Artificial Intelligence and Law studies how legal reasoning can be formalized in order to eventually be able to develop systems that assist lawyers in the task of researching, drafting and evaluating arguments in a professional setting. To further this goal, researchers have been developing systems, which, to a limited extent, autonomously engage in legal reasoning, and argumentation on closed domains. This dissertation presents the Value Judgment Formalism and its experimental implementation in the VJAP system, which is capable of arguing about, and predicting outcomes of, a set of trade secret misappropriation cases.

VJAP argues about cases by creating an argument graph for each case using a set of argument schemes. These schemes use a representation of values underlying trade secret law and effects of facts on these values. VJAP argumentatively balances effects in the given case and analogizes it to individual precedents and the value tradeoffs in those precedents. It predicts case outcomes using a confidence measure computed from the argument graph and generates textual legal arguments justifying its predictions. The confidence propagation uses quantitative weights assigned to effects of facts on values. VJAP automatically learns these weights from past cases using an iterative optimization method.

The experimental evaluation shows that VJAP generates case-based legal arguments that make plausible and intelligent-appearing use of precedents to reason about a case in terms of differences and similarities to a precedent and the value tradeoffs that both contain. VJAP's prediction performance is promising when compared to machine learning algorithms, which do not generate legal arguments. Due to the small case base, however, the assessment of prediction performance was not statistically rigorous. VJAP exhibits argumentation and prediction behavior that, to some extent, resembles phenomena in real case-based legal reasoning, such as realistically appearing citation graphs.

The VJAP system and experiment demonstrate that it is possible to effectively combine symbolic knowledge and inference with quantitative confidence propagation. In AI\&Law, such systems can embrace the structure of legal reasoning and learn quantitative information about the domain from prior cases, as well as apply this information in a structurally realistic way in the context of new cases.


This Article argues that the structure of immigration laws has institutionalized a set of values that dehumanize, demonize, and criminalize immigrants of color. The result is that these victims stop being Mexicans, Latinos, or Chinese and become "illegal immigrants." We are aware of their race or ethnicity, but we believe we are acting against them because of their status, not because of their race. This institutionalized racism made the Bush ICE raids natural and acceptable in the minds of the general public. Institutionalized racism allows the public to think ICE raids are freeing up jobs for native workers without recognizing the racial ramifications. Objections to ICE raids and the Border Patrol's Operation Gatekeeper are debated in non-racial terms. However, not viewing these operations from an institutionalized racial perspective inhibits the total revamping of our immigration system that needs to take place. Part I begins with a description of selected ICE raids. Part II follows with a discussion of the institutional racism that is grounded in the history of U.S. immigration laws and policies. Part III explains how the racial history of immigration policy has become institutionalized so that seemingly neutral policies actually have racial effects. Understanding the historical underpinnings of race-driven immigration policy offers a broader range of solutions to current policy and enforcement challenges. Recognizing the racist nature of the system allows for a framework to remedy a racist system.


After the declaration of its Independence in 2008, Kosovo was involved in an important transition process regarding the strengthening of independence and state sovereignty, regarding the establishment of democratic state institutions as a precondition to ensure a stable and multi-ethnic society. One of the essential promises for such a goal to be achieved was and remains the involvement of minorities regardless of the ethnical group they belong to, within the constitutional and legal system o the country as well as their integration in government structures, either local or central. According to the official data published in 2014 by the Kosovo Statistics Agency, the overall number of people living in Kosovo is 1.815.606 inhabitants. 1 The vast majority of this overall number is composed of Albanians with approximately 90%, whereas the other art, is composed mainly by Serbs with 5%, who mainly reside in Serb enclaves, as well as other ethnical groups composing 5% of the total number. It is worth mentioning that the majority of representatives of the Serb community lives in the north part of Kosovo, including the municipalities of Leposaviq, Zveçan and North Mitrovica, or is focused in mono-ethnical enclaves within the territory of Kosovo, through various municipalities. The legal framework related to the protection of the rights of all ethnical groups living in Kosovo is strongly supported by a wide series of central level institutions that carry the primary responsibility for the drafting and implementation of these legal acts serving for the protection and advancing of the rights of communities. In this sense, after the establishment of the Provisional Institutions of SelfGovernment in Kosovo, in 2002 there was established the counseling office for good governance, human rights, equal possibilities and gender issues, which has functioned within the Office of the Prime Minister and aimed to monitor and provide advise for ministries of that scope, regarding the protection of human rights, encouraging equal possibilities, related to gender issues as well as the advancing of good governance. Consequently, in 2007, within each Ministry of the Government of Kosovo there are established special units for human rights, that their role has not exclusively been only the monitoring of the compliance of policies, legislation and activities lead by these institutions at international standards in the field of human rights protection, byt also the supervision with regard to the rate of representation of non-majority communities in Kosovo politics and institutional life.


The stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling approach, grounded in the pioneering work of Wynne Godley and James Tobin in the 1970s, has been adopted by a growing number of researchers in macroeconomics, especially after the publication of Godley and Lavoie (2007), which provided a general framework for the analysis of whole economic systems, and the recognition that macroeconomic models integrating real markets with flow-of-funds analysis had been particularly successful in predicting the Great Recession of 2007-9. We introduce the general features of the SFC approach for a closed economy, showing how the core model has been extended to address issues such as financialization and income distribution. We next discuss the implications of the approach for models of open economies and compare the methodologies adopted in developing SFC empirical models for whole countries. We review the contributions where the SFC approach is being adopted as the macroeconomic closure of microeconomic agent-based models, and how the SFC approach is at the core of new research in ecological macroeconomics. Finally, we discuss the appropriateness of the name "stock-flow consistent" for the class of models we survey.


While the practice of positive psychology has flourished in the last decade, critics still point to the lack of intervention-based research and empirical evidence as a shortcoming of this field. Appreciative inquiry (AI), an intervention with similar theoretical underpinnings as positive psychology, has the capacity to expand what is known about the impact of positivity in the study of organizations. AI is an intervention that uses reflective questions of positive experiences to create new opportunities. However, there is scant research on its effectiveness in real-world settings. This study extends this line of research by evaluating the effectiveness of AI as an alternative to conventional adult learning methodologies, as well as an applied example of an intervention based on positive psychology to study organizational change. Results from changes in pre- and post-assessments following three AI-based interventions, when compared to those from a control group, suggest AI can lead to significant gains in participants' perceived attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive learning similar to traditional adult learning methodologies. In addition, these results suggest AI interventions paired with real-world problem solving opportunities yield greater gains in participants' perceived confidence to demonstrate positive interpersonal skills. Implications for using AI in the course of adult learning are discussed.


Guardianship reform has largely overlooked issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, however, present a distinct set of needs and concerns due to certain unique demographic characteristics, the evolving nature of LGBT civil rights, and the stubborn persistence of anti-LGBT bias and prejudice. This chapter explores these LGBT-specific concerns from a comparative perspective and identifies the various ways that seemingly neutral guardianship laws can work to silence LGBT identities and place LGBT families at risk. It concludes that guardianship systems should incorporate safeguards that expressly acknowledge the importance of sexual orientation and gender identity. Respect for a ward's sexual orientation and gender identity is essential to the concepts of dignity and self-determination that have served as the guiding principles of guardianship reform. In the absence of appropriate safeguards, even guardianship reform driven by a "person-centered philosophy" will ultimately fall short and fail to protect the interests of LGBT individuals and LGBT families.


In this paper we propose that the compressive tidal field in the centers of flat-core early-type galaxies and ultraluminous galaxies compresses molecular clouds producing dense gas observed in the centers of these galaxies. The effect of galactic tidal fields is usually considered disruptive in the literature. However, for some galaxies, the mass profile flattens toward the center and the resulting galactic tidal field is not disruptive, but instead it is compressive within the flat-core region. We have used the virial theorem to determine the minimum density of a molecular cloud to be stable and gravitationally bound within the tidally compressive region of a galaxy. We have applied the mechanism to determine the mean molecular cloud densities in the centers of a sample of flat-core, early-type galaxies and ultraluminous galaxies. For early-type galaxies with a core-type luminosity profile, the tidal field of the galaxy is compressive within half the core radius. We have calculated the mean gas densities for molecular gas in a sample of early-type galaxies which have already been detected in CO emission, and we obtain mean densities of ⟨n⟩ ~ 103-106 cm-3 within the central 100 pc radius. We also use our model to calculate the molecular cloud densities in the inner few hundred parsecs of a sample of ultraluminous galaxies. From the observed rotation curves of these galaxies we show that they have a compressive core within their nuclear region. Our model predicts minimum molecular gas densities in the range 102-104 cm-3 in the nuclear gas disks; the smaller values are applicable typically for galaxies with larger core radii. The resulting density values agree well with the observed range. Also, for large core radii, even fairly low-density gas (~102 cm-3) can remain bound and stable close to the galactic center.


Biomass fuels dominate the household energy mix in sub-Saharan Africa. Much of it is used inefficiently in poorly ventilated kitchens resulting in indoor air pollution and consumption of large amounts of wood fuel. Micro-gasification cookstoves can improve fuel use efficiency and reduce indoor air pollution while producing char as a by-product. This study monitored real-time concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and amount of firewood used when households were cooking dinner. Twenty-five households used the gasifier cookstove to cook and five repeated the same test with three-stone open fire on a different date. With the gasifier, the average corresponding dinner time CO, CO2, and PM2.5 concentrations were reduced by 57%, 41%, and 79% respectively compared to three-stone open fire. The gasifier had average biomass-to-char conversion efficiency of 16.6%. If the produced char is used as fuel, households could save 32% of fuel compared to use of three-stone open fire and 18% when char is used as biochar, for instance. Adoption of the gasifier can help to reduce the need for firewood collection, hence reducing impacts on the environment while saving on the amount of time and money spent on cooking fuel.


This study examined the relationship between students' perceptions of teacher–student interaction and academic performance at an asynchronous, self-paced, statewide virtual high school. Academic performance was measured by grade awarded and course completion. There were 2269 students who responded to an 18-item survey designed to measure student perceptions on the quality and frequency of teacher–student interaction. Quality of interaction was subdivided into three constructs representing feedback, procedural, and social interaction. A confirmatory factor analysis helped to establish the fit of the statistical model for teacher–student interaction. Hierarchical logistical regression indicates that an increase in the quality and frequency of interaction resulted in an increased likelihood of course completion but had minimal influence on grade awarded. The estimated effect for quality and frequency composite items on completion was .83 and .56 respectively. Low practical significance of student–teacher interaction on grade awarded may be the result of mastery-based teaching approaches that skew grades for the completers toward the high end.


In this paper, a novel image captioning approach is proposed to describe the content of images. Inspired by the visual processing of our cognitive system, we propose a visual-semantic LSTM model to locate the attention objects with their low-level features in the visual cell, and then successively extract high-level semantic features in the semantic cell. In addition, a state perturbation term is introduced to the word sampling strategy in the REINFORCE based method to explore proper vocabularies in the training process. Experimental results on MS COCO and Flickr30K validate the effectiveness of our approach when compared to the state-of-the-art methods.


We demonstrate the dependence of information flow within random network of different node connection probabilities on node capacities and information flow rates in the presence of noise. Information flows throughout the network as the information packets were passed from one node to the other. Each node in the network has limited capacity to accommodate information. The effective node capacities change per time step due to the presence of noise. It was found out that, without noise, the average total information passed within the network increases as the node capacity increases. With increasing noise-strength, there is a decreasing change in total information passed even for increasing node capacities.


We report on a theoretical and experimental investigation of the spectral properties and the conversion efficiency of 355-nm-pumped pulsed optical parametric oscillators (OPO's) of β-barium borate with noncollinear phase matching. If the noncollinear phase matching is tangential, the pump wave's angular acceptance—which is approximately 0.3 mrad cm-1 for collinear excitation—is increased as much as 9 mrad cm-1. Because of the large angular acceptance the OPO output energy increases to a factor of 4 greater than that for conventional collinear excitation when the OPO is pumped by a laser beam with a divergence of 3 mrad. Besides an increase in efficiency, the noncollinear phase matching provides a broadening of the spectral width of the OPO signal radiation of as much as 20 nm in the whole tuning range of 420–700 nm. The measured spectral widths are in good agreement with the results of an analysis that takes into account the influence of the divergence of the resonant OPO wave.


Monitoring the behaviour of computing systems is an important task. In active database systems, a detected system behaviour leads to the triggering of an ECA (event-condition-action) rule. ECA rules are employed for supporting database management system functions as well as external applications. Although distributed database systems are becoming more commonplace, active database research has to date focussed on centralised systems. In distributed debugging systems, a detected system behaviour is compared with the expected system behaviour. Differences illustrate erroneous behaviour. In both application areas, system behaviours are specified in terms of events: primitive events represent elementary occurrences and composite events represent complex occurrence patterns. At system runtime, specified primitive and composite events are monitored and event occurrences are detected. However, in active database systems events are monitored in terms of physical time and in distributed debugging systems events are monitored in terms of logical time. The notion of physical time is difficult in distributed systems because of their special characteristics: no global time, network delays, etc. This dissertation is concerned with monitoring the behaviour of distributed systems in terms of physical time, i.e. the syntax, the semantics, the detection, and the implementation of events are considered. The syntax of primitive and composite events is derived from the work of both active database systems and distributed debugging systems; differences and necessities are highlighted. The semantics of primitive and composite events establishes when and where an event occurs; the semantics depends largely on the notion of physical time in distributed systems. Based on the model for an approximated global time base, the ordering of events in distributed systems is considered, and the structure and handling of timestamps are illustrated. In specific applications, a simplified version of the semantics can be applied which is easier and therefore more efficient to implement. Algorithms for the detection of composite events at system runtime are developed; event detectors are distributed to arbitrary sites and composite events are evaluated concurrently. Two different evaluation policies are examined: asynchronous evaluation and synchronous evaluation. Asynchronous evaluation is characterised by the ad hoc consumption of signalled event occurrences. However, since the signalling of events involves variable delays, the events may not be evaluated in the system-wide order of their occurrence. On the other hand, synchronous evaluation enforces events to be evaluated in the system-wide order of their occurrence. But, due to site failures and network congestion, the evaluation may block on a fairly long-term basis. The prototype implementation realises the algorithms for the detection of composite events with both asynchronous and synchronous evaluation. For the purpose of testing, primitive event occurrences are simulated by distributed event simulators. Several tests are performed illustrating the differences between asynchronous and synchronous evaluation: the first is 'fast and unreliable' whereas the latter is 'slow and reliable'.


This Article attempts to place the current controversy concerning reservation gaming into perspective by viewing it not solely as a 1990s battle over casinos in Indian Country, but as the latest round in a much longer and larger struggle among the federal, state and tribal governments over the States' role in governing Native American groups within state borders. The Article argues that federal-state relations on non-Indian issues often shape federal Indian policy more than a thoughtful consideration of the proper balance between state economic and tribal autonomy issues. What may begin as a dispute about tribal-state relations on a particular matter, often becomes part of a larger ongoing debate between the federal and state governments, with the larger debate dictating the outcome of the particular tribal-state controversy.Part II of this Article provides examples of the recurrence of this pattern over the past 300 years and the varying influences of different aspects of the pattern. Part III then illustrates that the reservation gaming controversy has followed the first steps of the pattern, and analyzes both the course the controversy will follow and the key factors that will determine its outcome if the pattern continues to apply.


Objective: The use of patient-specific models for surgical simulation requires photorealistic rendering of 3D structure and surface properties. For bronchoscope simulation, this requires augmenting virtual bronchoscope views generated from 3D tomographic data with patient-specific bronchoscope videos. To facilitate matching of video images to the geometry extracted from 3D tomographic data, this paper presents a new pq-space-based 2D/3D registration method for camera pose estimation in bronchoscope tracking. Methods: The proposed technique involves the extraction of surface normals for each pixel of the video images by using a linear local shape-from-shading algorithm derived from the unique camera/lighting constraints of the endoscopes. The resultant pq-vectors are then matched to those of the 3D model by differentiation of the z-buffer. A similarity measure based on angular deviations of the pq-vectors is used to provide a robust 2D/3D registration framework. Localization of tissue deformation is considered by assessing the temporal variation of the pq-vectors between subsequent frames. Results: The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed by using an electromagnetic tracker and a specially constructed airway phantom. Preliminary in vivo validation of the proposed method was performed on a matched patient bronchoscope video sequence and 3D CT data. Comparison to existing intensity-based techniques was also made. Conclusion: The proposed method does not involve explicit feature extraction and is relatively immune to illumination changes. The temporal variation of the pq distribution also permits the identification of localized deformation, which offers an effective way of excluding such areas from the registration process.


Communication strategies for product marketing and advertising; communication's role in developing domestic and international marketplaces; practical applications of persuasion theory.


The current research project aimed to investigate facial emotion processing from especially developed and validated video stimuli of facial emotional expressions including varying levels of intensity. Therefore, videos were developed showing real people expressing emotions in real time (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, contempt, embarrassment, contempt, and neutral) at different expression intensity levels (low, intermediate, high) called the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set – Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV). The ADFES-BIV was validated on all its emotion and intensity categories. Sex differences in facial emotion recognition were investigated and a female advantage in facial emotion recognition was found compared to males. This demonstrates that the ADFES-BIV is suitable for investigating group comparisons in facial emotion recognition in the general population. Facial emotion recognition from the ADFES-BIV was further investigated in a sample of individuals that is characterised by deficits in social functioning; individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A deficit in facial emotion recognition was found in ASD compared to controls and error analysis revealed emotion-specific deficits in detecting emotional content from faces (sensitivity) next to deficits in differentiating between emotions from faces (specificity). The ADFES-BIV was combined with face electromyogram (EMG) to investigate facial mimicry and the effects of proprioceptive feedback (from explicit imitation and blocked facial mimicry) on facial emotion recognition. Based on the reverse simulation model it was predicted that facial mimicry would be an active component of the facial emotion recognition process. Experimental manipulations of face movements did not reveal an advantage of facial mimicry compared to the blocked facial mimicry condition. Whereas no support was found for the reverse simulation model, enhanced proprioceptive feedback can facilitate or hinder recognition of facial emotions in line with embodied cognition accounts.


Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) contain local pooling to effectively downsize feature maps for increasing computation efficiency as well as robustness to input variations. The local pooling methods are generally formulated in a form of convex combination of local neuron activations for retaining the characteristics of an input feature map in a manner similar to image downscaling. In this paper, to improve performance of CNNs, we propose a novel local pooling method based on the Gaussian-based probabilistic model over local neuron activations for flexibly pooling (extracting) features, in contrast to the previous model restricting the output within the convex hull of local neurons. In the proposed method, the local neuron activations are aggregated into the statistics of mean and standard deviation in a Gaussian distribution, and then on the basis of those statistics, we construct the probabilistic model suitable for the pooling in accordance with the knowledge about local pooling in CNNs. Through the probabilistic model equipped with trainable parameters, the proposed method naturally integrates two schemes of adaptively training the pooling form based on input feature maps and stochastically performing the pooling throughout the end-to-end learning. The experimental results on image classification demonstrate that the proposed method favorably improves performance of various CNNs in comparison with the other pooling methods.


We constrain azimuthal anisotropy in the West Antarctic upper mantle using shear wave splitting parameters obtained from teleseismic SKS, SKKS and PKS phases recorded at 37 broad-band seismometres deployed by the POLENET/ANET project. We use an eigenvalue technique to linearize the rotated and shifted shear wave horizontal particle motions and determine the fast direction and delay time for each arrival. High-quality measurements are stacked to determine the best fitting splitting parameters for each station. Overall, fast anisotropic directions are oriented at large angles to the direction of Antarctic absolute plate motion in both hotspot and no-net-rotation frameworks, showing that the anisotropy does not result from shear due to plate motion over the mantle. Further, the West Antarctic directions are substantially different from those of East Antarctica, indicating that anisotropy across the continent reflects multiple mantle regimes. We suggest that the observed anisotropy along the central Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) and adjacent West Antarctic Rift System (WARS), one of the largest zones of extended continental crust on Earth, results from asthenospheric mantle strain associated with the final pulse of western WARS extension in the late Miocene. Strong and consistent anisotropy throughout the WARS indicate fast axes subparallel to the inferred extension direction, a result unlike reports from the East African rift system and rifts within the Basin and Range, which show much greater variation. We contend that ductile shearing rather than magmatic intrusion may have been the controlling mechanism for accumulation and retention of such coherent, widespread anisotropic fabric. Splitting beneath the Marie Byrd Land Dome (MBL) is weaker than that observed elsewhere within the WARS, but shows a consistent fast direction, possibly representative of anisotropy that has been 'frozen-in' to remnant thicker lithosphere. Fast directions observed inland from the Amundsen Sea appear to be radial to the dome and may indicate radial horizontal mantle flow associated with an MBL plume head and low upper mantle velocities in this region, or alternatively to lithospheric features associated with the complex Cenozoic tectonics at the far-eastern end of the WARS.


In the eukaryotic genome, transcriptionally silent chromatin tends to propagate along a chromosome and encroach upon adjacent active chromatin. The silencing machinery can be stopped by chromatin boundary elements. We performed a screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for proteins that may contribute to the establishment of a chromatin boundary. We found that disruption of histone deacetylase Rpd3p results in defective boundary activity, leading to a Sir-dependent local propagation of transcriptional repression. In rpd3Δ cells, the amount of Sir2p that was normally found in the nucleolus decreased and the amount of Sir2p found at telomeres and at HM and its adjacent loci increased, leading to an extension of silent chromatin in those areas. In addition, Rpd3p interacted directly with chromatin at boundary regions to deacetylate histone H4 at lysine 5 and at lysine 12. Either the mutation of histone H4 at lysine 5 or a decrease in the histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activity of Esa1p abrogated the silencing phenotype associated with rpd3 mutation, suggesting a novel role for the H4 amino terminus in Rpd3p-mediated heterochromatin boundary regulation. Together, these data provide insight into the molecular mechanisms for the anti-silencing functions of Rpd3p during the formation of heterochromatin boundaries.


Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis is a disastrous disease of cereal crops and various grasses. To date, fourteen stripe rust genomes are publicly available, including thirteen P. striiformis f. sp. tritici and one P. striiformis f. sp. hordei. In this study, one isolate (11-281) of P. striiformis collected from wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum), which is avirulent to most of standard differential genotypes of wheat and barley, was sequenced, assembled, and annotated. The sequences were assembled to a draft genome of 84.75 Mb, which is comparable to previously sequenced P. striiformis f. sp. tritici and P. striiformis f. sp. hordei isolates. The draft genome comprised 381 scaffolds and contained 1,829 predicted secreted proteins. The high quality draft genome of the isolate is a valuable resource in shedding light on the evolution and pathogenicity of P. striiformis.


Previously reported results on natural populations of the Argentinean squid, Illex argentinus, urged further studies using electrophoretically detectable loci. The muscles of 202 adult squids caught in the Argentinean Sea were examined. Electrophoretic and staining methods for the 46 enzymes studied are given in detail. Forty-seven loci were detected (20 polymorphic), 45 of which are considered useable in population genetics screening. The expression of the loci coding for these enzymes is described and interpreted, and the presented results will serve as a basis for a more detailed examination of genetic variation in Argentinean squid populations.


In this paper, theoretical analysis on interferometric noise caused by RB and FR in bidirectional single-fiber single-wavelength transmission over the conventional and long-reach WDM-PON is presented. Conventional WDM-PON takes place in access networks, usually for 20 km transmission distance without node amplification. However, for long-reach WDM-PON which is deployed for 100 km or beyond, optical amplification is an indispensable solution to enhance the power budget and prevent fiber nonlinearities that happening in the high power level. However, optical amplifier in long-reach WDM-PON might cause the RB and FR effects worse compare with their effects in conventional ones. It is due to the nature of re-amplification and re-modulation feedback of backscatter and back-reflection lights which existed at the preceding and following of optical amplifier or remote node gain.


Private saving and economic growth are intimately linked, and low saving rates in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have often been held responsible for disappointing growth in the region. Thus, identifying factors that spur saving is critical. This paper surveys previous empirical studies on LAC, highlighting contradictions, omissions and in some cases inconclusiveness of findings. Relying on a large dataset and a nested econometric framework, it analyzes private saving patterns and explores the role of its determinants in LAC, across LAC sub-regions and compared with other regions. While the results highlight great heterogeneity in private saving rates within LAC and compared with the rest of the world, saving determinants are broadly the same notwithstanding some differences in sensitivity and contributions' sizes, and include its lag, income, demographics and public saving.


In this study, supercritical fluid (SCF) technology is discussed in relation to biomaterial processing, especially the fabrication and processing of alloplastic bone graft. SCF offers excellent extraction properties for some compounds because of its favorable diffusivity, viscosity, zero surface tension, liquidlike density and solvating power, and other physical properties. The most desirable SCF solvent for extraction is supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO 2 ), which is nontoxic, nonflammable, inexpensive, friendly to mankind, and environmentally benign and has mild supercritical conditions (T c = 31.2 °C, P c = 7.386 MPa). For the porous structure of porcine vertebra with its content of lipids, proteins, and inorganic substances in the cells and intercellular matrix, SCCO 2 combined with ethanol or glutaraldehyde (GA) is used to prepare novel porcine-derived bone grafts in three supercritical settings and one subcritical condition for control comparison. The biocompatibility of these novel bone grafts was tested with human MG63 osteoblast-like cells and mouse fibroblast 3T3 cells by MTT assay. The results revealed that materials processed by SCCO 2 combined with both ethanol and GA were not cytotoxic and allowed the differentiation and proliferation of test cells. The good performances of these novel bone grafts can be explained by the characteristics of SCF. Applications of SCF in biomaterials are very promising for bone regeneration and tissue engineering. Additional advanced in vitro and in vivo studies must be performed in the future for optimization.


The genomic revolution has fundamentally changed how we survey biodiversity on earth. High‐throughput sequencing ("HTS") platforms now enable the rapid sequencing of DNA from diverse kinds of environmental samples (termed "environmental DNA" or "eDNA"). Coupling HTS with our ability to associate sequences from eDNA with a taxonomic name is called "eDNA metabarcoding" and offers a powerful molecular tool capable of noninvasively surveying species richness from many ecosystems. Here, we review the use of eDNA metabarcoding for surveying animal and plant richness, and the challenges in using eDNA approaches to estimate relative abundance. We highlight eDNA applications in freshwater, marine and terrestrial environments, and in this broad context, we distill what is known about the ability of different eDNA sample types to approximate richness in space and across time. We provide guiding questions for study design and discuss the eDNA metabarcoding workflow with a focus on primers and library preparation methods. We additionally discuss important criteria for consideration of bioinformatic filtering of data sets, with recommendations for increasing transparency. Finally, looking to the future, we discuss emerging applications of eDNA metabarcoding in ecology, conservation, invasion biology, biomonitoring, and how eDNA metabarcoding can empower citizen science and biodiversity education.


In this study, 4,7-dimethoxy-5-methyl-l,3-benzodioxole (SY-1) was isolated from three different sources of dried fruiting bodies of Antrodia camphorate (AC). AC is a medicinal mushroom that grows on the inner heartwood wall of Cinnamomum kanehirai Hay (Lauraceae), an endemic species that is used in Chinese medicine for its anti-tumor and immunomodulatory properties. In this study, we demonstrated that SY-1 profoundly decreased the proliferation of human colon cancer cells (COLO 205) through G0/G1 cell-cycle arrest (50–150 μM) and induction of apoptosis (>150 μM). Cell-cycle arrest induced by SY-1 was associated with a significant increase in levels of p53, p21/Cip1 and p27/Kip1, and a decrease in cyclins D1, D3 and A. In contrast, SY-1 treatment did not induce significant changes in G0/G1 phase cell-cycle regulatory proteins in normal human colonic epithelial cells (FHC). The cells were cultured in soft agar to evaluate anchorage-independent colony formation, and we found that the number of transformed colonies was significantly reduced in the SY-1-treated COLO 205 cells. These findings demonstrate for the first time that SY-1 inhibits human colon cancer cell proliferation through inhibition of cell growth and anchorage-independent colony formation in soft agar. However, the detailed mechanisms of these processes remain unclear and will require further investigation.


Mathematical models for Low-Energy Nuclear Fusion (LENR) of hydrogen, H, and deuterium, D, are brought together in the context of over 20 years of searching for the answer to the source of nuclear fusion without the requisite kinetic energy to overcome a nuclear Coulomb barrier. The earliest of these models is Julian Schwinger's proposal [1] to combine, in a single Hamiltonian, the attractive nuclear potential with the repulsive Coulomb potential to reach an excited state of 4 He. The second was K.P. Sinha's 1999 model [2] to use the natural electron pairing to form charge-polarized D + D - pairs in a linear defect that is attractive rather than repulsive. Ed Storms' linear array of hydrogen 'atoms' in a gap or crevice in the lattice appears to combine Schwinger's and Sinha's concepts. Portions of other models, where applicable, are mentioned. Another paper, to be presented in this conference, will provide a pictorial description of phonon activity in Sinha's linear array (and presumably Storms' also) of D or H atoms. The present paper concentrates first on a description of the many parameters and conditions necessary to solve the problem. (It will neither present nor solve the full equations.) The full Hamiltonian for the process must cover distances from the lattice spacing down to the nuclear force region. The different forces and frequencies involved in the various component interactions of the system vary greatly over this range of five orders of magnitude. The critical processes are mentioned along with their interdependencies. The importance of each model's contributions is highlighted. An appendix on mathematical modeling of the system provides more details and integration of the equations involved. This model does not address all aspects of the LENR process, but it does lead to some of the mechanisms that can explain observed data. These include: a means of overcoming the nuclear coulomb barrier by linearizing and overlapping multiple bound atomic-electron trajectories along with the hydrogen sublattice; a means of dissipating nuclear energy to the lattice gradually, but before the protons actually are bound by their mutual nuclear forces; and a means of fusing deuterons into 4 He without ever occupying the excited states that fragment into the known 'hot' fusion products of protons, neutrons, tritium, and 3He, or energetic gamma rays. It also provides a means of forming hydrogen femto-molecules (H2(f), or perhaps even Hn(f)), as an alternative path for the p-e-p or p-e-e-p fusion to deuterium.


With public scrutiny intensifying every day, optimizing the performance of government employees and departments is more critical than ever before. And just as in the private sector, the key for managers is to understand how different management systems perform individually and interact with one another. This book examines the roles and challenges of structural and technical systems, information and decision-making processes, rewards systems, and human capital management, and shows managers how to: • Deliver clear and consistent messages to all employees • Position employees and units to provide the best possible service to the public • Hold them accountable through clear expectations and measurable goals • Work with a strong leadership team to maintain, adjust, and improve all procedures Liff devotes a chapter to each system and discusses its impact on overall performance as well as how to work proactively and innovatively to implement changes that will make a big difference. Including real-world government case studies demonstrating dramatic change, the book is both an inspiration and a blueprint for substantial improvement within every facet of government work.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the safety and efficacy of administering prasugrel at the time of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and switching to clopidogrel, without reloading.

BACKGROUND
Prasugrel has faster onset of action and appears to be of greater benefit than clopidogrel, particularly early after PCI. However, long-term prasugrel increases bleeding. Many physicians at Geisinger Medical Center (GMC) administer prasugrel before PCI and switch to clopidogrel afterward. The safety and efficacy of this strategy has not been studied.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective study using electronic medical records and identified patients at GMC who underwent PCI between February 1, 2009 and January 31, 2012 and received a loading dose of prasugrel with a subsequent switch to clopidogrel, without reloading. The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), defined as death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, or stent thrombosis, 7 days after the first dose of clopidogrel. Secondary endpoints included MACE at 30 days, individual MACE components at 7 and 30 days post procedure, and bleeding as defined by the Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) at 1 day and 30 days.

RESULTS
A total of 151 patients met inclusion criteria. One patient suffered a MACE on day 7 (0.7%; 95% confidence interval, 0.03%-3.33%). One patient had an MI between 8-30 days. Two patients had BARC bleeding (type 2 and type 3b) 30 days post PCI.

CONCLUSIONS
In this small, retrospective analysis, the results of loading patients with prasugrel for PCI and switching them to clopidogrel without a loading dose appear to be encouraging.


The quality of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based on macrofossil carbonate critically depends on preservation of the shell material because post-depositional processes can modify its structural, chemical and isotopic composition, potentially overprinting or completely erasing palaeoenvironmental information. A suite of methods can be employed to evaluate the impact of diagenetic processes on the primary geochemical signatures of samples. Here we review the benefits and shortcomings of the most commonly employed optical (optical microscopy, cathodoluminescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy) and chemical (trace element abundances, isotopic ratios) screening techniques used to assess the alteration degree of low-Mg calcite macrofossils and summarize the findings on diagenetic trends observed for elemental and isotopic systems in such materials. For a robust evaluation of the preservation state of biogenic calcite, it is advisable to combine a set of complementary techniques. Absolute limiting values of element and isotope ratios for discarding diagenetically altered materials cannot be universally applied, but should rather be evaluated on a case to case basis. The evaluation can be improved by analyses of diagenetic carbonate and altered fossil materials, which help constraining the diagenetic trajectories in the sampled specimens. Quantification of post-depositional alteration is possible, but in most cases the complexity of diagenetic systems hampers the possibility of retrieving original proxy values for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from partially altered materials.


Comprehensive knowledge concerning the influence of pre-plant fertilizer N rates on canopy photosynthesis, growth, and yield of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is lacking, while no research has been conducted on boll 15 N accumulation from foliar- 15 N fertilization. Field studies were conducted on long-term N fertilizer plots on Loring silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, thermic Typic Fragiudalt) to investigate how varying levels of pre-plant fertilizer-N applied to soil affected late-season canopy photosynthesis, growth, yield and foliar applied- 15 N accumulation by bolls in the top, middle, and bottom portions of the canopy. Four pre-plant soil incorporated fertilizer N treatments were imposed : 0, 55, 82, and 110 kg N ha -1 . Plant height, number of main-stem nodes, and first fruiting branch node were increased by increasing soil-N regime. Leaf number, leaf area, boll number, and dry weights of leaf and boll were higher in the middle of the canopy than in the top or bottom portions. Lint yield was strongly associated with soil N and canopy photosynthesis, and the photosynthetic capacity of the canopy was proportional to availability of N. To determine boll 15 N accumulation from foliar fertilization, three foliar-N sprays with the last foliar-N spray consisting of 15 N was applied in each pre-plant fertilizer N regime. The middle canopy bolls accumulated significantly more 15 N than those in the upper or lower canopy. This study extended previous cotton N studies by showing that yield differences due to N can largely be explained by variation in canopy photosynthesis and plant size, and provided new information on differential 15 N accumulation by bolls positioned in different portions of the canopy.


Based on the premise that healthcare facility design and construction costs are escalating due to rework in (1) upfront planning, (2) programming, (3) design, and (4) permitting phases, a group of healthcare facility owners, architects, designers, contractors and state permitting personnel conducted a study to understand where the waste occurs. This study identified 158 process waste items. In this paper we categorize these 158 waste items using an existing taxonomy of rework and extending it as needed. The existing taxonomy of rework contains five categories: (1) human resource capability, (2) leadership and communication, (3) engineering and reviews, (4) construction, planning, and scheduling, and (5) material and equipment supply. The extension places waste items into three new categories: (1) planning, programming, and budgeting, (2) design planning and scheduling, and (3) design review. This research identifies what causes of rework are within the California healthcare facility design and permitting phases. Understanding these waste items provides a foundation on which to build new practices that avoid costly design and permitting delays.


This Special Report containing two essays explores the implications of China's WTO membership for that country's economic development and social stability. Dorothy J. Solinger of the University of California at Irvine highlights the negative impact of China's WTO membership on the country's rampant unemployment. Lawrence C. Reardon of the University of New Hampshire argues that reformist elites in China consciously use WTO accession as a cat- alyst to marketization. Mark A. Groombridge of the U.S. Department of State, who offered com- mentary on these two essays when they were first presented, asserted that China has no choice but to integrate itself into the world economy.This Special Report stresses both the huge oppor- tunities and the dangerous repercussions that Chinese SOEs face in the wake of China's entry into the WTO.


One of the leading causes of unintentional death worldwide is drowning. From 20052009, an estimated 3, 107 people in the United States over the age of fifteen died from drowning (Peden, Oyegbite, & Ozanne-Smith, 2008). Research has found higher amounts of drowning deaths to be males than females and African-American than Caucasian (Saluja et al., 2005). However, no significant differences have been found in real or perceived water competency between gender or age groups (Moran et al., 2012). Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine ability to swim between gender, race, and school classification of college students. Quantitative data was collected via SurveyMonkey.com including demographic information and self-reported swimming ability. Independent t-tests were run to examine significant differences in gender, race, and perceived swimming ability. Results will be examined from a therapeutic outlook and how they will be able to benefit hydrotherapy programs. Thesis Mentor: _____________________


In this paper, a novel particle filter tracker is presented for target tracking using collocated radar and acoustic sensors. Real-time tracking of the target's position and velocity in Cartesian coordinates is performed using batches of range and direction-of-arrival estimates. For robustness, the filter aligns the radar and acoustic data streams to account for acoustic propagation delays. The filter proposal function uses a Gaussian approximation to the full tracking posterior for improved efficiency. To incorporate the aligned acoustic data into the tracker, a two-stage weighting strategy is proposed. Computer simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.


To date, two Helicobacter species, Helicobacter pylori and 'Helicobacter heilmannii' (formerly named 'Gastrospirillum hominis'), have been identified from the human stomach. In this study, we observed non-H. pylori-shaped bacteria in gastric tissue sections and successfully isolated them by cultivation. Elongated bacteria were isolated from a patient with gastric-mucosa-associated lymphoid-tissue lymphoma who had been diagnosed as H. pylori-negative by culture, rapid urease test and histopathology in another hospital. The bacteria were grown only on chocolate agar in a CO2 incubator, appeared more than 10 microm long in histological sections, formed small colonies and showed poor growth in a brain heart infusion broth; these characteristics apparently differed from common clinical isolates of H. pylori. However, the bacteria were identified as H. pylori by PCR of the urease gene, 16S rDNA sequencing, protein profile and antigenicity examined by anti-H. pylori polyclonal antibody. These observations suggest that the H. pylori strain identified in this study may contribute to the development of gastroduodenal diseases in cases judged as H. pylori-negative by ordinary methods.


In 2011, Stanford University offered three online courses, which anyone in the world could enroll in and take for free. Together, these three courses had enrollments of around 350,000 students, making this one of the largest experiments in online education ever performed. Since the beginning of 2012, we have transitioned this effort into a new venture, Coursera, a social entrepreneurship company whose mission is to make high-quality education accessible to everyone by allowing the best universities to offer courses to everyone around the world, for free. Coursera classes provide a real course experience to students, including video content, interactive exercises with meaningful feedback, using both auto-grading and peer-grading, and a rich peer-to-peer interaction around the course materials. Currently, Coursera has 62 university partners, and over 3 million students enrolled in its over 300 courses. These courses span a range of topics including computer science, business, medicine, science, humanities, social sciences, and more. In this talk, I'll report on this far-reaching experiment in education, and why we believe this model can provide both an improved classroom experience for our on-campus students, via a flipped classroom model, as well as a meaningful learning experience for the millions of students around the world who would otherwise never have access to education of this quality.


The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favourites, recent examples that deserve to be better known. A particularly welcome feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. This is an anthology that opens with wise words about the nature of truth, and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps, the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey. It contains some of the most eloquent writing in English, and some of the most entertaining.


In Japanese narrative, the trope of landscape has been variously invoked
by writing subjects in both utopian and dystopian modes, and thus a notion of
landscape as backdrop to violence provides few unique insights. However,
when writers marginalized by an authoritative center, such as colonial subjects
or their children, use Japanese for literary production, a disquieting dissonance
reverberates throughout the topos of their texts, forcing the reader to
interrogate conventional notions of landscape as either external backdrop or
reflection of the interiority of a unitary subjective representation.
Notwithstanding the diversity of their individual experiences, the history of
earlier Korean background writers, for example, can compel these authors to
interpret landscape through an intertextual filter of authorized brutality and
oppression. Like the identities of the writing subjects, the landscapes that
scaffold the texts are often sites of fracture and dismemberment in which the
commission and reception of violence, and the associated scoring of bodies,
carries an almost existential imperative. In extreme cases, the violated body
can become the landscape itself, indistinguishable from other abject sites, such
as stagnant water or crumbling living quarters.


Oxidative stress is a major contributor to the alterations of various pathological conditions, including neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric problems. Antioxidative flavonoids, ubiquitously included in vegetables, fruits, and teas, are expected to prevent degenerative diseases. Recently, flavonoids have been characterized as neuroprotectants in the treatment of various neurological disorders. The present study was designed to investigate protective effects of quercetin, a bioflavonoid, against acute immobilization-induced behavioral and biochemical alterations in mice. Mice were immobilized for a period of 6 hours. Quercetin (20 and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered 30 minutes before subjecting the animals to acute stress. Behavioral tests (mirror chamber, actophotometer, and tail flick test) and biochemical analysis (malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione, catalase, nitrite, and protein levels) were subsequently performed. Acute immobilization stress for a period of 6 hours caused severe anxiety, analgesia, and impaired motor activity in mice. Biochemical analyses revealed an increase in malondialdehyde and nitrite levels as well as partial depletion of reduced glutathione and catalase activity in immobilization-stressed brain. Behavioral and biochemical parameters were significantly altered as compared to naive mice. Pretreatment with quercetin (20 and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly reversed immobilized stress-induced anxiety and analgesia and reduced locomotor activity. Biochemically, quercetin treatment attenuated malondialdehyde accumulation and nitrite activity and restored the depleted reduced glutathione and catalase activity. Neuroprotective effects of quercetin were significantly improved as compared to control (immobilized stressed) animals. Results suggest that neuroprotective properties of quercetin can be used in the treatment and management of stress and related disorders.


Under contemporary American law human corpses and some bodily parts are classified as quasi-property. Quasi-property is an American legal conception composed of limited interests that mimic some of the functions of property, but does not formally qualify as property. It is a uniquely American, idiosyncratic and misunderstood legal category. Quasi-property status is most typically associated with intellectual property given the Supreme Court decision of International News Services v. Associated Press. That human remains and bodily materials are classified as quasi-property is less well known. The confusion surrounding the quasi-property status of the dead has negative implications for current and future research, medicine and broader society. Litigation surrounding the treatment and status of those who died in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack hinged on quasi-property. Clearly resolving the quasi-property status of the dead is becoming increasingly important in the wake of biotechnological advances. In March 2018 a Y Combinator start-up, Nectome, promised to preserve, digitize and reanimate brains. The project is concerning for many reasons, but one major concern is the ambiguous status of the dead that the company will experiment upon and, ultimately, offer services to.

This paper explores the origins of quasi-property and investigates why American judges ascribed quasi-property status to human remains. The adoption of quasi-property status is notable because judges broke with hundreds of years of inherited common law, and forsook a legal tenant prescribed by Blackstone and Coke. Understanding its origins, therefore, has broader implications for our understanding of the development of American law. I show that the academic literature and case law have mistaken both the origin of, and reasoning behind quasi-property status. Scholars and judges cite a 1872 Rhode Island Supreme Court decision as the foundational case on quasi-property status of the dead. My research shows that, in fact, the first case occurred instead in Cleveland, Ohio a year earlier. Further, my analysis of this initial case, and surrounding socio-cultureal context, reframes our understanding of the forces behind quasi-property status. The traditional account in the literature and case law of the emergence of quasi-property status points to America's lack of ecclesiastical courts, which historically had jurisdiction over cemeteries and burial in England. I argue that the existing explanation does not sufficiently account for the initial application, the dominance, or the persistence of the unique status of quasi-property by American courts. This paper advances a novel argument that socio-cultural changes forged in the maelstrom of the Civil War precipitated the initial use and later systematic adoption by American courts of quasi-property status for human remains. My discovery and re-examination of the subsequent rise of quasi-property at the turn of the nineteenth century has important implications for how contemporary courts should conceive of this deeply contested legal category.


The research investigated the development of verbal intimacy in young children's (3.5-6.5 years of age) friendships by measuring their capacity for restrictive self-disclosure (i. e. the greater disclosure of information of highly personal content to friends than other individuals, as opposed to the equal disclosure of information of low personal content to all individuals). Young children's capacity for intimate friendships is ill understood, partly due to limited or unsubstantiated data regarding the types of information that are considered high and low in personal content at this age, as the First Study (N = 110) showed. The Second Study (N = 93) attempted to fill this gap in our knowledge by investigating the sort of information that children consider secret. The results showed that children's ability to differentiate secret and . non-secret information increased with age: 4-year-old children could not systematically differentiate secret from non-secret information, 5-year-old children systematically identified information that was not secret but were not consistent in their identification of secret items, while 6-year-old children systematically identified and differentiated secret and non-secret items. However, children of all ages identified as secrets the statements which included a specific cue, such as the word surprise, in their wording. The Third Study (N = 209) investigated whether young children employ the restrictive disclosure-to-friends pattern when revealing the secret pieces of information. Moreover, the study investigated whether specific cues influence young children in applying the restrictive disclosure pattern, and to this effect participants were allocated randomly to either the `clue condition' group (where they were given a clue that some information might be secret) or the 'no clue condition' group. Children in the `clue condition' group treated the majority of the statements as secret information and therefore tended to only share it with a friend or with nobody. In contrast, in the `no clue condition' group statistically significant differences were found only in the secret items, suggesting that, when not influenced by an adult, children have the ability to identify highly personal/secret information and to treat it by accordingly applying the restrictive disclosure-to-friends pattern. Taken together, the findings suggest that young children engage in restrictive self-disclosure to friends in some, but not all, circumstances, and thus display signs of verbal intimacy in their friendships.


This dissertation evaluates the artificial neural technique for evolving a smart antenna system. The AI techniques pose a challenging research in the field of communication. As such the antennas help to communicate with the digital processor to choose the desired signals and reject the others. It makes its own decision even to find the level of interferences and noises to be discarded by amplitude elimination process through the use of perceptron optimization algorithms like LMS (Least Mean Squares). This method helps to enhance the performance of signal processing efficiently. The design of hardware and software are quite complex. This is due to the fact, that the behaviour of the system is not fully understood being a real-time dependent system. This research work is carried only on software with certain simulated activity on beam-formation algorithm and as well, the system responses before and after using the adaptive algorithm. In this report, we try to concentrate to work on the method of adaptivity to make antenna adaptable to a virtual form of real-time environment. For, this reason a two-element antenna is used for simulation testing, as it is the most commonly used antenna for all purposes in communication. It is also tested on various scanning levels of rotation to determine the learning rate (a parameter that has no effect on the radiation output after using LMS) mean-square error rates and convergence analysis. For the purpose of above mentioned tests, three hypotheses are framed in relation to side-lobe reduction level above 5 decibels, the narrowing of the beam after adaptivity and finally the response of the main beam output for varying values of learning rate, respectivelty. The given research work, may comprehend good practical use of this LMS algorithm and also to indicate antenna patterns and the responses to adaptivity conditions through clarity in graphical format. The method is influenced to reduce computational complexity and bring simplicity to the functionality of the antenna with more efficient and effective adaptivness. An effort to test theoretical concepts in practice is also been made in this thesis work. The results show that the antenna system can be made to evolve itself through the process of adaptation with simple behaviour by relying on artificial intelligence technique which ensures little supervision and human intereference. Eventually, it is understood that the reader should have possessed prior concepts, related to antennas, digital signal processing and its practical usage in artificially intelligent systems and as well the exceptions in it, since the work is explained in the direct level assuming so.


The combination of imitation and exploration strategies is used in this paper to transfer sensory-motor skills to robotic platforms. The aim is to be able to learn very different tasks with good generalization capabilities and starting from a few demonstrations. This goal is achieved by learning a task-parameterized model from demonstrations where a teacher shows the task corresponding to different possible values of preassigned parameters. In this manner, new reproductions can be generated for new situations by assigning new values to the parameters, thus achieving very precise generalization capabilities. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm that is able to learn the model together with its dependence from the task-parameters, without specifying a predefined relationship or structure. The algorithm is able to learn the model starting from a few demonstrations by applying an exploration strategy that refines the learnt model autonomously. The algorithm is tested on a reaching task performed with a Barrett WAM manipulator.


Incidental or unexpected chromosomal aberrations detected during prenatal diagnosis pose a complication in this diagnostic process. Generally, they may be defined as findings not primarily associated with the referral, but they still require further clinical management and consultation. The "randomness" of such a finding is obviously different for cytogeneticist, medical geneticist and pregnant proband. Same chromosomal findings may be accepted differently in various scenarios.


THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND SERVICE PROVISION Jennifer M. Dirmeyer, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2009 Dissertation Director: Dr. Peter J. Boettke Local governments have a large impact on the wellbeing of individuals. They are the providers if not the funders of most public services and they enact and enforce many of the laws that determine the productivity of individuals within the economy. This dissertation looks at three aspects of the effect of local governance incentives on public service provision. The first chapter looks at the relationship between federal funds and local governance. The analysis suggests that federal aid weakens the competitive discipline that Tiebout competition enforces on local governance resulting in greater incentives for corruption. The second chapter examines the effects of urban decline on disaster response and reconstruction. Cities that have experienced urban decline before a disaster experience coordination failures that result in slower population recovery. The final chapter compares the provision of flood protection by a centralized body, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, with the potential provision by local governments. This chapter uses the analysis of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force's Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System, released March 2007, to identify specific failings of centralized control.


This paper develops a dynamic structural model of trade in which firms slowly accumulate consumers in foreign markets. Estimating the model using export data from individual firms and a particle Markov chain Monte Carlo estimator, the model predicts lower survival rates for new exporters and estimates low entry costs of exporting—less than half of those estimated in the absence of consumer accumulation. Using simulations and out-of-sample predictions, I show that the introduction of such frictions and the reduction in estimated entry costs allow the model to match important facts regarding the aggregate response of international trade to shocks. (JEL D22, F12, F14, L66)


The research state-of-the-art mentions critical infrastructures (CI) in the same breath as studies about cataclysmic threats, events instantiated by a terrorist or cyber-attack, and/or a natural disaster. This paper suggests that a threat to CI may also result from slowly evolving, gradual, and undetectable events that build up over time. Entire regional industries and their associated networks exhibit punctuated equilibria-type phenomena. Embedded within regional economies and operating as a system-of-system (SoS), regional industries are CI that exhibit gradual evolutionary changes. This paper examines: a) the automotive industry and its impact to the City of Detroit, Michigan; b) the heavy defence/military-contractor industry in the Hampton Roads (Virginia). The paper concludes that a reorientation of CI research to include slow evolving events is necessary with calls for new investment in management, planning, and monitoring approaches that can deal with slow and evolving threat events.


Interleukin-HP1 (HP1)/IL-6 is a 25-30-kD protein produced by macrophages, fibroblasts, and certain T cell lines. It was originally identified as a mouse growth factor for B cell hybridomas and plasmacytomas, and was recently shown to stimulate growth and differentiation of normal B cells. Here we demonstrate that, in the presence of lectins or anti-T cell receptor antibodies, HP1/IL-6 has a growth factor activity equivalent to that of IL-2 for mature thymic and peripheral T cells of both the L3T4+ and Lyt-2+ subsets. Contrary to IL- 2 and IL-4, HP1/IL-6 was, however, not capable of supporting the growth of established T cell lines. In addition to its effects on T cell proliferation, HP1/IL-6 also enhanced the differentiation of mouse cytolytic T cell precursors in primary allogeneic mixed lymphocyte cultures. Fractionation of responding cell populations indicated that HP1/IL-6 was capable of restoring the response of accessory cell- depleted T cells to Con A. This observation suggests that the production of HP1/IL-6 by macrophages could, at least partly, explain their role in polyclonal T cell activation.


The number of injured car occupants decreases constantly. Nevertheless, they account for nearly 50% of all fatalities and about 44% of all seriously injured persons in German traffic accidents. Further reductions of casualties require multiple efforts in all parts of traffic safety. In this paper a detailed analysis of the important pre-hospital rescue phase was done. The basis for future improvements is the knowledge about injury causation of car occupants in combination with other corresponding influence factors. For that reason more than 1,200 severe (AIS3+) injuries of frontal car occupants were analyzed. For the most relevant injuries of car occupants multivariate analysis models were created to predict the probability of these injuries in a real crash scenario. In addition to the collision severity different influence factors like impact direction, seat belt usage, age of the occupant, and gender were analyzed. Furthermore, the models were checked regarding the goodness of fit and all results all results were checked concerning their robustness. The prediction models were created on the basis of 5,000 car accidents. Afterwards, the models were validated using 4,000 different car accidents. The prediction of the probability of severe injuries could be used for different applications in the field of traffic safety. One possibility is the implementation of the models in a tool for the on-the-spot diagnosis. The background for the development of such applications is the fact, that there are only limited diagnostic possibilities available at the accident scene. Nevertheless, the rescue forces have to make essential decisions like the alerting of the necessary medical experts, appropriate treatment, the type of transportation and the choice of an adequate hospital. These decisions quite often decide between life and death or influence the long-term effects of injured persons. At his point, indications of expectable injuries could help enormously. To enable even persons with limited technical knowledge to use the tool, a procedure was developed that facilitates the assumption of the given crash severity. Another important possibility for the application of the prediction models is the use for the qualification of information sent by e-call systems. (A) Paper to the session "Injury Prevention and Mechanisms" of the 5th International Conference on ESAR "Expert Symposium on Accident Research", 7th to 8th September 2012 in Hannover.


The pharmacist's assistant is at the forefront in the pharmacy to answer questions and advise customers on the basics of good skin care. With the advent of puberty, younger customers may need information on how to treat and prevent acne. On the other hand, life expectancy is continuously rising in developed countries, but the mystery of ageing remains partially unresolved, and customers are more aware of skin care than ever before. Skin ageing is also particularly important because of its social impact. This article will provide an overview of skin ageing, acne skin care and suggest five basic principles that can be followed in order to keep the skin healthy.


In response to the changing international market, the Australian and New Zealand governments have placed
greater emphasis on internationalisation within the tertiary education sector. Subsequently, universities have
implemented internationalisation initiatives such as attracting international students to on-campus courses,
and student mobility programs. While the literature regarding overseas students' experiences studying in
Australia and New Zealand is broad, to date there has been limited consideration of the 'internationalisation'
of domestic students. As student exchange programs represent an opportunity for local students to develop
intercultural competencies, there is a need for research to examine the issues affecting student participation
in academic mobility programs. Consequently, this study examined the relationship between student
participation rates in university exchange programs and the institutional policy and strategic goals at 33
Australian and New Zealand universities. The results show that there is a trend between the explicitness of
the strategic plans regarding student exchange and the proportional rate of outgoing students. As the success
of a policy's implementation within an organisation is affected by factors external to policy itself, it is
recommended that future research focus on other push-pull factors at both the institutional and individual
levels.


Most of the known solutions (linear and nonlinear) of the ill-posed EEG Inverse Problem can be interpreted as the estimated coefficients in a penalized regression framework. In this work we present a general formulation of this problem as a Multiple Penalized Least Squares model, which encompasses many of the previously known methods as particular cases (e.g., Minimum Norm, LORETA). New types of inverse solutions arise since recent advances in the field of penalized regression have made it possible to deal with non-convex penalty functions, which provide sparse solutions (Fan and Li (2001)). Moreover, a generalization of this approach allows the use of any combination of penalties based on l1 or l2-norms, leading to solutions with combined properties such as smoothness and sparsity. Synthetic data is used to explore the benefits of non-convex penalty functions (e.g., LASSO, SCAD and LASSO Fusion) and mixtures (e.g., Elastic Net and LASSO Fused) by comparing them with known solutions in terms of localization error, blurring and visibility. Real data is used to show that a mixture model (Elastic Net) allows for tuning the spatial resolution of the solution to range from very concentrated to very blurred sources.


Previous algorithms for supervised sequence learning are based on dynamic recurrent networks. This paper describes an alternative class of gradient-based systems consisting of two feedforward nets that learn to deal with temporal sequences using fast weights: The first net learns to produce context-dependent weight changes for the second net whose weights may vary very quickly. The method offers the potential for STM storage efficiency: A single weight (instead of a full-fledged unit) may be sufficient for storing temporal information. Various learning methods are derived. Two experiments with unknown time delays illustrate the approach. One experiment shows how the system can be used for adaptive temporary variable binding.


Background : There is no formal training programme for the Team Physician (TP) in football at present.
Aim : To determine the common medical conditions and injuries encountered by the TP of a national football team. This could assist the aspiring Team Physicians in self-directed learning.
Type of study : A retrospective descriptive study.
Methods : The records of 174 medical consultations of players and staff at 2 international football competitions, including preceding training camps, in which a National Football Team participated, were analysed looking at the nature and locations of injuries, the illnesses encountered, the referrals to other medical specialists, and the players presenting to the national team in an injured state.
Results : 117(67.2%) of consultations were for injuries, 57(32.7%) were for illnesses and counselling sessions. Upper respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal conditions accounted for 55% of illnesses. Of the injuries, 99 of 102 (97%) player injuries were soft tissue injuries. One (1%) of the player injuries involved a serious head injury. Five players required referrals to other specialists. Twelve (7%) of consultations involved evaluating and treating players presenting to national team training camps with injuries sustained at their clubs.
Conclusion : The TP in football needs to be versed in : management of soft tissue injuries, emergency medicine and pre-hospital management of traumatic and medical emergencies, and common conditions seen in family medicine. Knowledge of the updated doping control regulations will prevent doping violations. Counselling skills, knowledge of adolescent issues, and basic osteopathic skills are useful. A referral network of medical specialist should be established when travelling.


Abstract This study was designed to evaluate firing rate variability in patients with upper/lower motor neuron disorders. Twenty healthy subjects and 19 patients with motor neuron disorders participated in the study. Consecutive motor unit action potential pairs from extensor digitorum communis (EDC) muscle were recorded from each subject with trigger-delay line mode. Patients with motor neuron disorders (17.7 ± 10.8 ms) showed significantly higher mean time variability of interpotential interval value than healthy volunteers (10.3 ± 0.1 ms) (p < 0.001).


UNLABELLED Patients admitted to the ICU are at risk of immobility and an early and important physical deconditioning. OBJECTIVE To develop and to implement an early and safe protocol for ICU patients' mobilization. METHODOLOGY The Evidence Based Practice Model for Staff Nurses was used. It encompasses Assessment, Problem Identification, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation, Integration and Maintenance in Practice. RESULTS The research team (Advanced Practice Nurse and expert clinical nurses), along with the medical team and rehabilitation service, identified the need to develop the protocol. For its elaboration, a literature search on the data bases PubMed, CINA-HL and Cochrane Library was performed; a questionnaire was administered and structured observations were conducted. For the implementation training sessions were offered to nurses, posters were placed in the unit and protocol was included in the computer program. Finally, an assessment of the knowledge, perceptions and practices of nurses in the unit and a recording of adverse events related to the mobilization will take place. CONCLUSIONS The development and implementation of a protocol for early mobilization of ICU patients has facilitated the integration of this care in daily practice. This model of evidence-based practice allows nurses an active part in changing the culture in terms of the integration of research into practice.


Soil mechanical properties of the seabed are related to a number of challenges in the development of ocean renewable energy. Early site assessment is an important part of the development of an ocean renewable energy project, and soil mechanical and sediment dynamical site characteristics should already be addressed at this stage. However, the suitability of the site for the installation of a ocean renewable energy converter (OREC) is still under evaluation and budgets are often strongly limited at this stage of the project. It follows that there is a need for cost-efficient survey strategies. Different methods have been tested in a tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy, Canada, and a wave energy project in Yakutat, Alaska. Camera systems displayed sediment type, abundance of rocks, plants and small-scale bedforms. Portable free-fall penetrometers were deployed for testing of sediment strength and stratification at the uppermost seafloor. Areas of different sediment strength were identified, and loose, poorly compacted sediment layers quantified. Additionally, rocks and bedrock faces which were covered by a thin sediment layer and remained undetected by seafloor imaging sonars and grab samples, were found. Buried pressure sensors were used in preliminary experiments to monitor pore pressure variations with wave forcing and test the susceptibility to sediment liquefaction. First surveys using these methods attested that they deliver valuable information with regard to sediment and soil mechanical characteristics, while being deployable from local small fishery or harbor authority vessels. Availability of such vessels and devices is high, while purchasing/renting costs are rather low. This allows to perform such tests very cost-effectively, and thus provides a promising strategy for early site assessment in ocean structure engineering before larger budgets are available.


Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in Korea. The FOLFOX regimen is widely used chemotherapy in CRC, and the modified (mFOLFOX6) regimen is frequently used in the National Cancer Center in view of adverse events, patient convenience and the time for nursing. The mFOLFOX6 regimen consisted of oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2 and folinic acid 200 mg/m2 intravenous on day 1, followed by 5-FU 400 mg/m2 INTRAVENOUS and then 5-FU 2,400 mg/m2 INTRAVENOUS over 46 h, administered every 2 weeks. Although a modified regimen is used, adverse events have occurred frequently and dose modifications may be needed. Purpose The objective of this study was to analyse the cause and pattern of dose modifications of mFOLFOX6 regimen, to determine the factors that affect dose modification in CRC patients. Materials and methods A retrospective study was conducted on 70 patients who were diagnosed with CRC and received mFOLFOX6 between January 2009 and March 2010. Dose modification was needed in 68 patients (97.2%) and the average incidence (including delay of administration and dose reduction) was 2.90±1.58. The most frequently used way of modifying the dose was to delay the chemotherapy schedule for a week, and the primary cause of dose modification was neutropenia. Factors that affect dose requirements include gender, age, body surface area (BSA), blood level, underlying disease, stage, metastasis, performance status (PS), previous disease and the history of drinking and smoking. Results Dose modification and reduction occurred more frequently in patients in their 70's than in their 50's or 60's (P=0.015, 0.027, respectively). From blood level tests, patients with high alkaline phosphatase levels had more dose modification and delay of chemotherapy (P=0.035, 0.033, respectively). The dose was also modified and reduced more frequently in patients who had a case history of hypertension (P=0.046, 0.027, respectively). In the relation to the stage, patients in advanced stages had more dose modification and delayed administration than those in the first stage of CRC. The dose was modified and administration was delayed more frequently in metastatic cancer patients than non-metastatic cancer patients (P=0.021, 0.015, respectively). The incidence of dose modification and reduction increased with poorer PS (P=0.019, 0.025, respectively). In patients who had previously undergone radiotherapy, the dose was modified and reduced more frequently (P=0.259, 0.005 respectively). In those with a history of drinking, the dose was reduced more frequently (P=0.004). The dose was modified and administration was delayed more frequently in patients who had a history of smoking (P=0.001, 0.002, 0.002, respectively). Conclusions From this study, the cause of dose modification depended on individual differences and could be predicted in advance. Further study is needed to confirm predictive factors that could affect dose modification and to apply them effectively to individual treatment.


The European Commission (EC) has set ambitious CO2 emission reduction objectives for the transport sector by 2050. In this context, most decarbonisation scenarios for transport foresee large market penetration of electric vehicles in 2030 and 2050. The emergence of electrified car mobility is, however, uncertain due to various barriers such as battery costs, range anxiety and dependence on battery recharging networks. Those barriers need to be addressed in the 2020–2030 decade, as this is key to achieving electrification at a large scale in the longer term. The paper explores the uncertainties prevailing in the first decade and the mix of policies to overcome the barriers by quantifying a series of sensitivity analysis scenarios of the evolution of the car markets in the EU Member States and the impacts of each barrier individually. The model used is PRIMES-TREMOVE, which has been developed by E3MLab and constitutes a detailed energy-economic model for the transport sector. Based on model results, the paper assesses the market, energy, emission and cost impacts of various CO2 car standards, infrastructure development plans with different geographic coverage and a range of battery cost reductions driven by learning and mass industrial production. The assessment draws on the comparison of 29 sensitivity scenarios for the EU, which show that removing the barriers in the decade 2020–2030 is important for electrification emergence. The results show that difficult policy dilemmas exist between adopting stringent standards and infrastructure of wide coverage to push technology and market development and adverse effects on costs, in case the high cost of batteries persists. However, if the pace of battery cost reductions is fast, a weak policy for standards and infrastructure is not cost-effective and sub-optimal. These policies are shown to have impacts on the competition between pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Drivers that facilitate electrification also favour the uptake of the former technology, the latter being a reasonable choice only in case the barriers persist and obstruct electrification.


After its formulation by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) at the end of the 18th century, homoeopathy spread to Britain and America in the 1820ร. Based upon the principle or law of "similia similibus curentur"- let like be cured by like-homoeopathy presented a serious challenge to allopathic medicine. By the 1870s homoeopaths were part of science, performing the first single blind clinical trial, establishing the action of drugs upon the body by experimentation and investigating the nature of matter. Institutionally established, especially in the U.S., they regularly published statistics demonstrating the superiority of homoeopathic treatment in both general practice and in hospitals. Allopaths responded by "nihilating" homoeopathic theory and practice on several levels. Through the language of bacteriology they absorbed key homoeopathic tenets into their own symbolic universe. During the Progressive Era allopaths' ideological resonance with the corporations enabled them to finally vanquish homoeopaths and define medical science along new lines. Homoeopathy's decline in the 1920s was precipitated by its inability to handle experimental error effectively. Yet homoeopaths had raised important epistemological questions about the nature of the relationship between drugs and the human organism. These were never resolved but became repressed along with homoeopathy's scientific history. Since Tory historiography claims that the past informs the future, my aim in recovering homeopathy's history is to highlight the contemporary importance of these issues for medicine. Only by explicitly addressing these unresolved dilemmas will the Hegelian outworking of Reason be accomplished.


Having a clear, shared vision that gives meaning to work is a health-promoting phenomenon in the workplace. Transformational leadership, therefore, focuses on the needs of others, rather than the needs of the leader. Transformational leaders strive for culture change to drive improvement and performance and use modern leadership techniques like empowerment and inspiration.

This keynote presentation explores the four dimensions of transformational leadership (Bass, 1997) and carefully applies their relevance to leadership in teaching and learning with a particular focus on providing evidence in applying for HEA Fellowships (D3 and D4) and the National Teaching Fellowship.


Background—The roles of complex muscle sleeve geometry and fiber orientation in the pulmonary veins (PVs) in wave-front propagation are poorly understood. Methods and Results—We mapped the left superior PV (LSPV, n=7) and left inferior PV (LIPV, n=4) of dogs with 420 bipolar electrodes (1-mm resolution) and performed detailed histological examination. In the anterior LSPV–left atrial (LA) junction, myocardial muscle fibers were oriented perpendicular to PV blood flow. A wedge filled with connective tissues led to a complete muscle separation or an abrupt increase in muscle thickness between the PV and LA (0.42±0.12 versus 2.0±0.31 mm, P <0.01). Distal LSPV pacing resulted in conduction block at the anterior PV-LA junction, with double potentials. In contrast, the posterior LSPV-LA junction showed gradual muscle thickening and a fiber orientation parallel to the blood flow. The maximum PV muscle thickness in the anterior PV-LA junction is thinner than that in the posterior junction (0.83±0.15 versus 1.3±0.38 mm, P <0.01). Distal LIPV pacing showed multiple PV-LA breakthroughs, with segmental conduction block in the anterior PV-LA junction. The conduction block corresponded to segmental PV-LA muscle disconnection. Complex fiber orientations in the PV muscle sleeves away from the PV-LA junction were responsible for intra-PV conduction delay or block during rapid PV pacing. Conclusions—We conclude that segmental muscle disconnection and differential muscle narrowing at PV-LA junctions and complex fiber orientations within the PV provide robust anatomical bases for conduction disturbance at the PV-LA junction and complex intra-PV conduction patterns.


Information Security is usually achieved through a mix of technical, organizational and legal measures. These may include the application of cryptography, the hierarchical modeling of organizations in order to assure confidentiality, or the distribution of accountability and responsibility by law, among interested parties. The history of Information Security reaches back to ancient times and starts with the emergence of bureaucracy in administration and warfare. Some aspects, such as the interception of encrypted messages during World War II, have attracted huge attention, whereas other aspects have remained largely uncovered. There has never been any effort to write a comprehensive history. This is most unfortunate, because Information Security should be perceived as a set of communicating vessels, where technical innovations can make existing legal or organisational frame-works obsolete and a breakdown of political authority may cause an exclusive reliance on technical means.This book is intended as a first field-survey. It consists of twenty-eight contributions, written by experts in such diverse fields as computer science, law, or history and political science, dealing with episodes, organisations and technical developments that may considered to be exemplary or have played a key role in the development of this field.These include: the emergence of cryptology as a discipline during the Renaissance, the Black Chambers in 18th century Europe, the breaking of German military codes during World War II, the histories of the NSA and its Soviet counterparts and contemporary cryptology. Other subjects are: computer security standards, viruses and worms on the Internet, computer transparency and free software, computer crime, export regulations for encryption software and the privacy debate. - Interdisciplinary coverage of the history Information Security- Written by top experts in law, history, computer and information science- First comprehensive work in Information Security


Abstract Memory for sequences is a central topic in neuroscience, and decades of studies have investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the coding of a wide array of sequences extended over time. Yet, little is known on the brain mechanisms underlying the recognition of previously memorized versus novel temporal sequences. Moreover, the differential brain processing of single items in an auditory temporal sequence compared to the whole superordinate sequence is not fully understood. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, the items of the temporal sequence were independently linked to local and rapid (2–8 Hz) brain processing, while the whole sequence was associated with concurrent global and slower (0.1–1 Hz) processing involving a widespread network of sequentially active brain regions. Notably, the recognition of previously memorized temporal sequences was associated to stronger activity in the slow brain processing, while the novel sequences required a greater involvement of the faster brain processing. Overall, the results expand on well-known information flow from lower- to higher order brain regions. In fact, they reveal the differential involvement of slow and faster whole brain processing to recognize previously learned versus novel temporal information.


This study investigates the natural ventilation provisions of residential buildings in the hot-humid climate of Putrajaya as well as the occupants' utilization and overall satisfaction of these provisions. Five terrace house design types were selected for the study and natural ventilation (NV) provisions were identified through acquired building documents. Computer simulations were carried out on all house types to determine the ventilation rates delivered by the NV provisions. Furthermore, a total of 298 households from the selected house types were surveyed. Two house types were found not to comply with the Uniform Building By-Law (UBBL) governing NV provisions in Malaysia and those house types that complied were found to exhibit higher ventilation rates. Occupants' level of satisfaction when utilising NV was found to be significantly related to opening sizes complying with UBBL, longer duration of opening windows, and occupants' means of achieving comfort. This paper informs designers on the importance of complying with the required law governing NV in residential buildings. It also highlights the need for a strict effective enforcement of UBBL compliance for the purpose of building approvals.


The role that ?system? has played in the shaping and reshaping of modern knowledge, from Galileo and Newton to our own ?computational universe.?A system can describe what we see (the solar system), operate a computer (Windows 10), or be made on a page (the fourteen engineered lines of a sonnet). In this book, Clifford Siskin shows that system is best understood as a genre?a form that works physically in the world to mediate our efforts to understand it. Indeed, many Enlightenment authors published works they called ?system? to compete with the essay and the treatise. Drawing on the history of system from Galileo's ?message from the stars? and Newton's ?system of the world? to today's ?computational universe,? Siskin illuminates the role that the genre of system has played in the shaping and reshaping of modern knowledge.Previous engagements with systems have involved making them, using them, or imagining better ones. Siskin offers an innovative perspective by investigating system itself. He considers the past and present, moving from the ?system of the world? to ?a world full of systems.? He traces the turn to system in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and describes this primary form of Enlightenment as a mediator of political, cultural, and social modernity?pointing to the moment when people began to ?blame the system? for working both too well (?you can't beat the system?) and not well enough (it always seems to ?break down?). Throughout, his touchstones are: what system is and how it has changed; how it has mediated knowledge; and how it has worked in the world.