ABSTRACT Although the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) is an important early site for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication and severe CD4+ T-cell depletion, our understanding is limited about the restoration of the gut mucosal immune system during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We evaluated the kinetics of viral suppression, CD4+ T-cell restoration, gene expression, and HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses in longitudinal gastrointestinal biopsy and peripheral blood samples from patients initiating HAART during primary HIV infection (PHI) or chronic HIV infection (CHI) using flow cytometry, real-time PCR, and DNA microarray analysis. Viral suppression was more effective in GALT of PHI patients than CHI patients during HAART. Mucosal CD4+ T-cell restoration was delayed compared to peripheral blood and independent of the time of HAART initiation. Immunophenotypic analysis showed that repopulating mucosal CD4+ T cells were predominantly of a memory phenotype and expressed CD11α, αEβ7, CCR5, and CXCR4. Incomplete suppression of viral replication in GALT during HAART correlated with increased HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses. DNA microarray analysis revealed that genes involved in inflammation and cell activation were up regulated in patients who did not replenish mucosal CD4+ T cells efficiently, while expression of genes involved in growth and repair was increased in patients with efficient mucosal CD4+ T-cell restoration. Our findings suggest that the discordance in CD4+ T-cell restoration between GALT and peripheral blood during therapy can be attributed to the incomplete viral suppression and increased immune activation and inflammation that may prevent restoration of CD4+ T cells and the gut microenvironment.


The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of the grief process to job loss. A pilot study of ten unemployed men was used to establish the structured interview and an appropriate form of content analysis, based on the components of grief derived from studies of bereavement. Other measures assessed the degree of attachment to the former job. This was followed by a cross-sectional study involving 60 men who had lost their jobs over the previous eight years. All of the individual components of grief were found among the sample and twenty seven percent of the sample fulfilled a criterion for a clear grief-like response. A longitudinal study involving 38 men extending over twelve months was then carried out so that changes over time could be investigated more thoroughly. In this study, too, all of the individual components of grief were found among the sample, and at the time of the first interview, twenty four percent of the men fulfilled the criterion for an
unambiguous grief-like reaction. There was a high level of consistency in the results of the cross- sectional and longitudinal studies. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies provided evidence that some of the factors said to mediate the effects of bereavement had a similar influence on reactions to unemployment. In both, individual characteristics rather than length of time since job loss accounted for variation in the men's reactions and neither the patterns suggested by stage theories for bereavement nor for unemployment were reproduced.


Many people who are registered as blind nevertheless retain some residual vision and are said to have "low vision". Conditions resulting in such low vision include cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, age-related maculopathy, and retinal detachment. In recent years an increasing amount of research has attempted to apply principles from computer vision to the requirements of the low vision subject. A variety of conventional image-processing techniques have been used to enhance the visual appearance of a scene, and devices from the field of virtual reality such as head-mounted displays have been investigated as an aid to low vision. However, a fundamental limitation with conventional image-processing techniques is that they are applied to an entire image with no knowledge of scene content, resulting in unwanted emphasis of noise and unimportant detail. Our aim is to produce a portable system comprising a processing unit with head-mounted camera and display which will allow a person with low vision to be self-sufficient and mobile in a typical urban environment. Our approach differs from previous research in that it uses a neural network object classifier to allow images to be enhanced in a way which considers the identity of objects in the scene. Primarily, our system transforms an original image into a classified image in which the types of objects in the scene are identified by an object outline filled with a particular high saturation colour according to the object type, chosen by the user. By classification our system allows the user to identify important objects in a scene simply by their colour, requiring no perception of shape or high spatial frequencies, and minimal contrast sensitivity. The resultant images are very simple and uncluttered and we expect that users would adapt quickly to use of the system. Results obtained to date suggest that the system is capable of providing registered-blind users with useful visual information. We are now working on improving the speed and classification accuracy of the system, and investigating the applicability of our techniques to specific conditions.


The balance between private and public sectors in welfare activity in the UK has been documented by Burchardt (1997) and Smithies (2005) for three time periods; 1979/1980, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000. The existing evidence suggested that a welfare mix has previously been in existence but that the balance had been shifting. This paper explores this phenomenon by updating the existing evidence with a snapshot of the welfare mix in 2007/2008 across five different welfare sectors: Education, Health, Housing, Income Maintenance and Social Security and Personal Social Services. The paper systematically explores who finances, controls and delivers services in each of these five welfare sectors. Over the 29 year period, there has been a gradual increase in the proportion of welfare activity that is privately financed, controlled and delivered, and a gradual decrease in the proportion of welfare activity that is publicly financed, controlled and delivered. The most significant change is the proportion of services that are contracted-out, and the majority of this change generally occurred prior to 1995/96; since then changes have been much more slight and nuanced. Interestingly, the most significant growth in total welfare activity as a proportion of GDP occurred between 1979 and 1996, and Pure Private activity only accounted for part of this.


The differences between cultures are helpful in understanding discrepancies when several nationalities are working together. Cross-cultural studies describe characteristics of cultures and differences between different cultures. Therefore, the cross-cultural literature is very helpful in describing general differences that may occur in multinationals, as well as in multicultural teams. In this report the focus is on managing cultural diversity in occupational safety and health, i.e. aspects of leadership and participation that benefit multicultural work teams.


The model aims at supporting the setting-up of a fair and balanced dialogue arena where rural communities and protected area managers at the periphery of Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe) may collaborate to produce effective management plans. Adopting the Companion Modelling approach, we conducted a participatory modelling experiment to co-design a role-playing game simulating the interactions between farming activities, livestock herding and wildlife in a virtual landscape reproducing local socioecological dynamics. After 18 months of intensive ethnographical fieldwork to gain knowledge and legitimacy, we co-designed with a group of volunteer villagers the first version of the game during one year. The game was tested and validated by other members of the rural communities, and subsequently presented to protected areas' managers. This approach allowed the negotiation of uncertainties and their inclusion in a model that constitutes a shared representation of farmers' interactions with the protected area.


The Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) is being developed as a diachronic corpus for tracing the emergence and development of features of IrE, including stylistic, regional, and social variation. CORIECOR currently has good coverage of the period 1740–1940. For historical comparison with relevant British input varieties and other colonial Englishes, data from CORIECOR may be used in conjunction with similar corpora of other Englishes. Such comparisons may address questions of the origins and spread of features of both the standard language and regional vernacular Englishes from Britain into Ireland, and from there to the Americas and the southern hemisphere (and even back to Britain), so that CORIECOR may contribute to the study of global English. In this study special attention is given to the replacement of first-person shall by will .


e-Navigation is a recent IMO initiative that aims to integrate existing/new shipboard and shore-based navigational tools into an "all embracing" system. Defined as: "... the harmonised collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of maritime information onboard and ashore by electronic means to enhance berth to berth navigation and related services, for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment" the goal of e-Navigation is to provide an infrastructure that will enable seamless information transfer onboard ship, between ships, ship-to-shore, and between shore authorities. Core elements include high-integrity electronic positioning, electronic navigational charts (ENCs) and improved system functionality towards reducing human error. In particular, this means actively engaging the mariner in the process of navigation while preventing distraction and overburdening. There are two main challenges in going from concept to implementation. 1) Ensuring the availability of all components of the system and using them effectively in order to simplify the display of crucial navigation-related information. 2) Incorporating new technologies in a structured way, while ensuring that their use is compliant with the existing navigational communication technologies and services. To date, the primary focus of IHO Member States has been to complete ENC coverage for major shipping routes. However, e-Navigation has other implications for the hydrographic community, including: 1) Use of AIS binary messages 2) Standards for Displaying e-Navigation Information 3) Guiding Principles for e-Navigation-related Information ___________________


What is the true human cost of the war in Afghanistan? What are the real effects of the austerity measure? And how did the London riots spread so quickly? "Facts are Sacred", the "Guardian's" award-winning datablog, publishes and analyses seemingly benign data - released under the auspices of transparency - to bring its readers astonishing revelations about the way we live now. It reveals how data has changed our world and what we can learn from it. Now, the most telling findings from the blog are brought together to give us the facts and figures behind the headlines, beautifully illustrated with extensive data visualisations. Ground-breaking and fascinating, it celebrates a resource that has pushed the boundaries of modern journalism and is a manifesto for a new way of seeing things.


This study it searchs to establish a reflection on the humanization of the assistance given to the criticamente ill customer. The nursing in the humanization of the attendance in Unit of Intensive Therapy contributes for a new boarding of the area of health, that tends if to not only worry about the curativas actions, but over all with the preventive and reabilitadoras that guide the customer in this period of life, promoting an improvement of the nature human being and the welfare state. For the collection of data 20 articles concerning the thematic one had been selected. With the analysis of the data, three main aspects had emerged that had given sensible the thematic one: Nursing; Humanization and UTI. In function of the negative effect and estressores of the environment of intensive therapy on the patient, the family and the multiprofessional team, a series of studies is turned toward the humanization necessity of the services that use high technology, since the mechanization of the attendance can hinder the development of the critical and reflexiva capacity professional them of health, over all of the nursing.


Rural landscapes in many parts of Indonesia are rapidly being transformed, due to the expansion of agrocommodity plantations—oil palm in particular. At the same time, communities in those landscapes face declining crop yields and ecosystem degradation as a result of both climate and non-climate factors. We assessed local perceptions on climate stressors, adaptation and vulnerability using focus group discussions in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. We found that the main perceived climatic stressors were extreme and unpredictable seasons, fires, and saltwater intrusion, affecting ecosystem services and agricultural production. Land clearing and forest loss were mentioned as exacerbating non-climatic stressors. Respondents indicated willingness to adapt to these changes by investing in long-term measures, such as tree-planting. To adapt to yield declines, respondents indicated that many farmers shifted from rubber to oil palm. Such adaptation actions benefit households in the short term but may be at odds with long-term adaptation objectives at the landscape level. Finally, we found that perceptions about vulnerability differed between landscapes, and between communities at the landscape level and stakeholders at the district level. This stresses the importance of participatory and inclusive planning and multi-stakeholder processes towards context-based climate action planning to accommodate the differences in contexts and scale, and to reconcile the differences in perceptions.


In this work we present an obstacle detection and tracking solution applied to Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in industrial environments. The proposed method relies on information provided by an omnidirectional stereo vision system enabling 360 degree perception around the AGV. The stereo data is transformed into a classified digital elevation map (DEM). Based on this intermediate representation we are able to generate a set of obstacle hypotheses, each represented by a 3D cuboid and a free-form polygonal model. The cuboidal model is used for the classification of each hypothesis as "Pedestrian", "AGV", "Large Obstacle" or "Small Obstacle", while the free-form polylines are used for object motion estimation relying on an Iterative Closest Point (ICP) method. The obtained measurements are subjected to a Kalman filter based tracking approach, in which the data association takes into account also the classification results.


The dissertation includes four different studies which, from different points of departure, aim to illuminate problems and prospects of social work with alcohol problems in contemporary Sweden. Paper 1 analyses the historical succession of predominant public images of, and societal responses to, alcohol problems in Sweden during the past century. The analysis distinguishes between a moral, an enlightenment, a medical and a compensatory approach to these problems. The main development in society's handling of alcohol problems is described to have been a gradual shift from the moral to the medical approach, despite the fact that the compensatory approach is in many respects the one most akin to the general social policy ideal of Sweden. The paper concludes by discussing the future prospects of community-based approaches to alcohol problems, relying on the assumptions of the latter approach. Paper 2 scrutinises, based on reanalyses of a variety of empirical sources, developments within residential care for substance misusers in Sweden during the past three decades. The results of these analyses belie several popular notions about the role of institutions in social work with alcohol problems. Thus they show, in contrast to claims in some public reports, that the annual number of alcohol misusers cared for decreased during most of the 1980s, already before the major decrease in the beginning of the 1990s. Further, they show that residential care has - despite a growing "treatment rhetoric" over the years - been primarily utilised for a rather small group of long-term misusers with severe social problems, and with a pattern of repeated - and often prematurely interrupted - admissions and readmissions over a long succession of years. Paper 3 reviews and discusses the significance of research on "spontaneous recovery" from substance misuse and treatment outcome research. The paper outlines and develops further the notion that there may be "common elements" or mechanisms in all successful change processes, whether these include professional interventions or not. Formal treatment is further discussed in terms of temporary interventions in the client's life course, which may, if successful, facilitate and accelerate "naturally" occurring rehabilitation processes. The paper concludes by proposing a closer integration of research on "spontaneous recovery" and treatment outcome research, as a way of learning more about the potential interplay between life events, formal interventions and change of lifestyle. Paper 4 is an account of an attempt to put the ideas of Paper 3 into practice, by comparing subjects who recovered from severe alcohol problems without formal assistance, with subjects who were assisted in doing so. Comparisons were made with regard to drinking patterns and occurrences of significant life events during a period of time, encapsulating four years before and two years after the resolution, and with regard to subjects' attributions as to what initiated and maintained recovery. As regards drinking patterns and event occurrences, comparisons were further made with assisted and unassisted subjects with current alcohol problems. The results indicate that initial attempts to solve the drinking problem and initial help-seeking, as well as long-term maintenance of the resolution, are influenced by environmental factors, operating outside the context of formal treatment. Unassisted remitters showed greater social stability before the resolution than assisted remitters, more often stated positive incentives for trying to change their lifestyle, and more often tapered their drinking gradually. The results underline the need to consider and try to harness contextual factors when planning individually directed and preventive measures. In an introductory chapter, the four papers are linked together by an examination of prevailing theoretical models of alcohol problems, and the outlining of an overarching perspective that accounts for habitual ex-cessive drinking as a "central activity" in the drinker's way of life. Finally, some joint implications of the four papers, with regard to social work with alcohol problems, and with regard to future research, are discussed.


Although science parks are established globally for decades, still limited attention is paid towards research into possible typologies within these real estate concepts. Science parks are believed to enhance, among others, innovative output, entrepreneurship, and economic value for firms and regions. Past academic research shows mixed results on these performances and suggests that the lack of clear results is due to not taking into account the wide variety of of types of science parks that exist in reality. Prior attempts in categorizing science parks are characterized by the limited number of cases and variables. Therefore the present study serves to fill this gap in the literature by developing a more comprehensive analysis of science park typologies. A large-scale survey on science park characteristics is distributed among all known science park managers/owners in Europe in order to collect data on both physical and non-physical science parks features. The selected variables of science park features are based on prior academic research. The total list of science parks is compiled through a number of sources including desk research (case studies reported in the literature), member lists of science park associations and other registers. A cluster analysis is conducted to group the different science parks into types with clearer differences. The typologies of science parks, derived in this way from data, provide a further understanding of science parks in general and offers researchers and practitioners a means to compare, market, and benchmark science parks more adequately.


There is extensive information in the literature about medium- and large-scale palm oil processing, as well as about traditional technologies in Africa, but information on small-scale mills is scarce. This bulletin reviews the processing of palm oil fruits for the extraction of both palm oil and palm kernel oil at the small-scale level, with information on some African manufacturers of appropriate processing equipment. The publication provides basic information to palm oil growers and to private entrepreneurs in Africa interested in investing in small- or medium-scale palm oil factories.


A new Cu2+ complex that was isolated from the initial use of 5-((pyridin-4-ylmethylene)amino)isophthalic acid (PEIPH2) in 3d metal–organic framework (MOF) chemistry is reported. Complex {[Cu3(PEIP)2(5-NH2-mBDC)(DMF)]·7DMF}∞ denoted as Cu-PEIP·7DMF was isolated from the reaction of Cu(NO3)2·2.5H2O with PEIPH2 in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at 100 °C and contains both the PEIP2− ligand and its 5-NH2-mBDC2− fragment. After the structure and properties of Cu-PEIP were known an analogous complex was prepared by a rational synthetic method that involved the reaction of Cu(NO3)2·2.5H2O, 5-((pyridin-4-ylmethyl)amino)isophthalic acid (PIPH2 – the reduced analogue of PEIPH2) and 5-NH2-mBDCH2 in DMF at 100 °C. Cu-PEIP comprises two paddle-wheel [Cu2(COO)4] units and exhibits a 3D-framework with a unique trinodal underlying network and point symbol (4.52)4(42·54·64·83·92)2(52·84). This network consists of pillared kgm-a layers containing a hexagonal shaped cavity with a relatively large diameter of ∼8–9 A surrounded by six trigonal shaped ones with a smaller diameter of ∼4–5 A and thus resembles the structure of HKUST-1. Gas sorption studies revealed that Cu-PEIP exhibits a 1785 m2 g−1 BET area as well as high CO2 sorption capacity (4.75 mmol g−1 at 273 K) and CO2/CH4 selectivity (8.5 at zero coverage and 273 K).


Mg2Si1 xSnx solid solutions are promising thermoelectric materials to be applied in vehicle waste-heat recovery. Their thermal stability issue, however, needs to be addressed before the materials can be applied in practical thermoelectric devices. In this work, we studied the crystal structure and chemical composition of Mg2Si1 xSnx in inert gas atmosphere up to 823 K. We found that the sample was oxidized even in high-purity inert gases. Although no obvious structural change has been found in the slightly oxidized sample, carrier concentration decreased significantly since oxidation creates Mg vacancies in the lattice. We demonstrated that an atomic-layer deposited Al2O3 coating can effectively protect Mg2Si1 xSnx from oxidation in inert gases and even in air. In addition, this Al2O3 thin film also provides in situ protection to the Sb-doped Mg2Si1 xSnx samples during the laser-flash measurement and therefore eliminates the measurement error that occurs in uncoated samples as a result of sample oxidation and graphite exfoliation issues.


We investigate the predictability of successful memes using their early spreading patterns in the underlying social networks. We propose and analyze a comprehensive set of features and develop an accurate model to predict future popularity of a meme given its early spreading patterns. Our paper provides the first comprehensive comparison of existing predictive frameworks. We categorize our features into three groups: influence of early adopters, community concentration, and characteristics of adoption time series. We find that features based on community structure are the most powerful predictors of future success. We also find that early popularity of a meme is not a good predictor of its future popularity, contrary to common belief. Our methods outperform other approaches, particularly in the task of detecting very popular or unpopular memes.


Harvesting energy directly from sunlight using photovoltaic technology has become an essential component of future global energy production. Although silicon-based inorganic materials still play a dominant role in the market, problems for inorganic materials-based solar cells mainly lie in (1) the high cost of production and technical difficulties in the fabrication of large-area cells and (2) supply of highly purified silicon. In contrast to inorganic photovoltaic materials, organic/polymer photovoltaic materials have currently become of broader interest owing to their great potential to bring about a major breakthrough in reducing the cost of solar cells. As a promising building block to construct narrow bandgap semiconductors for high-efficiency photovoltaics, structurally well-defined indacenodithiophene (IDT) and its derivatives have inspired great interest in the industrial and academic communities over recent years due to their rigidified and tunable coplanar fused ring aromatic structures, and 3D conformation as well. The aromatic fused-ring blocks efficiently restrain rotational disorder and consequently lower reorganization energy. An encouraging power conversion efficiency of more than 12% has been achieved in the IDT-based polymer solar cells. This review surveys recent research advances in the area of IDT-based conjugated materials for photovoltaic applications. The factors affecting the bandgaps, molecular energy levels, film morphologies, as well as the photovoltaic performance of these materials have also been discussed.


Abstract Open forms of global constraints allow the addition of new variables to an argument during the execution of a constraint program. Such forms are needed for difficult constraint programming problems, where problem construction and problem solving are interleaved, and fit naturally within constraint logic programming. However, in general, filtering that is sound for a global constraint can be unsound when the constraint is open. This paper provides a simple characterization, called contractibility, of the constraints, where filtering remains sound when the constraint is open. With this characterization, we can easily determine whether a constraint has this property or not. In the latter case, we can use it to derive a contractible approximation to the constraint. We demonstrate this work on both hard and soft constraints. In the process, we formulate two general classes of soft constraints.


The European Food Safety Authority has started an investigation into the safety of growing genetically engineered maize in Europe following the publication of the biggest study on maize pollen published to date. Friends of the Earth Europe and Testbiotech have called on the EU to immediately suspend the growing of GM maize and to stop all future approvals. The European Commission, under pressure from the biotech industry, is understood to be imminently considering genetically engineered maize 1507 permitted for cultivation. [1] Friends of the Earth Europe and Testbiotech have written to the new EU food safety Commissioner Andriukaitis calling for him to halt all cultivation of GM maize. [2] The European Food Safety Authority, in a letter dated 16 December 2014, announced a new investigation into the safety of genetically engineered maize currently being grown in Europe, or in the pipeline to be grown. They claim these new safety tests will be complete by 31 May 2015. [3] The researchers, from Germany, collected data and monitored over a 10-year period how far maize pollen can travel. Currently, the European Food Safety Authority suggests buffer distances of 20 to 30 metres between genetically engineered maize and protected nature sites. The new research finds that maize pollen in fact travels up to several kilometres. To protect sensitive species, such as butterflies and moths, from the insecticide-containing pollen of the genetically engineered maize, the buffer distances need to be in the "kilometre range", according to the study. It concludes that, "previous risk assessments and conclusions regarding distances, potential exposure, and effects on non-target organisms should be revised in the light of these findings". [4] Mute Schimpf, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said: "This new research raises serious questions about our scientific understanding of the safety of GM maize and the harm it can do to nature and conventional farming. These findings show we need a root-and-branch reform of the safety checks in place for GM maize. "It is clear from this new research that it is nearly impossible to grow GM maize without widespread damage to nature, as well as the contamination of farms producing clean conventional and organic foods. The only logical and scientific conclusion is to halt the cultivation of all GM maize in Europe." Christoph Then, Testbiotech said: "This research again shows major gaps in risk assessment of EFSA. Crucial data are missing and replaced by unreasoned assumptions. Based on the risk assessment of EFSA, genetically engineered maize such as the so-called '1507' cannot be regarded as safe for the environment. The Commission should stop the authorisation process."


Criminal recidivism in mentally ill offenders, In the context of a county jail, has not been extensively studied. This study compares the rate of criminal recidivism between those who suffered from a mental illness at the time of arrest and those who did not. In addition, the length of incarceration between these two groups was compared. Using survival analysis, a risk assessment model describing the key features involved in criminal recidivism among the mentally ill may be built. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind and will suggest areas of intervention that could prevent criminal recidivism among mentally ill offenders. Due to the lack of literature on the subject, this pilot study provides estimates of key parameters, such as types of crimes and frequency of incarceration, needed to undertake a definitive study. Furthermore, the pilot study provides an opportunity to develop and field test a data abstraction form and computer matching methods.


It is estimated that sodic soils (ESP>6) occupy at least 23% of Tasmania's land area based on the present limited soil data set. Sodic soils are mostly restricted to lower rainfall areas (<800 mm/y) of eastern Tasmania, occurring primarily in the Launceston Tertiary Basin, the Derwent, Coal, Jordan and Huon River Valleys and on Flinders Island.
In Tasmania, sodic soils have formed predominantly from Triassic and Permian mudstones and sandstones, Tertiary clays and unconsolidated Quaternary deposits. However, profiles with sodic features have also developed above granite, Jurassic dolerite and Tertiary basalt.
Sodic soils most commonly occur on lowland plains, river terraces and in valley floors.
In Tasmania, sodic soils are characterized morphologically by:
(i) abrupt separation of a sandy, bleached A2 horizon from a moderately sodic (ESP 6-15) clay subsoil;
(ii) coarse prismatic, columnar and/or angular blocky pedality in the subsoil, which may exhibit vertic properties;
(iii) hardsetting sandy A2 horizons in some profile classes;
(iv) fine sandy crack infills and clay-organic coatings on ped faces in the upper B2 horizon; and
(v) thick, sticky and greasy fine clay argillans on ped faces, and clay infills in cracks and other voids in the lower B2 horizon that contribute to reduced porosity and
permeability. Sodic soils in Tasmania have traditionally been utilized for pasture production with occasional cultivation for fodder crops and pasture renewal. Under a pastoral system, few sodicity problems have been recognized as such. However, in the last 10 years there has been increased cropping, particularly for poppies and more recently potatoes. Soil structure decline and drainage problems have become key factors limiting production. Management problems are mainly due to poor internal and external drainage, with poor structure in the A2 horizons which liquefy in winter and often set hard in summer. Salinity in associated drainage depressions is a problem gaining increasing recognition.


Developing a sustainable energy infrastructure for the 21st century requires the large scale development of renewable energy resources. Fully exploiting these inherently intermittent supplies will require advanced energy storage technologies, with rechargeable Li-ion and Na-ion batteries considered highly promising for both vehicle electrification and grid storage applications. However, the performance required of battery materials has not been achieved, and significant improvements are needed. Modern computational techniques allow the elucidation of structure-property relationships at the atomic level and are valuable tools in providing fundamental insights into novel materials. Therefore, in this thesis a combination of atomistic simulation and ab initio density functional theory (DFT) techniques have been used to study a number of potential battery cathode materials. Firstly, Na2FePO4F and NaFePO4 are interesting materials that have been reported recently as attractive positive electrodes for Na-ion batteries. Here, we report their Na-ion conduction behaviour and intrinsic defect properties using atomistic simulation methods. Na+ ion conduction in Na2FePO4F is predicted to be two-dimensional (2D) in the interlayer plane. Na ion migration in NaFePO4 is restricted to the [010] direction along a curved trajectory, leading to quasi-1D Na+ diffusion. Furthermore, Na/Fe antisite defects are predicted to have a lower formation energy in NaFePO4 than Na2FePO4F. The higher probability of tunnel occupation with a relatively immobile Fe2+ cation - along with a greater volume change on redox cycling - contributes to the poor electrochemical performance of NaFePO4. Secondly, work on the Na2FePO4F system is extended to include investigation of the surface structures and energetics. The equilibrium morphology is found to be essentially octagonal, compressed slightly along the [010] direction, and is dominated by the (010), (021), (122) and (110) surfaces. The calculated growth morphology is a more ``rod-like'' nanoparticle, with the (021), (023), (110) and (112) planes predominant. The (010) surface lies parallel to the Na layers in the ac plane and is unlikely to facilitate Na+ intercalation. As such, its prominence in the equilibrium morphology, and absence from the growth morphology, suggests nanoparticles synthesised in a kinetically limited regime should provide higher rate performance than those synthesised in close to equilibrium conditions. Surface redox potentials for Na2FePO4F derived using DFT vary between 2.76 - 3.37 V, in comparison to a calculated bulk cell voltage of 2.91 V. Most significantly, the lowest energy potentials are found for the (130) and (001) planes suggesting that upon charging Na+ will first be extracted from these surfaces, and inserted lastly upon discharging. Thirdly, the mixed phosphates Na4M3(PO4)2P2O7 (M=Fe, Mn, Co, Ni) are explored as a fascinating new class of materials reported to be attractive Na-ion cathodes, displaying low volume changes upon cycling indicative of long lifetime operation. Key issues surrounding intrinsic defects, Na-ion migration mechanisms and voltage trends have been investigated through a combination of atomistic energy minimisation, molecular dynamics and DFT simulations. The MD results suggest Na+ diffusion extends across a 3D network of migration pathways with an activation barrier of 0.20-0.24 eV, and diffusion coefficients (DNa) of 10-10-10-11 cm2s-1 at 325 K, suggesting high rate capability. The cell voltage trends, explored using DFT methods, indicate that doping the Fe-based cathode with Ni can significantly increase the voltage, and hence energy density. Finally, DFT simulations of K+-stabilised α-MnO2 have been combined with aberration corrected-STEM techniques to study the surface energetics, particle morphologies and growth mechanism. α-K0.25MnO2 grown through a hydrothermal synthesis method is found to produce primary nanowires with preferential growth along the [001] direction. Primary nanowires attach through a shared (110) interface to form larger secondary nanowires. This is in agreement with DFT simulations with the {100}, {110} and {211} surfaces displaying the lowest surface energies. The ranking of surface energies is driven by Mn coordination environments and surface relaxation. The calculated equilibrium morphology of α-K0.25MnO2 is consistent with the observed primary nanowires from high resolution electron microscopy images.


Scaffold-based interfacial tissue engineering aims to not only provide the structural and mechanical framework for cellular growth and tissue regeneration, but also direct cell behavior. Due to the disparity in composition of the osteochondral (cartilage and bone) interface, this work has developed a novel biomimetic biphasic nanocomposite scaffold integrating two biocompatible polymers containing tissue-specific growth factor-encapsulated core-shell nanospheres. Specifically, a poly(caprolactone) (PCL)-based bone layer was successfully integrated with a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel cartilage layer. In addition, a novel nanosphere fabrication technique for efficient growth factor encapsulation and sustained delivery via a wet coaxial electrospray technique was developed. Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) adhesion, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation were evaluated. Our in vitro results showed significantly improved hMSC adhesion and differentiation in bone and cartilage layers, respectively. Studies have demonstrated promising results with novel biphasic nanocomposite scaffold for osteochondral tissue regeneration, thus, warranting further studies.


Woodland caribou, a Schedule 1 'threatened' species under the Canadian Federal Species at Risk Act, use alpine ecosystems in the mountainous South Peace region of British Columbia for core winter habitat, in part because they are able to crater for terrestrial lichen beneath the relatively thin snow pack on the windswept mountain peaks. A number of proposed and operating open pit coal mine developments will create disturbances within these alpine ecosystems. An Implementation Plan for the Ongoing Management of the South Peace Northern Caribou has been created by the province of B.C. to direct actions for South Peace region caribou population recovery, and part of the Mitigation and Monitoring Plan that must be created for disturbances in caribou core habitat is a habitat restoration plan. A component of the alpine habitat that must be restored is terrestrial lichen that woodland caribou rely on for winter forage; however, published studies about the restoration of terrestrial lichens are scarce. The majority of studies obtainable were small-scale trials or exploratory studies in reindeer range in northern European boreal forest, or in forested and alpine ecosystems in B.C. This paper reviews the literature on the feasibility of transplanting terrestrial lichen, and interprets the results for application in alpine caribou habitat restoration. Three main areas where further research is required to develop reindeer lichen transplantation techniques are suggested: methods to promote lichen propagule retention on reclaimed sites; investigating sources and collection methods for lichen propagules; and techniques for storage of viable lichen propagules.


While a growing number of white scholars and activists identify themselves as allies to people of color as they engage in movements to end institutional racism, others have criticized this alignment. Instead, an emerging and alternative framework calls for white scholars and activists to act as accomplices, working in solidarity with people of color within social justice and anti-racists movements. This paper discusses the differences between these two stances, with implications for white educators and scholars in the teaching and social work professions. We aim to provide a framework for moving conversations around race and justice forward, as well as highlight examples of accomplice work in scholarship, teaching, and service, from both the education and social work perspectives.


PILGRIMS OF TODAY. By Mary H. Wade. For boys and girls, ten to fifteen. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. Price, $1.00 net. This is one of the best books of the season or of any other season. In this hour of American life it is of the utmost importance that something should chprk the tendency to arouse prejudices against nationatities and races. ~ 0 book has a greater claim upon patriotic Americans than has this. Mrs. \Vare presents the stories of several immigrants who came to America to escape various unpleasant things in their homes in Europe, and who by their strength of will or special talents became leaders of men in their adopted country. Among them are John Muir, the great naturalist; Jacob Riis, who did such wonderful things for the poor of New York; Edward Steiner, who is today a professor in an American college and a wellknown lecturer. Mary Antin is another lecturer, and she has also written a book which tells Americans just how hard the life of an emigrant family is. Joseph Pulitzer, who became one of the I':reatest newspaper men in the United States; Carl Schurz, member of President Hayes' cabinet, and another German, Nathan Strauss, who became enormously wealthy and who spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to help the poor, are included. All these immigrants had practically nothing to start with; they landed without friends or money in a strange land whose language even was not known to them. Mrs. 'Vade tells of their struggles and hardships, and also of their happier times.


In 2003, the United States commenced its first criminal proceedings against a handful of Guantanamo detainees. Rather than trying them before traditional federal courts, the U.S. chose to try them before military commissions for violations of the laws of war. After this first iteration of military commissions were struck down in 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act which codified some thirty-two offenses, including conspiracy and material support for terrorism. In enacting the legislation, Congress provided that it was only codifying those offenses which had "traditionally been triable by military commission . . . [and was] not establish[ing] new crimes," thus the codified crimes could apply retroactively. One detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan — known to the world as Osama bin Laden's driver — challenged the government's authority to subject him to trial by military commission on the charges of conspiracy and material support, arguing that military commissions lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the charges. Hamdan has contended that, irrespective of the new statutory provision, both of these effectively inchoate offenses are not violations of the customary international laws of war, and thus that the military commissions still lack subject matter jurisdiction. Parallel to his case, another detainee, Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul, made a nearly identical argument on appeal from nearly identical charges. In 2011, the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) rebuffed both defenses; both defendants in turn filed appeals with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, for the first time in over a century, the U.S. federal courts will be tasked with looking to international law to answer the rarely heard but exceptionally important question of what limitations constrain congressional power to define and punish offenses against the law of nations, or in this case, the laws of war. In answering that question, the courts will have primary recourse in international criminal law (ICL). The issue presented by Hamdan's appeal — whether a recognized war criminal's driver may be tried for war crimes on the theory that his driving contributed to the crimes — brings to the fore dilemmas posed by modern developments in international law. Defying public international law's anachronistic statist origins and formal doctrine of sources, the last two decades have witnessed the rapid evolution of law driven not by states, but by international and nongovernmental organizations and international courts. This "judicialization" of international law is nowhere more evident than in ICL, a body of law that, in reality, has been almost wholly developed by international tribunals. Although rooted in a handful mid-twentieth century treaties elaborating the laws of war, much of the substance of ICL has been articulated, expanded, and, frankly, revolutionized by the ad hoc tribunals. Nevertheless, judge-made law remains formally anathema to an international legal system still governed by a statist doctrine of sources that rejects the ability of courts and judges to make law. Previously a matter of abstract theory for scholars, this paradox is rendered concrete by the cases of Hamdan, Al Bahlul, and other detainees whose futures appear to rely upon the substantive and authoritative limitations placed on these juridical sources. This Note subsequently examines three issues in the wake of Hamdan's and Al Bahlul's appeals to the D.C. Circuit: (1) whether material support is properly analogous to JCE; (2) whether, as a matter of formal public international law, U.S. courts have properly interpreted the authority of the ICTY's jurisprudence vis-a-vis the Rome Statute in defining and identifying customary international law norms; and (3) whether the importation of these ICL sources for the purposes of the military commission is proper given the unique context of the tribunals and what, if any, restraints should be placed on the use of their doctrinal developments.


The morphology of the Nile River, in Egypt, is undergoing continuous changes which causes navigation bottle-necks in some local reaches. About 200 km downstream Aswan, at Armant area, the shallow water depths in the river bend caused a navigation difficulties for the ships sailing on Luxor-Aswan route. Because of the importance of this reach and because of the limited time available for the study of this problem, a desk study was conducted and a reliable temporary solution for the problem was recommended. The recommended solution was a dredging of navigation channel crossing the river width to connect between the deepest parts in the problem area. The navigation channel has a width of 100 m and has a length of 450 m, with a bed level of 67 m, above MSL, which gives a water depth of 2.3 m in the winter closure period. In the mean time, a mobile bed model was constructed to test different alternative solutions including the recommended one and regularly monitored the morphological changes in the area, to be informed when dredging will be needed again. Moreover, another objective of the mobile bed model, with its ability of predicting the morphological time scale is to select an optimal solution concerning cost for a safe navigation in this river bend. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the technique used in both scaling of the processes involved and the calibration of the mobile bed model.


When scoring rules were first widely used, they were developed as a way to measure the accuracy of probability forecasts ex post. Ex ante, proper scoring rules encourage honestly reported and sharper probabilities, both of which increase the forecaster's expected score. Most applications utilize standard off-the-shelf scoring rules. In the spirit of decision analysis, we develop proper scoring rules that are tailored to specific decision-making problems and to the utility functions of particular decision makers. We show how these rules, which are intended for situations where a decision maker consults an expert to assess a probability, not only encourage honest reporting, but also reward sharpness in a way that aligns the interests of the expert and the decision maker. We also illustrate the generation of tailored scoring rules in numerical form, which is useful when analytical expressions for the tailored rules cannot be obtained or are too complex to be helpful in practice. Finally, we show how these numerical scoring rules can be presented to the expert in graphical or tabular form and suggest that this could be desirable even for standard scoring rules.


A numerical study, based on a density‐dependent variably saturated groundwater flow model, was conducted to investigate flow and salt transport in a nearshore aquifer under intensified wave conditions caused by offshore storms. Temporally varying onshore hydraulic gradients due to wave setup were determined as the seaward boundary condition for the simulated aquifer. The results showed a rapid increase in influxes across the aquifer‐ocean interface in response to the wave event followed by a more gradual increase in effluxes. The upper saline plume first widened horizontally as the wave setup point moved landward. It then expanded vertically with recirculating seawater pushed downward by the wave‐induced hydraulic gradient. The time for the salt distribution to return to the prestorm condition was up to a hundred days and correlated strongly with the time for seawater to recirculate through the aquifer. The pathways of recirculating seawater and fresh groundwater were largely modified by the wave event. These pathways crossed through the same spatial locations at similar times, indicating significant salt‐freshwater mixing. The flow and salt transport dynamics were more responsive to wave events of longer duration and higher intensity, especially in more permeable aquifers with lower fresh groundwater discharge. Despite their larger response, aquifers with higher permeability and beach slope recovered more rapidly postevent. The rapid recovery of the flows compared with the salinity distribution should be considered in field data interpretation. Due to their long‐lasting impact, wave events may significantly influence the geochemical conditions and the fate of chemicals in a subterranean estuary.


Smart Homes (SH) have emerged as a realistic intelligent assistive environment capable of providing assistive living for the elderly and the disabled. Nevertheless, it still remains a challenge to assist the inhabitants of a SH in performing the "right" action(s) at the "right" time in the "right" place. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a novel logical framework for cognitive behavioural modelling, reasoning and assistance based on a highly developed logical theory of actions - the Event Calculus. Cognitive models go beyond data-centric behavioural models in that they govern an inhabitant's behaviour by reasoning about its knowledge, actions and environmental events. In our work we outline the theoretical foundation of such an approach and describe cognitive modelling of SH. We discuss the reasoning capabilities and algorithms of the cognitive SH model and present the details of the various tasks it can support. A system architecture is proposed to illustrate the use of the framework in facilitating assistive living. We demonstrate the perceived effectiveness of the approach through presentation of its operation in the context of a real world daily activity scenario.


In May 1982 the KwaZulu Act on the Code of Zulu law was assented to by the State President. There are three versions of the text, Zulu, Afrikaans and English, the last-mentioned being the signed version. As stated in the preamble, the Act is designed to "amend the Code of Zulu Law in order to raise the status of Black women; to expand the property, succession and inheritance rights of Black women; to extend guardianship to Black women and to provide for matters incidental thereto." After the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly had adopted the recommendations of a commission of enquiry into the legal disabilities of Black women, steps were taken to amend the Black States Constitution Act enabling the KwaZulu legislature to amend the Zulu Code as well as the relevant sections of the Black Administration Act3 and other Republican legislation. The resultant KwaZulu legislation is not merely an amending Act but a statute incorporating the provisions of the Zulu Code together with amendments. In this article only some aspects of the statutory reform are considered: more specifically thos relating to the status of Black women in general and of married women in particular.


Finnish women have held all the highest positions in politics, and yet their media presence has repeatedly been portrayed as weaker than men's. This article examines how newspapers ascribe gender to political leaders and what questions this opens in political communication research. In addition to a quantitative analysis, data from the most widely read Finnish newspapers, daily broadsheets and six-day-a-week tabloids, are interpreted and complemented with a qualitative content analysis of the Social Democratic Party of Finland's first female party leader. This article demonstrates that female and male politicians are not given equal media representation. Moreover, the media evaluates the personalities and actions of political leaders from distinctively gendered perspectives.


Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites represent an alternative construction material without many of the performance disadvantages of traditional materials. The use of FRP as a pile material can eliminate deterioration problems of conventional piling materials in waterfront environments and aggressive soils. A 1-year experimental study was conducted to assess the durability of piling made of recycled plastics in aggressive soils for long-term usage in civil infrastructure applications. An accelerated testing protocol permitting prediction of the behavior of plastic piles was developed. Specimens were exposed to solutions with fixed acidic, basic, and neutral pH at elevated temperatures. Compressive strength was used as an index to quantify the degradation of the specimens. An Arrhenius model was used to predict the service life of the product. An estimated 25% loss in strength at 10% strain is projected to take 21 years for coupon specimens incubated at a pH of 2 and 25 years for coupon specimens incubated at a pH of 12.


The aim of the present work is the introduction of a viscosity type solution, called strong-viscosity solution to distinguish it from the classical one, with the following peculiarities: it is a purely analytic object; it can be easily adapted to more general equations than classical partial differential equations. First, we introduce the notion of strong-viscosity solution for semilinear parabolic partial differential equations, defining it, in a few words, as the pointwise limit of classical solutions to perturbed semilinear parabolic partial differential equations; we compare it with the standard definition of viscosity solution. Afterwards, we extend the concept of strong-viscosity solution to the case of semilinear parabolic path-dependent partial differential equations, providing an existence and uniqueness result.


ABSTRACT Background: In-depth understanding of the experiences of both well-being and suffering in relation to being severely obese and becoming active through lifestyle intervention is lacking. Aim: to explore and describe adults' existential experiences of being active, when living within a large body—before and during a lifestyle intervention. Methods: A longitudinal design of repeated indivi dual interviews with 16 adults with BMI ≥40, based on hermeneutic phenomenology, existential philosophy and a theory of well-being was performed. The study was approved by the Danish health authorities. Results: Two dimensions of experiences were found; "Living within a downward spiral" and "Striving for enjoyment and settlement". The themes describing suffering were: 'Sense of being thwarted and defeated ' and "Tackling energy depletion and impact of sense of self". The themes describing well-being were: "Hoping for renewal and energised resoluteness" and "Enduring discomfort and feeling safe". Conclusions: Interacting existential experiences can be facilitators or barriers for physical activity. It seems relevant for health care providers to address the individual's lifeworld experiences of well-being, lack of well-being and suffering. Well-being as a sense of feeling "at home" when physically active may break down an inactivity spiral. Promoting well-being is a legitimate aim of lifestyle intervention.


A simple and rapid chromatographic Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed, optimized and validated for the estimation of Ceftazidime (CEF) and Tazobactam (TAZ) simultaneously in pure and tablet dosage form. The selected drugs were analyzed with the aid of Inertsil C18 (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μ) column using the combination of 0.1 M disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer: acetonitrile: methanol in the ratio of 40:20:40 v/v/v as mobile phase. The wavelength selected for identification is 229 nm. The range for linearity study was fixed as 120-280 μg/ml for CEF and 15-35 μg/ml for TAZ and the elution times were 2.312 and 4.621 min respectively. The r2 values for the selected ranges were found to be greater than 0.99. Repeatability studies showed Relative Standard Deviation (%RSD) less than 2 for both the drugs under all selected concentrations. The accuracy values are 98.11-100.30% for CEF and TAZ respectively. Assay values for the marketed formulation were found to be in the range of 98-102%. The Limit of Detection (LOD) and Limit of Quantification (LOQ) values are2.44 μg/ml and 7.39 μg/ml for CEF and 0.66 μg/ml and 2.02 μg/ml for TAZ respectively. The developed method aptly suits for regular analysis of selected drugs.


This article explored factors related to teacher judgments that an intervention is either acceptable or unacceptable for use in typical classroom environments. The acceptability of various interventions was assessed by having 180 preservice and student teachers read case studies involving a classroom intervention and then judging the acceptability of the intervention according to five factors — whether the intervention was considered generally acceptable, whether it posed undue risk to the child, whether it required excessive teacher time, whether it had negative effects on nontarget children, and whether it required such high levels of teacher skill that the typical teacher could not implement it. The major outcomes of the study included: (a) the determination that acceptability of a classroom intervention is not a unitary concept, rather it embodies five components; (b) the construction of a reliable instrument for assessing the acceptability of classroom interventions; and(c) the finding that various interventions differ markedly in their acceptability. Results are discussed in terms of relevance to developing interventions that are effective and yet can be utilized by regular classroom teachers.


This chapter describes the occurrence of saltwater/freshwater interface in coastal aquifers. It has a brief description of the physics, hydraulics, and mathematics behind the theory of saltwater intrusion and the saltwater/freshwater interface. It also includes a section on numerical modeling techniques and the available computer models for saltwater-intrusion problems in coastal aquifers. Anthropogenic effects on saltwater intrusion such as changes in land use and landscape vegetation cover, groundwater pumping patterns, and the amount of pumping are also discussed. Finally, remedies, control and management of saltwater intrusion such as implementation of recharge wells, creation of artifi cial recharge basins, and construction of barriers are discussed. This chapter is expected to be useful to agricultural communities of coastal plains whose irrigation water is solely dependent on groundwater resources. It may also be of interest to individuals working in coastal-watershed and land-management businesses and governmental or local decision makers by addressing the problem of saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers and its possible remediation and control techniques.


Hereditary Spherocytosis (HS), a disorder of the red cell membrane, is the dominant cause of hemolytic anemia in people of northern European descent. As the condition is characterised by increased erythropoiesis and may result in increased iron absorption, pathological iron overload may develop. The condition responds well to splenectomy, however few asymptomatic patients now undergo splenectomy in childhood. Frozen, stored splenic tissue was available from 10 pediatric patients who had undergone splenectomy for HS in the early 1990's. The patients (3 male) were aged 5-12 years (median age =8.6 years)at splenectomy. Only 2 had been transfused, each with I transfusion in the neonatal period. The indication for splenectomy was splenomegaly alone in 9 patients and cholecystitis and splenomegaly in 1 patient. All the examined spleens were enlarged and histological assessment revealed non-homogeneous hemosiderin deposition. Gross tissue iron content was determined by Mossbauer spectroscopy and iron was found to exist in a ferrihydrite and hem environment within the tissue. The protein content was separated by ion-exchange chromatography into tranferrin, ferritin, hemosiderin and hemprotein fractions. While the individual iron protein levels fell within the established normal ranges, there was a decrease in the proportion of iron carried by ferritin(mean=20% : normal=50%) and an increase in the proportion of iron carried as hemosiderin (mean=48% ; normal=10-15%) such that the ferritinthemosiderin ratios suggested mild iron overload (range 2:1-1:17. Nonnal=4: t ). This has implications for cumulative iron overload in patients with chronic hemolytic disease.


Since the fall of the communist regime in the beginning of the 1990s, Western Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia) have been striving to build democratic governments, market economies and pluralist societies. Although certain progress has been made, more than two decades later the Western Balkan states are still 'stuck' in an extended form of democratic transition, and as such are labeled as 'hybrid' or 'semi-consolidated' regimes. In contrast, most of the other post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have displayed greater success in institutionalizing democratic pluralism, and have hence consolidated their democracies at a much faster pace. Taking the actor-based approach as a point of departure in explaining democratic consolidation, the aim of this dissertation is to empirically examine what are the effects of citizens' participation and elite contestation on the advancement of the fragile Western Balkans democracies. By employing a time-series cross-section statistical model, I statistically assess the effects of citizens' political participation and party competition on the democracy levels in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. However, the focus of my research interest is primarily on the Western Balkan states, while the CEE EU member states serve just as a term of comparison. Weak participation in politics by ordinary citizens in the new European democracies is considered to be one of the main causes of the peculiar practices of illiberal democracy in these countries. However, I argue that while low levels of citizens' participation leads to hollow or stagnant democracy in most democratic systems, higher levels of civic engagement is not necessarily an indication for better democracy in post-communist Europe. The statistical test confirms that indeed there is a strong negative and statistically significant correlation between all four types of political participation examined in this study (voter turnout, party membership, signing petitions and attending demonstrations) and the levels of democracy when controlled for the Western Balkan region. I contend that clientelist practices that are widely spread in the Western Balkans account for this relationship.
The relationship between political competition and the levels of democracy in the Western Balkans occupies the second part of my thesis. The empirical data reveals that CEE EU member states score higher in almost all dimensions of political competition compared to the Western Balkans. At the same time their party systems seem to be less institutionalized, more volatile, less distinguishable along ideological stances, as well as fragmented and ethnically polarized. Taking this into consideration, I argue that enhancing political competition would provide an impetus to the democratic development in the post-communist countries in Europe, including the Western Balkans. The large-N statistical test basically confirms this hypothesis. I consider three factors as most accountable for having the Western Balkan states unsuccessful in developing more robust political competition compared to their post-communist neighbors. These are: absence of an organized opposition to the former political order in the first years of their democratic transition, strong ethnic cleavage and party corruption.


More than 20 countries have increased their aggregate foreign exchange reserves and other official foreign assets by an annual average of nearly $1 trillion in recent years. This buildup—mainly through intervention in the foreign exchange markets—keeps the currencies of the interveners substantially undervalued, thus boosting their international competitiveness and trade surpluses. The corresponding trade deficits are spread around the world, but the largest share of the loss centers on the United States, whose trade deficit has increased by $200 billion to $500 billion per year. The United States has lost 1 million to 5 million jobs as a result of this foreign currency manipulation. The United States must eliminate or at least sharply reduce its large trade deficit to accelerate growth and restore full employment. The way to do so, at no cost to the US budget, is to insist that other countries stop manipulating their currencies and permit the dollar to regain a competitive level. A US strategy to terminate currency manipulation, especially if undertaken together with some of the other countries that are adversely affected by the practice (including Australia, Canada, the euro area, Brazil, India, Mexico, and numerous developing countries), would be fully compatible with its international obligations. The proposed coalition should first seek voluntary agreement from the manipulators to sharply reduce or eliminate their intervention. If they do not do so, however, the United States should adopt four new policy measures against their currency activities: (1) undertake countervailing currency intervention (CCI) against countries with convertible currencies by buying amounts of their currencies equal to the amounts of dollars they are buying themselves, to neutralize the impact on exchange rates, (2) tax the earnings on, or restrict further purchases of, dollar assets acquired by intervening countries with inconvertible currencies (where CCI could therefore not be fully effective) to penalize them for building up these positions, (3) treat manipulated exchange rates as export subsidies for purposes of levying countervailing import duties, and (4) hopefully with other adversely affected countries, bring a case against the manipulators in the World Trade Organization that would authorize more wide-ranging trade retaliation. In the first instance, this approach should be taken against eight of the most significant currency manipulators: China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Japan may need to be added if it pursues new Prime Minister Abe's stated intention to force a sharply weaker yen through dollar purchases. Bergsten and Gagnon believe that cessation of intervention by these countries will permit most of the other interveners to desist as well, without their being directly approached, because much of their intervention is aimed at avoiding competitive loss to the largest manipulators (especially China).


Service-oriented computing has become one of the predominant factors in IT research and development efforts over the last few years. In spite of several standardization efforts that advanced from research labs into industrial-strength technologies and tools, there is still much human effort required in the process of finding and executing Web services. Here, Dieter Fensel and his team lay the foundation for understanding the Semantic Web Services infrastructure, aimed at eliminating human intervention and thus allowing for seamless integration of information systems. They focus on the currently most advanced SWS infrastructure, namely SESA and related work such as the Web Services Execution Environment (WSMX) activities and the Semantic Execution Environment (OASIS SEE TC) standardization effort. Their book is divided into four parts: Part I provides an introduction to the field and its history, covering basic Web technologies and the state of research and standardization in the Semantic Web field. Part II presents the SESA architecture. The authors detail its building blocks and show how they are consolidated into a coherent software architecture that can be used as a blueprint for implementation. Part III gives more insight into middleware services, describing the necessary conceptual functionality that is imposed on the architecture through the basic principles. Each such functionality is realized using a number of so-called middleware services. Finally, Part IV shows how the SESA architecture can be applied to real-world scenarios, and provides an overview of compatible and related systems. The book targets professionals as well as academic and industrial researchers working on various aspects of semantic integration of distributed information systems. They will learn how to apply the Semantic Web Services infrastructure to automate and semi-automate tasks, by using existing integration technologies. In addition, the book is also suitable for advanced graduate students enrolled in courses covering knowledge management, the Semantic Web, or integration of information systems, as it will educate them about basic technologies for Semantic Web Services and general issues related to integration of information systems.


Tabletop systems have become quite popular in recent years, during which there was considerable enthusiasm for the development of new interfaces. In this paper, we establish a comparison between touch and tangible interfaces. We set up an experiment involving several actions like translation and rotation. We recruited 40 participants to take part in a user study and we present our results with a discussion on the design of touch and tangible interfaces. Our contribution is an empirical study showing that overall, the tangible interface is much faster but under certain conditions, the touch interface could gain the upper hand.


High temperature K-metasomatism pervasively replaced Paleoproterozoic volcanic and metasedimentary rocks at Lou Lake NWT. This replacement developed primarily at the structural interface juxtaposing non-metamorphosed Lou Lake volcanic rocks over Treasure Lake Group metasedimentary rocks. This crustal-scale fault developed coeval with the emplacement of anorogenic magmatism within a post-collision extensional setting. Emplacement of porphyry dykes into the fault breccia coincided with K-metasomatism at peak upper-greenschist to amphibolite-facies thermal conditions. The K-metasomatism resulted from co-mingling of descending crustal fluids and ascending potassic magmatic fluids along the decollement surface. Pervasive Kmetasomatism resulted in complete replacement of precursor rocks by potassium feldspar. The pronounced element liberation and SiO2-Al2O3-K2O enrichment resulted in the homogenization of diverse rock types into brick-red potassium feldspar metasomatite characterized by high K2O/Na2O ratios and up to 13.4 wt%, K2O. The secondary microcline approaches end member orthoclase composition. Petrographic and isotopic evidence indicate associated iron oxide is an inherited component from precursor rocks. Oxidizing conditions were superimposed by continued flux of crustal fluids during a prolonged retrograde cooling history.


When should we ever expect to see durable moves toward greater wage bargaining coordination? Moving to sustained coordinated wage bargaining presupposes that unions and employers can both be convinced that wage bargaining is in fact a game in which both actors prefer coordination. This can only happen when these social actors come to accept as true an idea of the economy in which their coordination through wage bargaining institutions will give them better outcomes than would bargaining through decentralized institutions. This paper argues that the process of developing common knowledge changes institutional preferences among employers. It was the development of common knowledge that changed employer preferences about the attractiveness of institutions for wage coordination in Ireland in Italy. In both cases, the development of common expectations required the emergence and joint ratification of a common set of references, in what I call common knowledge events. These events led organized employers to change their previous position about acceptable institutions of wage bargaining. This change made possible the institutionalization of coordinated wage bargaining in both countries. As demonstrated through counterfactual analysis of the Australian case, the emergence and ratification of such a common view is the necessary condition for the emergence and survival of coordinated wage bargaining institutions.


80% of all wastewater worldwide is released untreated into the environment, leading to deteriorating water quality. Achieving universal access to sanitation while improving water quality by halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and increasing its safe reuse are targets 6.2 and 6.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Wastewater treatment needs to be re-thought from a linear input-output process towards a circular re-use system where additional benefits for the environment can be derived. The use of CWs can treat various kinds of wastewater such as domestic or municipal wastewater, agricultural runoff, industrial effluent, mine drainage, landfill leachate, stormwater, polluted river water, and urban runoff. CWs can additionally provide secondary benefits such as providing an ecosystem for aquatic species, energy production through the use of the harvested biomass, effluent used for irrigation, etc. Understanding the risks and benefits that a wastewater treatment system can offer to its community is not limited to the technical understanding of its components. It demands understanding the multiple dimensions of sustainability.
Constructed Wetlands (CWs), a Nature-based Solution (NbS), can contribute to the SDGs. Currently, there is little knowledge about the contribution of CWs to the global amount of treated wastewater. UNU-FLORES has initiated the development of CWetlands and produced a pilot version (www.CWetlands.net). Our expectation is to link CWetlands to the ongoing monitoring and reporting efforts of the custodian agencies of SDG 6.
As a by-product of the participatory nature of the project, we expect to promote and raise awareness about NbS and the usefulness of CW for sustainable wastewater treatment. The guidelines, documentation, and informational material that will be made available on CWetlands will also provide a significant contribution to raise awareness on NbS and their potential to contribute to a sustainable future, in particular for the 80% living in CELAC cities.


Recently, many medical professionals become to realize eating problem affect deeply patient's quality of life (QOL), and they are very interested in dysphagia rehabilitation. I overviewed dysphagia rehabilitation along with the followings; 1) impact of dysphagia, 2) assessment of dysphagia, and 3) management of dysphagia. Eating is the most enjoyable activity. Dysphagia changes this enjoyable activity to the most fearful one. Dysphagia makes three major problems: risk of aspiration pneumonia and suffocation, risk of dehydration and malnutrition, and depriving enjoyable activity. As a recent conceptualization of eating, the Process model is the most important, that reveals eating (chew-swallow) is very different from just chewing plus swallowing in physiologically. In assessment, standardized functional tests such as the Repetitive saliva swallowing test, the Modified water swallowing test, and the Graded food test are used. The most important point in clinical assessment is identifying indication of direct therapy using food or starting period of oral feeding. Videofluorographic and videoendoscopic examinations are used as precise diagnostic and management-oriented assessment tools. In management, exercise, posture adjustment, and modification of food promote eating possibility. Oral care is essential in dysphagic patients. Surgical intervention is effective method if a patient has severe dysphagia.


Background The use of drugs during pregnancy is always controversial. There is limited information about the use of infliximab during pregnancy. Purpose To describe the effectiveness and safety of infliximab in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis during pregnancy. Material and methods Retrospective and observational study of a pregnant woman with ankylosing spondylitis who was treated with infliximab. The data collected was: week of gestation, infliximab dosage and laboratory data: erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Results A 32-year-old woman was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis in 2005 and she started treatment with infliximab 5 mg/kg every 8 weeks in 2007. In 2012, she got pregnant and stopped treatment (CRP Due to this treatment interruption, she started suffering diffuse polyarthralgia, soreness and disabling pain. At week 14 of pregnancy, her ankylosing spondylitis flared up with pain in several joints. She was prescribed corticosteroids without success and she asked to resume treatment with infliximab. The teratogens centre indicated that there was no absolute contraindication. Therefore, the hospital's Medical Director authorised the off-label use of infliximab in a pregnant woman. At week 16 of pregnancy, she was treated with infliximab (previous values: CRP = 1.1 mg/dL and ESR = 40 mm/h). After that, she showed a significant improvement (ESR = 9mm/h). She was retreated at weeks 23 and 30 of pregnancy (values after the second dosage during pregnancy: CRP = 0.4 mg/dL and ESR = 2 mm/h). At week 40 of pregnancy, she gave birth without any problems. The newborn weight was 3.420 kg and the APGAR score was 9/10. She restarted the treatment with infliximab two weeks after birth, the previous values were CRP = 7.4 mg/dL and ESR = 33 mm/h, but they quickly normalised (CRP Conclusion In our limited clinical experience, infliximab was safe and effective in our patient. However, the use of infliximab during pregnancy should be studied on a case-by-case basis. References and/or Acknowledgements We thank the entire department for supporting this work. No conflict of interest.


ABSTRACT Sexual violence and gender-based violence represent a major public health problem causing significant negative mental, physical, and social outcomes for victims. The rapidly growing population of Hispanic women in Baltimore are both more vulnerable to sexual assault and less able to access postassault services. In an effort to assess service utilization and community awareness of the Mercy Medical Center Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners/Forensic Nurse Examiners Program, we conducted a retrospective chart review of 2,322 women who were seen by the program between 2010 and 2013 and found that only 2.5% of the women were identified as Hispanic, about half of what Baltimore City demographic data would predict. This exploratory pilot project, augmented by key informant interviews, reveals that Hispanic women are underutilizing sexual assault services. Multiple barriers exist for Hispanic women in obtaining victim services, including lack of awareness within the community that the services exist, cultural factors, language barriers, lack of awareness of legal rights, and a fear of deportation.


"Theaetetus," the "Sophist," and the "Statesman" are a trilogy of Platonic dialogues that show Socrates formulating his conception of philosophy as he prepares the defense for his trial. Originally published together as "The Being of the Beautiful," these translations can be read separately or as a trilogy. Each includes an introduction, extensive notes, and comprehensive commentary that examines the trilogy's motifs and relationships. "Seth Benardete is one of the very few contemporary classicists who combine the highest philological competence with a subtlety and taste that approximate that of the ancients. At the same time, he as set himself the entirely modern hermeneutical task of uncovering what the ancients preferred to keep veiled, of making explicit what they indicated, and hence...of showing the naked ugliness of artificial beauty."-Stanley Rose, "Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal" Seth Benardete (1930-2001) was professor of classics at New York University. He was the author or translator of many books, most recently "The Argument of the Action, Plato's "Laws," and Plato's "Symposium,"" all published by the University of Chicago Press.


Spatial skills are a strong predictor of achievement and pursuit of employment in STEM fields. However, some individuals experience anxiety arising from situations that require performing spatial tasks in an evaluative context, and as a result, may avoid spatial related mental activities and exposure to spatially relevant experiences. We sought to generate and validate an instrument capable of reliably measuring individual differences in experiences of spatial anxiety. We developed a spatial anxiety data-driven approach, wherein an exploratory factor analysis was conducted within the framework for different types of spatial skills outlined by Uttal et al. (2013; https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028446). In Study 1, factor analyses revealed that items loaded on three factors that corresponded well with some of the most common spatial abilities that have been discussed in the broader literature: navigation, mental-manipulation and imagery. The three subscales were high in internal reliability and between-scale selectivity. Study 2 then established that external validity was good for the navigation and manipulation subscales: higher anxiety ratings uniquely predicted lower objective performance and lower attitude/ability ratings on established measures within the respective subdomains. External validity was acceptable for the imagery subscale, uniquely predicting lower attitude/ability ratings on an established spatial imagery questionnaire. The overall result is an empirically validated Spatial Anxiety scale for use with adults that also respects the multifaceted nature of spatial processing. This questionnaire has the potential to provide a more comprehensive screening tool for spatial anxiety, and is a step toward identifying potential barriers to STEM education.


The peculiar velocity function of clusters of galaxies is determined using an accurate sample of cluster velocities based on Tully-Fisher distances of Sc galaxies. In contrast to previous results based on samples with considerably larger velocity uncertainties, the observed velocity function does not exhibit a tail of high peculiar velocity clusters. The results indicate a low probability of ≲5% of finding clusters with one-dimensional peculiar velocities greater than ~600 km s-1. The rms one-dimensional cluster peculiar velocity is 293 ± 28 km s-1. The observed cluster velocity function is compared with expectations from different cosmological models. The absence of a high-velocity tail in the observed function is most consistent with a low-mass-density (Ω ~ 0.3) CDM model and is inconsistent at the ≳3 σ level with Ω = 1.0 CDM and HDM models. The rms one-dimensional cluster peculiar velocities in these models correspond, respectively, to 314, 516, and 632 km s-1 (when convolved with the observational uncertainties). Comparison with the observed rms cluster velocity of 293 ± 28 km s-1 further supports the low-density CDM model.


The most famous equation in the world is probably the one defining the relation between mass and energy. Every student attending secondary grammar schools knows it, and names Albert Einstein, as its inventor, adding that the equation is the result of Einstein's Special Relativity Theory. However problems arise when the simply equation should be derived with Lorentz's factor according to Special Relativity, because the factor has no upper limit when the velocity of a mass (v) nears the speed of light (c), while E=mc2 has definite value. Only a few knew, that the story of mass-energy equivalence, began with Newton in 1704, and the famous equation was derived with classical, Newtonian method in the 19th century, well before Special Relativity was created.


Recent scientific findings about the developing teen brain have both captured public attention and begun to percolate through legal theory and practice. Indeed, many believe that developmental neuroscience contributed to the U.S. Supreme Court's elimination of the juvenile death penalty in Roper v. Simmons. Post-Roper, scholars assert that the developmentally normal attributes of the teen brain counsel differential treatment of young offenders, and advocates increasingly make such arguments before the courts. The success of any theory, though, depends in large part on implementation, and challenges that emerge through implementation illuminate problematic aspects of the theory. This Article tests the legal impact of developmental neuroscience by analyzing cases in which juvenile defendants have attempted to put it into practice. It reveals that most such efforts fail. Doctrinal factors hamstring most claims — for example, that persons with immature brains are incapable of forming the requisite mens rea for serious crimes. Limitations intrinsic to the science itself — for example, individual variation — also hinder its relevance and impact. These factors both explain why developmental neuroscience has had minimal effects on juvenile justice in the courts and illustrate why it generally should. Moreover, direct reliance on neuroscience as the metric for juvenile justice policy may jeopardize equality and autonomy interests, and brain-based arguments too frequently risk inaccuracy and overstatement. The cases also strongly suggest that neuroscience does not materially shape legal decision-makers' beliefs and values about youthful offenders but instead will be read through the lens of those beliefs and values. Developmental neuroscience nonetheless can play a small role in juvenile justice going forward. Legislatures and courts may regard that science as one source among many upon which to draw when basing policy choices on assumptions about juveniles as a group. To go further is unwarranted and threatens to draw attention away from critical legal and environmental factors — good schools, strong families, economic opportunities, mental health care, humane sentencing regimes, and rehabilitative services — that are both more important and subject to greater direct control.


Context: In this paper, we review and discuss the piloting in Norway of a German methodology for competence diagnostics in vocational education and training: the Competence Development and Assessment in TVET (COMET) project. Our overarching theme is determining to what extent such large-scale assessment systems are valid for international comparisons in this sector. Method: We present the theoretical underpinnings of the COMET model and position our discussion within the broader context of the concept of "professional competence" (berufliche Kompetenz) and methodological guidelines for its measurement. Terminology from psychometrics on "measurement equivalence" is described and serves as a template for identifying challenges in using the Norwegian data for comparative purposes. Our pilot included students and apprentices in health care, industrial mechanics and electricians and was designed as a three-year follow-up study from the second year of upper secondary school through two years of apprenticeship. Each year, a test on professional competence and a context survey were administered. Similar studies have been conducted in Germany, China and South Africa.Results: In line with the results from these countries, the Norwegian participants had low scores, particularly the electricians. However, the diagnostic instrument was sensitive to the development of professional competence, and progress on the assessment was influenced by the quality of the learning support in the companies, as reported by apprentices in the context survey.Conclusions: The COMET platform may be a viable prototype for the development of diagnostic tools, which may support the monitoring of quality factors at different levels and inspire local improvement projects in schools, companies and training offices. Such an objective would be in line with the latest summaries of the COMET project, in which its contribution to a model for international large-scale assessment is toned down and replaced by a stronger emphasis on its potential for measuring competence development, evaluating contextual factors and generating data for didactic innovations.


This paper explores, in the movie industry setting, how the rise of "big data" presents firms with the opportunity to acquire knowledge that can influence product performance and shape firm strategy. It asks the question: what is the value of insights gained from "big data" for firms? Specifically, the paper focuses on Amazon Instant Video's "Customers who rented this [focal movie] also rented this..." lists to (1) evaluate similarity between movies based on users' rental patterns, (2) show that movies that are implicitly similar to others have better box office performance than movies that are far from others, and (3) provide reasons for these performance differences. This paper also explores the formation of implicit clusters of movies, made of movies with many co-rentals in common, and shows that they differ from usual classification schemes (genres). Observable characteristics such as genre, actor/director reputation, studio type and MPAA rating have modest power to explain why these clusters form. This points to the possibility that implicit similarity dimensions may exist within clusters. An initial exploration shows that one such dimension is theme, which transcends coarse classifications. Exploring other possible latent common features could provide further insights to studios to help them make movies better targeted to different audience segments. Methodologically, this paper employs a combination of rigorous econometric methods and novel machine learning tools.


On 25 April 2013 the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERR Act) received Royal Assent. The ERR Act contains a number of heterogeneous copyright provisions, including one – Section 77(3) – which confers a new power upon the Secretary of State to provide by regulations for the grant of licences in respect of orphan works. This article analyses the legislative framework for orphan works as resulting from the ERR Act and compares it with the recently adopted Directive 2012/28/EU (the Orphan Works Directive, which the UK must implement – along with all other EU Member States – by 29 October 2014). Although the actual shape of UK orphan works legislation has yet to be fully defined – either under the ERR Act, or the Orphan Works Directive, – this contribution questions whether in principle the ERR Act is compatible with the Copyright and Designs Patents Act 1988, Directive 2001/29/EC (the Information Society or InfoSoc Directive), the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the Orphan Works Directive. This requires consideration of the nature of the regimes embodied in the ERR Act (which purports to adopt a 'licensing' approach) and the Orphan Works Directive (which creates an exception), as well as the more general relationship between EU and national laws (in particular the principle of supremacy of EU law and the doctrine of EU pre-emption), so to establish whether, by adopting its orphan works provision in the ERR Act, the UK acted in breach of its obligations under EU law. In any case, it is submitted that the UK has rendered impossible any meaningful implementation of the Directive into its national law. As a matter of practice, there will be no significant advantages to claiming the benefit of the orphan works provisions under the Directive, rather than the parallel provisions under the ERR Act, at least for works that will be exploited within the UK territory.


We demonstrate generation and transmission of optical signals by directly interfacing highly efficient silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators to binary output ports of a field-programmable gate array. Using an SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and an SOH IQ modulator we generate ON-OFF-keying and binary phase-shift keying signals as well as quadrature phase-shift keying and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) formats. Peak-to-peak voltages amount to only 0.27 Vpp for driving the MZM and 0.41 Vpp for the IQ modulator. Neither digital-to-analog converters nor drive amplifiers are required, and the RF energy consumption in the modulator amounts to record-low 18 fJ/bit for 16QAM signaling.


The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been widely used in many fields, such as image compression, speech analysis and pattern recognition, because of its capability of decomposing a signal at multiple resolution levels. Due to the intensive computations involved with this transform, the design of efficient VLSI architectures for a fast computation of the transforms have become essential, especially for real-time applications and those requiring processing of high-speed data. The objective of this thesis is to develop a scheme for the design of hardware resource-efficient high-speed pipeline architectures for the computation of the DWT. The goal of high speed is achieved by maximizing the operating frequency and minimizing the number of clock cycles required for the DWT computation with little or no overhead on the hardware resources. In this thesis, an attempt is made to reach this goal by enhancing the inter-stage and intra-stage parallelisms through a systematic exploitation of the characteristics inherent in discrete wavelet transforms.
In order to enhance the inter-stage parallelism, a study is undertaken for determining the number of pipeline stages required for the DWT computation so as to synchronize their operations and utilize their hardware resources efficiently. This is achieved by optimally distributing the computational load associated with the various resolution levels to an optimum number of stages of the pipeline. This study has determined that employment of two pipeline stages with the first one performing the task of the first resolution level and the second one that of all the other resolution levels of the 1-D DWT computation, and employment of three pipeline stages with the first and second ones performing the tasks of the first and second resolution levels and the third one performing that of the remaining resolution levels of the 2-D DWT computation, are the optimum choices for the development of 1-D and 2-D pipeline architectures, respectively. The enhancement of the intra-stage parallelism is based on two main ideas. The first idea, which stems from the fact that in each consecutive resolution level the input data are decimated by a factor of two along each dimension, is to decompose the filtering operation into subtasks that can be performed in parallel by operating on even- and odd-numbered samples along each dimension of the data. It is shown that each subtask, which is essentially a set of multiply-accumulate operations, can be performed by employing a MAC-cell network consisting of a two-dimensional array of bit-wise adders. The second idea in enhancing the intra-stage parallelism is to maximally extend the bit-wise addition operations of this network horizontally through a suitable arrangement of bit-wise adders so as to minimize the delay of its critical path.
In order to validate the proposed scheme, design and implementation of two specific examples of pipeline architectures for the 1-D and 2-D DWT computations are considered. The simulation results show that the pipeline architectures designed using the proposed scheme are able to operate at high clock frequencies, and their performances, in terms of the processing speed and area-time product, are superior to those of the architectures designed based on other schemes and utilizing similar or higher amount of hardware resources. Finally, the two pipeline architectures designed using the proposed scheme are implemented in FPGA. The test results of the FPGA implementations validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme for designing DWT pipeline architectures.