particle mass in the PM2.5 size range, i.e. of secondary origin. The other mechanism decreasing the surface concentrations was based on convective mixing and boundary layer evolution. This diluted the aerosol when sun radiation and the temperature was high, i.e. especially during the pre-monsoon day time. The lighter and smaller particles were more effectively diluted.


The present study deals with the analysis of large deflection of cantilever beams for various cross sections with a transverse load at free end. The aim of this analysis is to study the vertical and horizontal displacement behaviour of leaf springs which is traditionally modeled as cantilever beams of variable cross section. Besides the free end displacement, the variation of stress, strain and the bending moment of the beam are obtained by the technique of minimization of total potential energy principle. The displacement functions are approximated by linear combination of sets of orthogonal coordinate functions, developed through Gram-Schmidt scheme and substituted in the governing equilibrium equation. The final solution of the large displacement geometric nonlinear problem is obtained iteratively with the help of matlab computaional simulation. It is observed that the free end displacements and the maximum stress at fixed end are greatly affected by the geometry of the beam cross section. The present computational method has been validated and some new results have been furnished.


Combining the noninterferometric wide-field optical profilometry technique with fluorescence microscopy, we observe the membrane activities of a living cell as well as the structures of its cytoskeletons. The membrane ripples of a lamellipodium are related to similar structures of the underlying actin filaments. However, we find the ripples appear prior to and disappear later than the corresponding actin filament structures, which supports the elastic Brownian ratchet model of cell motility. In addition, we measure the three-dimensional movement of a fibronectin-coated latex bead on the membrane. The bead motion is determined by the movement and branching of the actin molecules on the filament, as well as by the displacement of the filament itself.


The 5G mobile telecommunications standard is focusing increased attention on licensing of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). SEP holders and technology implementers commit to negotiate license agreements on terms that are Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory (FRAND). Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) establish coordinated FRAND commitments by consensus decision making. SEP holders and implementers create negotiated FRAND commitments through patent license agreements. Courts specify adjudicated FRAND commitments in SEP license disputes. The article argues that SSO coordination, market negotiation, and adjudication precisely define FRAND commitments. The courts have successfully applied common law principles and comparable license agreements to interpret FRAND commitments. The article argues that administrative or judicial regulation would reduce standardization, impede innovation, and constrain market negotiation of patent license agreements. The article introduces the concept of the "patent run-around" to describe potential effects of "licensing to all" regulations. The article cautions that because of some landmark court decisions, there is a risk that the provisions of patent license agreements could be determined more by judicial regulation than by negotiation in competitive markets. Problematic developments include the imposition of arbitrary aggregate rate caps and basing royalties on the estimated incremental value of standardized technology. The article recommends that courts avoid formulating one-size-fits-all FRAND commitments in 5G mobile telecommunications and other innovative industries. Licensing SEPs does not justify increased antitrust enforcement or administrative regulation.


Why do employed persons in large firms earn more than employed persons in small firms, even after controlling for observable characteristics? Complementary to previous results, this paper proposes a mechanism that gives an answer to this question. In the model, individuals accumulate human capital and are exposed to the risk of losing some of their human capital as they change jobs, voluntarily or involuntarily. The model, calibrated to the United States and Canada, accounts for one-third of the firmsize wage premium. Regarding the earnings gap between Canada and the United States, the model finds that it is solely due to differences in labor market uncertainty.


The imminent decline in species diversity coupled with increasing exotic species introductions has provoked investigation into the role of resident diversity in community resistance to exotic species colonization. Here we present the results of a field study using an experimental method in which diversity was altered by removal of less abundant species and the resulting disturbance was controlled for by removal of an equivalent amount of biomass of the most common species from paired plots. Following these manipulations, the exotic grass, Lolium temulentum, was introduced. We found that exotic species establishment was higher in plots in which diversity was successfully reduced by removal treatments and was inversely related to imposed species richness. These results demonstrate that less common species can significantly influence invasion events and highlight the potential role of less common species in the maintenance of ecosystem function.


Motivated by the Möbius transformation for symmetric points under the generalized circle in the complex plane, the system of symmetric spin coherent states corresponding to antipodal qubit states is introduced. In terms of these states, we construct the maximally entangled complete set of two-qubit coherent states, which in the limiting cases reduces to the Bell basis. A specific property of our symmetric coherent states is that they never become unentangled for any value of ψ from the complex plane. Entanglement quantifications of our states are given by the reduced density matrix and the concurrence determinant, and it is shown that our basis is maximally entangled. Universal one- and two-qubit gates in these new coherent state basis are calculated. As an application, we find the Q symbol of the XY Z model Hamiltonian operator H as an average energy function in maximally entangled two- and three-qubit phase space. It shows regular finite-energy localized structure with specific local extremum points. The concurrence and fidelity of quantum evolution with dimerization of double periodic patterns are given.


From algorithmic information theory, which connects the information content of a data set to the shortest computer program that can produce it, it is known that there are strong analogies between compression, knowledge, inference and prediction. The more we know about a data generating process, the better we can predict and compress the data. A model that is inferred from data should ideally be a compact description of those data. In theory, this means that hydrological knowledge could be incorporated into compression algorithms to more efficiently compress hydrological data and to outperform general purpose compression algorithms. In this study, we develop such a hydrological data compressor, named HydroZIP, and test in practice whether it can outperform general purpose compression algorithms on hydrological data from 431 river basins from the Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX) data set. HydroZIP compresses using temporal dependencies and parametric distributions. Resulting file sizes are interpreted as measures of information content, complexity and model adequacy. These results are discussed to illustrate points related to learning from data, overfitting and model complexity.


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The victory over Axis forces by the Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943 is considered one of the major turning points of World War Two. General Vasily Chuikov and the men of the 62nd Army, supported by General Alexander Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Division, were trapped inside the city, where fighting amongst the bombed-out ruins at times consisted of hand-to-hand combat with only knives and spades as weapons. The German forces attacked Stalingrad with double the infantry the defenders possessed, three times their strength in artillery, five times as many tanks, and were supported by overwhelming air power, but the brilliant military tactics of General Georgy Zhukov enabled the Soviet armies outside Stalingrad to eventually encircle the yet undefeated German 6th Army.

Constrained by Soviet politics from its inception in 1918, and later by the paranoid psychology of the tyrannical leader Joseph Stalin, the men and women of the Red Army struggled to survive an inadequate system, with low pay and poor housing, and they often went untrained. Due to Stalin's ruthlessness in his desire to stay in power as Secretary of the Soviet Union and Soviet Premier, everyone, including ordinary citizens, peasants, and important politicians became victims of his wrath, and the military was certainly no exception. During the 1930s, the Red Army High Command was purged in its thousands, with the result being the loss of many highly experienced officers.

This thesis will discuss and analyses the Red Army's background from 1918, to its position in 1941, when German and Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union in a covert manoeuvre codenamed Operation Barbarossa. It will explain the occurrences that changed the Red Army from an untrained, undisciplined, purged, ill-equipped, and dispirited entity, to gain the victory at the battle of Stalingrad.


Disease, overharvesting, and pollution have impaired the role of bivalves on coastal ecosystems, some to the point of functional extinction. An underappreciated function of many bivalves in these systems is shell formation. The ecological significance of bivalve shell has been recognized; geochemical effects are now more clearly being understood. A positive feedback exists between shell aggregations and healthy bivalve populations in temperate estuaries, thus linking population dynamics to shell budgets and alkalinity cycling. On oyster reefs a balanced shell budget requires healthy long-lived bivalves to maximize shell input per mortality event thereby countering shell loss. Active and dense populations of filter-feeding bivalves couple production of organic-rich waste with precipitation of calcium carbonate minerals, creating conditions favorable for alkalinity regeneration. Although the dynamics of these processes are not well described, the balance between shell burial and metabolic acid production seems the key to the extent of alkalinity production vs. carbon burial as shell. We present an estimated alkalinity budget that highlights the significant role oyster reefs once played in the Chesapeake Bay inorganic-carbon cycle. Sustainable coastal and estuarine bivalve populations require a comprehensive understanding of shell budgets and feedbacks among population dynamics, agents of shell destruction, and anthropogenic impacts on coastal carbonate chemistry.


We already know which countries have controlled the spread of COVID-19 better and what "good practices" have enabled them to do so. Eventually, some of these policies could be replicated in other countries. But it is not enough to make a well-informed public intervention. We also need quickly available indicators of how actively populations are responding to the virus threat because current changes in social behaviour could mean significant differences in the spread of the COVID-19 in two weeks (after the incubation period). In this article, Pablo Beytía Reyes and Carlos Cruz Infante explore the potential of Google Trends to quickly track social responses to the pandemic. In all the countries that have reached a downward changepoint in the COVID-19 contagion, an "information saturation peak" preceded it: people were massively searching for information on the subject over 2 to 5 days, and about a week after the peak of searches was reached, a decline in the growth trend of coronavirus confirmed cases could be observed. Does it make sense to associate a Google search boom with a decrease in transmission trends? The authors propose that the frequency of searches is a quick indicator of 1) people' concerns on the virus, 2) the development of a more informed citizenry on how to avoid transmission and 3) active social response to the virus spread, which generally lead to a downward change in the contagion trend.


A Helmholtz Coil with a large usable area of uniform field was designed, constructed and characterized, specifically for Bioelectric studies. The design and analysis of the coil were carried out through experiments and the use of industry standard electromagnetic software suite. The location and the area that would have uniform field intensity were determined through simulation and compared with measurements. The effects of magnetic fields on soybean germination rate were studied for a specific soybean variety, code named Magellan. Experimental results indicate that presoaked soybean seeds when treated under static low intensity and extremely low frequency magnetic fields show improved growth and germination rates when compared to those grown under earth's geomagnetic fields. The extreme-low-frequency (ELF) AC magnetic field is more conducive to Soybean germination compared to the static magnetic field. An alternating magnetic field of 60 Hz was shown to have a statistically significant effect on soybean seed germination. Results have also shown that magnetic fields influence soybean germination more than electromagnetic fields from an anechoic chamber and a TEM cell. The magnetic field may provide a feasible non-chemical solution in agriculture, and thus offers advantages over chemical methods in terms of environment protection and safety for the applicator. Further study is needed to determine the main reason at the molecular level for this phenomenon.


The goal of this thesis is to develop a mathematical framework for optimal, accurate, and affordable complexity statistical learning among networks of autonomous agents. We begin by noting the connection between statistical inference and stochastic programming, and consider extensions of this setup to settings in which a network of agents each observes a local data stream and would like to make decisions that are good with respect to information aggregated across the entire network. There is an open-ended degree of freedom in this problem formulation, however: the selection of the estimator function class which defines the feasible set of the stochastic program. Our central contribution is the design of stochastic optimization tools in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces that yield optimal, accurate, and affordable complexity statistical learning for a multi-agent network. To obtain this result, we first explore the relative merits and drawbacks of different function class selections. In Part I, we consider multi-agent expected risk minimization this problem setting for the case that each agent seems to learn a common globally optimal generalized linear models (GLMs) by developing a stochastic variant of Arrow-Hurwicz primal-dual method. We establish convergence to the primal-dual optimal pair when either consensus or ``proximity" constraints encode the fact that we want all agents' to agree, or nearby agents to make decisions that are close to one another. Empirically, we observe that these convergence results are substantiated but that convergence may not translate into statistical accuracy. More broadly, optimality within a given estimator function class is not the same as one that makes minimal inference errors. The optimality-accuracy tradeoff of GLMs motivates subsequent efforts to learn more sophisticated estimators based upon learned feature encodings of the data that is fed into the statistical model. The specific tool we turn to in Part II is dictionary learning, where we optimize both over regression weights and an encoding of the data, which yields a non-convex problem. We investigate the use of stochastic methods for online task-driven dictionary learning, and obtain promising performance for the task of a ground robot learning to anticipate control uncertainty based on its past experience. Heartened by this implementation, we then consider extensions of this framework for a multiagent network to each learn globally optimal task-driven dictionaries based on stochastic primal-dual methods. However, it is here the non-convexity of the optimization problem causes problems: stringent conditions on stochastic errors and the duality gap limit the applicability of the convergence guarantees, and impractically small learning rates are required for convergence in practice. Thus, we seek to learn nonlinear statistical models while preserving convexity, which is possible through kernel methods ( Part III). However, the increased descriptive power of nonparametric estimation comes at the cost of infinite complexity. Thus, we develop a stochastic approximation algorithm in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) that ameliorates this complexity issue while preserving optimality: we combine the functional generalization of stochastic gradient method (FSGD) with greedily constructed low-dimensional subspace projections based on matching pursuit. We establish that the proposed method yields a controllable trade-off between optimality and memory, and yields highly accurate parsimonious statistical models in practice. % This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2400 Then, we develop a multi-agent extension of this method by proposing a new node-separable penalty function and applying FSGD together with low-dimensional subspace projections. This extension allows a network of autonomous agents to learn a memory-efficient approximation to the globally optimal regression function based only on their local data stream and message passing with neighbors. In practice, we observe agents are able to stably learn highly accurate and memory-efficient nonlinear statistical models from streaming data. From here, we shift focus to a more challenging class of problems, motivated by the fact that true learning is not just revising predictions based upon data but augmenting behavior over time based on temporal incentives. This goal may be described by Markov Decision Processes (MDPs): at each point, an agent is in some state of the world, takes an action and then receives a reward while randomly transitioning to a new state. The goal of the agent is to select the action sequence to maximize its long-term sum of rewards, but determining how to select this action sequence when both the state and action spaces are infinite has eluded researchers for decades. As a precursor to this feat, we consider the problem of policy evaluation in infinite MDPs, in which we seek to determine the long-term sum of rewards when starting in a given state when actions are chosen according to a fixed distribution called a policy. We reformulate this problem as a RKHSvalued compositional stochastic program and we develop a functional extension of stochastic quasi-gradient algorithm operating in tandem with the greedy subspace projections mentioned above. We prove convergence with probability 1 to the Bellman fixed point restricted to this function class, and we observe a state of the art trade off in memory versus Bellman error for the proposed method on the Mountain Car driving task, which bodes well for incorporating policy evaluation into more sophisticated, provably stable reinforcement learning techniques, and in time, developing optimal collaborative multi-agent learning-based control systems. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Electrical & Systems Engineering First Advisor Alejandro Ribeiro


Images are not simply sets of objects: each image represents a web of interconnected relationships. These relationships between entities carry semantic meaning and help a viewer differentiate between instances of an entity. For example, in an image of a soccer match, there may be multiple persons present, but each participates in different relationships: one is kicking the ball, and the other is guarding the goal. In this paper, we formulate the task of utilizing these "referring relationships" to disambiguate between entities of the same category. We introduce an iterative model that localizes the two entities in the referring relationship, conditioned on one another. We formulate the cyclic condition between the entities in a relationship by modelling predicates that connect the entities as shifts in attention from one entity to another. We demonstrate that our model can not only outperform existing approaches on three datasets - CLEVR, VRD and Visual Genome - but also that it produces visually meaningful predicate shifts, as an instance of interpretable neural networks. Finally, we show that by modelling predicates as attention shifts, we can even localize entities in the absence of their category, allowing our model to find completely unseen categories.


Prunus armeniaca belonging to Rosaceae family and the genus Prunus, which is widely distributed in areas of higher altitudes. In Pakistan, it is cultivated in Baluchistan and Kashmir. In the present studies we have isolated and characterized the various chemical constituents present in the different parts of the plant. We took the flash fruits for investigation. The flashy portion was removed from the kernel, plant material was extracted with methanol at room temperature. The concentrated methanolic extract after removal of solvent under reduced pressure was subjected to fractionation with different solvents in order to separate various polar and non-polar fractions. The isolation of the constituents was achieved by different chromatographic techniques and repeated recrystallization methods, and through chemical transformations.

The structure of the compounds so obtained were studied with the help of spectroscopic methods like IH-NMR, IR, 13C-NMR and mass spectroscopy. The compounds isolated belongs to oleanane/ ursane series, and the sterol alongwith its glucoside has also been obtained from this source for the first time. Another nitrogenous compound have also been reported for the first time from this source. The compounds isolated have been designated as 01,02,03,04,05,06 and 07.


Boundary layer separation control has been studied using vortex generator jets (VGJs) on a very high lift, low-pressure turbine airfoil. Experiments were done under high (4%) freestream turbulence conditions on a linear cascade in a low speed wind tunnel. Pressure surveys on the airfoil surface and downstream total pressure loss surveys were documented. Instantaneous velocity profile measurements were acquired in the suction surface boundary layer. Cases were considered at Reynolds numbers (based on the suction surface length and the nominal exit velocity from the cascade) of 25,000 and 50,000. Jet pulsing frequency, duty cycle, and blowing ratio were all varied. Computational results from a large eddy simulation of one case showed reattachment in agreement with the experiment. In cases without flow control, the boundary layer separated and did not reattach. With the VGJs, separation control was possible even at the lowest Reynolds number. Pulsed VGJs were more effective than steady jets. At sufficiently high pulsing frequencies, separation control was possible even with low jet velocities and low duty cycles. At lower frequencies, higher jet velocity was required, particularly at low Reynolds numbers. Effective separation control resulted in an increase in lift and a reduction in total pressure losses. Phase averaged velocity profiles and wavelet spectra of the velocity show the VGJ disturbance causes the boundary layer to reattach, but that it can reseparate between disturbances. When the disturbances occur at high enough frequency, the time available for separation is reduced, and the separation bubble remains closed at all times.


The importance of composites as engineering materials is reflected by the fact that out of over 1600 engineering materials available in the market today more than 200 are composites. These composites initially replaced Cast Iron and Bronze alloys but owing to their poor wear and seizure resistance, they were subjected to many experiments and the wear behavior of these composites were explored to a maximum extent and were reported by number of research scholars for the past 25 years. In the present study, based on the literature review, the effect of Silicon carbide on Stir cast Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites is discussed. Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites with Silicon carbide particle reinforcements are finding increased applications in aerospace, automobile, space, underwater, and transportation applications. This is mainly due to improved mechanical and tribological properties like strong, stiff, abrasion and impact resistant, and is not easily corroded. In the present scenario, a review of different researchers have been made to consolidate some of the aspects of mechanical and wear behavior of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites reinforced with Silicon carbide particles in both untreated and precipitation hardened condition.


About one quarter of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere by human activities is absorbed annually by the ocean. All the processes that influence the oceanic uptake of CO2 are controlled by climate. Hence changes in climate (both natural and human‐induced) are expected to alter the uptake of CO2 by the ocean. However, available information that constrains the direction, magnitude, or rapidity of the response of ocean CO2 to changes in climate is limited. We present an analysis of oceanic CO2 trends for 1981 to 2007 from data and a model. Our analysis suggests that the global ocean responded to recent changes in climate by outgassing some preindustrial carbon, in part compensating the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. Using a model, we estimate that climate change and variability reduced the CO2 uptake by 12% compared to a simulation where constant climate is imposed, and offset 63% of the trend in response to increasing atmospheric CO2 alone. The response is caused by changes in wind patterns and ocean warming, with important nonlinear effects that amplify the response of oceanic CO2 to changes in climate by > 30%.


Background Patients living in rural areas often need to travel long distances for access to specialist care. To increase access to specialist care, video consultation between patients in primary healthcare and specialist care has been used. In order for this new method to be developed and used to the fullest, it is important to understand healthcare personnel's experiences with this intervention. Objective The aim of this study was to describe healthcare personnel's experiences using video consultation in their work in primary healthcare. Method A mixed methods design was used, and the data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. Interviews were conducted with eight general practitioners and one district nurse, all of whom had conducted a video consultation with a patient and a specialist physician or a cardiac specialist nurse. After each video consultation, the participants completed a consultation report/questionnaire. Results Healthcare personnel considered video consultation to provide quicker access to specialist care for the patient, and greater security when the video consultation encounter was conducted at their own primary healthcare centre. They considered video consultation an opportunity to provide education and for the patients to ask questions. Conclusion Video consultation is a satisfactory tool for healthcare personnel, and the technology is a new, useful method, especially for the district nurses. Further, video consultation is an opportunity for healthcare personnel to learn. However, for it to work as an accepted method, the technology must function well and be user friendly. It must also be clear that it is beneficial for the patients and the healthcare personnel.


We present experimental evidence for a photothermoelastic response in zincblende crystals illuminated by quantum cascade laser sources in the frequency range 2.2–2.9 THz. Results obtained using an optically balanced sampling arrangement indicate a mechanism whereby the stress distribution established through localized heating of the crystal induces a change in optical birefringence via the photoelastic response of the crystal. A full mathematic model of this photothermoelastic mechanism in (110)-orientated crystals is presented, and shown to agree well with experimental measurements of the magnitude, and the orientational and spatial dependencies of the sampled signal in ZnTe and GaP crystals.


STREAM is a 4-year multi-site training network that aims at career development of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) on scientific design, construction manufacturing and of advanced radiation instrumentation. STREAM targets the development of innovative radiation-hard, smart CMOS sensor technologies for scientific and industrial applications. The platform technology developed within the project will be tested in the demanding conditions posed by the CERN LHC detectors' environment as well as European industry leaders in the field of CMOS imaging, electron microscopy and radiation sensors. This leveraging factor will allow to fine-tune the technology to meet the requirements of industrial application cases on demand such as electron microscopy and medical X-ray imaging, as well as pathway towards novel application fields such as satellite environments, industrial X-ray systems and near-infrared imaging. The project will train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers and widen their academic career and employment opportunities. The STREAM consortium is composed of 10 research organisations and 5 industrial partners; the network will provide training to 17 ESRs. STREAM structures the research and training in four scientific work-packages which span the whole value-chain from research to application: CMOS Technologies Assessment, Smart Sensor Design and Layout, Validation and Qualification, Technology Integration, and Valorization.


Due to historical circumstances, the development of Lithuanian commercial farmer's farms is slow; however, farmer's farms are very important to the vitality of rural areas while developing agricultural commodities and goods. The purpose of this article – to analyze the structural changes in farmer's farms and present the directions of future development. Structural changes in Lithuanian farmer's farms during the 2005 – 2015 timeframe were analyzed while looking at the diagnostic indicators, which are the following: the number of farmer's farms, the structure of farmer's farms according to their size, the activity units of farmer's farms, age of farmers, farmer's farms sources of income. In order to study the statistical data, methods of systemization, logical analysis and generalization were applied. The analysis of the statistical data suggests that the following structural changes are taking place in Lithuanian farmer's farms: the number of registered farmer's farms increases and the farmers' are getting younger. One of the most significant factors causing the structural changes in holdings – the EU financial support for the agricultural development and the changing customer demands. More and more often rural areas perform residential function and new living areas are developed. There is a predominance of the small farms (up to 10 hectares). This is mainly a result of the reform in agricultural sector at the end of 20th century. Many small agricultural holdings were established due to this reform. However, significant changes occur while choosing and/or combining the activity units of the farm: the number of farms specializing in crops increases, the number of the holdings focusing on livestock and combined farming (crops and livestock) is declining; also, farmer's farms with diversified income or the activity units grow in number. Limited opportunities to intensify agricultural production in small farmer's farms caused the fact that activities or income were diversified. The model of family farm remains; however, the relation between activity and the usage of family's labour in farm activity changes.


The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of community service work and community involvement on perceptions of self-entitlement--expectations of others to do things for oneself--among undergraduate students. Over the course of a 16-week semester, 26 randomly selected subjects (20 community college psychology students and six state university psychology students) volunteered to participate in a community service gardening program. Students were administered a pretest questionnaire that measured their self-entitlement attitudes and attitudes addressing the importance of community service. At the end of the 16-week semester, students were administered a posttest questionnaire to assess attitudes toward their community service work. A control group (n = 26) was administered the same questionnaire, but they did not participate in community service work throughout the semester. Results were analyzed using a t-test and statistical significance was found (p Introduction Previous research has explored the importance of social work within the community and how people need to feel "connected" to society by providing a specific skill or trade to others within the community (Adler, 1964; Lisman, 1998). Research has also shown the importance of community service work in connection to ethics and moral development (Boss, 1994). Adler describes the importance of establishing social interest--the need to identify with and cooperate, contribute and volunteer with others for the common good of the community. As a collective society, citizens need to remind themselves to engage in prosocial behaviors for the common good even though there may be no direct or reciprocal benefit to them. Many individuals--adults as well as children--have experienced an increase in what is referred to as "self-entitlement": an expectation, of others to do things for oneself or one's community. Socially aware adults maintain that by teaching children to assume more civic and social responsibility such as engaging in volunteer clean-up programs and community service work, attitudes of self-entitlement will decrease. The following research is especially important, given the negative ramifications of long term self-entitlement attitudes. For example, what happens when parents and their children do not assume responsibility for their learning and performing well in school? What happens when people do not accept responsibility for their own health issues such as obesity or substance abuse (i.e., alcoholism or chronic cigarette smoking)? Assumptions about self-entitlement lead them to expect others to correct the problem that began with their own poor lifestyle choices. Thus, the community takes on the responsibility of the individual rather than the individual taking responsibility for himself or herself. Unfortunately, when too many people develop self-entitlement attitudes, the community no longer becomes capable of helping those in need of assistance. Communities are strongest when individuals engage in volunteer work to help each other and weakest when individuals expect things to be done for them, things they should recognize as part of their individual responsibility. Civic responsibility Larson-Keagy (2002) notes that community colleges and universities are responsible for the development of knowledge and character among students and are in a unique position to promote such development. Larson-Keagy defines "civic responsibility" as "an active participation in the public life of a community in an informed, committed, and constructive manner, with a focus on the common good" (p. 2). The relationship between the terms "civic responsibility" and "self-entitlement" is critical here. Civic responsibility encourages individuals to take on more community obligations for the common good, whereas self-entitlement expects the common good for oneself. …


Two recent books on prison growth directly address the relationship between penal change and economic conditions: Hadar Aviram's Cheap on Crime and Marie Gottschalk's Caught. Aviram's is the more optimistic of the two accounts, arguing that there is at least some potential in an economic-based reform effort. Gottschalk, on the other hand, fears not only that economic-based efforts could fail to lead to significant reforms, but that they could actually make prison life worse for inmates if states cut funding and support without cutting populations. Both books make many provocative points, but both also suffer from some surprising omissions. Ultimately, both books, and Gottschalk's in particular, are likely too pessimistic about economic-based reform, although for reasons that neither book adequately addresses.

I focus on two major themes in this Review. First, what exactly is the relationship between the current fiscal crisis and prison reform? The second issue I consider is narrower: the impact of private prison firms on prison reform.


In the newsvendor problem a decision maker orders inventory before a one period selling season with stochastic demand. If too much is ordered, stock is left over at the end of the period, whereas if too little is ordered, sales are lost. The expected profit-maximizing order quantity is well known, but little is known about how managers actually make these decisions. We describe two experiments that investigate newsvendor decisions across different profit conditions. Results from these studies demonstrate that choices systematically deviate from those that maximize expected profit. Subjects order too few of high-profit products and too many of low-profit products. These results are not consistent with risk-aversion, risk-seeking preferences, Prospect Theory preferences, waste aversion, stockout aversion, or the consequences of underestimating opportunity costs. Two explanations are consistent with the data. One, subjects behave as if their utility function incorporates a preference to reduce ex-post inventory error, the absolute difference between the chosen quantity and realized demand. Two, subjects suffer from the anchoring and insufficient adjustment bias. Feedback and training did not mitigate inventory order errors. We suggest techniques to improve decision making.


Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (FDCS) is an uncommon tumor arising from follicular dendritic cells that normally form meshwork in lymphoid follicles , this case of ours is a 65yr old female , presented with one month history of cervical swelling along with abdominal discomfort . She has a past history of radical mastectomy for carcinoma breast treated with chemoradiation 12 years back. Endoscopy revealed polypoid lesion in the body of stomach. Both the tumors Lymph node & Gastric lesion, were excised and submitted to routine histopathological examination. Lymphnode swelling was confirmed as FDCS on immunohistochemistry. Polypoidal lesion of stomach was confirmed as Benign Gastro intestinal stromal tumor(GIST).Cases of FDCS associated with other malignancies have been described in literature. However to our knowledge, this is the first report in literature, were FDCS is seen simultaneously with GIST – stomach. However further studies are needed for possible relationship between two such neoplasms occurring concurrently.


Stable water supply to end users is the most important element in water supply systems (WSSs). The portion of energy used by the water distribution system is up to 40% of the total energy consumed by WSSs. To save energy cost for pumping systems, a number of attempts have been made. Especially, an optimization scheme for scheduling the water-pumping operation has attracted the interest of water engineers. In this paper, a binary integer program was applied to optimize pumping schedule of a WSS in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka based on the hourly water demands for the next day. The water demands were forecasted by a combined model consisting of an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and an error compensation routine based on exponential smoothing technique. The result showed that the optimization system could reduce the operation cost of the WSS by minimizing electricity for water pumping; electricity cost for pump operation could be reduced by 55%.


The dissertation provides a systematic description of English and Afrikaans
verbal pseudo-coordination and a formal analysis couched in the Minimalist
program. It has implications for the way narrow syntax conjoins categories
and features and argues for a role for syntactic operations below the level of
the head. The dissertation also has consequences for the nature of headmovement,
excorporation and its triggers.
Verbal pseudo-coordination typically involves an aspectual verb coordinated
with a lexical verb. This dissertation argues that verbal pseudo-coordination is
not a unitary phenomenon and can involve coordination of verbal heads
rather than phrasal categories. The analysis allows a treatment of pseudocoordination
as ordinary coordination rather than as subordination.
The typology of verbal pseudo-coordination is extended with a discussion of
reduplicative coordination and Afrikaaans pseudo-coordination with verbs of
posture. It is shown that coordination can target features at or below the level
of the head and that this allows strong conceptions of the Coordinate Structure
Constraint and the Law of Coordination of Likes to be maintained.


Currently lumbar epidural is considered to be the gold standard in anaesthesia practice Elements involved in epidural anaesthesia procedure were generally individual to the patient's anatomy, epidural catheter location and response to the medications.. The total of 160 parturients undergoing epidural anaesthesia for lower segment caesarean section LSCS were enrolled in this mono centric study. Parturients were in the range of age 16 -45 years old with ASA 1, II and II involved in the study. Data categorized on phenomenological, physiological, and emotional experience were measured to determine the contributing factors for epidural failure. Visual analogue pain scores VAPS, Brommage scale and perfusion index PI were used as instrument to assess epidural block. Demographic characteristic did not influenced epidural failure, while physiological factors referring to duration of labour (P < 0.05) & perfusion index PI (P < 0.05) at parameter value of 3.99 ± 0.44 contributed to the epidural failure. Elements of emotional experience such as Visual Analogue Pain Score (P < 0.05), Bromage Scale (P < 0.05), Restlessness and patchy block were significantly contributed to the epidural failure. Epidural failure of 3.8% in this study was lowered compared to previous study up to30.0%. Perhaps new heuristics in new Transition Policy Anaesthesia Analysis TAPA can be developed for bridging the gaps in determination of failure for epidural anaesthesia especially for caesarean section. Future direction Technology advances should be used as way to predict epidural failure such as Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS). Ultrasound imaging of the spine could be proposed to facilitate identification of the epidural space and predict difficult spine score, especially in women with abnormal lumbosacral anatomy (scoliosis) and those who were obese. It should be a good level of success in the ultrasound-determined insertion point and very good agreement between ultrasound depth (UD) and needle depth (ND).


The current study tested whether Trait Emotional Intelligence variables and Optimistic Cognitive Style together predicted feelings of certainty in career decision making. Few studies have examined the effects of trait emotional intelligence or life style orientation on career choice, and no study has been found that combined both the life orientation (optimism) and the trait emotional intelligence domains and facets: this current study examined the relative weights of these facets and lifestyle orientation in relation to career certainty. Participants were from a convenience sample of 142 university students who completed a paper-and-pencil survey containing the following measures: the Life Orientation Test-Revised (assessing optimism, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Scale (TEIQue), and the Career Decision Scale (CDS). It was found that optimism and the four main domains (of wellbeing, self-control, emotionality, and sociability) and several of the subscales of the TEIQue correlated significantly with career certainty. A unique significant predictor of Career Certainty was found to be Stability-Impulsivity (a facet in the Self-Control domain of the TEIQue) but optimism was not a factor in predicting career certainty when the stability-impulsiveness factor was accounted for. Self-control- stability (low impulsiveness) predicted career certainty. It would seem that stability in thinking and action helps career commitment (certainty). Implications are drawn for career development counselling and suggestions made for future research.


More than twenty years ago Russell King (1996; 2000) wrote that return migration is the unwritten chapter in migration scholarship. Since then, literature on return migration has flourished. This more recent literature has also explored the diversity of return experiences and modalities, including different temporalities of return – so that it is more appropriate to speak of return mobilities rather return migration because mobilities can take very diverse forms, including visits, tourism etc (King and Christou 2011). Return migration, on the other hand, has been more associated with the end of the migration cycle and permanent return. In this chapter of the Latvian case, we engage in conceptual debate and empirical analysis of comparisons and syntheses across both dimensions – return mobility and migration – and how these are related to transnational return. The latter implies that people can return either permanently or temporary, but they keep ties across borders and, moreover, their return can be enabled by transnational networks. Firstly, conceptually and methodologically, we need to set alongside each other two historical waves of Latvian emigration and diaspora formation, which we label here for the sake of initial simplicity 'old' and 'recent' emigrants. Such historical attentiveness is crucial for understanding how transnational cultural values and norms are changing (Portes 2010) in different groups of return migrants in Latvia. Secondly, we comparatively explore three different temporal modes of physical return: 'permanent' return, diaspora tourism from the 'old' emigration, and the practice of recent migrants returning to visit friends and relatives. However, rather than build our analysis by boxing our data into discrete categories, we wish to investigate similarities, blurrings and connections between the different return types, mobilities and experiences.


This reports presents a runtime solution to a range of Web application security vulnerabilities. The solution we proposes called SecuriFly consists of instrumenting the application to precisely track the flow of data. When a potential vulnerability is observed, the application is either terminated to prevent the vulnerability from being exploited or special recovery code is executed and the application is allowed to continue on running. We have used SecuriFly to harden and experiment with a range of large opensource benchmarks written in Java. Protection provided by SecuriFly was sufficient to protect against all exploits we were able to generate.


Weibull distribution can be used to model the wind speed distribution at a particular site and hence, it can help in wind resource assessment (WRA) of a site. By calculating the shape (k) and scale (c) parameters for Weibull distribution, the wind speed frequency curve for a site can be made. Once this wind speed distribution for site is determined, it can be convolved with the power curve for a wind turbine and the annual energy output from the site can be determined. This paper presents how the Weibull distribution is used to determine the wind speed distribution for Vadravadra site in Gau Island of Fiji and how closely the annual energy output from the modelled wind speed distribution matches with the annual energy output using the actual wind speed distribution. It also presents how k is related to the turbulence intensity for a site; how the c is related to the annual mean wind speed and how a formula for estimating c is derived at a new height.


Abstract Elucidation of the distribution of diagenetic alterations in incised-valley sandstones within a sequence stratigraphic framework allows a better understanding of their reservoir-quality evolution during burial. Gas reservoirs of the upper Miocene Abu Madi Formation (present-day depth 3350 m, temperature 116°), the Nile Delta Basin, Egypt, consist of lowstand systems tract (LST) fluvial and transgressive systems tract (TST) estuarine sandstones deposited in an incised valley. These sandstones have a wide range of porosity (2 to 29%) and permeability (0.01 to 6071 mD), which reflect both depositional facies and diagenetic controls. Diagenetic events that influenced the reservoir-quality evolution include mainly the formation of extensive grain-rimming Fe-Mg chlorite, mechanical compaction of ductile grains, pressure dissolution of quartz, and quartz cementation. The chlorite rims, distributions of which are not clearly related to sequence stratigraphy, have preserved reservoir quality by inhibiting quartz cementation but have increased microporosity values in the reservoirs. Calcite cementation (18O = −13.5‰ to −6.0‰, δ13C = −14.3‰ to −1.0‰, and 87Sr/86Sr = 0.707124 to 0.708181), has not influenced the overall reservoir-quality evolution of the sandstones because of its localized occurrence. Other diagenetic events that have little influence on reservoir quality include the more frequent formation of kaolin in the LST fluvial sandstones and formation of pyrite in the TST estuarine sandstones. This study demonstrates the possibility of constraining and evaluating the impact of diagenetic alterations on reservoir-quality evolution in incised-valley deposits and their sequence stratigraphic distribution, and thus has an important impact on hydrocarbon exploration in such settings.


Introduction: Leaf extracts of Aegle marmelos are reported to have hypoglycemic and anticancer effects. While a lot of information is available about the antioxidant activity of fruit of A. marmelos not much information is available about the antioxidant activity of the leaf of A. marmelos. Objective: The primary objective if this study was to ascertain the antioxidant activity of leaf extract of A. marmelos (AME). Methods: AME was evaluated for total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) by Folin-Ciocalteau reagent method and by aluminium chloride method, respectively. Antioxidant activity of AME was assessed by FRAP assay, DPPH assay, ABTS cation scavenging activity and by reducing power determination. Results: High levels of TPC and TFC were found in AME which showed antioxidant activity comparable to vitamin C. Significant correlation between TPC, TFC and antioxidant activity of AME was found when Pearson's correlation is applied. Conclusion: This study proved that the leaves of A. marmelos have high antioxidant component.


The resource reservation techniques provide effective means to lower the software complexity, ensure predictability and allow flexibility during the development and execution of complex distributed embedded systems. In this paper we propose a new end-to-end resource reservation model for distributed embedded systems. The model is comprehensive in such a way that it supports end-to-end resource reservations on distributed transactions with various activation patterns that are commonly used in industrial control systems. The model allows resource reservations on processors and real-time network protocols. We also present timing analysis for the distributed embedded systems that are developed using the proposed model. The timing analysis computes the end-to-end response times as well as delays such as data age and reaction delays. The presented analysis also supports real-time networks that can autonomously initiate transmissions. Such networks are not supported by the existing analyses. We also include a case study to show the usability of the model and end-to-end timing analysis with resource reservations.


In his account of the events leading up to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides tells us that in 435 b.c. the Epidamnians decided to transfer their allegiance from Corcyra to Corinth in accordance with the Delphic oracle, whereupon the Corinthians agreed to support Epidamnus against their own colony Corcyra. One of the reasons given is that the Corinthians hated the Corcyraeans for their contempt for their mother city, as 'in their common festivals they would not allow them the customary privileges of founders, at their sacrifice they did not give priority to Corinthians [as other colonies did]' (οὔτε γὰρ ἐν πανηγύρεσι ταῖς κοιναῖς διδόντες γέρα τὰ νομιζόμενα οὔτε Κορινθίῳ ἀνδρὶ προκαταρχόμενοι τῶν ἱερῶν ὥσπερ αἱ ἄλλαι ἀποικίαι). Precisely what the dispute was and what the word προκατάρχεσθαι means have not been convincingly explained by commentators.


Research on technology acceptance and diffusion is critical, providing insights into how organizations can manage the adoption and use of information technology. With globalization, it is important to understand IT adoption in other cultures. The primary purpose of this study is to enrich the understanding of IT acceptance by extending a U.S.-based research model to a different culture, namely China. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of e-mail users in 30 Chinese organizations. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the model and test the hypotheses. We draw comparisons between our findings and existing studies, and discuss theoretical and practical implications.


In this paper we study the need for multidimensional separation of concerns in architecture representations, including architecture-centered software development. We present a case study of a simple video surveillance system, describe its software architecture using an ADL called Wright, and we discuss the pragmatics and problems in the use of ADLs in general, compared to a concern-based approach to software architecture description. Our position is that current ADLs provide architectural abstractions that need to be extended to achieve the major goals of software architecture. Furthermore, in order to cover all concerns of importance in a software architecture description, software architects must be able to separate various dimensions of concern and consider the system from multiple perspectives simultaneously.


In light of technological advances in producing, viewing and storing moving images, it is appropriate to survey the literature concerning the use of moving images in research over the past few decades. A review of the literature shows that the use of video technology for research falls into three areas: observation (including data collection and analysis), a mechanism for giving feedback, and a means for distance learning and consulting via videoconferencing. This article addresses the first two areas — observation and feedback. It begins with a survey of the use of video observation as a tool for research and documentation. A section on feedback, divided into three sections: performance, interaction and situational assessment follows. A separate section is devoted to the use of video for Program Evaluation. The article concludes with a discussion of epistemological methodological issues and the ethics involved in such a technologically advanced medium.


This paper constructs sector-level measures of trade facilitation in foreign countries to examine the effect of reducing the costs required to import abroad on export activity of Chilean plants. The results show that decreases in the number of documents required to import and in the number of days required to import in international markets significantly increase the probability of exporting of Chilean plants, while a decrease in the number of documents required to import increases plants' export intensity. The estimates also show that the effect of improved foreign trade facilitation is larger in sectors with relatively low foreign tariffs.


Object detection and recognition are important problems in computer vision. The challenges of these problems come from the presence of noise, background clutter, large within class variations of the object class and limited training data. In addition, the computational complexity in the recognition process is also a concern in practice. In this thesis, we propose one approach to handle the problem of detecting an object class that exhibits large within-class variations, and a second approach to speed up the classification processes.
In the first approach, we show that foreground-background classification (detection) and within-class classification of the foreground class (pose estimation) can be jointly solved with using a multiplicative form of two kernel functions. One kernel measures similarity for foreground-background classification. The other kernel accounts for latent factors that control within-class variation and implicitly enables feature sharing among foreground training samples. For applications where explicit parameterization of the within-class states is unavailable, a nonparametric formulation of the kernel can be constructed with a proper foreground distance/similarity measure. Detector training is accomplished via standard Support Vector Machine learning. The resulting detectors are tuned to specific variations in the foreground class. They also serve to evaluate hypotheses of the foreground state. When the image masks for foreground objects are provided in training, the detectors can also produce object segmentation. Methods for generating a representative sample set of detectors are proposed that can enable efficient detection and tracking. In addition, because individual detectors verify hypotheses of foreground state, they can also be incorporated in a tracking-by-detection frame work to recover foreground state in image sequences. To run the detectors efficiently at the online stage, an input-sensitive speedup strategy is proposed to select the most relevant detectors quickly. The proposed approach is tested on data sets of human hands, vehicles and human faces. On all data sets, the proposed approach achieves improved detection accuracy over the best competing approaches.
In the second part of the thesis, we formulate a filter-and-refine scheme to speed up recognition processes. The binary outputs of the weak classifiers in a boosted detector are used to identify a small number of candidate foreground state hypotheses quickly via Hamming distance or weighted Hamming distance. The approach is evaluated in three applications: face recognition on the face recognition grand challenge version 2 data set, hand shape detection and parameter estimation on a hand data set, and vehicle detection and estimation of the view angle on a multi-pose vehicle data set. On all data sets, our approach is at least five times faster than simply evaluating all foreground state hypotheses with virtually no loss in classification accuracy.


In 1991, Sabath described "larger avian eggs" from the Upper Cretaceous Barun Goyot and Djadokhta Formations of Mongolia. These were later included in the ootaxon Gobioolithus major. Here we recognize the larger avian eggs of Sabath as a distinct ootaxon, Styloolithus sabathi, oogen. et oosp. nov. These eggs differ from those of Gobioolithus in being larger (70 by 32 mm) and more elongate. Microscopically, the shell bears a third layer (possible external zone) thicker than the mammillary layer and nearly as thick as the second layer (possible squamatic zone); the continuous layer (including layers two and three) to mammillary layer thickness ratio is 3.1:1. Within the clutch, the tightly spaced eggs stand with their long axes steeply inclined. Adult remains are associated with two clutches, suggesting an incubation mode similar to that of troodontid maniraptorans, where adults sat atop largely buried eggs. S. sabathi provides evidence that relative egg size in Mesozoic non-ornithuromorph birds had increased markedly from the non-avian theropod condition in oviraptorids and troodontids, but had not yet reached the modern egg-adult proportions of Neornithes. Sediment-bound upright eggs appear common to Enantiornithes and more basal avians, suggesting that like non-avian theropods, these birds lacked chalazae, the chords of albumen allowing egg rotation in modern birds. Absence of this simple structure may have restricted these basal birds to ground nesting in areas with appropriate substrates and not permitted the type of nesting diversity found in Neornithes. Neornithes are the only Mesozoic clade of Dinosauria to nest completely free of sediment; this may have played a crucial role in their surviving the K-Pg mass extinction event.


Indigenous people in remote Australia face many dilemmas in relation to the status and vitality of their languages and communication ecologies. Cultural leaders want to maintain endangered heritage languages, yet this concern is balanced against an awareness that English competency is a necessary life skill. Remote Indigenous groups must also negotiate the effect of globalized media on language and cultural practices. While public policy seeks to bridge the digital divide in remote Australia, little attention has been paid to the dominance of English in the new digital environment and the potential impact that increased English language activities may have on endangered Indigenous languages. In this paper we discuss the Getting in Touch project, a joint initiative between linguists, Australian Indigenous language speakers, and software developers. Using a participatory, collaborative process, the project aims to develop ideas for digital resources that privilege Indigenous languages and knowledge systems.
We argue that taking Indigenous languages into account in app design may help enhance digital literacies in remote Indigenous communities and promote digital inclusion.


This study examined if the impacts of Facebook promotions on fan engagement were moderated by team performance in the Major League Baseball. Two teams showing the opposite results in the 2015 seasons were selected. Likes, Shares, and Comments were measured as indicators of fan engagement. All posts were categorised in the five promotion types. A two-way MANOVA was carried out to see if there were any differences in Facebook Likes, Shares, and Comments for differing promotion types and team performance. The results revealed that there were statistically significant interaction effects between promotion types and team performance on Likes and Shares. For player/personnel promotion and team information, the numbers of Likes and Shares were significantly higher than the other promotion types for both teams. For Likes and Shares by the two significant promotion types, Royals had significantly higher mean scores than did Phillies.


Targeted therapies that exploit the signaling pathways involved in prostate cancer are required to overcome chemoresistance and improve treatment outcomes for men. Molecular chaperones play a key role in the regulation of protein homeostasis and are potential targets to alleviate chemoresistance. Using image-based high content siRNA functional screening based on a gene expression signature, we identified FKBP7, a molecular chaperone overexpressed in docetaxel-resistant and in cabazitaxel-resistant prostate cancer cells. FKBP7 was upregulated in human prostate cancers and correlated with the recurrence in patients receiving Docetaxel. FKBP7 silencing showed that FKBP7 is required to maintain the growth of chemoresistant cell lines and of chemoresistant tumors in mice. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that FKBP7 interacts with the eIF4G component of the eIF4F translation initiation complex to mediate survival of chemoresistant cells. Using small molecule inhibitors of eIF4A, the RNA helicase component of eIF4F, we were able to overcome docetaxel and cabazitaxel resistance.


Abstract: Susan Scarrow: The paper argues that there is a logical link between types of party criticisms and types of proposed remedies. It distinguishes three main variants of anti-party discourses - Pluralist, Rouseauian, and Statist - and identifies corresponding remedies. It uses examples from German history to clarify the proposed typology, and to demonstrate the plausibility of the argument.; Abstract Lothar Probst: Following up to the deliberations of Ernst Cassirer and Murray Edelman onthe importance of political myths in the twentieth century, this local study examines specific forms of communication and their contents of symbolisms used by the right-wing populist German People's Union (DVU) to communicate with their voters. The author starts from the assumption that, in overly bureaucratic procedural democratic societies, the failure to create affective bonds and to instill a feeling of identification causes a trend toward the use of symbolic forms in politics. Such a trendis, to a certain degree, the result of the inability of political institutions to solve problems. The political propaganda and the holistic ideology of the DVU suggest that the problems of fragmented societies could be solved by a new identifying social system . Without providing a capability of solving problems, the DVU latches on to a policy filled to the hilt with symbolism's by contributing their own images, pictures and symbols, to successfully reach certain groups of voters. In doing so, the DVU uses simple and populist symbols following the basic pattern of a binary code such as the top/the bottom or we/the others to establish a communication in symbolic forms with their electorate, which is made up of socially intimidated voter groups that are cultural outsiders, politically disinterested and have a below-average education. This study demonstrates with concrete examples, that this type of communication of symbolic forms fulfills at least three prerequisites for creating political myths: (1) It reduces the complexity of political problems to "simple solutions." (2) It satisfies the need for a clear friend-foe definition. (3) It gives disgruntled voter groups the image of a concept they can identify with.; Abstract Ruth Bevan: Petra Kelly's antipolitical credentials normally find validation in her association with the German Greens "antiparty" which she co-founded in 1979. Kelly's rupture with the Greens in 1990 demonstrated, however, that Kelly was in fact antipolitical while the Greens were not. The irreconcilable difference between the two was her antipolitical renouncement of political power in favor of permanent opposition. She argued that no truly independent opposition exists to check state power. Her antipolitical efforts were directed at creating an independent opposition in the name of civil society and at establishing centers of what she called "counter-information". Creating this permanent opposition was Kelly's paramount dilemma of power.;


In this richly illustrated book, religious historian Eamon Duffy discusses the Book of Hours, unquestionably the most intimate and most widely used book of the later Middle Ages. He examines surviving copies of the personal prayer books which were used for private, domestic devotions, and in which people commonly left traces of their lives. Manuscript prayers, biographical jottings, affectionate messages, autographs, and pious paste-ins often crowd the margins, flyleaves, and blank spaces of such books. From these sometimes clumsy jottings, viewed by generations of librarians and art historians as blemishes at best, vandalism at worst, Duffy teases out precious clues to the private thoughts and public contexts of their owners, and insights into the times in which they lived and prayed. His analysis has a special relevance for the history of women, since women feature very prominently among the identifiable owners and users of the medieval Book of Hours. Books of Hours range from lavish illuminated manuscripts worth a king's ransom to mass-produced and sparsely illustrated volumes costing a few shillings or pence. Some include customized prayers and pictures requested by the purchaser, and others, handed down from one family member to another, bear the often poignant traces of a family's history over several generations. Duffy places these volumes in the context of religious and social change, above all the Reformation, discusses their significance to Catholics and Protestants, and describes the controversy they inspired under successive Tudor regimes. He looks closely at several special volumes, including the cherished Book of Hours that Sir Thomas More kept with him in the Tower of London as he awaited execution.


The use of two-dimensional spectral analysis applied to terrain heights in order to determine characteristic terrain spatial scales and its subsequent use for the objective definition of an adequate grid size required to resolve terrain forcing are presented in this paper. In order to illustrate the influence of grid size, atmospheric flow in a complex terrain area of the Spanish east coast is simulated by the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) mesoscale numerical model using different horizontal grid resolutions. In this area, a grid size of 2 km is required to account for 95% of terrain variance. Comparison among results of the different simulations shows that, although the main wind behavior does not change dramatically, some small-scale features appear when using a resolution of 2 km or finer. Horizontal flow pattern differences are significant both in the nighttime, when terrain forcing is more relevant, and in the daytime, when thermal forcing is dominant. Vertical structures also are investigated, and results show that vertical advection is influenced highly by the horizontal grid size during the daytime period. The turbulent kinetic energy and potential temperature vertical cross sections show substantial differences in the structure of the planetary boundary layer for each model configuration.


Spam on the Internet dates back over a decade, with its earliest known appearance as an email about the infamous MAKE.MONEY.FAST. campaign. Spam has co-evolved with Internet applications and is now quite common on the World-Wide Web. As social media systems such as blogs, wikis and bookmark sharing sites have emerged, spammers have quickly developed techniques to infect them as well. The very characteristics underlying the Web, be it version 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0, also enable new varieties of spam. This tutorial will detail the problem of spam in social media, with an emphasis on spam in blogs. We will discuss different types of spam, the motivation for spammers and the seriousness and nature of the problem. We will then share some of our discussions with groups facing and tackling this issue. The second half of the tutorial will present an overview of spam detection and elimination efforts with an extensive survey of detecting blog spam. The tutorial will help researchers understand the unique aspects of spam in social media, recognize how it affects analytics and information extraction, and identify current research challenges. For practitioners, it will provide strategies for controlling the problem, and identify areas of collaboration across communities.


A key policy argument in favor of emissions markets (relative to command-and-control types of regulation) is their ability to aggregate dispersed information and generate price signals to guide firms' trading and abatement decisions. We investigate this argument in a multi-period model where firms receive noisy private signals about their current period emissions and privately observe their previous period emissions before this information is made public to the rest of the market. Firms respond to information by trading and abating emissions. We show that there exists a rational expectations equilibrium that fully aggregates firms' private information, justifying the policy argument in favor of emissions markets, in the absence of other frictions. We also derive predictions about how prices should be reacting to new private or public information and show that the possibility of abatement dampens the impact of shocks on prices. Finally, we show that the information aggregation result breaks down if firms' abatement costs are also private information.∗ ∗JEL Codes: G14, D83, D84, D85, Q58


Following the confirmation of Einstein's theory of relativity in 1919, the mainstream and avant-garde press erupted with news about theory, offering commentary that ranged from clear-sighted explanations to cartoons and jokes. Though critics have recognized the impact of the theory on modernist literature, few have attended to the mediating factor of these mainstream public narratives and their engagement by modernist writers. Among the most creative responses to relativity theory during this period is Louis Untermeyer's understudied collection of parodic poetry, Rhyme and Relativity: An Anthology of Poetry Apostrophising the Theories of Einstein. Published in 1921, the same year as Einstein's widely covered trip to the United States, it appeared in Vanity Fair and the little magazine, Broom. Written in the style of well-known poets, such as Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell, each of the work's eighteen poems takes some aspect of relativity theory as its subject. This paper offers a close reading of "Einstein Among the Coffee-Cups," a parody of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." This paper reveals how Untermeyer's sophisticated and versatile use of relativity theory, popular culture, and modern poetic form shaped both the content and structure of Rhyme and Relativity, resulting in a humorous, but serious, response to modernist poets and popular culture.


We consider an ideal invisibility cloak which is illuminated by monochromatic light and which moves in vacuum at constant relativistic velocity with respect to the common inertial frame of light source and observer. We show that, in general, the moving cloak becomes detectable by image distortions and by generating a broad frequency spectrum of the scattered light. However, for many special combinations of incident light frequency, wave vector of light, and cloak velocity, ideal cloaking remains possible. It becomes nonreciprocal though. This means that light rays emitted by the light source arrive at the observer as though they have traveled through vacuum, but they take completely different paths after being retroreflected at the observer position.


In this study, two data collection instruments were used to examine how Dutch secondary school teachers learn in the workplace. Firstly, they completed a questionnaire on their preferences for learning activities on two occasions. Secondly, during the intermediate period, they reported learning experiences in digital logs. Results of both instruments indicate that teachers often learn by critical individual reflection and by involving colleagues in particular challenging or problematic situations. An additional finding concerns the reporting of sequences of learning activities in the digital logs which is clearly different from the focus on single learning activities as found in most literature and as used in the questionnaire. Furthermore, the digital logs provided a fine‐tuning of the concepts of 'involvement of colleagues' and 'experimentation' in relation to teacher learning. The study concludes with a critical reflection on both data collection instruments. Finally, implications for future research on how teachers learn are discussed.


Canonical Correlation Analysis(CCA) is a useful tool to discover relationship between different sources of information represented by vectors. The solution of the underlying optimisation problem involves a generalised eigenproblem and is nonconvex. We will show a sequence of transformations which turn CCA into a convex maximum margin problem. The new formulation can be applied for the same class of problems at a significantly lower computational cost and with a better numerical stability.


Abstract Understanding the extent to which the reported fossil record reflects biological history, rather than preservational artifacts or other biasing factors, remains one of the central issues in the interpretation of the history of life on Earth. The development of large interactive paleontological databases, such as the Paleobiology Database (PBDB), allows detailed analyses of the patterns of occurrence, both regionally and globally, of taxa in the fossil record and makes possible testing hypotheses of the controls of the patterns. An analysis of data from the PBDB shows that most genera in the fossil record are rare, whereas a relatively small percentage of taxa account for a disproportionate share of the total occurrences. These ubiquitous taxa tend to be speciose and have long stratigraphic ranges. These patterns of occurrence might represent a true biological signal; it is also possible that they reflect taphonomic processes or are the result of taxonomic practice. In particular, common taxa may be taxonomic wastebaskets, i.e., residual and polyphyletic groups resulting from inadequate systematic attention and/or from taphonomic biases resulting in inadequate specimens being preferentially placed in particular genera. A conceptual model for the development of taxonomic wastebaskets suggests that these taxa should be speciose, widely distributed, common, and old (in terms of year of first description), and that they should be the nominate forms for higher taxa. Our analyses suggest that many of the common taxa in the PBDB are consistent with two or more of these expectations and are thus good candidates for being wastebaskets. These taxa are, however, only a small percentage of total genera. A more detailed examination of one group, early gastropods, indicates that possible wastebaskets still are present in a group that has received much recent systematic work. Given that likely wastebasket taxa are a small fraction of all genera, they probably have little effect on overall temporal patterns of generic richness. Their impact on other types of metrics, such as turnover rates or metrics of community diversity or biogeographic similarity, however, might be quite important.


Abstract. We analyze an updated dataset of earthquakes of Southern Italy, focusing in particular on hypocenter locations and seismogenic stress distributions in the southern and eastearn offshores of Sicily, the two sectors of the study region where seismic and geodetic information needed for geodynamic modeling is still poor because of poor geometry of monitoring networks. Using Bayesian non-linear methods for hypocentral locations and hypocenter error estimates we improve the earthquake locations performed by more traditional linearized techniques, and this helps us to make significant progress in the interpretation of seismicity and seismogenic stress distributions especially where seismometric network geometry is more critical. Epicenter maps and hypocenter vertical sections, together with (i) best quality focal mechanisms coming from seismic waveform inversion and (ii) orientations of stress principal axes estimated by inversion of focal mechanisms, help us to better recognize geodynamic engines and plate margin deformation in the study area. NW-trending convergence between Africa and Eurasia is recognized as the main source of tectonic stress in the study region, producing clearly detectable signatures in terms of σ1 orientations also in the offshore sectors of the western Ionian and the Sicily Channel. Seismicity and seismogenic stress tensor highlight nearly uniform compressional dynamics related to plate convergence in the Sicily Channel, in contrast to rifting and microplate divergence proposed in that sector by other investigators. In the western Ionian, seismicity and stress inversion results reveal superposition of convergence-related compression and extensional dynamics. The latter, characterized by minimum compressive stress oriented SW-NE, can be related to a rifting process (opening SW-NE) hypothesized by previous investigators on the basis of marine geophysics analyses performed between the Alfeo-Etna and the Ionian Faults. The seismicity and seismogenic stress detected in the Western Ionian show that assumptions of microplate rigidity in this area made by previous workers when modeling poor geodetic data available can be inappropriate. Our findings indicate that more complex rheologic models should be adopted for reconstruction of tectonic deformation and microplate relative motions in the Central Mediterranean region.


The spread of modern rice varieties in different water regimes and the factors affecting adoption of modern varieties have been studied using information collected from farmers in the rainfed coastal Orissa. The coverage of modern varieties has been found to be only 37 per cent in mediumland plots and 11 per cent in lowland plots. A multivariable probit model has been used to study the factors affecting adoption of modern varieties. The important factors influencing adoption of a modern variety have been found as hydrology, tenurial status and irrigation. But, the most important factor emerged from the present study is 'hydrology'. Therefore, a wider spread of modern rice varieties in these areas depends on the development of new varieties that are specifically adapted to these environments. The study has suggested that development of new varieties and irrigation along with adoption of land reform measures will facilitate a faster spread of modern rice varieties in the rainfed coastal Orissa.


Large scale distributed systems such as cloud computing applications are becoming very common. These applications come with increasing challenges on how to transfer and where to store and compute data. This system presents an innovative idea in cloud computing. In a giant cloud we are able to add thousands of nodes together. The main aim is to allot files to those nodes while not creating significant load to any of the nodes, for that files square measure partitioned off into completely different modules. Another objective is to cut back the network inconsistencies and network traffic attributable to the unbalancing of hundreds. The reduction of network inconsistency can result in maximization of network information measure in order that so many numerous such a big amount of, such a giant amount of, such a lot of large applications will run in it. Because of ability to quantify property, we are able to add, delete, update new nodes in order that it supports heterogeneousness of the system. To enhance the potential of nodes we tend to use Distributed fi le system in Cloud Computing Applications.


We consider the class of continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) processes driven by (possibly non-Gaussian) Lévy white noises. When the excitation is an impulsive noise, also known as compound Poisson noise, the associated CAR process is a random non-uniform exponential spline. Therefore, Poisson-type processes are relatively easy to understand in the sense that they have a finite rate of innovation. We show in this paper that any CAR process is the limit in distribution of a sequence of CAR processes driven by impulsive noises. Hence, we provide a new interpretation of general CAR processes as limits of random exponential splines. We illustrate our result with simulations.