Chloramine-T is a widely used disinfectant for the treatment of gill diseases of fish in freshwater, and more recently attention has turned to its use in seawater. However, despite the wide use of chloramine-T, few studies have examined its toxicity to fish. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine the effects of disinfection by Chloramine-T on the muscle tissue of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) using oxidative stress biomarkers (levels of 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and derivatives of oxidatively modified proteins) and biochemical enzymes' activity (alanine- and aspartate aminotransferases (ALT and AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)) to observe the its toxic effects. The endpoints obtained from this study will be useful to monitor the effects of disinfectant bathing with Chloramine-T for this species of fish. In the disinfectant group, rainbow trout (n = 11) were exposed to Chloramine-T in final concentration of 9 mg per L. Control group of trout (n = 11) was handled with water from basin in the same way as Chloramine-T exposed group. Fish were bathed with Chloramine-T for 20 min and repeated three times every 3 days. Two days after the last bathing fish were sampled to study. Our results showed that Chloramine-T bathing caused the decrease of the lipid peroxidation as well as ALT and AST activity and significant decrease of LDH activity (by 339%, p = 0.017) compared to controls. Chloramine-T markedly affects on lactate and pyruvate metabolism and resulted to decrease of LDH activity. Correlative analysis revealed that the lipid peroxidation level is correlated with ALT and AST activity in the muscle tissue of unhandled control group. In the muscle tissue of trout disinfected by Chloramine-T, LDH activity is correlated positively with ALT and AST activity. Thus, the skeletal muscles of fish play an important role in the processing of lactate through the gluconeogenic and glycogenic pathways including a greater potential for biosynthesis. Our studies indicated that Chloramine-T in dose of 9 mg per L could at least partly attenuate oxidative stress and can be used for prophylactic disinfecting treatment of rainbow trout. Oxidative stress and biochemical alterations could be effectively used as potential biomarkers of Chloramine-T toxicity to the fish in the warning signal for pharmaceutical exposure to aquatic organisms. However, more detailed studies on using of these specific biomarkers to monitor the disinfectant treatment in aquaculture are needed.
Key words: Chloramine-T disinfection, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum), muscle tissue, lipid peroxidation, aminotransferases, lactate dehydrogenase


The high-intensity version of multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) has a potential for solving the phase problem in femtosecond crystallography with x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). For MAD phasing, it is required to calculate or measure the MAD coefficients involved in the key equation, which depend on XFEL pulse parameters. In this work, we revisit the generalized Karle–Hendrickson equation to clarify the importance of configurational fluctuations of heavy atoms induced by intense x-ray pulses, and investigate the high-intensity cases of transmission and fluorescence measurements of samples containing heavy atoms. Based on transmission/fluorescence and diffraction experiments with crystalline samples of known structures, we propose an experimental procedure to determine all MAD coefficients at high x-ray intensity, which can be used in ab initio phasing for unknown structures.


ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The 2014 Farm Bill required Kansas wheat producers to make a series of enrollment decisions that were both complicated and based on incomplete information. With this bill, producers were required to complete a one-time enrollment in one of three programs (ARC-CO, PLC, or ARC-IC) to serve as a safety net for poor crop prices and/or yields over the subsequent five-year life of the legislation. Analyzing the effects of incomplete information on producers' decisions provides an opportunity to identify challenges associated with program selection under the 2014 Farm Bill and suggest changes for future farm support legislation. METHODS: Kansas county-level enrollment data for wheat base acres obtained from USDA-FSA are used to model aggregate producer sign-up decisions as a function of estimated 2014 payments, county-level yield variability, prior farm program enrollment, and extension programming efforts at the county and state level. This OLS model is subsequently replicated using individual producer data from surveys conducted during fifteen extension meetings held across Kansas. The model based on individual data is a regression of stated preferences for the three programs as a function of farm size, farmer demographics, risk preferences, and knowledge of the Farm Bill. RESULTS: Comparisons of model results from the aggregated enrollment data and the individual survey data offer greater insights into the factors affecting producer decisions. Specifically, aggregate enrollment decisions are primarily explained by expected payments for the first year of the program. For counties with a positive expected payment for 2014 under the ARC-CO program, enrollment in that program was higher. However, when the regression is repeated using individual data, other factors affect the enrollment decision such as the number of years a producer has been farming, the size of the farm, their membership in commodity associations, and their preferences for risk protection. CONCLUSIONS : The 2014 Farm Bill required producers to select participation in a single support program for the five-year life of the legislation. This decision had to be made without knowing exactly how crop prices and yields would behave in the future. It is important to understand how producers made their decisions based on incomplete information to inform future legislative efforts for an effective farm safety net. This research expands that understanding by analyzing both aggregate and individual data to determine the factors that influence program choice.


Abstract. A so-called six-beam method is proposed to measure atmospheric turbulence using a ground-based wind lidar. This method requires measurement of the radial velocity variances at five equally spaced azimuth angles on the base of a scanning cone and one measurement at the centre of the scanning circle, i.e.using a vertical beam at the same height. The scanning configuration is optimized to minimize the sum of the random errors in the measurement of the second-order moments of the components (u,v, w) of the wind field. We present this method as an alternative to the so-called velocity azimuth display (VAD) method that is routinely used in commercial wind lidars, and which usually results in significant averaging effects of measured turbulence. In the VAD method, the high frequency radial velocity measurements are used instead of their variances. The measurements are performed using a pulsed lidar (WindScanner), and the derived turbulence statistics (using both methods) such as the u and v variances are compared with those obtained from a reference cup anemometer and a wind vane at 89 m height under different atmospheric stabilities. The measurements show that in comparison to the reference cup anemometer, depending on the atmospheric stability and the wind field component, the six-beam method measures between 85 and 101% of the reference turbulence, whereas the VAD method measures between 66 and 87% of the reference turbulence.


In this work a review of many of the current theories of star formation as it is understood today is presented. New polarimetric observations of three cometary nebulae, RMon/NGC2261, RCr A/NGC6729 and the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula are presented and discussed. It is shown how previous polarimetric measurements of the illuminating source of Hubble's variable nebula (NGC2261) have often produced results which increase in error with increasing wavelength. The reason for this is that previous authors have used an aperture size for measurements of R Mon which includes effects of a highly polarized feature ~ 5" north of RMon. Though this phenomenon has been seen before by other observers, its effect on polarimetric measurements of R Mon has not been recognised before despite tests to check for this. The data presented here agree with the interpretation that this feature is the northern-lobe of a mini-bipolar nebula, and it is further suggested that this is a manifestation of episodic mass outflow from R Mon. Previous explanations for the polarization of R Mon and RCr A cannot explain the rapid change in polarization and position angle that these young stellar objects are seen to undergo. Models of these objects which assume that they appear as polarized sources are used to explain the polarizations and are discussed. These models are not only able to produce the level of polarization seen at the source, but they are also currently the best models for explaining the rapid changes in polarization that are observed. A jet-like feature is seen to the south-west of the main nebulosity in the Chamaeleon IRN for the first time in observations presented in this thesis. A similar jet seen emerging from RCr A has been explained as being an emission feature collimated by an inner-circumstellar disc by previous authors. Evidence presented in this work for the jets seen emanating from both RCr A and the Chamaeleon IRN, suggests that these features are merely the preferentially illuminated rims of one of the outflow cavities, seen mainly by reflection of light from the source. Further evidence is provided to show that NGC2261 and NGC6729 are illuminated by RMon and RCr A respectively. In the case of the Chamaeleon IRN new evidence is provided to show that the nebula is illuminated by a heavily obscured infrared source located midway between the two outflow cavities.


This paper presents a novel data-driven approach to summarizing spoken audio transcripts utilizing lexical and prosodic features. The former are obtained from a speech recognizer and the latter are extracted automatically from speech waveforms. We employ a feature subset selection algorithm, based on ROC curves, which examines different combinations of features at different target operating conditions. The approach is evaluated on the IBM Voicemail corpus, demonstrating that it is possible and desirable to avoid complete commitment to a single best classifier or feature set.


Many enterprises regard system-level testing as the final piece of the development effort, rather than as a tool that should be integrated throughout the development process. As a consequence, test teams often execute critical test plans just before product launch, resulting in much of the corrective work being performed in a rush and at the last minute. Presenting combinatorial approaches for improving test coverage, Testing Complex and Embedded Systems details techniques to help you streamline testing and identify problems before they occurincluding turbocharged testing using Six Sigma and exploratory testing methods. Rather than present the continuum of testing for particular products or design attributes, the text focuses on boundary conditions. Examining systems and software testing, it explains how to use simulation and emulation to complement testing. Details how to manage multiple test hardware and software deliveries Examines the contradictory perspectives of testingincluding ordered/ random, structured /unstructured, bench/field, and repeatable/non repeatable Covers essential planning activities prior to testing, how to scope the work, and how to reach a successful conclusion Explains how to determine when testing is complete Where you find organizations that are successful at product development, you are likely to find groups that practice disciplined, strategic, and thorough testing. Tapping into the authors decades of experience managing test groups in the automotive industry, this book provides the understanding to help ensure your organization joins the likes of these groups.


1. The management of habitat structure can limit access to food and can also alter perceived predation
risk. Minimising the risk of predation, by changing behaviour, may have negative impacts similar
to predation itself across a wide range of species. Predation risk influences the behaviour of
adults foraging for altricial young, so that they avoid disclosing the location of their offspring to
predators. The consequences of these behavioural changes for offspring are unknown.
2. We investigate whether predator-induced changes in provisioning rates can have impacts upon
avian nestlings through reductions in growth and condition, and whether this is influenced by
resource availability, using the declining yellowhammerEmberiza citrinella as a model species.
3. We show a sizeable negative impact of nest predator activity upon brood provisioning rate, indicating
that parents can assess nest predation risk and adjust their behaviour accordingly.
4. Chick condition and growth were both negatively influenced by corvid nest predator abundance
and positively influenced by food abundance in large broods, suggesting that parents raising large
broods in unfavourable conditions were unable to compensate fully for the effect of corvid activity
on provisioning rate.
5. In areas of low food availability, corvid abundance was associated with reduced chick growth
and condition; in areas of higher food availability no association was found indicating that where
food resources are abundant, parents can compensate for reductions in provisioning rate when corvids
are active, with no long-termimplications for chicks.
6. Synthesis and applications. We propose a mechanismby which two distinct trends linked with the
intensification of agriculture, namely increasing corvid abundance combined with a decreasing food
supply, may have indirectly precipitated population declines in farmland passerines through
delayed life-history effects across generations. As the impacts of corvids are reduced where invertebrates
are abundant, we suggest that management should concentrate on improving the quality of
foraging habitat by creating mosaics of long and short vegetation, rather than on the control of corvids.
This will allow adult birds to compensate for the indirect effects of high corvid abundance by
increasing their provisioning effort when nest predation risk is low and thus buffer any long-term
consequences for nestlings.


This study determined what mentoring experiences first-year superintendents have had and what they need from a mentoring relationship. Structured interviews and field notes were used in this qualitative study focused on Texas first-year superintendents' perceived needs from mentors. Three patterns of mentoring relationships were found: 1) no mentor in the first year, 2) mentor-protege relationship - those who developed mentoring relationships early in a career with a more senior person in the same school system, and 3) mentoring relationships of convenience - young relationships which developed outside the same system. Skills and knowledge areas novice superintendents identified as critical for mentor assistance were school finance, development of effective relationships with groups that have expectations of the superintendent while also improving student achievement, and working within the politics of the position. Mentor characteristics novice superintendents considered necessary for a positive effect on job success include: trustworthiness, confidentiality, empathy, encouraging, active listening, and integrity. An attitude in which the mentor problem solved with the protege, and did not give an immediate solution was displayed. Mentors actively and frequently initiated contact. Ideas were freely exchanged, giving the protege undivided attention while not making the protege feel inferior. The effects that previous mentoring experiences had on novice superintendents influenced whether they chose to mentor another person. Most reported seeking or engaged in a new mentoring relationship. Differences in areas where help was needed among first-year superintendents associated with district size were reported. Assistance in finance was needed regardless of district size, gender, or ethnicity. Superintendents in small districts reported needing assistance in specific skill and knowledge areas. Those in larger districts reported mentor assistance in problem-solving processes to accomplish a task. Differences in needs of first-year superintendents based on gender or ethnicity were identified but generalizations could not be made due to small numbers. Recommendations for university administrative preparation programs and designing formal mentoring programs were made.


Background: The National Ambulance Service within the Republic of Ireland has developed rapidly since the introduction of the Pre-Hospital Care Council in 2000. The skills of Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics and Advanced Paramedics have also evolved. With technology advancing arguments are now being made for more point of care testing to be available to prehospital emergency care practitioners.-

Aim: With the developing roles with in prehospital care the aim of this study is to investigate one aspect of clinical reasoning by prehospital care practitioners, by examining use of monitoring and point of care testing (POCT) devices (blood glucometer) which are available within the Irish National Ambulance Service in terms of whether an indication for such assessment was identified or not.

Method: A multi-methods approach was used to collect data for this study. Irish Ambulance Service Paramedics and Advanced Paramedics participated. The development and use of a call log, enabled the collection of information on patient's presentation, the clinician's working diagnosis and all measurements of vital signs, monitoring and adjunctive assessments, among which was blood sugar measurement. A questionnaire was designed to investigate practitioner's views on routine use of monitoring devices

Results:---243 / 276 (88%) patients had a Blood Glucose check done a mean reading of

6.85 with the median result being 6.2 and a range of 1.6 – 30. 156/243 (64.2 %) had a Blood Glucose reading of between 4 and 7 mmol/L. A reading of between 7.1 and 19.9 mmol/L was obtained for 74/243 (30.5%) patients with 3.7% (n=9) having a level of below 4 mmol/L and 1.6% (n=4) having a Blood Glucose level (BGL) measured above 20 mmol/L.

135/276 (48.9%) of patients had indicators for Blood Glucometry with 141/276 (51.1%) not having indicators. 117/138 (84.7%) patients who did not have indicators had a BGL taken.

Reasoning for routinely taking of blood glucose measurements are not clear from the results of the questionnaire, with clinical presentation of patient, experience, training, CPGs, ED expectation and PCR completion all being classed as moderately influential on practitioner decision making. When focusing on blood glucose testing, practitioners felt that blood glucose levels are not needed on every patient but on average were unsure if they would miss something if a BGL was not done or if they did a test only when it was indicated.
Conclusion:- Blood glucose level testing is routinely performed on adult and paediatric patients by practitioners in the Irish National Ambulance Service. However practitioners do not feel that a blood glucose test is needed on every patient. By encouraging a more focused approach for the use of POCT devices within the National Ambulance Service patients who receive tests that are not indicated could be reduced.-


Flag transformation, a new design concept for parallel associative memory and processor architectures, maps word-oriented data into flag-oriented data. A flag vector represents each word in a set. The flag position corresponds to the value of the transformed word, and all flags in a vector are processed simultaneously to obtain parallel operations. The results of complex search operations performed by modular, cascadable hardware components are also represented by flags and retransformed into word-oriented data. This transformation method allows parallel processing of associative or content-addressable data in uniprocessor architectures, expedites IC design rule checks, and accelerates complex memory tests. It can also be used to develop associative processor architectures and to emulate very fast, modular, cascadable artificial neural networks.<<ETX>>


We present the results we obtained in comparing several carved panels from two high crosses. In this study, which was carried out as part of the RTE Cork TV program "Secrets of the Stones", we compared three panels of the Cross of the Scriptures from the Clonmacnois monastic site, Co. Offaly with similar panels from the Cross of Durrow, located in the grounds of St Columba monastery, Co. Offaly. The purpose of the study was to decide whether these high crosses, which both date back to the ninth century, could have been carved by the same Celtic artist. The Cross of the Scriptures was scanned in August 2008 using our Polhemus FastSCAN handheld laser scanner, while the Cross of Durrow was surveyed in May 2008 by the Germany based, ArcTron 3D company, commissioned by the Offaly County Council. Using the data from the 3D scans, details of each panel were enhanced using a wavelet filtering technique and a false colour image of the depth field was computed for each panel. These images were then used as textures and applied back onto the 3D models. This process allowed for expert historians to later on evaluate, by looking and manipulating the textured 3D models, the hypothesis that the panels were carved by the same person.


The Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey leads to the creation of measures which are used to create Principal Federal Economic Indicators. One of those measures is the monthly change in establishment jobs, which CES estimates for detailed industries as well as geographic domains such as states and metropolitan areas. CES calculates sampling errors using Balanced Repeated Replication, but estimates of sampling variance can be volatile and may not be available as readily as desired. Generalized Variance Functions (GVFs) are fit using regression models to existing direct estimates of sampling variance to improve estimates of those variances. A GVF should provide good fits for data used to construct the model, and it should provide good estimates of variances for other observations not used in the model. This paper develops a GVF model for ratio estimators and considers two main characteristics: accuracy in terms of confidence interval coverage, and stability. Metrics and tests for each characteristic are developed. We also consider and test new model types to further increase coverage and stability of the GVF variances.


The target of this work is to study the effect of the stylus tip geometry on the
surface roughness measurements by the stylus methods. A computer simulation
of the measuring process in 3D using arbitrary tip shapes has been undertaken. A
novel feature of this simulation is that it determines and reports the contact
distribution of the contact points on the stylus when scanning each surface.
Following analysis of fully simulated data to establish the fidelity of the simulation
process, it was applied to data set from real surfaces. First these were examined
using ideal (sometimes truncated) pyramid, conical and spherical tips. Then tip
shapes determined from the measurement of real styli were used. Relatively large
tips (of the order of 10 μm) were used in order to ease the need for measurement
resolution. The simulation results were evaluated against real measurements of
the surfaces. A bespoke measuring system was developed for this, adding X-Y
scanning and a means of interchanging styli while maintaining micrometer lateral
positioning between measurements. The shape of each stylus tip has been
determined using a technique based on the replication by indentation into a soft
substrate (typically lead).
The roughness values of the real surfaces when scanned (theoretically) by the real
tips have been compared to the roughness values of the same surfaces when
measured by the measuring system with different tips. This comparison has shown
a good compliance of both the theoretical and the practical results. This provides a
degree of confidence for interpreting details of the simulation as having practical
relevance.
Both computer simulation and real measurements confirm the trends that would be
expected from earlier studies. For example, amplitude parameters tend to drop in
value as stylus size increases. The distribution of stylus contacts in simulation
suggests that it is rarely to be found near the nominal centre of the tip. It is also
clearly demonstrated that real worn tips do not necessary act as if blunt, contacts
concentration in small regions when local features dominate. These results have
significant implementations for the uncertainty in topographic measurements.


This paper examines the separate impacts of early childhood nutrition and current health problems on academic achievement. Previous research has only considered either the impact of nutrition or specific health problems on academic achievement. This is the first paper to consider both measures of health in a comprehensive way. A unique cross-section dataset of grade 4 students in Sri Lanka allows one to creatively deal with endogeneity issues stemming from missing variable bias. Specifically, controlling for school heterogeneity and parental taste for education the results show that children affected by hearing problems, intestinal worms and early childhood malnutrition have significantly lower cognitive skills. These results are robust to conditioning on the rate of student absence from school. The policy implications are that returns to investments made to improving school quality will be limited by any lack in investment in improving early childhood nutrition and health problems faced by children in school years.


There has been a slight increase in African American enrollment in higher education in the 30 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act. However, minority students are not represented in higher education in numbers proportionate to their representation in the general population. African Americans consist of 12.6% of the population, but only 10.6% of the students enrolled in higher education (Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac, 1998). Additionally, there are differences in the types of schools that successfully educate African American students. Historically Black institutions (HBIs) confer a disproportionately high number of bachelor's degrees on such students. Of all the bachelor's degrees conferred on African Americans in 1994, over 43% were awarded by predominantly White institutions (PWIs) while HBIs conferred 45.1% of the degrees (Nettles & Perna, 1997). There seems to be some difference between the success rates of African American students at PWIs and HBIs. One of the factors that may influence these success rates is the college selection process. That is, if there are different types of African American students attending PWIs versus HBIs, those differences may account for some of the differences in success rates at the two types of schools. It would seem that research is needed on the factors that African Americans consider in the college selection process, and if those factors differ between African Americans at PWIs and those at HBIs. The present study sought to examine this issue. A 60-item survey was developed specifically for this study. Survey items asked respondents to rate the extent of influence (very negative to very positive) that factors in four iii arenas played in their decision to attend a particular school. The four arenas explored in the study included academic factors, social factors, personal factors, and financial factors. The target sample included 360 traditional aged freshmen students: 180 at a PWI and 180 at a HBI. Mean scores and standard deviations were calculated on all items for each group. These were rank-ordered by group to explore differences by item. Then a factor analysis was conducted to create subscales of the items for each scale. Finally, independent t-tests were conducted to compare mean scores between groups. Results revealed no significant differences in mean score between groups or any of the subscales. However, important differences between groups were identified when the rankings of the mean scores were examined. iv Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to …


In light of the challenges facing the Irish tourism industry, Failte Ireland (TPDS report) emphasises that the future success of tourism enterprises relies upon delivering a 'unique and complete holiday experience'. In addition, it has recognised that the underpinning critical success for the tourism industry is building customer loyalty through the creation of the total customer experience. A review of the literature indicates a general consensus that quality, value and satisfaction are major determinants of customer loyalty. However, while much is known about the relationship between the aforementioned variables and customer loyalty, these variables do not fully explain how customer loyalty is built. Therefore, this research study seeks to reduce the existing gap in extant knowledge by identifying and examining a new determinant of customer loyalty – the customer experience. The overarching objective of this thesis was to examine the relationship between customer experience and customer loyalty. Indeed, both customer relationship management (CRM) and brand literature indicate that loyalty-building is found in the customer's experience with the product/service, hence it is perceived that a fundamental key to building customer loyalty is the successful management of each individual customer's experience. The customer experience has been defined as involving three components: functional clues, humanic clues, and mechanic clues. Each one of these clue sets have been investigated individually in relation to their impact on loyalty. Based on the literature, the relationship between customer experience and loyalty in this study has been hypothesised to

H1. There is a direct relationship between functional clues and loyalty.
H2. The relationship between functional clues and loyalty is mediated by the variables - value and quality.
H3. There is a direct relationship between mechanic clues and loyalty.
H4. The relationship between mechanic clues and loyalty is mediated by value and quality.
H5. There is a direct relationship between humanic clues and loyalty.
H6. The relationship between humanic clues and loyalty is mediated by value and quality.
The study utilised two phases of data collection – an initial qualitative phase followed by a second phase involving a quantitative methodology. The study collected data from both sides of a dyad: key informants from the hotel industry and the hotels' customers. The study involved assessing three and four star hotels in the cities of Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny in the South East region of Ireland. The data was analysed using Nvivo (N7) and the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V.15).
The qualitative phase of the study involved in depth interviews with hotel key respondents. This provided the necessary information to create a detailed blueprint of the customer hotel experience based on four critical stages and on each of the experience clues – functional, mechanic and humanic. Indeed, this was a major outcome of the qualitative phase and informed the development of the customer survey in the second quantitative phase. The quantitative phase revealed that the relationship between the functional and mechanic clue sets and loyalty is totally mediated by the value and quality variables. The relationship between the humanic clue set and loyalty was both direct and indirect; the indirect relationship was mediated through value and quality.
Due to the lack of research and interest in this area, this study not only contributes substantially to extant academic knowledge, but also makes a significant contribution to tourism practice. Ultimately it bridges the knowledge gap by conceptualising customer loyalty through identifying a number of key determinants. Hence, a major theoretical contribution of this thesis is the fact that it both synthesises and builds on extant efforts to conceptualise and build loyalty. The main practical implication is that it provides best practice guidelines for building customer loyalty through the customer experience. Indeed, for destination managers it highlights the importance of focusing on each of the experience clues - functional, mechanic and humanic - in order to create the total customer experience, a key determinant in building customer loyalty. Furthermore, this study also offers a methodological contribution of data collection in the form of blueprinting – a critical technique in illustrating the customer experience process. While this technique has been in existence for the last twenty years, it has not commonly utilised. Therefore, this study offers a guideline for future researchers in terms of this data collection technique.


Water Governance in OECD Countries: A Multilevel Approach addresses multilevel governance challenges in water policy implementation and identifies good practices for coordinating water policy across ministries, between levels of government, and across local actors at subnational level. Based on a methodological framework, it assesses the main "coordination gaps" in terms of policy-making, financing, information, accountability, objectives and capacity building, and provides a platform of existing governance mechanisms to bridge them. Based on an extensive survey on water governance the report provides a comprehensive institutional mapping of roles and responsibilities in water policy-making at national/subnational level in 17 OECD countries. It concludes on preliminary multilevel governance guidelines for integrated water policy.

This title belongs to OECD Report Series .

ISBN: 9781780406046 (eBook)

ISBN: 9781780400273 (Print)


A challenging issue associated with three-dimensional (3D) fringe patterns profilometry (FPP) is the unwrapping of phase maps resulting from color object surfaces. This paper proposes a new color-projection-based 3D FPP, making use of the three primary color channels [i.e., red, green, and blue (RGB)] associated with digital projectors. One channel (e.g., red) is used for projecting sinusoidal fringes required by phase shift profilometry (PSP); the other two channels are employed for generating binary stripe patterns. In order to achieve reliable phase unwrapping, each fringe of the sinusoidal patterns is identified by a unique binary sequence. These sequences are then encoded by a channel-encoding scheme used in the area of communication. The encoded sequences are embedded in the binary coding stripe images, which are projected together with the sinusoidal patterns. The three image patterns are reflected by the object surface and captured by an RGB 3-CCD camera. The reflected sinusoidal patterns are employed to yield a wrapped phase map, and the binary stripe patterns are used to retrieve the encoded sequences, which are then decoded to yield the original binary sequences for phase unwrapping. Compared with existing color-encoded algorithms, the proposed approach uses binary codes instead of fringe color to identify the fringes, which are less sensitive to the disturbances caused by object surface color and illumination noises. Furthermore, use of the channel-coding scheme provides extra resistance to the disturbances caused by object surface color and illumination noises. Experimental results are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed technique.


Background: The scale-up of HIV care and treatment services in sub-Saharan Africa has been accompanied by calls to address the broader health care needs of people living with HIV (PLWH), including their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs. The integration of HIV and SRH services has been proposed as an important means to achieve this. This thesis presents a comparative case study investigating health care structure, process and outcomes across four different models of HIV services in Swaziland: two integrated SRH-HIV clinics, one semi-specialist HIV outpatient unit at a hospital, and one stand-alone HIV clinic.
Methods: Mixed methods were used including in-depth interviews with providers and clients, and an exit survey (N=611) with HIV clients. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. Quantitative data were compared across clinic models using chi-squared tests and analysis of variance. Selected outcomes were analysed with logistic regression modelling. Qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated and integrated in the presentation of results.
Findings: A critical need for SRH services was identified across all four sites. Most clients relied on condoms alone for contraceptive protection, reflecting a service focus on reinfection rather than pregnancy risk. In multivariable analyses, integrated sites did perform better than the most stand-alone site in promoting access to family planning and pregnancy counselling, but were no better or worse in providing condoms, addressing unmet needs for family planning, achieving client satisfaction and reducing stigma. Provider capacity to move beyond HIV care was limited, even at integrated sites, by a range of contextual factors, including individual provider, interpersonal, infrastructural or systems, and institutional factors. In particular, heavy client loads and perceived needs for fast care inhibited exploration of clients' holistic needs.
Discussion & conclusions: While integrated services offer opportunities to promote service uptake, this capacity can only be translated into health outcomes when a range of contextual contingencies are addressed. Promoting more client-centred continuity care may help facilitate this. Widespread assumptions that integrated services are better than stand-alone models have been challenged by this study: a well-run stand-alone site can achieve positive outcomes, including impacts on family planning needs and client satisfaction. PLWH should be able to choose a model of care that suits their particular situation and needs best.


In this paper, implementation of a detector with parallel partial candidate-search algorithm is described. Two fully independent partial candidate search processes are simultaneously employed for two groups of transmit antennas based on QR decomposition (QRD) and QL decomposition (QLD) of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel matrix. By using separate simultaneous candidate searching processes, the proposed implementation of QRD-QLD searching-based sphere detector provides a smaller latency and a lower computational complexity than the original QRD-M detector for similar error-rate performance in wireless communications systems employing four transmit and four receive antennas with 16-QAM or 64-QAM constellation size. It is shown that in coded MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO OFDM) systems, the detection latency and computational complexity of a receiver can be substantially reduced by using the proposed QRD-QLD detector implementation. The QRD-QLD-based sphere detector is also implemented using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and its hardware design complexity is compared with that of other sphere detectors reported in the literature.


Chronic Hepatitis B (chronic HBV infection) affects 350 million people globally and causes significant morbidity and mortality in the form of cirrhosis and liver cancer. The overall prevalence of chronic HBV infection in Australia is around 1%; however Indigenous Australians are disproportionately affected. In the Northern Territory (NT) exact prevalence rates in Indigenous communities are not known but have been estimated to be between 2.4-14%. Universal vaccination commencing at birth has been in place in the NT since 1990 and effective antiviral treatments are available, however only 2.4% of those living with chronic HBV infection are receiving treatment for it. Low health literacy is one of the multiple barriers preventing access to care particularly in a cross-cultural context. Following the literature reviews in section A, this thesis covers three major areas of work that have formed my PhD studies (sections B, C and D). In section B, I present a detailed description of the sero-epidemiology of hepatitis B in the NT based on 20 years of Territory-wide laboratory data. Overall HBsAg prevalence is 3.40%, increasing to 6.08% for Indigenous Australians. In section C, I present the CHARM (Characterising hepatitis B in northern Australia through molecular epidemiology) cohort. This study identified the unique and universal hepatitis B subgenotype in Indigenous Australians in the NT to be C4. Full genome sequencing has identified C4 to be a recombinant virus with molecular markers associated with rapid progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Section D reports a qualitative participatory action research study looking at hepatitis B-specific health literacy and the provision of patient information. The results of this study have informed and enabled production of a bilingual (English and Yolŋu matha) electronic application to provide information for Indigenous people about hepatitis B. The 'Hep B Story' app is freely available through the Apple app store and the Google play app store.


Abstract Venous blood specimen collection is an important practical task that results in an analysis response that often leads to a clinical decision. Errors due to inaccurate venous blood specimen collection are frequently reported and can jeopardize patient safety because inaccurate specimens may result in a delayed or incorrect diagnosis and treatment. However, few healthcare personnel have written an error report regarding venous blood specimen collection practices. The aim of this study is to describe the experiences of healthcare personnel with incident reporting of venous blood specimen collection practices in primary health care. Our study is based on 30 individual interviews with healthcare personnel from 10 primary health care centres. Data were analysed using qualitative content analyses. Personnel experiences of incident reporting were summarized in three categories; Uncertainties in the planning and organization, High workload and low priority and, A need for support and guidance. More specifically, barriers hinder personnel in reporting mistakes. An interpretation based on the results is that surrounding circumstances within the organization influence whether personnel report mistakes or not. The result indicates a need for parallel systems, to identify and report errors or near-misses to prevent mistakes. Processed incidents should be returned promptly to the personnel to use as a learning experience. Having a valid questionnaire and a key person to write an incident report, might reduce the burden on the health care staff and increase the numbers of incident reports and patient safety.


The ability to automatically find objects of interest in images is useful in the areas of compression, indexing and retrieval, re-targeting, and so on. There are two classes of such algorithms – those that find any object of interest with no prior knowledge, independent of the task, and those that find specific objects of interest known a priori. The former class of algorithms tries to detect objects in images that stand-out, i.e. are salient, by virtue of being different from the rest of the image and consequently capture our attention. The detection is generic in this case as there is no specific object we are trying to locate. The latter class of algorithms detects specific known objects of interest and often requires training using features extracted from known examples. In this thesis we address various aspects of finding objects of interest under the topics of saliency detection and object detection. We present two saliency detection algorithms that rely on the principle of center-surround contrast. These two algorithms are shown to be superior to several state-of-the-art techniques in terms of precision and recall measures with respect to a ground truth. They output full-resolution saliency maps, are simpler to implement, and are computationally more efficient than most existing algorithms. We further establish the relevance of our saliency detection algorithms by using them for the known applications of object segmentation and image re-targeting. We first present three different techniques for salient object segmentation using our saliency maps that are based on clustering, graph-cuts, and geodesic distance based labeling. We then demonstrate the use of our saliency maps for a popular technique of content-aware image resizing and compare the result with that of existing methods. Our saliency maps prove to be a much more effective replacement for conventional gradient maps for providing automatic content-awareness. Just as it is important to find regions of interest in images, it is also important to find interesting images within a large collection of images. We therefore extend the notion of saliency detection in images to image databases. We propose an algorithm for finding salient images in a database. Apart from finding such images we also present two novel techniques for creating visually appealing summaries in the form of collages and mosaics. Finally, we address the problem of finding specific known objects of interest in images. Specifically, we deal with the feature extraction step that is a pre-requisite for any technique in this domain. In this context, we first present a superpixel segmentation algorithm that outperforms previous algorithms in terms quantitative measures of under-segmentation error and boundary recall. Our superpixel segmentation algorithm also offers several other advantages over existing algorithms like compactness, uniform size, control on the number of superpixels, and computational efficiency. We prove the effectiveness of our superpixels by deploying them in existing algorithms, specifically, an object class detection technique and a graph based algorithm, and improving their performance. We also present the result of using our superpixels in a technique for detecting mitochondria in noisy medical images.


Company cars represent the majority of UK new car sales and thus have a dominant effect on the fuel use characteristics of the entire car stock. In April 2002 a major reform of the company car taxation system was introduced with the car's CO2 emissions being a key part of determining the cash equivalent of the benefit on which tax is due.
HMRC studies have indicated that this tax reform has produced a substantial and ongoing improvement in company car fuel efficiency. This was largely through the tax system favouring diesel cars and led to the substantial rise in diesel cars sold in the UK. However, as the transport policy agenda has moved towards the promotion of hybrid and low carbon vehicles, it is notable that these have had little uptake in the company car sector, despite adjustments in the tax structure providing them with substantial incentives.
This paper presents an analysis of the way in which this tax structure makes it difficult for low carbon cars to compete against diesel vehicles. Battery electric cars also suffer the disadvantage of not being well suited to the high mileages characteristic of company cars.
However the tax structure looks set to particularly favour new generation hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Indeed, the company car tax structure could well tip the balance to making plug-in hybrids the dominant clean vehicle technology. However, the 2012 change to the tax bands failed to take into account the effect on the uptake of low carbon vehicles and could undermine an already fragile uptake of new low carbon technology vehicles.


This project investigates the impact urban intensification in Auckland suburbs has on the social aspects of identity (the individual and the community). The scheme, a medium or higher density infill housing development for a non-profit housing association, is proposed on an undeveloped site in Auckland. The project tests the principles of increasing densities to satisfy both the sustainability objectives of current planning policies and the social and spatial needs of residents. It also studies ways of using vacant sites that have not been previously developed for urban use. These sites are left undeveloped because they have been deemed too difficult for the standard low-density suburban housing model that has always been preferred in Auckland. Factors such as slope, aspect, access and drainage are the main reasons for these sites being left unoccupied. Policies to intensify Auckland continue to dominate strategic planning therefore; these undeveloped sites become significant and attract attention because of their ability to increase the density of an area without interfering with the current living conditions of built suburbia. Where they occur within walking distance of a town centre and good public transport nodes a design-led approach to suitability for housing use provides the basis for this study.


Coiled-coil domains are attractive modular components for assembling individual protein subunits into higher order structures because they can be designed de novo with well-defined oligomerization states, topologies, and dissociation energies. However, the utility of coiled-coil designs as plug-and-play components for synthetic biology applications depends critically on them robustly maintaining their oligomerization states when fused to larger proteins of interest. Here, we investigate the ability of a series of well-characterized de novo-designed parallel coiled coils, with oligomerization states ranging from dimer to pentamer, to mediate the oligomerization of a model monomeric protein, green fluorescent protein (GFP). Six coiled-coil GFP fusion proteins were initially constructed and their oligomerization states investigated using size exclusion chromatography, analytical ultracentrifugation, and native mass spectrometry. Somewhat surprisingly, only two of these initial designs adopted their intended oligomerization states. However, with minor refinements, the intended oligomerization states of two of the four other constructs could be achieved. Parameters found to influence the oligomerization state of the GFP fusions included the number of heptad repeats and the length of the linker sequence separating GFP from the coiled coil. These results demonstrate that even for stable, well-designed coiled coils, the oligomerization state is subject to unanticipated changes when connected to larger protein components. Therefore, although coiled coils can be successfully used as components in protein designs their ability to achieve the desired oligomerization state requires experimental verification.


The spatio-temporal variability of trends in vegetation greenness in dryland areas is a well-documented phenomenon in remote sensing studies at global to regional scales. The underlying causes differ, however, and are often not well understood. Here, we analyzed the trends in vegetation greenness for a semi-arid area in northeastern Brazil (NEB) and examined the relationships between those dynamics and climate anomalies, namely the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) for the period 1982 to 2010, based on annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from the latest version of the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI dataset (NDVI3g) dataset. Against the ample assumption of ecological and socio-economic research, the results of our inter-annual trend analysis of NDVI and precipitation indicate large areas of significant greening in the observation period. The spatial extent and strength of greening is a function of the prevalent land-cover type or biome in the study area. The regression analysis of ENSO indicators and NDVI anomalies reveals a close relation of ENSO warm events and periods of reduced vegetation greenness, with a temporal lag of 12 months. The spatial patterns of this relation vary in space and time. Thus, not every ENSO warm event is reflected in negative NDVI anomalies. Xeric shrublands (Caatinga) are more sensitive to ENSO teleconnections than other biomes in the study area.


Radar for biomass estimation has been widely investigated for temperate, boreal and tropical forests, yet tropical savanna woodlands, which generally form noncontinuous cover canopies or sparse woodlands, have been largely neglected in biomass studies. This thesis evaluates the capability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for estimating the above-ground biomass of the woody vegetation in a savanna in Belize, Central America. This is achieved by evaluating (i) polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) backscatter and (ii) single-pass shortwave interferometric SAR (InSAR) as indicators of above-ground biomass. Specifically, the effect on SAR backscatter of woody vegetation structure such as canopy cover, basal area, vegetation height and above-ground biomass is evaluated. Since vegetation height is often correlated to above-ground biomass, the effectiveness of vegetation height retrieval from InSAR is evaluated as an indicator of above-ground biomass. The study area, situated in Belize, is representative of Central American savannas. Radar data used are AIRSAR fully polarimetric Land P-band SAR, and AIRSAR C-band InSAR, Intermap Technologies STAR-3i X-band InSAR, and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) C-band InSAR. The field data comprise accurately georeferenced three-dimensional measurements for 1,133 trees and shrubs and 75 palmetto clumps and thickets in a transect of 800 m x 60 m which spans the main savanna vegetation strata of the study area. An additional 2,464 ground points were observed. Results show that savanna woodlands present a challenge for radar remote sensing methods due to the sparse and heterogeneous nature of savanna woodlands. Longwave SAR backscatter is dominated not only by high biomass areas, but also by areas of leafy palmetto which have low vegetative biomass. Retrieved woodland canopy heights from Xand C-band InSAR are indicative of the general patterns of tree height, although retrieved heights are underestimated. The amount of underestimation is variable across the different canopy conditions. Of these two methods, the shortwave InSAR data give a better indication of the spatial distribution


A cross-sectional study was conducted on four major pig raising districts of eastern and mid-western region of Nepal from February to May 2014 to find out the seroprevalence of Trichinella spp . A total of 184 serum samples of pigs were collected and antibodies against trichinella were detected using ID screen trichinella indirect multi- species ELISA kit. The study revealed prevalence rate of 3.8% and difference in prevalence rate according to age, sex, breed, rearing system, ecozone, region & district were statistically insignificant (P>0.05) as analysed by Chi-square test using PHStat version 2.5 and Fisher's exact test. This study confirms that antibodies of Trichinella spp. are circulating in pigs of Nepal. Further, the knowledge, attitude and practices survey of meat borne helminthic zoonoses was conducted among 50 pig raisers and pork consumers by face to face interview using a semi-structure questionnaire. This survey concludes that although there were significant portion of the respondents aware of meat borne helminthic zoonoses but there were still a noticeable proportion of respondents who didn't have a proper knowledge that upsurge public health risks. Moreover, present-day situation of their pig raising practices & pork consumption system possess them to a menace of public health zoonoses. be done for enhancing the potential of isolates. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(3): 402-407


This dissertation describes a classroom-based research project on the language of primary school mathematics as used in three mathematics lessons and eight structured interventions with children. My aim is to analyse the classroom dialogue and consider the effectiveness of the participants' communication processes as they try to share their understanding of meanings of mathematical language. Literature from several research disciplines informs the analysis, although my prime interest is communication and thought processes. Methods were refined during a pilot project for Stage 1 of the EdD in the same classroom. My research shows that in some situations, mathematical language is far from precise in meaning, and the communicative processes used to make it potentially shareable are often tentative and transient according to the situation. In particular, I question the idea of setting mathematics into everyday contexts in order to improve communicative relevance, because children bring their own previous knowledge and experience to the interpretation of each situation. My analysis highlights that reference to everyday contexts might not be effective in communicating the meaning of probabilistic language. Part of the difficulty lies with probabilistic words also having everyday meanings, but the main difficulty is that few life events can be given probabilities such as 'certain' and 'even chance'. Gestures and pictorial images are also influential when trying to communicate one's understanding of meaning. A tentative conclusion is that referring to proportional relationships involving number, rather than real-life events might provide opportunity for more effective communication of probabilistic meanings. Teachers need to be aware that the language of mathematics is not always precise and that pictorial images and gesture have a powerful effect on the development of a shared understanding of meaning


Ganoderma lucidum, an oriental fungus (Figure 9.1), has a long history of use for promoting health and longevity in China, Japan, and other Asian countries. It is a large, dark mushroom with a glossy exterior and a woody texture. The Latin word lucidus means "shiny" or "brilliant" and refers to the varnished appearance of the surface of the mushroom. In China, G. lucidum is called lingzhi, whereas in Japan the name for the Ganodermataceae family is reishi or mannentake.


Detection limits for the main heteroatoms in pollutants and chemical agents have been determined in atmospheric conditions with the use of the time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (TRELIBS) method. This method presents many advantages for detection in hazardous or corrosive gas mixtures where sampling systems are not usable. Moreover, low concentrations of fluorine, chlorine, sulfur, and carbon can be measured with short analysis times. Currently, concentration limits are close to 10–50 ppm (w/w) for F, Cl, and C atoms, while presently only 1500 ppm (w/w) limits are reached for S. These measurements are obtained with an analysis time of under 20 s.


1. Introduction During Dostoevsky's time, as now, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin occupied a seminal place in Russian culture. In addition to his reputation as founder of the country's Sentimentalist school and originator of linguistic changes that transformed the language, the historical figure of Karamzin also had a profound impact on Russia's sense of national identity. His Pis'ma russkogo puteshestvennika (Letters of a Russian Traveler) which appeared in Russia between 1791 and 1801, in the French journal Spectateur du Nord around 1798, and in a German translation by Richter in 1800, set up an image of the Russian aristocrat as a highly cultured man, who possessed, in the words of Prince Dmitrii Sviatopolk-Mirskii, "a new, enlightened, and cosmopolitan sensibility" (Mirsky 61). Paradoxically, Karamzin's Istoriia gosudarstva Rossiiskogo (History. of the Russian State, 1818-1825), with its epic panoramas of the country's past, and his Zapiska o drevnei i novoi Rossii (Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia, 1811), with its insistence on traditional Russian values, also elevated the author to the status of a quintessential Russian patriot. Although scholars have traditionally pointed to the influence of Karamzin's literary style on Dostoevsky, the primary reason for the novelist's continuing interest in the great historian and man of letters is none other than his own query into the Russian intelligentsia's sense of self vis-a-vis the West. Following his first trip to Europe in 1862, the novelist experiences an important affinity with Karamzin, viewing himself and the eighteenth-century writer as fellow intellectual "travelers," laden with the task of defining the intelligentsia's ideal attitude toward the enormous Western influence on Russia's politics and culture. In Dostoevsky's opinion, Karamzin's paradoxical image as a cosmopolitan traveler to Europe on the one hand, and an enthusiastic chronicler of his country's history on the other, qualifies him as a kind of balanced model for educated Russians. Indeed, toward the end of his life, the novelist even uses the writer/historian's legacy in an attempt to find common ground between Slavophiles and Westerners, insisting that Karamzin represents those Russian cultural figures of the recent past who were able to combine their Western erudition with an awareness and appreciation for their uniquely Russian identity. 2. Dostoevsky Follows Karamzin's Traveler into Europe: The Manipulation of Karamzin's Germany Dostoevsky's first mention of Karamzin as a traveler to the West occurs in 1863, recorded in his own European travelogue under the title Zimnie zametki o letnikh vpechatleniiakh (Winter Notes on Summer Impressions). This is a brief but philosophically dense work, which, to use Konstantin Mochulskii's terminology, deals more with the "idea" of Europe than Europe itself (190). To fully appreciate the points of contact between the two literary figures within the Notes, however, we must briefly describe the latter's relationship to Russian travel-writing of the past. Indeed, with the heavy post-Petrine emphasis placed on imitating the West, the tour of Europe for many educated Russians (certainly by Dostoevsky's time) had become a pilgrimage of sorts. The traveler was usually an aristocrat, who from an early age had assimilated so much from Western culture and literature that Europe, to use Iurii Mikhailovich Lotman's and Boris Andreevich Uspenskii's expression, "predstavlialas' ne real'no geograficheskim, a ideal' nym prostranstvom" (appeared not as a real geographic, but as an ideal space) (Appendix 563). At the same time, however, the journey to the West allowed educated Russians to "take a step back," as it were, and evaluate their own country more candidly. Thus, the travel diary, or travelogue as it is sometimes called, played an important role in forming the intelligentsia's sense of national identity: "Only by making the prescribed pilgrimage to the West, only by ceasing to regard Europe through the haze of distance as some enchanted land," Joseph Frank opines, "could a Russian best discover what aspects of European influence in his homeland he might wish to preserve and what discard" (233-234). …


Paleocene ephemeral alluvial and palustrine deposits have been recognized in several small outcrops in southern Sardinia. Three sedimentary units have been distinguished: the basal one, mainly terrigenous, made up of alluvial pedogenized deposits, the intermediate one, entirely carbonate, made up of pedogenized fresh water deposits, and the third one, terrigenous-carbonate, recording the beginning of the Thanetian marine ingression in Sardinia. The carbonate deposits are the most developed and are mainly characterized by the presence of Microcodium, both with corn-cob aggregates, in some cases forming palisades or reef-like buildups, and with disarticulated grains forming resedimented deposits; charophyte stems and gyrogonites and stromatolites are also present, in some cases frequent. Deposits rich in charophyte stems indicate the presence of perennial water ponds. Alternances of humid and dry periods favoured erosive fluctuations, as indicated by the frequence of resedimented intraclasts of fresh water sediments, biotic remains as charophytes and stromatolites and, over all, detrital disaggregated Microcodium grains. The studied small outcrops are the only remnants of a probably wide Paleocene continental sedimentary cover, and provide informations on a variety of depositional facies, which are useful proxies for depicting a landscape with wetlands and detrital Microcodium deposits, similar to the coheval continental landscape widespread in southern France and in northeastern Spain.


At the first stage of a hydro-power survey of a river, it is important to select the optimal hydro-power site. The most important condition to be satisfied is to determine the optimal site where the greatest and most economical amount of hydro-energy can be obtained. This paper proposes a new method in which the optimal arrangement of the hydro-power stations is determined by a computational operation using discrete data at points along the river such as the drainage area, altitude, and distance along the river channel as obtained from topographical maps instead of drawing on engineers` experiences and the intuitions of experts. The results by this method are then compared with data on existing hydro-power stations and the results planned by expert engineers to show that this new computational method is superior.


The 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre marked China out as an exception in the chapter of world history that saw the fall of international communism. The massacre crystalized the mistrust between China and Hong Kong into an open ideological conflict—Leninist authoritarianism versus liberal democracy—that has colored relations between the two since then. This article tracks the hold that authoritarianism has gained over liberal values in Hong Kong in the past thirty years and reflects on what needs to be done in the next thirty years for the balance to be re-tilted and sustained beyond 2047, when China's fifty-year commitment to preserving Hong Kong's autonomy expires. Still surviving (just) as a largely liberal (though by no means fully democratic) jurisdiction after two decades of Chinese rule, Hong Kong is a testing ground for whether China can respect liberal values, how resilient such values are to the alternative authoritarian vision offered by an economic superpower, and the potential for establishing a liberal-democratic pocket within an authoritarian state. The territory's everyday wrestle with Chinese pressures speaks to the liberal struggles against authoritarian challenges (in their various guises) that continue to plague the world thirty years after the end of the Cold War.


When constitutional courts are called upon to construe generally phrased provisions in the federal or a state's constitution, they necessarily exercise interpretive agency. This judicial agency is thought by some to be in tension with the values of democratic governance. One strategy for dealing with this perceived problem is to institute a preference for incorporating prior judicial interpretations as a way of reducing the overall incidence of new judicial decisionmaking. This strategy was pressed particularly in the mid-twentieth century by Justice Hugo Black, who called on the U.S. Supreme Court to incorporate the Court's prior interpretation of the Bill of Rights as a means of interpreting Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment. In instances in which a state supreme court is asked to construe a state constitutional provision that is analogous to a parallel federal constitutional provision, some have urged the state court to systematically defer to the prior interpretation of the parallel federal provision by the U.S. Supreme Court. This position, styled the "lockstep" approach, involves a kind of incorporation of a prior judicial interpretation, as do both the selective and total incorporation approaches to interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment.
This Article reviews the competing conceptions of the judicial role and function articulated in the context of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporation cases, and evaluates the background assumptions and broader calculations that energized that debate both on the Court and among mid-twentieth century constitutional law scholars. It then traces the somewhat parallel debate that has taken place over the past several decades among state supreme court Justices and academics interested in state constitutional interpretation. The Article concludes by explaining why a passive spectator's role for constitutional courts, which is assumed by arguments for incorporation in the Fourteenth Amendment context and for a rule requiring automatic or presumptive deference by state courts to the prior judicial interpretation of parallel provisions in the federal constitution by the U.S. Supreme Court, is both undesirable in our democratic system and unrealistic. The Connecticut Supreme Court's recent decision in State v. Santiago is offered instead as an example of how a state court should proceed with appropriate agency in interpreting state constitutional text.


Voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs) are a family of three mitochondrial porins and the most abundant integral membrane proteins of the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM). VDACs are known to be involved in metabolite/ion transport across the MOM and in many cellular processes ranging from mitochondria-mediated apoptosis to the control of energy metabolism, by interacting with cytosolic, mitochondrial and cytoskeletal proteins and other membrane channels. Despite redundancy and compensatory mechanisms among VDAC isoforms, they display not only different channel properties and protein expression levels, but also distinct protein partners. Here, we review the known protein interactions for each VDAC isoform in order to shed light on their peculiar roles in physiological and pathological conditions. As proteins associated with the MOM, VDAC opening/closure as a metabolic checkpoint is regulated by protein-protein interactions, and is of pharmacological interest in pathological conditions such as cancer. The interactions involving VDAC1 have been characterized more in depth than those involving VDAC2 and VDAC3. Nevertheless, the so far explored VDAC-protein interactions for each isoform show that VDAC1 is mainly involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and in pro-apoptotic processes, whereas VDAC2 displays an anti-apoptotic role. Despite there being limited information on VDAC3, this isoform could contribute to mitochondrial protein quality control and act as a marker of oxidative status. In pathological conditions, namely neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, both VDAC1 and VDAC2 establish abnormal interactions aimed to counteract the mitochondrial dysfunction which contributes to end-organ damage.


Visual design plays an important role in online display advertising: changing the layout of an online ad can increase or decrease its effectiveness, measured in terms of click-through rate (CTR) or total revenue. The decision of which lay- out to use for an ad involves a trade-off: using a layout provides feedback about its effectiveness (exploration), but collecting that feedback requires sacrificing the immediate reward of using a layout we already know is effective (exploitation). To balance exploration with exploitation, we pose automatic layout selection as a contextual bandit problem. There are many bandit algorithms, each generating a policy which must be evaluated. It is impractical to test each policy on live traffic. However, we have found that offline replay (a.k.a. exploration scavenging) can be adapted to provide an accurate estimator for the performance of ad layout policies at Linkedin, using only historical data about the effectiveness of layouts. We describe the development of our offline replayer, and benchmark a number of common bandit algorithms.


Interferon-λ signaling tightens the blood-brain barrier, limiting West Nile virus infection of the central nervous system. Interferon-λ [IFN-λ, also known as type III interferon or interleukin-28 (IL-28) or IL-29] is among many secreted host proteins that activate an antiviral response. Lazear et al. observed that mice with genetic defects in IFN-λ signaling sustained greater West Nile virus infection in the brain and spinal cord, even though IFN-λ did not inhibit viral replication directly. Instead, IFN-λ signaling tightened the blood-brain barrier and limited West Nile virus infection into the brain. Administration of exogenous IFN-λ protected mice from West Nile virus infection in the brain and subsequent death. Thus, IFN-λ contributes to maintaining tissue barriers that restrict viral pathogenesis. H. M. Lazear, B. P. Daniels, A. K. Pinto, A. C. Huang, S. C. Vick, S. E. Doyle, M. Gale Jr., R. S. Klein, M. S. Diamond, Interferon-λ restricts West Nile virus neuroinvasion by tightening the blood-brain barrier. Sci. Transl. Med. 7, 284ra59 (2015). [Abstract]


The carbon abatement potentials of wind turbines, photovoltaics, and concentrating solar power plants were investigated using dispatch simulations over California with 2005–06 meteorological and load data. A parameterization of the simulation results is presented that provides approximations of both low-penetration carbon abatement rates and maximum carbon abatement potentials based on the temporal characteristics of the resource and the load. The results suggest that shallow carbon emissions reductions (up to 20% of the base case) can be achieved most efficiently with geothermal power and demand reductions via energy efficiency or conservation. Deep emissions reductions (up to 89% for this closed system), however, may require the build-out of very large fleets of intermittent renewables and improved power system flexibility, communications, and controls. At very high penetrations, combining wind and solar power improved renewable portfolio performance over individual build-out scenarios by reducing curtailment, suggesting that further reductions may be met by importing uncorrelated out-of-state renewable power. The results also suggest that 90–100% carbon emission reductions will rely on the development of demand response and energy storage facilities with power capacities of at least 65% of peak demand and energy capacities large enough to accommodate seasonal energy storage.


The significant impacts of some invasive species, such as the zebra mussel, have increased concerns about the long-term effects of invasive species. The fossil record provides a unique opportunity to track long-term changes caused by natural invasions. The Trans-Arctic Invasion (TAI) began after the Bering Strait opened at approximately 5.4-5.5 Ma, which enabled Pacific species to invade the Atlantic Ocean. Predatory naticid gastropods were among the invaders, allowing tracking of changes in naticid gastropod predation. To track the evolutionary integration of new species into the community, six samples postdating the invasion were collected from the Tjornes beds of northeast Iceland, all from the Serripes zone (B14, U14, 15, B17, U17, B18; B=base, U=upper; bed number uses Bardarson's 1925 classification). For each sample, complete bivalve specimens (whether mold or shell) were identified to genus or species level, and drilling frequency (DF) and prey effectiveness (PE = incidence of failed drilling) were calculated for the assemblage and for selected taxa. Specimen length and height were measured, as was drill hole diameter.
 Thirteen bivalve genera, 6 of which were invasive, and 3 naticid species, 1 of which was invasive, were recognized in 1171 specimens. Drilling frequency decreased up-section for the assemblage (from 0.38 to 0.16) and two common prey taxa Macoma (invasive) and Thracia (native); drilling frequency did not change significantly for the native genera Arctica and Lentidium. Incomplete drill holes were found only in B14 (9 in Arctica and 1 in Thracia) and U14 (1 in Macoma). Drill hole location on the prey shell did not change up-section. Size selectivity, based on correlations of outer borehole diameter and prey length, was significant for Macoma and Arctica (complete drill holes) but not for Serripes, Lentidium, and Arctica (incomplete drill holes). Predators drilled relatively smaller prey up-section despite increases in average length of both Macoma and Thracia. The decreased drilling frequency with no increase in prey effectiveness and predator preference for smaller prey up-section suggests that prey evolved avoidance techniques, which is consistent with the hypothesis of escalation. However, climatic cooling through the Serripes zone may also have decreased feeding rates of naticids.


The prospect of a well-paying job for a worker without a college education has significantly dimmed in the past three decades, in the wake of sweeping changes in the U.S. economy and labor market. The effects of these changes are particularly devastating for young people from disadvantaged urban communities. In response to this issue, the SEED Foundation, founded in 1997 by former management consultants Rajiv Vinnakota and Eric Adler, opened the first public, urban, college-preparatory boarding school in the country. The primary mission of the SEED School of Washington, DC (SEED DC), is to provide an intensive education program that prepares students from low-income and underserved communities for college enrollment and success.The SEED school, located in a residential section of southeast Washington, serves approximately 320 sixth- through twelfth-graders. Students attend school on campus five days a week, arriving on Sunday evening and going home on Friday afternoon. The SEED model posits that an alternative urban academic environment that puts a high priority on academic excellence and personal development will allow students to succeed through high school and in college. An important facet of the SEED model is to surround students with a cadre of adults to support them in preparing for college success — including their teachers, school administrators, and the residence hall staff.Using the random assignment inherent in the school admissions lottery, this report presents results from a six-year evaluation of SEED DC, including both an implementation study — to understand how the school operates in practice — and an examination of the impacts of winning admission to SEED DC on a broad range of student outcomes.Key Findings• SEED DC creates a highly supportive environment for its students, with a network of caring adults. The school provides students with a wide array of services, ranging from academic support to emotional support and relationship-building activities.• The school produced significant, positive impacts on students' standardized test scores and proficiency levels — particularly in math — in comparison with outcomes among students who did not win admission to SEED.• For students in the earliest cohorts, who can be followed through high school, SEED DC did not increase the proportion who graduated from high school in four years.• Although SEED DC showed a couple of positive behavioral effects, it did not show an impact on the key nonacademic outcomes, such as teen pregnancy or interaction with the criminal justice system, that could justify its higher cost.It is important to note that SEED DC operates in a district with many innovative alternatives and, owing to local rules, is unable to target the most underserved students. Thus the evaluation cannot speak to the question of whether SEED's unusual boarding school model could produce larger effects in different environments, serving students who face more serious obstacles to success.


The cougar is one of the most beautiful, enigmatic, and majestic animals in the Americas. Eliciting reverence for its grace and independent nature, it also triggers fear when it comes into contact with people, pets, and livestock or competes for hunters' game. Mystery, myth, and misunderstanding surround this remarkable creature. The cougar's range once extended from northern Canada to the tip of South America, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic, making it the most widespread animal in the Western Hemisphere. But overhunting and loss of habitat vastly reduced cougar numbers by the early twentieth century across much of its historical range, and today the cougar faces numerous threats as burgeoning human development encroaches on its remaining habitat. When Maurice Hornocker began the first long-term study of cougars in the Idaho wilderness in 1964, little was known about this large cat. Its secretive nature and rarity in the landscape made it difficult to study. But his groundbreaking fieldwork yielded major insights and was the prelude to further research on this controversial species. The capstone to Hornocker's long career studying big cats, "Cougar" is a powerful and practical resource for scientists, conservationists, and anyone with an interest in large carnivores. He and conservationist Sharon Negri bring together the diverse perspectives of eighteen distinguished scientists to provide the fullest account of the cougar's ecology, behavior, and genetics, its role as a top predator, and its conservation needs. This compilation of recent findings, stunning photographs, and firsthand accounts of field research unravels the mysteries of this magnificent animal and emphasizes its importance in healthy ecosystem processes and in our lives.


Publishing scientific research is very important in contributing to the knowledge of a discipline and in sharing research findings among scientists. Based on the quantity and quality of publications, one can evaluate the research capacity of a researcher or the research performance of a university or a country. However, the number of quality publications in Vietnam is very low in comparison with those in the other countries in the region or in the world, especially in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the current study investigates university lecturers' attitudes towards research and publication and the obstacles to local and international publication at one of the main universities in social sciences and humanities in Vietnam. The study found the main barriers to publication are funding and time for research and publication, among many other obstacles. From the analysis of the data, the study would also argue that lecturers' obstacles to publication may vary across faculties (or disciplines), ages, qualifications, education, research and publication experience. The findings in this study may be applied to other institutions in Vietnam or in other countries where English is used as a foreign language.


Sensory thresholds, using the 2-alternative forced choice technique, were studied in normal subjects and in patients with unilateral cerebral vascular disease, as documented by clinical-radiologlc correlation. In normal persons the absolute threshold for light touch increased with age. Bilateral impairment of sensation with unilateral cerebral vascular lesions occurred in 30% of the patients. Tactile deficit was always greater on the side contralateral to infarction or hemorrhage. An ipsilateral deficit did not exist independent of contralateral deficit, and was more likely to occur with complete sensory loss contralaterally. There was a tendency for persons with larger lesions as determined clinically and by CAT scan to have ipsilateral as well as contralateral deficit. The incidence or severity of ipsilateral deficit was not related to lesion laterally.


Forty five patients with liver cirrhosis were compared with 60 other chronically ill patients in an attempt to evaluate the use of leading symptoms, leading signs, laboratory tests and various combinations of the three, in the accurate diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. It was found that a combination of leading symptoms and leading signs gave a high sensitivity rate but with an increased likelihood of false positives which needed to be mitigated by certain laboratory tests. It is recommended that the prevalence of the disease within the community is also taken into account when interpreting results.


A compilation of more than 30 studies shows that adult Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) may frequent benthic habitats year‐round, in shelf as well as oceanic waters and throughout their circumpolar range. Net and acoustic data from the Scotia Sea show that in summer 2‐20% of the population reside at depths between 200 and 2000 m, and that large aggregations can form above the seabed. Local differences in the vertical distribution of krill indicate that reduced feeding success in surface waters, either due to predator encounter or food shortage, might initiate such deep migrations and results in benthic feeding. Fatty acid and microscopic analyses of stomach content confirm two different foraging habitats for Antarctic krill: the upper ocean, where fresh phytoplankton is the main food source, and deeper water or the seabed, where detritus and copepods are consumed. Krill caught in upper waters retain signals of benthic feeding, suggesting frequent and dynamic exchange between surface and seabed. Krill contained up to 260 nmol iron per stomach when returning from seabed feeding. About 5% of this iron is labile, i.e., potentially available to phytoplankton. Due to their large biomass, frequent benthic feeding, and acidic digestion of particulate iron, krill might facilitate an input of new iron to Southern Ocean surface waters. Deep migrations and foraging at the seabed are significant parts of krill ecology, and the vertical fluxes involved in this behavior are important for the coupling of benthic and pelagic food webs and their elemental repositories.


This essay uses both ethnic studies and disability studies to read two late-nineteenth-century American texts that refer to Chang and Eng Bunker, conjoined twin entertainers from the country then known as Siam who were popularly called the Siamese Twins. Mark Twain's sketch "Personal Habits of the Siamese Twins" and Thomas Nast's political cartoon "The American Twins" use Chang and Eng Bunker as metaphors to discuss national unity at key moments when that unity appears to be most pressing. While these patriotic visions of unity appear to be inclusive, they are ultimately race-, gender-, and class-specific-implying that they apply only to white, class-privileged men. Moreover, Chang and Eng's status as Asian-raced and anatomically anomalous figures functions strategically in the rhetoric of both Twain and Nast. The twins are alternately rendered racially exotic and domesticated for the Anglo-American reading public. Their conjoinment similarly functions in ambivalent ways that both celebrate unity and suggest discomfort with it.


1. Offspring locomotor performance has been shown to influence fitness related traits in a wide range of taxa. One potential mechanism by which viviparous animals can increase the performance (e.g. sprint speed) of their offspring is by prolonging pregnancy (beyond that required for complete development). However, to date studies examining this potentially important maternal effect have been largely descriptive.

2. The skink Egernia whitii is an ideal candidate species to examine the consequences of delayed parturition on the performance of offspring as it routinely gives birth asynchronously despite synchronous offspring development.

3. Using correlative data from a natural population and experimental manipulations of birthing asynchrony, we tested the prediction that, within litters, last born offspring have a better locomotor performance than first born offspring.

4. We show that prolonged pregnancy does significantly influence average offspring locomotor performance; however, contrary to predictions, the direction of this effect is dependent on gestation length and thus offspring date of birth. Last born offspring had significantly poorer performance than first born offspring in litters early in the season with this pattern reversed late in the season.

5. These results do not support the hypothesis that prolonged retention of fully formed offspring consistently increases offspring performance; however, they may help us understand the asymmetries in offspring competitive ability generated by birthing asynchrony.


The purchase of securities, and more specifically government bonds, belongs to the monetary policy implementation framework of many central banks, the Eurosystem being no exception for that matter. However, as for the euro zone, that tool remained unused until 2010, while present in the Eurosystem's toolkit since its creation. Its implementation in times of crisis raised many debates, comments and even resorts to courts of justice. One of the central issues relates to the monetary financing of the public sector which in turn questions the relations between public debt, central banks and money. This paper does not aim at providing a definite answer to the many questions, or to offer an arbitrage between the different arguments and schools of thoughts. More simply, in view of the often confused state of discussions, it goes back to the basic concepts of money creation, more specifically to the one of money creation by central banks for the benefit of the public sector. Through a series of "typical cas es" of interactions between central banks, commercial banks, public sector and households, the paper favours a better understanding of the quite complex mechanic of money creation through the purchase of public bonds by central and commercial banks. It also addresses a connected topic, i.e. the article 123 of the treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that prohibits the direct purchase by central bank on the primary market of debt instruments issued by the public sector.


This exploratory research examines the pharmaceutical inventory control practices of a local area hospital and demonstrates the utility of two alternative quantitative approaches. Pharmaceuticals represent a large cost factor for most hospitals due to the significant costs of these products and the storage and control requirements. The hospital stores drugs in the Central Pharmacy and at various Care Units (CUs) throughout the hospital and employs advanced technology to manage inventory and automate the ordering processes at these local storage units. This research examines current hospital policies, employs quantitative methods to improve upon these practices, and provides a decision support tool that allows managers to quickly understand operational, tactical, and strategic implications of changes in the formulary (pharmaceutical product mix available in hospital). This decision support tool affords managers the opportunity to improve management practices and the capacity to support negotiations with stakeholders on issues related to the formulary.


Twin Creeks is a gold mining complex part of Newmont's Nevada Operations. The mining complex is comprised of two open pits, Mega and Vista, external ore sources and a set of existing stockpiles, all providing ore for an autoclave, an oxide mill and a heap leach. Mega pit provides sulphide ore for the autoclave whereas Vista pit provides oxide ore for the oxide mill and the heap leach. Both pits operate the same mining equipment and therefore their extraction sequence must be optimized simultaneously. Stringent blending requirements are associated with the operation of the autoclave for the sulfide ore. Strategic blending optimization at large scale has brought significant value to the operation by increasing synergies. This paper presents the implementation of a stochastic optimization framework for the long-term production planning at Twin Creeks that simultaneously optimizes mining, stockpiling, blending and processing decision variables. The uncertainty and variability associated with the different sources of material is incorporated in the optimization model by means of stochastic simulations. The stochastic solution generated shows substantial potential benefits by increasing expected recoverable gold, leading to increased expected cash flows, while reducing the risk of not achieving the forecasts by increasing the probabilities of meeting production and blending targets.


Up through the 1960s, studies of epilepsy were based on patients seen in tertiary referral centers, many of whom had refractory epilepsy. Based on these early studies, epilepsy was believed to be a chronic, progressive, and incurable disorder. Seizures were thought to cause damage and result in further seizures. Clinical management of children with seizures reflected these beliefs. Over the last 25 to 30 years, epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that, contrary to these earlier beliefs, the prognosis of most childhood seizures and epilepsy is excellent. Prognosis is largely determined by the underlying etiology and not the seizures themselves. The differences in the assessment of the prognosis of seizures derived from the earlier studies versus the later epidemiologic studies are largely due to several biases that occurred in the earlier studies. These biases are explained. Several examples are provided of how the epidemiologic studies have greatly altered the prevailing views regarding the prognosis of seizures, and, by doing so, the management of seizures. (J Child Neurol 1994;9(Suppl):2S19-2S26).


Amidst the backdrop of attention to populism in general, it is instructive to understand populism through social movements focused on food and agriculture. Agrarian populism is particularly salient in agrifood movements. Agroecology has been widely identified as a domain of populist claims on environmental and social governance surrounding agricultural–ecological and political–economic systems. As authoritarian populist leaders gain power throughout the world at a time of expanding economic globalization and contingent socioecological crises, contests over populism in agrifood regimes can highlight current dynamics relevant for formative evaluation of alternative political agroecology strategies and of populist environmental governance more broadly. Can populism be harnessed by radical political agroecologies to simultaneously contest the hydra-headed nature of capitalism, authoritarianism, and pollution and implement forms of environmental governance based on repair? We argue that populist agroecology has untapped potential for repair and that the mechanism of focusing social movements on repair might help address some of the more problematic authoritarian tendencies of populism. Key Words: agroecology, agrofood activism, emancipatory rural politics, food movement, populism, rural geography.


Title of Document: INFLUENCE OF AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS ON THEIR BEHAVIORS ACROSS DIFFERENT SPORT MEDIA PLATFORMS Dae Hee Kwak, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Associate Professor Stephen R. McDaniel, Department of Kinesiology This dissertation explores sport media consumption behavior through a series of three investigations. Using the broad U & G approach (Katz et al., 1974) as an overarching paradigm of this dissertation, the three investigations take a distinct theoretical and methodological approach in the examination of various sport media consumption behaviors across different media platforms (i.e., Internet, videogame, and print media). Study One explores factors that influence the adoption of popular online-sport phenomenon—fantasy sport leagues. Study One uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM; Davis, 1989) as a theoretical framework and examines how attitude toward watching football on TV, perceived ease of using the fantasy sport website, perceived knowledge of sport, and subjective norms play a role in explaining subjects' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward playing fantasy football. Study Two revisits the satisfaction-loyalty relationship model in the context of sport video gaming (SVG). Specifically, the second study extends the welldocumented satisfaction-loyalty relationship (Oliver, 1999; Suh & Yi, 2006; Yi, 1990) by incorporating brand attitudes and perceived skill in the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. The findings of Study Two highlight the importance of customer expertise and brand attitudes in a hedonic consumption context that involves a learning component. Study Three replicates and extends existing literature in perceived message sensation value (PMSV) and message processing (Everett & Palmgreen, 1995; Niederdeppe, 2005; Niederdeppe, Davis, Farrelly, & Yarsevich, 2007; Palmgreen, Stephenson, Everett, Baseheart & Francies, 2002), by utilizing a specific message feature (i.e., violence) in the ad stimuli. Study Three is the first known attempt to investigate the arousal-enhancing effect of violent images in the PMSV context. After successfully validating the ad stimuli manipulated by level of violence, this study explores the effect of PMSV on arousal and ad evaluations. The results of Study Three generally support the PMSV main effect on ad responses, suggesting that a high-PMSV ad elicits higher arousal and favorable AAd, and AB than a low-PMSV ad (Donohew et al., 1991; Donohew et al., 1995; Everett & Palmgreen, 1995; Niederdeppe, 2005; Palmgreen et al., 2001; Stephenson, 2002, 2003). Meanwhile, the moderating effect of SS received limited support. Overall, Study Three provides initial evidence that violence, as a specific PMSV-enhancing feature, can elicit arousal and favorable ad evaluations among a college student cohort. INFLUENCE OF AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS ON THEIR BEHAVIORS ACROSS DIFFERENT SPORT MEDIA PLATFORMS