Demonstrates the power of providing a common set of operating system services to wide-area applications, including mechanisms for naming, persistent storage, remote process execution, resource management, authentication and security. On a single machine, application developers can rely on the local operating system to provide these abstractions. In the wide area, however, application developers are forced to build these abstractions themselves or to do without. This ad-hoc approach often results in individual programmers implementing non-optimal solutions, wasting both programmer effort and system resources. To address these problems, we are building a system, WebOS, that provides the basic operating systems services needed to build applications that are geographically distributed, highly available, incrementally scalable and dynamically reconfigurable. Experience with a number of applications developed under WebOS indicates that it simplifies system development and improves resource utilization. In particular, we use WebOS to implement Rent-A-Server to provide dynamic replication of overloaded Web services across the wide area in response to client demands.


Abstract Redistribution is an inevitable feature of collective pension schemes and economic experiments have revealed that most people have a preference for redistribution that is not merely inspired by self-interest. However, little is known on how these preferences interact with preferences for different pension schemes. In this paper, we review the experimental evidence on preferences for redistribution and suggest some links to redistribution through pensions. For that purpose we distinguish between three types of situations. The first deals with distributional preferences behind a veil of ignorance. In the second type of situation, individuals make choices in front of the veil of ignorance and know their position. Finally, we discuss situations in which income is determined by interdependent rather than individual choices. In the closing sections of the paper, we discuss whether and how these experimental results speak to the redistribution issues of pensions. For example, do they argue for or against mandatory participation? Should we have less redistribution and more actuarial fairness? How does this depend on the type of redistribution involved?


Purpose

Bats provide many ecosystem services and have intrinsic value. They also act as host reservoirs for some viruses. Several studies have linked zoonotic diseases to bats, raising questions about the risks bats pose, especially to people living close to bat roosts. Through a series of case studies undertaken in three communities, the purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways in which framings and perceptions of bats can influence a potential spillover of bat-borne viruses to humans in Ghana. It assesses the social, cultural and economic factors that drive human-bat interactions and posits that understanding the socio-economic contexts in which human-bat interactions occur is key to the success of future communication strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data collection methods included participatory landscape mappings, transect walks, focus group discussions and questionnaire surveys.

Findings

Perceptions of bats vary and are influenced by personal beliefs, the perceived economic benefits derived from bats and the location of bat roosts. Activities that put people at risk include bat hunting, butchering and consumption of poorly prepared bat meat. Those who live and work close to bat roosts, and bat hunters, for example, are more at risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease spillover. Disease risk perceptions were generally low, with high levels of uncertainty, indicating the need for clearer information about personal protective practices.

Originality/value

The results of the study may well inform future risk communication strategies as well as help in developing effective responses to zoonotic disease risk, disease outbreaks and the conservation of bats in communities.


The brewing industry has considerable economic impact worldwide; therefore, demand exists for a better understanding of the organisms that cause beer-spoilage. Low nutrient levels, depleted oxygen levels, high alcohol levels, and the presence of antimicrobial hop compounds all play a role in making beer an inhospitable environment for most microorganisms. Nonetheless, there are bacteria that are resistant to all of these selective pressures. The most common beer-spoilage bacteria are the Gram-positive lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. It is currently believed that hop-resistance is the key factor(s) permitting Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria to grow in beer. However, it is likely that in addition, ethanol-tolerance and the ability to acquire nutrients also play roles in the beer-spoilage ability of Lactobacillus and Pediococcus isolates. The ability of Lactobacillus and Pediococcus to grow in beer was assessed and correlated to the presence of previously described beer-spoilage related genes, as well as with the presence of novel genes identified in this study. Molecular and culture-based techniques for detection and differentiation between Lactobacillus and Pediococcus isolates that can and cannot grow in beer were established and described in detail. Interestingly, beer-spoilage related proteins were often found to share homology with multi-drug transporters. As such, the presence of these beer-spoilage associated genes was also compared to the ability of isolates to grow in the presence of a variety of antibiotics and, unexpectedly, beer-spoiling bacteria were found to be more susceptible to antibiotics than were non beer-spoiling isolates of the same genus. Additionally, it was found that isolates of Lactobacillus and Pediococcus that can grow in beer do not group phylogenetically. In order to fully appreciate the relationship of speciation with beer-spoilage, phylogenetic and whole genome/proteome studies were conducted to clarify the taxonomy of the Lactobacillus and Pediococcus genera. Through the research in this thesis, a greater understanding of the mechanism(s) enabling bacteria to grow in beer has been gained and taxonomy of the genera Lactobacillus and Pediococcus has been clarified.


The eighth annual Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology took place from the 20th to 22nd February 2004 at Trinity College, Dublin. Since its inception, SOMA has sought to provide postgraduate researchers in Mediterranean archaeology with a forum in which to present their work and give voice to new trends in Mediterranean archaeological research. This year, one of the main aims of the organisers was to make the symposium inclusive of regions and time periods not normally covered by the conference, i.e., to reach beyond the eastern Mediterranean region, and the Bronze Age and Classical periods. The presentations, therefore, covered places as diverse as Libya, Sardinia, and Jerusalem, and ranging chronologically from Neanderthals to Crusaders.


The early modern iconographic representations of St. Clare of Assisi (1193–1253) often show her carrying the monstrance with the Eucharist. This act refers to the episode of September 1240, when the Saracen mercenaries of Emperor Federick II attacked the unprotected small monastery of the Poor Ladies of San Damiano. The weak and sick Clare is often portrayed as lifting up the monstrance while standing at the dormitory door and striking the Saracen troops below with the brilliance of the Eucharist. The target of this essay is to trace the evolution of this enigmatic scene in Italian art in connection with the Franciscan religious literature, particularly as expressed in sermons. The article will focus on the later phase of the popularity of this scene in early modern Italy. The story gains new meanings over the years; ultimately, St. Clare becomes a Crusade heroine defending Christianity against infidels and an emblem of Tridentine Catholic theology and its admiration for the Host.


The paper describes the basic implementation of GCLA II's control level. The basis of the implementation is a compiling scheme for transforming inference rules and strategies operating on the object level to an interpreter in Prolog, where the inference rules of the control level are coded inline. This is possible since the operational semantics of the control level is deterministic, i.e. the choice of inference rule to apply on a control level goal is determined solely by the parts of the goal. To handle dynamic clauses, a context list, accessible through some new C-functions linked together with the Prolog system. GCLA I and GCLA II are described shortly, followed by a discussion of a Horn clause representation of inference rules versus functions coding inference rules. Then the transformation of inference rules and strategies is described followed by some examples.


Evaluation report for the inter-authority learning exchange between Shetland Islands, Falkirk and Glasgow Councils throughcare and aftercare teams. In February 2014 a member of the Throughcare and Aftercare team from Shetland, spent two weeks in each host authority as a means of developing and sharing practice, experience and learning. The report describes the planning process, in-situ experience, and post-exchange learning of participants, it also report highlights the positive learning outcomes and benefits achieved for all participating local authorities. The report identifies ideas for future applications of such a learning and practice exchange model to improve practice for looked after young people and care leavers.


We have investigated the effects of organic matter (OM) that does not absorb sunlight ("nonchromophoric") on the reactive environment presented by bulk ice and ice surfaces. Fluorescence spectroscopy showed that the presence of as little as 2.5 × 10(-4) M octanol or decanol reduces the extent to which naphthalene self-associates at ice surfaces, which indicates that naphthalene partitions between ice and organic phases present there. We also measured photolysis kinetics of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) anthracene, pyrene, and phenanthrene in bulk ice and at ice surfaces containing 2.5 × 10(-5) M to 7.5 × 10(-3) M OM. In bulk ice, even the lowest concentrations of OM reduced photolysis kinetics to below our detection limits. Organic matter also reduced measured photolysis kinetics of PAHs at ice surfaces, but generally to a lesser extent than in bulk ice. Our results support previous reports that bulk ice and ice surfaces present distinct reaction environments, and show for the first time that OM can affect PAH photolysis kinetics by altering the physical environment within bulk ice and at ice surfaces.


Abstract Linguistics has always been taken as the authoritative frame of reference for how language is represented as a pedagogic subject, and as approaches to linguistic description have changed so accordingly have approaches to language teaching. But the purposes that determine what aspects of language are to be abstracted as relevant for linguistic description do not correspond with those of language pedagogy. What linguistics provides are ways of specifying what is to be taught as the eventual learning objective in relative disregard of the learning process, a process that it is the essential purpose of pedagogy to promote. An alternative to this customary objective driven approach, would be to focus not on acquiring competence in a particular and separate L2 but on extending the general capability for using language as a communicative resource that learners have already acquired in their L1. Such an approach effectively makes the primary objective of pedagogy the development of the learning process itself.


Present research was conducted to synthesize xylanase enzyme by Aspergillus niger using local agricultural wastes/by products for its utilization in baking industry. Wheat bran, corn cobs and sugar cane bagasse were used as carbon source at different concentrations i.e. 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5% employing submerged fermentation. The factors like temperature, pH and incubation time affected the xylanase synthesis significantly at various levels of substrates. The outcomes of the fermentation process showed that culture conditions i.e. 30°C, pH 5.5, 72 hrs & 3% substrates concentration were optimum for xylanase production. Wheat bran showed maximum xylanase activity 78.03±2.73 IU/mL followed by corn cob, 60.03±1.83 IU/mL and sugar cane bagasse 44.03±1.98 IU/mL. Large scale production of xylanase was carried out using wheat bran as carbon source at pre-optimized conditions. Purified enzyme showed the specific activity of 613.13 IU/mg protein as compared to crude enzyme 41.85 IU/mg protein. Characterization of xylanase indicated that pH 7.5 and 55°C were optimum for maximum activity. As the ultimate goal was to apply xylanase in food products i.e. bread, so it was subjected to efficacy studies using experimental poultry birds. It is deduced that values for body growth performance, serological and hematological parameters were within normal ranges showing the safety of enzyme. In order to assess the potential of xylanase in bread making; a comparative study was conducted in which enzyme was applied in various doses at two different stages i.e. tempering of wheat kernels before milling and mixing of dough. Xylanase addition modified the rheological attributes of dough, especially farinographic, mixographic and amylographic characteristics. Furthermore, xylanase decreased dryness and stiffness of the dough whereas, resulted in increased elasticity, extensibility and coherency. It is concluded from the rheological and allied characteristics that enzyme addition improved the dough handling properties. Bread volume was increased in response to xylanase addition during tempering up to 600 IU/kg and during mixing stage up to 800 IU/kg. Additionally, specific and relative volume increased whereas, density decreased in response to xylanase application. Moisture retention capacity of bread samples also improved as a result of enzyme treatments. Lastly, sensory evaluation was conducted to study the effect of xylanase treatments on the external and internal characteristics of the bread. Enzyme treatments resulted in marked improvement in these traits, though in most of the cases, T3 (600 IU/1kg) showed better performance. The statistical results indicated that addition of xylanase during tempering is more beneficial and cost effective in enhancing the hedonic response as compared to mixing. In the nutshell, wheat bran at 3% concentration can be used as a potential carbon source for the production of xylanase enzyme under pre-optimized conditions. Overall, improvement in dough handling characteristics and bread quality traits indicates that xylanase has potential to be used in the baking industry.


Aim The present study evaluated the relative influence of body mass index (BMI) on insulin resistance (IR), first-phase insulin secretion (FPIS), second-phase insulin secretion (SPIS), and glucose effectiveness (GE) at a fixed fasting plasma glucose level in an older ethnic Chinese population. Methods In total, 265 individuals aged 60 years with a fasting plasma glucose level of 5.56 mmol/L were enrolled. Participants had BMIs of 20.0–34.2 kg/m2. IR, FPIS, SPIS, and GE were estimated using our previously developed equations. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess the correlations between the four diabetogenesis factors and BMI. A general linear model was used to determine the differences in the percentage of change among the four factor slopes against BMI. Results Significant correlations were observed between BMI and FPIS, SPIS, IR, and GE in both women and men, which were higher than those reported previously. In men, BMI had the most profound effect on SPIS, followed by IR, FPIS, and GE, whereas in women, the order was slightly different: IR, followed by FPIS, SPIS, and GE. Significant differences were observed among all these slopes, except for the slopes between FPIS and SPIS in women (p = 0.856) and IR and FPIS in men (p = 0.258). Conclusions The contribution of obesity to all diabetes factors, except GE, was higher than that reported previously. BMI had the most profound effect on insulin secretion in men and on IR in women in this 60-year-old cohort, suggesting that lifestyle modifications for obesity reduction in women remain the most important method for improving glucose metabolism and preventing future type 2 diabetes mellitus.


Finite–time thermodynamics takes into account exo–irreversibilities which are not managed by reversible thermodynamics, especially reservoir–to–gas temperature gaps. In today's works, thermodynamicists use the working gas mass as the main imposed parameter. In this paper, the study of the Stirling engine cycle is carried out with a motorist–oriented viewpoint: instead of the working gas mass, the reference parameters are those linked to engineering constraints; they are the maximum pressure, the maximum volume, the extreme temperatures and the overall thermal conductance; the adjustable parameters are the volumetric compression ratio, the hot–to–cold conductance ratio and the regenerator efficiency. Analytical normalised expressions of the operating characteristics of the engine, such as power, work, efficiency, speed and their optima are set up. Classical results of analytical optimisation are found back and new ones are established, leading to new conclusions. Some dimensionless and dimensional numbers are put into evidence.


Abstract. Rain-triggered lahars are a significant secondary hydrological and geomorphic hazard at volcanoes where unconsolidated pyroclastic material produced by explosive eruptions is exposed to intense rainfall, often occurring for years to decades after the initial eruptive activity. Previous studies have shown that secondary lahar initiation is a function of rainfall parameters, source material characteristics and time since eruptive activity. In this study, probabilistic rain-triggered lahar forecasting models are developed using the lahar occurrence and rainfall record of the Belham River valley at the Soufriere Hills volcano (SHV), Montserrat, collected between April 2010 and April 2012. In addition to the use of peak rainfall intensity (PRI) as a base forecasting parameter, considerations for the effects of rainfall seasonality and catchment evolution upon the initiation of rain-triggered lahars and the predictability of lahar generation are also incorporated into these models. Lahar probability increases with peak 1 h rainfall intensity throughout the 2-year dataset and is higher under given rainfall conditions in year 1 than year 2. The probability of lahars is also enhanced during the wet season, when large-scale synoptic weather systems (including tropical cyclones) are more common and antecedent rainfall and thus levels of deposit saturation are typically increased. The incorporation of antecedent conditions and catchment evolution into logistic-regression-based rain-triggered lahar probability estimation models is shown to enhance model performance and displays the potential for successful real-time prediction of lahars, even in areas featuring strongly seasonal climates and temporal catchment recovery.


Dysphagia is a frequent complication in Parkinson's disease (PD). There is evidence that deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves PD motor symptoms, such as tremors and rigidity, but there is little research evaluating DBS on dysphagia improvement in PD. We report a case of a PD patient with severe dysphagia, relieved with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). The patient showed remarkable improvement in swallowing after bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS. Swallowing function was evaluated by videofluoroscopy (VF) before and after operation. The patient was a 43-year-old man whose initial symptoms were right hand tremors and gait disturbance at 32 years. Symptoms such as rigidity and akinesia gradually became aggravated, and he had pronounced swallowing disability. PEG was performed at age 43 years, because of aspiration pneumonia due to dysphagia. Myocardial scintigraphy (99mTc-metaiodobenzylguanidine [MIBG]) showed decreased uptake compatible with PD. Since the symptoms were uncontrollable with various medications, the patient was considered for DBS. Preoperative Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score was 31/58 in the on/off period, respectively. He could not swallow solid foods or liquids, and medicine and nutrition were given through PEG. However, pharyngeal and palatal reflex were normal. L-Dopa equivalent dose (LED) was 842 mg. Swallowing abnormality was evaluated by VF before DBS (see Video Segment 1, 41 seconds). Piecemeal deglutition, residue in the oral cavity, and tongue tremors were observed in the oral phase, and residue in the vallecula of the epiglottis and piriform recesses, delay of laryngeal elevation, aspiration, coughing, and insufficient opening of the esophageal orifice were observed in the pharyngeal phase. Bilateral STN-DBS was performed, and motor function and swallowing ability were noticeably improved. The effect of DBS lasted beyond 3 years; the UPDRS motor score decreased to 11/17 in the on/off period, respectively, and the LED was 525 mg. The patient could eat anything he wanted. In the VF findings, after 3 years from DBS, the swallowing abnormalities were noticeably improved (see Video Segment 2, 41 seconds ). Various swallowing abnormalities associated with PD were found with VF examination. Nagaya et al. evaluated swallowing function by VF in 16 PD patients. They suggested that disturbed motility in the oral phase may be due to bradykinesia. Ali et al. showed that incomplete upper esophageal sphincter (UES) relaxation and reduced UES opening are prevalent in PD. Dysphagia was reported as an occasional side effect of DBS, whereas improvement of deglutition after STN-DBS was observed by VF, performed 3 to 6 months after DBS. The pharyngeal composite score and pharyngeal transit time were significantly improved with DBS on compared with DBS off. However, the degree of hyoid bone excursion and oral stage measures did not improve. The mechanism of dysphagia in PD was hypothesized to be due to degeneration of cholinergic neurons of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPN), which is involved in the pathophysiology of dysphagia in PD. STN-DBS may improve the actions of the PPN, or simply mitigate bradykinesia of oropharyngeal movements. There are no long-term evaluations of DBS against deglutition. Here, we report pronounced improvement in swallowing, which lasted 3 years post-DBS.


The world economy continues on its upward growth path, with global production expected to grow by 3.7 percent this year and slightly more than that in 2018. The economies in both the developed and the emerging countries are gaining momentum. Solid output growth is expected for the U.S. and euro area over the forecast period; China's growth rates remain high, though they are declining somewhat; and Russia is coming out of its recession. Private consumption is driving growth in the developed countries, but the rise in inflation – which is due to higher energy prices – is expected to slow down consumption growth a bit. The global increase in prices is likely to also lead to a slightly more restrictive monetary policy overall. A number of economic policy-related risks – not least among them, the protectionism – could have a negative impact on the world economy, in particular on investment activity.


High-level synthesis (HLS) tools offer increased productivity regarding FPGA programming. However, due to their relatively young nature, they still lack many arithmetic optimizations. This thesis proposes safe arithmetic optimizations that should always be applied. These optimizations are simple operator specializations, following the C semantic. Other require to a lift the semantic embedded in high-level input program languages, which are inherited from software programming, for an improved accuracy/cost/performance ratio. To demonstrate this claim, the sum-of-product of floating-point numbers is used as a case study. The sum is performed on a fixed-point format, which is tailored to the application, according to the context in which the operator is instantiated. In some cases, there is not enough information about the input data to tailor the fixed-point accumulator. The fall-back strategy used in this thesis is to generate an accumulator covering the entire floating-point range. This thesis explores different strategies for implementing such a large accumulator, including new ones. The use of a 2's complement representation instead of a sign+magnitude is demonstrated to save resources and to reduce the accumulation loop delay. Based on a tapered precision scheme and an exact accumulator, the posit number systems claims to be a candidate to replace the IEEE floating-point format. A throughout analysis of posit operators is performed, using the same level of hardware optimization as state-of-the-art floating-point operators. Their cost remains much higher that their floating-point counterparts in terms of resource usage and performance. Finally, this thesis presents a compatibility layer for HLS tools that allows one code to be deployed on multiple tools. This library implements a strongly typed custom size integer type along side a set of optimized custom operators.


The paper presents new approach to estimation of the coefficients of an elementary bilinear time series model (EB). Until now, a lot of authors have considered different identifiability conditions for EB models which implicated different identifiability ranges for the model coefficient. However, all of these ranges have a common feature namely they are significantly narrower than the stability range of the EB model. This paper proposes a simple but efficient solution which makes an estimation of the EB model coefficient possible within its entire stability range.


The authors propose a unified approach to local volatility modeling, encompassing all asset classes, with straightforward application to equity and interest rate underlyings. Specifically, they consider a local volatility model for asset-for-asset or Margrabe (1978) options under general conditions that underlying dynamics follow Itô processes and derive a closed-form non-parametric local volatility formula. They then show that many standard contracts—European equity, FX, and interest rate options—can be seen as particular examples of the Margrabe-type payoff, which allows them to analyze equity and interest rate instruments, for example, as special cases of the same general local volatility model, rather than two separate models. They then derive a Markovian projection for the general model, with an approximate local volatility diffusion for the Margrabe option underlying. Finally, they discuss a specific application of the model to swaptions qua asset-for-asset options, where they consider the Markovian projection with some frozen parameters as a minimal "poor man's" model, featuring equity-like dynamics for the swap rate with its own "short rate" and the "dividend" implied from the term structure of interest rates. Using a number of numerical examples, they compare the minimal model to a fully fledged Cheyette local volatility model and the market benchmark Hull–White one-factor model (Hull and White 1990), demonstrating the adequacy of the "poor man's" model for pricing European and Bermudan payoffs. TOPICS: Options, statistical methods


Presented research explores the nature of teamwork activity in the conceptual design phase with an aim to unfold the patterns of team behaviour during execution of a specific design task. Teamwork activity process is observed as a sequence of analysis, synthesis and evaluation design operations applied to the problem and solution spaces. Design operations are used to represent abstract and fine-granularity steps of exploring and modifying the problem-solution space. Protocol study was conducted to investigate if teamwork activity can be decomposed into patterns of design operations and problem-solution alternation. Brainstorming sessions of two design teams were coded by employing an operation-based coding scheme. Protocol segmentation revealed the distribution of design operations and problem-solution related discussion, as well as the distribution of transitions between design operations. The emphasis is placed on the cycles of synthesis and analysis that appear within both problem and solution space, but also in-between the two spaces, thus indicating the co-evolution of the problem-solution space. These findings support and complement what has been reported in the literature.


This article discusses Score in French, an innovative football-related languages project designed by the University of Southampton to motivate boys in French at Key Stage 3 (ages 11–14). The article starts by explaining the rationale for the choice of football as the topic for a project aimed at motivating boys. It considers the main reasons why many boys are less inclined than girls to wish to engage with language study, especially French, and how curriculum materials related to football may influence their attitude towards learning the language. The article then outlines the issues that were considered in designing the extensive resource pack with which teachers were provided to deliver the project in class. It refers to research on which activities students (particularly boys) enjoy or dislike in language learning and justifies why certain types were included whilst others were excluded. Score in French was piloted with approximately 800 boys and girls in Year 8 (age 12) in six schools. The final part of the article assesses the project's impact and whether it achieved its objectives by analysing data from questionnaires completed by the 634 students and 20 teachers involved in the pilot. It highlights in particular differences in the way boys and girls responded to the project.


Whereas the first and undoubtedly most important toponymic stratum of the island of Newfoundland and adjacent waters is Portuguese, the presence of Basques from the 1530s to the late 17 century on the South and West coasts of Newfoundland, the islands of Cape Breton, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and on the left bank of the Saint Lawrence River had relatively little impact on the geographical nomenclature. Documentation is rare and not readily accessible, and the omnipresence of French during this period was not at all favorable to the development of appellations given by French and Spanish Basques. Many names are now extinct, others have been Frenchified and Anglicized (Port au Port, Port au Choix, Ingornachoix). The most complete repertory of Basque names (although many of them are mixed or hybrid appellations) is to be found in Pierre Detcheverry's edition of the rutter of Martin de Hoyarcabal (Bayonne 1677). In contrast, his map of 1689 and that of Denis de Rotis (1676) offer only a relatively small number. An accurate comparison of maps and charts from the 16 and 17 century until today will show to what extent Basque names – including those of minor geographical features – have stayed, been altered or vanished completely. Other categories, e.g., the commemorative names (Lac de  and Anse de l'Echafaud du Basque, Basque Island, etc.) and name transfers of places of origin with reference to the Basque Country (Amuitx, Plasencia) – some of them hypothetical (Cape Breton) – will also be discussed in this paper.


The objective of this paper is to give a more specific characterization of anticommunism in 1930s Argentina. For many years, historiography of the Argentinian interwar period has minimised the importance of anticommunism. In order to achieve our aim, we will analize the political repression against communism and the characterization of communism made by the nationalist (or extreme right) groups during the 1930s. This article has two central hypothesis. Firstly, during the 1930s, the Argentinan police force strove to criminalize the political activities of the communist movement in order to control working class activities. Secondly, the extreme right groups thoroughly analyzed the different practices and ideas of the local communist movement in order to develop their own specific political strategies. By means of these two presumptions we will try to outline a characterization of anticommunism in 1930s Argentina. University of Buenos Aires, Argentina


The worse quality fuels in over 30 years have contributed to exessive emissions, poor performance and many others. Today, there exists a variety of fuel additives to perform under severe conditions to improve the fuel's combustion characteristics. However, the effectiveness and mode of operation of such additives are not completely understood.
This study discussed the experimental findings using a Combustion Laboratory Unit. Experiments were performed to determine the effects of a particular fuel additive on combustion characteristics which includes emissions, efficiency, heat release and the fuel consumption rate. Fuels (gasoline) with and without the additive were fired succesively in the unit. MARVEL, a commercial fuel additive was used for the analysis. The concentration of the additive in the basic fuel were within 0.2% to 1.6% by volume. It was found that, with the presence of the fuel additive, it decreased the carbon dioxide emission by 2%, maintained the carbon monoxide level less than 4% and the
heat release increased by 5%. The additive was also found to increase the combustion efficiency by 8% and decreased the fuel consumption rate by 5%. From the above findings. the use of the additive to modify certain combustion
characteristics of fuel can improve the basic fuel quality and performance. As this additive has been developed primarily for gasoline fuels. many such additives can
also be employed in other type of fuel.


Building productive capacities is a top priority for least developed countries to promote development and graduate from the status of least developed country. This paper discusses the challenges and the opportunities for these countries to build their productive capacities. It argues that the main challenge is to manage the long-term effects of the increase in the terms of trade of commodities and reduction of terms of trade of manufactures, which threaten their growth trajectory. The paper presents a method to identify the opportunities for diversification that promotes the generation and acquisition of productive capacities. It also presents a list of potential new products and export markets that could be targeted by government and private sector for achieving higher long-term gains.


A quantitative method is proposed for the comparison of deep-marine clastic depositional systems and the analysis of their architectural properties. The method comprises a knowledge base of quantitative, literature-derived information from modern and ancient, surface and subsurface deep-water systems, implemented as a relational database management system and referred to as the Deep-Water Architecture Knowledge Base (DWAKB). The types of information contained within the knowledge base include: (1) internal and external parameters controlling system architecture, such as tectonic setting, grain size of available sediment, degree of basin confinement and number and distribution of sediment input points; (2) the dimensions of architectural elements, such as channels, levees, lobes, open slope and basin plain; (3) the spatial organization of the architectural elements; and (4) the bed thickness distribution and proportion of different lithologies within the architectural elements. The potential value of the DWAKB for comparative studies of deep-marine clastic systems is considerably higher than that of classification schemes and system analogue concepts presently available. Thus, in contrast to classification schemes, the knowledge base is not limited in the number of controlling parameters and it does not have a limited time span because of the flexibility to update existing records and add new datasets. Moreover, system analogues can be selected more objectively through the use of statistical methods, and the knowledge base allows unsurpassed integration of large-scale architectural data with bed- and facies-scale data. The expected value of the DWAKB is illustrated with several examples of quantitative data analysis. These include the determination of the frequency of occurrence of levees in systems of different grain size, the calculation of the dimensions of submarine channels as a function of grain size and proximity to the source area, and the construction of idealized models for sand-rich and mixed mud–sand systems based on probabilities of spatial transitions between architectural elements.


In this paper the dependencies of the degree of surface burning and intensity during disc sanding perpendicular to the wood grains of Fagus silvatica L. were examinedfor several machining parameters. Significant impacts of sanding load, thickness, and width of a wooden specimen on the surface burning and disc sanding intensity were evidenced and analyzed by evaluation of multi-factor, non-linear relations. Less important influences of cutting speed and size of grit on the surface burning and the sanding intensity, as well as single sanding cycle time and total sanding operating time on the surface burning were observed.


Understanding the regional pattern of population aging in China enables rational policy making to address the challenges of inequity in social welfare and care resources among the east–central–west regions and rural–urban areas of China. This study uses census data in 2000 and 2010, and aging population ratios, annual increase rates, and spatial autocorrelation analysis to examine spatial disparities in population aging in China. The results show that the population is more aged and aging more rapidly in rural areas than in urban areas. Spatial clusters of population aging expanded from the east coastal region in 2000, to inland provinces such as Sichuan and Chongqing in 2010. The vulnerable regions in terms of population aging, health status of the elderly population, and economic level at the prefectural level were also identified.


High frequency (>100 kHz) modes have been observed for the first time in combined LHCD and ICR-heated minority H (D) plasmas on Tore Supra by means of a correlation ECE diagnostic and by fluctuation reflectometers. These modes have been identified as the toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) that are destabilized by fast minority hydrogen ions with energies above 250 keV. In reversed central shear plasmas with non-linear oscillations of the central temperature, evolution of the TAE frequency is linked to the development of the local safety factor. This confirms that the central temperature and the q-profile evolve as a non-linearly coupled system in the so-called O-regime in Tore Supra.


Conventional active learning algorithms assume a single labeler that produces noiseless label at a given, fixed cost, and aim to achieve the best generalization performance for given classifier under a budget constraint. However, in many real settings, different labelers have different labeling costs and can yield different labeling accuracies. Moreover, a given labeler may exhibit different labeling accuracies for different instances. This setting can be referred to as active learning with diverse labelers with varying costs and accuracies, and it arises in many important real settings. It is therefore beneficial to understand how to effectively trade-off between labeling accuracy for different instances, labeling costs, as well as the informativeness of training instances, so as to achieve the best generalization performance at the lowest labeling cost. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for selecting instances, labelers (and their corresponding costs and labeling accuracies), that employs generalization bound of learning with label noise to select informative instances and labelers so as to achieve higher generalization accuracy at a lower cost. Our proposed algorithm demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on five UCI and a real crowdsourcing dataset.


This paper deals with a nonlinear finite element analysis to examine the behavior up to failure of cantilever composite steel-concrete beams which are prestressed externally. 'Pre-' means stressing the high strength external tendons in the steel beam section before the concrete slab is added. The composite beam contains a concrete slab which is connected together with steel I-beam by means of perfect shear connectors between the concrete slab and the steel beam which is subjected to static loading. A finite element analysis will be done to study the effects of external prestressed tendons on the composite steel-concrete beams by locating the tendons in different locations (profiles). ANSYS version 12.1 computer program is being used to analyze the represented three-dimensional model of the cantilever composite beam. This model gives all these outputs, mainly load-displacement behavior of the cantilever end and in the middle span of the simple support part. Keywords—Composite steel-concrete beams, external prestressing, finite element analysis, ANSYS.


This paper provides a survey for the main challenges of future research and development (R&D) for next generation mobile networks (NGNs). It addresses software and hardware re- configurability with focus on reconfigurable coupling and interworking amongst heterogeneous wireless access networks. It also explores the promising technologies for NGNs such as nanotechnology, cloud computing and texting by thinking. The paper then highlights the challenging research areas for enhancing network performance and affordability beginning with All IP network and security issues, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) and the necessity of high data rates at cell edges. Investigating the viability of cooperative networks and one unified global standard for NGNs, the paper analyzes macro- diversity and advanced multi-cell coordination for mitigating inter-cell interference. Direct device-to-device communication, global coverage using satellites and high-altitude platforms are presented as possible evolution paths for space roaming and extending NGN' radio-access. Finally, the paper inspects the most developing applications for NGNs such as World-Wide Wireless Web (WWWW), machine-type communication, wireless sensor networks (WSNs), e-healthcare systems and wearable devices with AI capabilities.


Periodic pumping tests, in which a fluid is extracted during half a period, then reinjected, have been used historically to estimate effective aquifer properties. In this work, we suggest a modified approach to periodic pumping test analysis in which one uses several periodic pumping signals of different frequencies as stimulation, and responses are analyzed through inverse modeling using a "steady‐periodic" model formulation. We refer to this strategy as multifrequency oscillatory hydraulic imaging. Oscillating pumping tests have several advantages that have been noted, including no net water extraction during testing and robust signal measurement through signal processing. Through numerical experiments, we demonstrate additional distinct advantages that multifrequency stimulations have, including: (1) drastically reduced computational cost through use of a steady‐periodic numerical model and (2) full utilization of the aquifer heterogeneity information provided by responses at different frequencies. We first perform fully transient numerical modeling for heterogeneous aquifers and show that equivalent results are obtained using a faster steady‐periodic heterogeneous numerical model of the wave phasor. The sensitivities of observed signal response to aquifer heterogeneities are derived using an adjoint state‐based approach, which shows that different frequency stimulations provide complementary information. Finally, we present an example 2‐D application in which sinusoidal signals at multiple frequencies are used as a data source and are inverted to obtain estimates of aquifer heterogeneity. These analyses show the different heterogeneity information that can be obtained from different stimulation frequencies, and that data from several sinusoidal pumping tests can be rapidly inverted using the steady‐periodic framework.


Innocents Abroad, a musical for the stage, deals with events in the life of Mark Twain, 1867-1869, particularly his courtship of Olivia Langdon and his efforts to establish himself as a writer. It emphasizes his struggle to be true to his individuality and outspoken honesty while trying to win "Livy," the product of the society he satirized and often condemned. The book, based on actual events, contains much of Twain's humor and wisdom. The vocal score is written in a contemporary style, for various vocal combinations, including full chorus and includes piano accompaniments and chord symbols for guitar and bass.


Occupational therapists are known to use storytelling and storymaking in their clinical practice to assist people with disability to visualise and work towards a positive future which they, themselves, can construct. Little work seems to have been done using the same medium of storytelling with occupational therapists in order to explore aspects of their professional life, career and possible future. The aim of this study was thus to investigate the use of narrative in research and in occupational therapists' clinical practice, and to examine its potential for exploring occupational therapists' career stories.Qualitative research was undertaken drawing on the biographical tradition, life history research and narrative inquiry for its methodology. A total of seven taped interviews were recorded with die agreement of two female occupational therapists who had been in practice for a minimum of eight years. In conversation, they told the story of their entry to the profession and of the ups and downs of their career as an occupational therapist. Emotions such as pleasure and pain seemed to be experienced as their stories emerged.Their narratives produced rich data. Systematic analysis revealed characteristics of both the storytelling process and of the narrative itself. The nature of the occupational therapists' careers and the context in which they were played out became apparent. Despite there being only two participants, their stories illustrated how their work was strongly guided by their personal values. Their stories revealed that triumphs and setbacks at work could be experienced in different ways. Their reflective comments made during the storytelling process sometimes offered new insights into these experiences, so that telling the story became, for them, a way of reviewing the issues and seeing them in a new light.The findings also showed that the therapists' career could not easily be isolated from their home life. The two appeared to be inter-dependent, and in this study were perceived to be in balance. Both occupational therapists expressed satisfaction about their professional and personal life and, as a result, were unwilling to project too far into the future about how their career might develop. It was concluded that storytelling, and the reflection involved in producing the narrative, could assist a therapist to explore issues and dilemmas that occurred at work. The process of telling the story could help to redefine the situation in relation to the context in which it was occurring and could help to determine a satisfactory future course of action. It is possible that storytelling in a confidential relationship with another could assist the professional development, not only of occupational therapists but also of other health professionals. A forum, such as in a mentorship arrangement, could allow work-related issues, career options or opportunities to be explored for their costs and benefits and enable better informed career decisions to be made.


An integrated lab-on-chip capable of performing quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is demonstrated in a high-voltage 0.35-μm CMOS process operating at a 3.3 V supply. PCR thermal cycling can be performed by physically moving droplets between three distinct temperature zones on the surface of chip or by thermal cycling a droplet in place. Droplet actuation is enabled by electrowetting-on-dielectric transport at 90 V. On-chip temperature regulation to 0.15°C is performed with on-chip resistive heaters and temperature sensors. PCR cycles are monitored by measuring the fluorescence signal of an intercalator dye using integrated single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). Results are demonstrated for the recognition of DNA extracts from Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) at a detection limit of a few copies per nL target volume.


We assessed growth dynamics of heterotrophic picoplankton and concentrations and turnover of dissolved protein, amino acids, and neutral monosaccharides in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean in austral summer (December‐January) and fall (March‐May). Phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) and biomass production of heterotrophic picoplankton in summer was twice as high as in fall. This difference was also reflected in protein turnover rate constants and in concentrations of dissolved combined neutral polysaccharides (DCCHO). Turnover rate constants of dissolved free amino acids (DFAA) were in the same range in both seasons, but turnover rate constants of glucose were higher in fall as compared to summer. In summer, dissolved protein was the major substrate for growth of heterotrophic picoplankton, followed by DFAA and dissolved free neutral monosaccharides (DFCHO). During summer, heterotrophic picoplankton production was closely correlated to concentrations and incorporation of dissolved protein. In fall, heterotrophic picoplankton production was only significantly correlated to glucose turnover rate constants. The latter were also inversely correlated to DCCHO concentrations in fall. The reduced supply of organic substrates by phytoplankton in fall not only resulted in an equal reduction of heterotrophic picoplankton production but also in a shift of the supply in dissolved protein, DFAA, and DFCHO to heterotrophic picoplankton. Dissolved protein was the major substrate for heterotrophic picoplankton growth in summer, but in fall, when supply of dissolved protein was reduced, DFAA and DFCHO were relatively more important substrates.


The grazing activity of consumers causes shifts between alternative states in a variety of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. One of the best examples of a consumer-driven shift occurs on temperate marine reefs, where grazing by high densities of sea urchins results in a shift from a foliose algal- to a crustose algal-dominated state. In this study, we focussed on 2 largely untested but impor- tant issues during the transition from a foliose algal- to a crustose algal-dominated state: (1) whether sea urchins impact foliose algal community composition by differentially removing species and (2) whether any impacts of grazing vary with 2 different densities of aggregating sea urchins. We tracked the movement of a high-density front of the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma and then performed experimental manipulations of H. erythrogramma at 2 unusually high but naturally occur- ring densities. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) followed by analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) showed differences in the foliose algal community composition, and therefore differential removal of species, between permanent plots before and during grazing (surveys), and between grazed and ungrazed plots (experiment). Of the 6 abundant foliose algae, 2 had relatively low sur- vivorship (Amphiroa anceps and Zonaria diesingiana), while 2 had relatively high survivorship (Delisea pulchra and Corallina officinalis) when grazed by high densities of sea urchins. Grazing by different densities of H. erythrogramma resulted in differences in the foliose algal community composition and for the chemically-defended D. pulchra there appeared to be a threshold sea urchin density required before its removal. Our results show that an intermediate community state composed of grazer-resistant foliose algae and crustose algae can occur, which may have important consequences for community composition.


A new concept to realize negative refractive index in non-resonance spectrum using chiral metamaterial is proposed. A low-index metamaterial is added to diminish the effective refractive index of the combined structure. Simulation and material parameter retrieval procedures are carried out to determine material performances. Results show evidence of negative refractive index and strong optical activity in the new chiral metamaterial.


SUMMARY In the high Andean landscapes of northern Peru's Cajamarca San Ignacio province, Rare and Caritas‐ Peru together launched a social marketing 'Pride' campaign, targeted at upstream farmers and downstream water users, to re‐align upstream and downstream incentives and create a locally‐ governed water institution with directives to protect upstream forests. These institutions, locally called Reciprocal Water Agreements, are based heavily on local norms of reciprocity, whereby downstream users compensate upstream farmers for setting aside riparian forests for conservation and thereby protecting local species and environmental quality. Upstream farmers are compensated in the form of in‐kind payments—a combination of economic alternatives such as provision of beekeeping equipment or fencing to keep cattle from encroaching riverbanks. The purpose of the Pride campaign, based on Rare's methods, was to generate local buy‐in and accelerate the process of institution‐building and adoption of Reciprocal Water Agreements. Caritas‐Peru and Rare staff collaborated to construct a theory of change and a series of methods have been employed to measure progress and impact. This campaign has led to the signing of 25 Reciprocal Water Agreement contracts, securing the protection of more than 360 hectares of forest. BACKGROUND 1


Modern science and technology are interwoven into a complex that is sometimes called 'techno-science': the progress of science is dependent on the sophistication of instrumentation, whereas the progress of 'high-tech' instruments and apparatus is dependent on scientific research. Yet, how scientific research contributes to the development of instruments and apparatus for technological use, has not been systematically addressed in the philosophy of technology, nor in the philosophy of science. Philosophers of technology have taken an interest in the specific character of technological knowledge as distinct from scientific knowledge, thereby ignoring the contribution of scientific knowledge to technological developments. Philosophers of science such as the so-called New-Experimentalists, on the other hand, recently has become interested in the role of instrumentation, but merely focus on their role in testing scientific theories. By reviewing the two distinct developments and taking them a step further, an alternative explanation of the interwoveness of science and technology in scientific research is proposed. Additional to testing theories, instruments in scientific practice have an important role in producing reproducible phenomena, and these phenomena may have technological applications. Subsequently, technological development of these applications requires theoretical understanding of the phenomenon and of materials and physical conditions that produce it, is not for the sake of theories about the world, but for the sake of understanding a phenomenon and how it is technologically produced


The recent Royal College of Physicians (RCP) report examining professionalism, identified leadership as an essential prerequisite for our profession in the new millennium. Leadership was also featured in the latest RACP News (magazine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians), which highlighted leaders among the College's Fellows: a state governor, two vice-chancellors of leading universities, 10 deans of medical schools, and the last three chief medical officers of the Australian Government. This is an impressive line-up, but is reaching the pinnacles of the establishment, academia or the bureaucracy synonymous with leadership?


Abstract This paper surveyed the safety issues and the related engineered safety features for designing Korean demonstration fusion power plant. Since the design process was staying at a conceptual stage and regulatory requirements were not fully matured, it was significant to investigate the broad options and select feasible candidates. In order to straddle system's performance and risk, the study followed the principles of Axiomatic Design (AD) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). The interplay of AD and FTA facilitates developing the design of fusion power plants for enhancing performance (power generation) and reducing risk (radiation hazard). While AD is a synthesis process in the success domain to compromise functional requirements and design options in terms of a functional hierarchy tree, FTA considers a safety analysis process in the failure domain. The functional hierarchy tree, which is also named as a functional requirement and design parameter tree, showed the entire fusion power plant with multiple design candidates in a hierarchic manner. This tree can be transformed into a fault tree. While developing the fault tree, the list of DBAs which are the failure modes for the leaves of the fault tree could be recognized, and the associated engineered safety features were proposed depending on the consequences of a DBA. As a demonstration for analyzing a DBA, the mass and energy release calculation for in-vessel loss of coolant accident was described.


Author(s): Taylor, M; Spurlock, C; Yang, H | Abstract: Expectations about technological change are central to the way policy details are set in a variety of complex public problem areas, including health, welfare, safety, and environmental protection. These details are established through a regulatory process designed to incorporate scientific, technical, economic, and other expertise while following principles of good governance such as transparency, analytical rigor, and the appropriate treatment of uncertainty. An important element of most U.S. federal regulatory processes is cost-benefit analysis, which is expected to employ "best-available" techniques that identify "changing future compliance costs that might result from technological innovation or anticipated behavioral changes (OMB 2011). Influential calls for the reform of regulatory analysis, however, locate the appropriate modeling of technological change "at the frontier of economic research." (Harrington, Heinzerling et al. 2009).


This paper analyzes the connection between the asymmetric tax treatment of homeowners and landlords and the progressivity of income taxation using a quantitative overlapping generations general equilibrium model with housing and rental markets. Our model emphasizes the determinants of tenure choice (own vs. rent) and the household decision to supply housing services to the rental market. This formulation breaks the link between the rental price and the equilibrium interest rate and, hence, the aggregate supply of rental property responds differently to the direction of rental price changes, marginal tax rate changes, and maintenance cost changes. We show that the model replicates the key factors and the distributional patterns of ownership, house size, and landlords. The degree of progressivity in the income tax code has important implications for housing tenure and housing consumption. We find a movement toward a less progressive income tax code can generate sizeable increases in homeownership and welfare that result from the equilibrium effects and a portfolio reallocation mechanism absent in economies with a single asset (i.e. Conesa and Krueger (2006)). An examination of the removal of existing asymmetries in the tax code are found to have effects on housing that differ from those reported in the literature. We show that housing policy can increase the ownership rate of a particular segment of the population, but generate nontrivial distributional costs. The welfare increases are no larger than those found when the progressivity of the tax code is reduced.


The active shape model (ASM) is an ever-increasingly important method for object modelling, shape recognition and target localisation. During the process of shape fitting, however, distortions and displacements often occur when the target is not clear or with defects, and there is a lack of effective amendment strategies in ASM. In this study, inspired by physics, the boundary moment invariants are employed to resolve this difficulty. Moment invariants have been introduced into ASM for the first time for distortion detection and shape amendment. Using the proposed strategy, distortions are effectively avoided and the accuracy of the fitting result is obviously increased with a little extra time. Finally, the results of the authors' practical implementation prove its satisfactory work.


Executive functioning (EF) is a construct that lacks clear definition in the psychological literature, but it is generally considered central to cognitive development and maturity. Recent comprehensive theories of EF suggest that the self-regulatory abilities associated with the EF system are associated with social competence and ability in humans; however, little empirical data stands to support this connection. Online surveys were collected from undergraduate participants at Appalachian State University to gather information on EF ability and social aptitude. The purpose was to determine if there was a relationship between self-reported EF ability and social skills and characteristics. Significant relationships between EF variables and social skills variables were found in five of six regression models and overall variance explained ranged from 4% to 23%. While these results lend support to an EF and social functioning connection, the relationship appears to be more complex than initially thought.


Bisphenol A (4,4'-isopropylidenediphenol) is an organic compound, commonly used in the plastic bottles, packaging containers, beverages and resin industry. The adverse effects of bisphenol A were studied in various systems of the body. Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation process meant for the regeneration of new cells. The role of bisphenol A on autophagy modulation in the pathogenesis of diseases is still debatable. Few research studies showed that bisphenol A-induced adverse effects were associated with autophagy dysregulation, while few showed the activation of autophagy by bisphenol A. Such contrasting views make the subject more interesting and debatable. In the present review, we discuss the different steps of autophagy, genes involved, and the effect of bisphenol A in autophagy modulation on different systems of the body. We also discuss the methods for monitoring autophagy and the roles of drugs such as chloroquine, verteporfin, and rapamycin in autophagy. Proper understanding of the role of bisphenol A in the modulation of autophagy may be important for future treatment and drug discovery.


Abstract Background: Shopper convenience is a key determinant of why shoppers choose and buy from a particular retail format – online versus instore. However, there are no systematic studies that assess which dimension of shopper convenience is salient for shoppers in online versus instore shopping instore. Further, to the best of our knowledge no study has investigated whether and how these determinant dimensions of shopper convenience have changed with the advent of COVID-19. Method: In this study, 1324 responses of 172 shoppers using the Myers and Alpert (1968) approach were analyzed to identify the determinant dimensions of convenience for online and instore shopping in the pre-COVID-19 era and test their validity in the context of their actual purchase behavior. Later, the study was replicated with the same shoppers in the post-COVID-19 era. Results: The results of the study show that of the four dimensions of convenience, while shopper assessment of "search" convenience was the most important attribute for both online and instore shopping, and "transaction" convenience the most different between the two retail outlets, the determinant dimensions in both retail outlets were "access" and "possession" convenience with instore shopping holding an advantage in possession" convenience and online shopping holding an advantage in "access" convenience. However, in a replication of the study in the post coronavirus era, online shopping outlets were found to have the advantage in both the determinant dimensions of convenience. Conclusion: This study perhaps for the first time show how shopper convenience perceptions have changed in pre and post COVID-19 eras for both instore and online shopping. Recommended Citation Kakar, Ashish and Kakar, Adarsh Kumar (2020) "Identifying the Determinant Dimensions of Shopper Convenience for Online Versus Instore Shopping in the Pre and Post CoVID-19 Eras," Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 12: Iss. 4, Article 4. DOI: 10.17705/1pais.12404 Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol12/iss4/4


ABSTRACT To understand public opinion about immigration in Europe, one has to understand the media's role in it. We present a literature review on research on media discourse on immigration and their effects. Despite differences in the way immigration and migrant groups are represented in European media, we can observe common patterns. Migrants are generally under-represented and shown as delinquents or criminals. Although, media framing differs based on specific migrant groups the discourse is focusing on, immigration coverage is often negative and conflict-centred. Frequent exposure to such media messages leads to negative attitudes towards migration, may activate stereotypical cognitions of migrant groups, and even influence vote choice. In addition to discussing these issues in depth, the present review also focuses on comparative findings.


A fundamental impediment to functional recovery from spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury is the lack of sufficient axonal regeneration in the adult central nervous system. There is thus a need to develop agents that can stimulate axon growth to re-establish severed connections. Given the critical role played by protein kinases in regulating axon growth and the potential for pharmacological intervention, small molecule protein kinase inhibitors present a promising therapeutic strategy. Here, we report a robust cell-based phenotypic assay, utilizing primary rat hippocampal neurons, for identifying small molecule kinase inhibitors that promote neurite growth. The assay is highly reliable and suitable for medium-throughput screening, as indicated by its Z'-factor of 0.73. A focused structurally diverse library of protein kinase inhibitors was screened, revealing several compound groups with the ability to strongly and consistently promote neurite growth. The best performing bioassay hit robustly and consistently promoted axon growth in a postnatal cortical slice culture assay. This study can serve as a jumping-off point for structure activity relationship (SAR) and other drug discovery approaches toward the development of drugs for treating SCI and related neurological pathologies.


We examine the correlations between rings in random network glasses in two dimensions as a function of their separation. Initially, we use the topological separation (measured by the number of intervening rings), but this leads to pseudo-long-range correlations due to a lack of topological charge neutrality in the shells surrounding a central ring. This effect is associated with the noncircular nature of the shells. It is, therefore, necessary to use the geometrical distance between ring centers. Hence we find a generalization of the Aboav-Weaire law out to larger distances, with the correlations between rings decaying away when two rings are more than about three rings apart.


Abstract This paper explores subsidiarity as a constitutional principle in international law. Some authors have appealed to a principle of subsidiarity in order to defend the legitimacy of several striking features of international law, such as the centrality of state consent, the leeway in assessing state compliance and weak sanctions in its absence. The article presents such defences of state-centric aspects of international law by appeals to subsidiarity, and finds them wanting. Different interpretations of subsidiarity have strikingly different institutional implications regarding the objectives of the polity, the domain and role of subunits, and the allocation of authority to apply the principle of subsidiarity itself. Five different interpretations are explored, drawn from Althusius, the US federalists, Pope Leo XIII, and others. One upshot is that the principle of subsidiarity cannot provide normative legitimacy to the state-centric aspects of current international law on its own. It stands in need of substantial interpretation. The versions of subsidiarity that match current practices of public international law are questionable. Many crucial aspects of our legal order must be reconsidered – in particular the standing and scope of state sovereignty.


This article establishes mine workers' safety behaviors simulation system through combines virtual reality and mining safety production. The aim is to standardize safety behavior, improve the effectiveness of safety training and accordingly reduce the accidents' occurrence in coal mine. The system is constructed by means of LAMP building software. Then, an integrated development in the platform Virtools is done. Through the computer software and hardware equipment, the three-dimensional (LAMP) space including various natural entities and artificial entities of coal mine are simulated based coal mining stratum datum, tunnel datum and images, which enable workers to interact naturally with hypothesized entities. Besides, the system can simulate mine shaft environment, workers' behaviors, and some accidents scene ambience (such as detonation, fire, smog and so on). With writings, sound explanation and background sound effect matched, the emulation effect is very good. Therefore, there is no doubt that the use of VR can make mine workers familiar with mine shaft environment, recognize dangerous sources, and standardize safety behaviors, and finally make behavior specification realized. The system first carries out the simulation of workers' safety behaviors in coal mine production environment and has important application values.


This special issue demonstrates the breadth and range of topics subsumed under the term biosecurity. It also makes apparent that this diversity of topics is a challenge for developing a coherent view and approach to biosecurity. Though my initial desire was to provide a measure of coherency to this topic and to this special issue, I increasingly came to question whether an overall unified view of biosecurity was feasible or useful. There are several distinct types of biological threats, some of which have little relation to one another, suggesting there may be limited advantages to thinking about or addressing these threats in a comprehensive, integrated fashion. Therefore, rather than imposing an integrated framework, this overview article offers a qualitative meta-level analysis of the papers in this issue addressing the following key issues: (1) the breadth of topics subsumed under the term biosecurity (2) the extent to which various types of biological threats are distinct or inter-related and (3) the extent to which biological threats can or should be addressed in a somewhat comprehensive and integrated manner. I also attempt to extrapolate from these papers what can be learned and concluded in terms of biosecurity risk assessment and management. Finally, I offer recommendations regarding the best path forward to promote overall biosecurity.


This article describes the principles and actual procedures of restoration and strengthening of heritage buildings that have been applied in mountainous regions of Caucasus, in Georgia. The buildings in question are the 11th century temple in Nikortsminda and the 19th century synagogue in Oni, both damaged by an earthquake in 1991. This article presents examples of conservation of these two structures and refers to a conservation project for the 18th century mosque in Akhaltsikhe. As to the Nikortsminda temple, temporary conservation was applied prior to an expected aftershock period. Its permanent conservation was completed 2 years later. In all three cases, the design was aimed at preservation of initial geometry and appearance by creating composite (stone–reinforced concrete) structures, which were partially or fully hidden. It is worth mentioning that both the temple in Nikortsminda and the synagogue in Oni survived the Richter magnitude 6.2 earthquake in this region on September 8, 2009, without any substantial damage caused. The causes of deformation and loss of stability of thin shallow shell of the same type are analyzed; the example of strengthening and safeguarding the shell of this type is given. The method used for the shell strengthening was assumed as a basis for developing the method of strengthening ancient stone domes. The authors believe that design principles applied in these projects can provide substantial contribution to successful conservation of much larger projects, along with the increase in their earthquake resistance.


Smart cities integrate a wide variety of technologies and support those innovations capable of delivering sustainable socio-economic development of cities. They are complex environments that are shaped by their innovation capacity, information and communication technologies (ICTs) development and adoption, living standards, residents' readiness, and, last but not least, the willingness to invest. Higher urbanization rates and "mega-cities" with 10 million inhabitants or more make difficult to create a sustainable and cost-effective environment and a high quality of life for the citizens. To overcome this shortcoming, the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are needed to increase ICTs solutions and implicitly, to augment the cities competitiveness. Our paper objective is to analyse the public attitude regarding the influence of AI on smart cities characteristics and to identify if there are significant differences in their perspective by gender and by age group. The statistical data analysis was performed using two-way measure analysis of variance (ANOVA). The differences between groups were analysed using inferential statistics. This paper contributes to the understanding of the importance of AI techniques in improving urban living.


We present an astrometric catalogue of positions and proper motions derived from the Carte du Ciel plates of the San Fernando zone, which has a mean epoch 1901.4 and a limiting magnitude V 15. Digitization has been made using a conventional atb ed scanner. Special techniques have been developed to handle the combination of plate material and the large distortion introduced by the scanner. A variety of post-scan corrections are shown to be necessary. The equatorial coordinates are obtained on the ICRS system dened by Tycho-2. Comparison with the reference catalog indicates external errors of 0: 2. The UCAC2 Catalogue was used for second-epoch positions to derive proper motions with a mean accuracy of 1.2 mas yr 1 for the the well-measured stars. The usefulness of the resulting proper motion catalog is demonstrated by means of a proper-motion analysis of seven open clusters, ASCC 30, BOCHUM 3, NGC 2215, NGC 2302, NGC 2311, NGC 2323 and NGC 2548, determining individual membership probabilities and characterizing the gross properties of each cluster.


This article examines the lessons to be derived from programmes implemented in refugee situations to help women attain greater economic self-reliance. It begins by setting the overall context for these programmes: the objective, not always realized, of moving from a relief orientation in refugee programmes towards a development approach. It then describes the various economic activities in which women engage in refugee settings. The article continues with a critique of one means of assisting women become economically self-reliant: income-generation projects for refugee women. The article then discusses the relationships that need to be established between relief and development organizations to promote greater self-reliance for refugee women, referring in particular to the working relationship being established between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). It concludes with recommendations for future efforts to enhance the self-reliance of re...


Middleware has emerged as a key technology in the construction of distributed systems. As a consequence, middleware is increasingly required to be highly modular and configurable, to support separation of concerns between services, and, crucially, to support dynamic reconfiguration: i.e. to be capable of being changed while running. Aspect-oriented middleware is a promising technology for the realisation of distributed reconfiguration in distributed systems. In this paper we propose an aspect-oriented middleware platform called AO-OpenCom that builds AO-based reconfiguration on top of a dynamic component approach to middleware system composition. The goal is to support extremely flexible dynamic reconfiguration that can be applied at all levels of the system and uniformly across the distributed environment. We evaluate our platform by the capability in meeting flexible reconfiguration and the impact of these overheads.


Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus need to be recovered to reduce the environmental impact of waste activated sludge (WAS). In this study the improved short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production from WAS by the addition of kitchen waste to adjust the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N), and the efficient recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from the fermentation liquid were reported. Firstly, the optimum conditions for SCFA production were found to be pH 8, temperature 35 °C, C/N ratio 21 mg-C/1 mg-N, and fermentation time 6 d, using the response surface methodology. After alkaline fermentation, the struvite precipitation method was applied to efficiently and simultaneously recover the released ammonia and phosphorus from the fermentation liquid. Finally, the fermentation liquid was used as the additional carbon source for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. It was observed that, compared with acetic acid, the use of fermentation liquid as carbon source showed greater removal efficiencies of total nitrogen and total phosphorus.


Valuations of dense near polygons were introduced in [9]. A valuation of a dense near polygon ${\cal S}=({\cal P},{\cal L},{\rm I})$ is a map $f$ from the point-set ${\cal P}$ of ${\cal S}$ to the set $\Bbb N$ of nonnegative integers satisfying very nice properties with respect to the set of convex subspaces of ${\cal S}$. In the present paper, we give an alternative definition of the notion valuation and prove that both definitions are equivalent. In the case of dual polar spaces and many other known dense near polygons, this alternative definition can be significantly simplified.


Synopsis Twenty-one patients with significant long-term therapeutic benzodiazepine (BZ) use, who remained abstinent at 6 months follow-up after successfully completing a standardized inpatient BZ withdrawal regime, and 21 normal controls matched for age and IQ but not for anxiety, were repeatedly tested on a simple battery of routine psychometric tests of cognitive function, pre- and post-withdrawal and at 6 months follow-up. The results demonstrated significant impairment in patients in verbal learning and memory, psychomotor, visuo-motor and visuo-conceptual abilities, compared with controls, at all three time points. Despite practice effects, no evidence of immediate recovery of cognitive function following BZ withdrawal was found. Modest recovery of certain deficits emerged at 6 months follow-up in the BZ group, but this remained significantly below the equivalent control performance. The implications of persisting cognitive deficits after withdrawal from long-term BZ use are discussed.


Abstract Field experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017 in Champaign County, IL, to study a waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) J. D. Sauer] population (CHR) resistant to 2,4-D and 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD)-, photosystem II–, acetolactate synthase (ALS)-, and protoporphyrinogen oxidase–inhibiting herbicides. Two field experiments were designed to investigate the efficacy of very-long-chain fatty-acid (VLCFA)-inhibiting herbicides, including a comparison of active ingredients at labeled use rates and a rate titration experiment. Amaranthus tuberculatus density and control were evaluated at 28 and 42 d after treatment (DAT). Nonencapsulated acetochlor, alachlor, and pyroxasulfone provided the greatest PRE control of CHR (56% to 75%) at 28 DAT, while metolachlor, S-metolachlor, dimethenamid-P, and encapsulated acetochlor provided less than 27% control. In the rate titration study, nonencapsulated acetochlor controlled CHR more than equivalent field use rates of S-metolachlor. Subsequent dose–response experiments with acetochlor, S-metolachlor, dimethenamid-P, and pyroxasulfone in the greenhouse included three multiple herbicide–resistant (MHR) A. tuberculatus populations: CHR-M6 (progeny generated from CHR), MCR-NH40 (progeny generated from Mclean County, IL), and ACR (Adams County, IL), in comparison with a sensitive population (WUS). Both CHR-M6 and MCR-NH40 are MHR to atrazine and HPPD, and ALS inhibitors and demonstrated higher survival rates (LD50) to S-metolachlor, acetochlor, dimethenamid-P, or pyroxasulfone than ACR (atrazine resistant but HPPD-inhibitor sensitive) and WUS. Based on biomass reduction (GR50), resistant to sensitive (R:S) ratios between CHR-M6 and WUS were 7.5, 6.1, 5.5, and 2.9 for S-metolachlor, acetochlor, dimethenamid-P, and pyroxasulfone, respectively. Values were greater for MCR-NH40 than CHR-M6, and ACR was the most sensitive to all VLCFA inhibitors tested. Complete control of all populations was achieved at or below a field use rate of acetochlor. In summary, field studies demonstrated CHR is not controlled by several VLCFA-inhibiting herbicides. Greenhouse dose–response experiments corroborated field results and generated R:S ratios (LD50) ranging from 4.5 to 64 for CHR-M6 and MCR-NH40 among the four VLCFA-inhibiting herbicides evaluated.


In this paper we present Brushables—a novel approach to example‐based painting that respects user‐specified shapes at the global level and preserves textural details of the source image at the local level. We formulate the synthesis as a joint optimization problem that simultaneously synthesizes the interior and the boundaries of the region, transferring relevant content from the source to meaningful locations in the target. We also provide an intuitive interface to control both local and global direction of textural details in the synthesized image. A key advantage of our approach is that it enables a "combing" metaphor in which the user can incrementally modify the target direction field to achieve the desired look. Based on this, we implement an interactive texture painting tool capable of handling more complex textures than ever before, and demonstrate its versatility on difficult inputs including vegetation, textiles, hair and painting media.


The δ subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase serves as a linker between the F(0) and F(1) sectors. Here, through microarray and quantitative RT-PCR, we found that the δ1 subunit was significantly up-regulated during cotton fibre cell elongation. Both the relative level and duration of GhATPδ1 transcripts correlated positively with the final length of different cotton germplasms. Elongating fibre cells had a significantly elevated ATP/ADP ratio, suggesting that a higher energy input is probably required for primary fibre cell wall formation and elongation. We obtained a putative full-length GhATPδ1 cDNA that shows 37% sequence identity to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATP16 at the deduced amino acid level. An almost wild-type growth rate was restored in atp16Δ cells that expressed GhATPδ1, with a resultant ATP/ADP ratio similar to that found in wild-type cells, indicating that the cotton gene was functional in yeast. Mitochondria prepared from 10 dpa wild-type fibre cells showed significantly higher ATP synthase activity in comparison to ovule samples from wild type and leaf samples. Exogenous application of piceatannol (PA) or oligomycin (OM), inhibitors of ATP synthase F(1) or F(0) subunits, respectively, in ovule culture media resulted in much shorter fibre cells and a significantly lower ATP/ADP ratio. Our data suggest that GhATPδ1 is important for activity of mitochondrial ATP synthase and is probably related to cotton fibre elongation.


Incoherent scatter (IS) spectral models for collisional and magnetized F-region plasmas are developed based on a general framework described in part I of this paper and on the statistics of simulated particle trajectories. In the simulations, a Langevin update equation is used to describe the motion of charge carriers undergoing Coulomb collisions. It is shown that random displacements of oxygen ions in the F-region can be characterized as a Brownian-motion process with Gaussian distributed displacement vectors. Electron displacements, on the other hand, are non-Brownian, and their statistics exhibit a dependence on the magnetic aspect angle. A numerical library of characteristic functions of electron displacements was constructed from the simulation data obtained for a set of plasma parameters typical of the equatorial F-region. Spectral models for the IS radar signals from F-region heights are constructed with one-sided Fourier transforms of the characteristic functions of electron and ion displacements. The models are valid at all magnetic aspect angles, including the zero aspect angle that corresponds to radar observations perpendicular to the ambient geomagnetic field .


Purpose: The goal of this study was to develop and validate a new corpus of sentences without semantic context to facilitate research aimed at isolating the effects of semantic context in speech perception.Method: The newly developed corpus contains nonsensical sentences but is matched in vocabulary and syntactic structure to the existing Basic English Lexicon (BEL) corpus. It consists of 20 lists, with each list containing 25 sentences and each sentence having four keywords. Each new list contains the same keywords as the respective list in the original BEL corpus, but the keywords within each list are scrambled across sentences to eliminate semantic context within each sentence, while maintaining the original syntactic structure. All sentences in the original and nonsense BEL corpora were recorded by the same two male and two female talkers.Results: Mean intelligibility scores for each list were estimated by calculating the mean proportion of correct keywords achieved by 40 normal-hearing listeners for one male and one female talker. Although small but significant differences were found between some pairs of lists, mean performance for all 20 lists fell within the 95% confidence intervals of the mean.Conclusions: Lists in the newly developed nonsense corpus are reasonably well equated for difficulty and can be used interchangeably in a randomized experimental design. Both the original and nonsense BEL sentences, all recorded by the same four talkers, are publicly available.Supplemental Material S1. Complete list of all 500 nonsense sentences. Supplemental Material S2. List of the original words along with the words that were accepted as having a similar semantic meaning. O'Neill, E. R., Parke, M. N., Kreft, H. A., & Oxenham, A. J. (2020). Development and validation of sentences without semantic context to complement the Basic English Lexicon sentences. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00174


Utilizing Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man (1962) and Counterrevolution and Revolt (1972) as a theoretical backdrop, this article seeks to gauge the extent to which the teachings of the German philosopher and political theorist lay the groundwork for the protests mounted by the university students in David Lodge's campus novel Changing Places (1975). Admittedly, the Student Revolution spilled over into numerous fields. However, given space restrictions, only its cultural manifestations will be examined. It will be clear that at the root of Lodge's students' uprising lies an overpowering urge to break with the cultural heritage and with the academics upholding it. It will be equally clear, nonetheless, that these young activists' faith in Marcuse's political doctrine is unwelcome to conservative academics on the ground that it has diverse adverse effects on universities. Not only are politically oriented texts and discourses given precedence over traditional ones but also teachers and administrators are, at times, hindered from doing their duties. The plausible conclusion to draw, in the light of the research's findings, is that although cultural revolutions undeniably pave the way for a number of personal and collective achievements and help us modernize many aspects of life, they should not blind us to the enduring significance of previous cultural traditions and of the aesthetic value of literary works.


INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is usually a benign disease that remits within weeks to years. The literature on recurrent ITP (rITP) is limited. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to retrospectively review patients with rITP who were followed up during the period of 1975–2004. METHODS: We reviewed the outcome of 790 children with rITP RESULTS: Among 790 children with ITP, 47 (5.2%) presented with >1 episode of thrombocytopenia. The median age of the children at onset of the disease was 55.9 ± 35.3 months and at final remission was 94.4 ± 58.9 months. The majority of patients (76.6%) had 1 recurrence, whereas the rest of them had >1 recurrence (up to 4); the total number of recurrences was 63. The interval between 2 episodes was <6 months in 25% of the episodes, 6 to 12 months in 29%, 12 to 24 months in 24%, 24 to 36 months in 8%, and >3 years in 14%. Almost half the patients demonstrated bleeding manifestations at diagnosis, whereas only a minority (5) showed bleeding symptoms during the first recurrence. Hemorrhages occurred at times of severe thrombocytopenia and were, in general, mild; however, 1 patient suffered intracranial hemorrhage. Of the episodes, 28.6% necessitated hospitalization and 17.5% required therapeutic intervention with corticosteroids or/and intravenous immunoglobulin. The long-term outcome of all patients was excellent, and none of them needed splenectomy. CONCLUSIONS: rITP occurs mostly in young children, has a good outcome after >1 to 5 episodes, and a median age that ranges from months to years. The course is more often benign; however, life-threatening hemorrhage may occur in a severely thrombocytopenic patient.


Long-term memory (LTM) is believed to be stored in the brain as changes in synaptic connections. Here, we show that LTM storage and synaptic change can be dissociated. Cocultures of Aplysia sensory and motor neurons were trained with spaced pulses of serotonin, which induces long-term facilitation. Serotonin (5HT) triggered growth of new presynaptic varicosities, a synaptic mechanism of long-term sensitization. Following 5HT training, two antimnemonic treatments—reconsolidation blockade and inhibition of PKM—caused the number of presynaptic varicosities to revert to the original, pretraining value. Surprisingly, the final synaptic structure was not achieved by targeted retraction of the 5HT-induced varicosities but, rather, by an apparently arbitrary retraction of both 5HT-induced and original synapses. In addition, we find evidence that the LTM for sensitization persists covertly after its apparent elimination by the same antimnemonic treatments that erase learning-related synaptic growth. These results challenge the idea that stable synapses store long-term memories. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03896.001


Abstract:As the world grows increasingly contentious, education for citizenship demands greater attention. Yet at this perilous juncture, social studies has neglected to take up the task of preparing citizens in a democratic and global society. Social studies has become increasingly fragmented and isolated by disciplinary foci that fetishize academic pursuits over broadly social purposes, precisely what Dewey warned against and which represent but a small portion of its functions. The academic-only social studies education has created a temporal disconnection that affirms the preparation for future life rather than, as Dewey preferred, the school as life itself. Dewey tasked the school with providing a context for social intelligence, power, and interests. When subject matter, like history and geography, is approached from a social perspective, it is viewed as expressing social life and affecting social development, not only as an academic end unto itself. We draw from Dewey's theory of social learning an intention to reorient social studies education in ways that point to the future, engage diversity toward common goals, and ultimately expand the social power of school subjects so that each is in effect a form of social study.


AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF NEUROCOGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN ILLNESS MANAGEMENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES Christopher J. Fitzgerald, M.S. Marquette University, 2013 Children and adolescents living with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) face many challenges in their daily lives due to the extensive care tasks that the illness requires. Adolescence is a period of development in which treatment adherence and metabolic control has been found to greatly decline. Research examining correlates of this decline in self-management has tended to focus on familial and psychosocial variables such as parental involvement and T1DM-related conflict. The period of adolescence is also marked by several changes in the development of the frontal lobes and prefrontal cortex, which are areas of the brain that are central to executive functioning abilities. The present study will examine executive functioning among adolescents with T1DM to explore its relationship with treatment adherence, metabolic control, and with measures of family involvement in the management of T1DM. Eighty four adolescents diagnosed with T1DM (ages 12-18) and their parents completed the study. Parents and adolescents completed questionnaires assessing adolescents' executive functioning, parental involvement, monitoring, and conflict. Adolescents completed neuropsychological measures assessing several aspects of their neuropsychological functioning including their executive functioning, intelligence, and memory. In addition to this, adolescents' medical records were reviewed to collect hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) values, which represent levels of metabolic control. In general, results supported our hypotheses, in that adolescents with better developed parent and self-reported executive functions tended to display better adherence to their T1DM treatment regimen. Additionally, parent and self-reports of adolescent executive functioning were shown to be significant predictors of adherence beyond the contributions of several demographic and family functioning variables. Examination of parents' contributions to adolescents' T1DM management revealed that parental involvement was a significant moderator of the relationship between adolescents' executive functioning and treatment adherence, such that parental involvement had a larger impact for adolescents who demonstrated poorer executive functions. Overall, the study finds support for measuring executive functioning abilities in adolescents with T1DM as a potentially important contributing factor in aiding adolescents with the complex management of this illness.


An Early Islamic Law collection of legal opinions during 2nd/8th century based on the opinions of Early Islamic jurisprudence in Basra.


Artificial skins exhibit different mechanical properties in compare to natural skins. This drawback makes physical interaction with artificial skins to be different from natural skin. Increasing the performance of the artificial skins for robotic hands and medical applications is addressed in the present paper. The idea is to add active controls within artificial skins in order to improve their dynamic or static behaviors. This directly results into more interactivity of the artificial skins. To achieve this goal, a piece-wise linear anisotropic model for artificial skins is derived. Then a model of matrix of capacitive MEMS actuators for the control purpose is coupled with the model of artificial skin. Next an active surface shaping control is applied through the control of the capacitive MEMS actuators which shapes the skin with zero error and in a desired time. A simulation study is presented to validate the idea of using MEMS actuator for active artificial skins. In the simulation, we actively control 128 capacitive micro actuators for an artificial fingertip. The fingertip provides the required shape in a required time which means the dynamics of the skin is improved.


Synchrotron-source infrared (IR) spectroscopy offers an effective method to characterise the chemical composition across surfaces. The intense light source allows the detection of trace quantities of different chemical components with a superior signal-to-noise ratio, while the highly collimated light enables high-reso-lution spatial mapping of the chemical distribution. In this chapter, we introduce synchrotron-source IR spectroscopy, using the infrared microspectroscopy (IRM) beamline at the Australian Synchrotron as an example. We then discuss the use of synchrotron-source IR spectroscopy to analyse insect wings in terms of experimental setup and a summary of the results in two different modes of operation, transmission and attenuated total reflection (ATR). Insect wings possess unique anti-wetting, self-cleaning, anti-biofouling and bactericidal properties and provide inspiration for biomimetic surfaces on synthetic materials which possess similar properties, useful in a range of industries.