With the Netherlands being the first country in the world to open civil marriage to same-sex couples, there has never been a better time to publish the first ever complete English translation of Dutch family law. This book gives the reader, academic and professional practitioner alike, an opportunity to take cognizance of this important field of law. Both the publisher and the translators hope that this book will find its way into the hands of the large number of non-Dutch speaking persons living in the Netherlands whose life is affected by the law, which until now was not readily accessible. This work, thanks to the translation of the rules of Private International Law in the field of family law, also provides lawyers, civil servants and consular officers with insight into the applicable rules in international cases. It is hoped that this work will also further contribute to the development of an international legal discourse on the development of family law in other jurisdictions, whilst allowing the comparison with the law as in force in the Netherlands on the 1st October 2003.


The September 11 terrorist attacks shifted the risk category of international terrorism in the United States from a risk ignored to a risk apparent. Before the attacks, the risk was "silent," either so unlikely as to be ignored by both insurer and insured, or so incalculable as to be outside of the realm of insurable risks. After the attacks, the expectation of international terrorism on American soil changed dramatically; unfortunately, the sudden awareness of a risk does not automatically trigger the sudden insurability of that risk. After September 11, insurers were quick to reassure the public that the industry could pay for the largest insured loss in history. Nearly as quickly, insurers began preparations to exclude future terrorism attacks from coverage. As the states began approving the use of these policy exclusions, Congress enacted a program barring terrorism exclusions, in exchange for federal funds for catastrophic losses. Today, commercial insurers must either offer terrorism insurance, or leave the market. This Article makes two contentions. These are, in short, that the American terrorism risk is not covered today, and cannot be covered tomorrow. First, a significant percentage of losses from future terrorist attacks will not be covered under existing policy language, with or without the addition of a terrorism exclusion. Numerous other exclusions, common to commercial policies, bar losses from most potential forms of terrorist attack. These include losses from nuclear bombs, radiation from dirty bombs, and chemical or biological attacks. In this way, the terrorism risk is scantily clad, barely covering more than ordinary explosive damage. Second, in the absence of meaningful actuarial data on the risk of international terrorism in the United States, insurance coverage is not possible. This article explores why.


Recommenders, as widely implemented nowadays by major e-commerce players like Netflix or Amazon, use collaborative filtering to suggest the most relevant items to their users. Clearly, the effectiveness of recommenders depends on the data they can exploit, i.e., the feedback of users conveying their preferences, typically based on their past ratings.

As of today, most recommenders are homogeneous in the sense that they utilize one specific application at a time. In short, Alice will only get recommended a movie if she has been rating movies. But what if she has been only rating books and would like to get recommendations for a movie? Clearly, the multiplicity of web applications is calling for heterogeneous recommenders that could utilize ratings in one application to provide recommendations in another one.

This paper presents X-Map, a heterogeneous recommender. X-Map leverages meta-paths between heterogeneous items over several application domains, based on users who rated across these domains. These meta-paths are then used in X-Map to generate, for every user, a profile (AlterEgo) in a domain where the user might not have rated any item yet. Not surprisingly, leveraging meta-paths poses non-trivial issues of (a) meta-path-based inter-item similarity, in order to enable accurate predictions, (b) scalability, given the amount of computation required, as well as (c) privacy, given the need to aggregate information across multiple applications.

We show in this paper how X-Map addresses the above-mentioned issues to achieve accuracy, scalability and differential privacy. In short, X-Map weights the meta-paths based on several factors to compute inter-item similarities, and ensures scalability through a layer-based pruning technique. X-Map guarantees differential privacy using an exponential scheme that leverages the meta-path-based similarities while determining the probability of item selection to construct the AlterEgos. We present an exhaustive experimental evaluation of X-Map using real traces from Amazon. We show that, in terms of accuracy, X-Map outperforms alternative heterogeneous recommenders and, in terms of throughput, X-Map achieves a linear speedup with an increasing number of machines.


Technological systems
contain complex elements and processes with a diverse set of agents and
problem-solving arrangements. They often interact with and influence
multi-lateral stakeholders with varying interests and incentives. Recent technological
developments and engineering advancements such as digital marketplaces and
high-tech networks create both new challenges and opportunities to understand
further about effective mechanism designs. This dissertation attempts to answer
corporate-level mechanism design issues in two different technological systems:
high-tech biopharmaceutical networks and the online peer-to-peer lending
industry.The
first part of the dissertation focuses on identifying the emergence and
evolution of near decomposable systems in interorganizational relationships. To
do so, first I conceptually discuss how near decomposable systems can emerge in
interfirm relationships. Second, leveraging advancements in network science, I
empirically analyze a detailed biopharmaceutical alliance data set and find
that strategic alliance networks of biopharmaceutical firms exhibit near
decomposable characteristics. I identify an emerging evolutionary pattern with
smaller networks of subcommunities organizing hierarchically over time into a
larger network structure, with the subcommunities generally exhibiting local
clustering. A salient finding, compared to previous studies in the field of
strategic management, is the identification of nested clusters formed in
hierarchical fashion within this interfirm network. I find the potential for
simultaneous evolutionary processes to be in play in various subnetworks within
the overall industry-level network. The accrual of local changes impacting the
structural processes of the subnetworks slowly diffuses to the larger, less integrated
modules of the network. Finally, with the help of a simulation model, I
identify how fitness heterogeneity among firms, fitness heterogeneity among
partnerships and the rate of growth of partnerships impact the emergence of
near decomposability in varying degrees.The
second study focuses on understanding an important market access control
mechanism: platform owners granting priority access to a subset of supply-side
complementors to grow the marketplace and remove potential demand-side
bottlenecks. Platform governance mechanisms, such as market access control,
help to align all market players towards a specific value proposition. I study
the interplay between priority access and the variation in expertise of the complementors.
Leveraging a randomized priority access given to expert institutional investors
in the online peer-to-peer lending industry, I show that it creates negative
spillover effects on the performance of crowd retail investors. I provide
evidence in support of two mechanisms in driving the impact of priority access,
the intensity of priority access and cream skimming by institutional complementors,
on the retail crowd market. Again using simulation to extend the analysis, I
find that the brunt of negative impacts is likely borne by more risk-averse
retail investors.


This work overcomes the limitations in room-temperature and moisture-dependent activity of transition metal oxide-based catalysts for sub-ppm formaldehyde removal. The active site exposure and self-assembly hydrophilicity were highlighted in MnOx–CeO2 (MCO) nanospheres after the loading of colloidal 2.1 wt% TiO2 particles (TO–MCO). Approximately 57% (relative humidity = 72%) and 41% (dry air) recycling catalytic activities at 35 °C were achieved. Our results proved that surface electron transfer, which was previously weakened because of the loss of surface oxygen species and unsuitable defect-site depositions of low active ions, in the MCO catalyst was recovered via the dispersion of hydrophilic Ti–O groups. This electron transfer was also strongly correlated with the specific surface area, porosity, and oxidation states of transition metals. The greater active site exposure derived from the cyclic electron transfer eventually enhanced the HCHO chemisorption and participation of oxygen species on the surface of TO–MCO throughout the bimetallic (Mn–Ce) dismutation reactions. The abundant superoxide radicals that were activated by these oxygen species prompted a nucleophilic attack on carbonyl bonds. Direct photoionization mass spectrometry determined formic acid, dioxirane (minor), and HOCH2OOH (little) as intermediates governing the HCHO selectivity to CO2. The cytotoxicity of catalysts exposed to yeast cells was evaluated for their potential environmentally friendly application indoors.


We consider the transductive learning problem when the labels belong to a continuous space. Through the use of spectral graph wavelets, we explore the benefits of multiresolution analysis on a graph constructed from the labeled and unlabeled data. The spectral graph wavelets behave like discrete multiscale differential operators on graphs, and thus can sparsely approximate piecewise smooth signals. Therefore, rather than enforce a prior belief that the labels are globally smooth with respect to the intrinsic structure of the graph, we enforce sparse priors on the spectral graph wavelet coefficients. One issue that arises when the proportion of data with labels is low is that the fine scale wavelets that are useful in sparsely representing discontinuities are largely masked, making it difficult to recover the high frequency components of the label sequence. We discuss this challenge, and propose one method to use the structured sparsity of the wavelet coefficients to aid label reconstruction.


"Consent" is ubiquitous in our criminal justice system. Its centrality highlights the ironic disjuncture between constitutional principle and the day-to-day practice of criminal justice. The Constitution imposes strict restrictions on the State's ability to investigate and prosecute crimes – the warrant requirement and right to jury trial are examples. But, our criminal justice system depends on individuals "consensually" relinquishing those very protections every day. The Supreme Court has encouraged this dependence by deeming an individual's consent valid even when the State pressures her to give it. The police regularly rely on individuals consenting to searches when there is no probable cause. Suspects routinely confess to crimes when it is not in their interests to do so. And defendants routinely plead to charges that would not yield conviction following trial. This article uses political theory to account for consent's centrality in our criminal justice system and to challenge the Court's broad interpretation of the concept in the search, confession, and plea contexts. The Court has inappropriately relied on a kind of "fictional consent" in criminal procedure. This not only produces unfair results in individual cases, it threatens the democratic legitimacy of our criminal justice system. Bringing constitutional principle and criminal justice practice into greater harmony will require more stringent rules of consent than we currently have. The article advances a framework for reform.


Objectives To identify and rank the most significant workplace stressors to which consultants and trainees are exposed within the publicly funded health sector in Ireland. Design Following a preliminary semistructured telephone interview, a Delphi technique with 3 rounds of reiterative questionnaires was used to obtain consensus. Conducted in Spring 2014, doctors were purposively selected by their college faculty or specialty training body. Setting Consultants and higher specialist trainees who were engaged at a collegiate level with their faculty or professional training body. All were employed in the Irish publicly funded health sector by the Health Services Executive. Participants 49 doctors: 30 consultants (13 male, 17 female) and 19 trainees (7 male, 12 female). Consultants and trainees were from a wide range of hospital specialties including anaesthetics, radiology and psychiatry. Results Consultants are most concerned with the quality of healthcare management and its impact on service. They are also concerned about the quality of care they provide. They feel undervalued within the negative sociocultural environment that they work. Trainees also feel undervalued with an uncertain future and they also perceive their sociocultural environment as negative. They echo concerns regarding the quality of care they provide. They struggle with the interface between career demands and personal life. Conclusions This Delphi study sought to explore the working life of doctors in Irish hospitals at a time when resources are scarce. It identified both common and distinct concerns regarding sources of stress for 2 groups of doctors. Its identification of key stressors should guide managers and clinicians towards solutions for improving the quality of patient care and the health of care providers.


This article investigates two particularly intriguing aspects of evolving theories of intellectual property. The first is how well new theories mesh with traditional theories. Externality theory from this decade recapitulates public goods theory from the 1980's. Misappropriation doctrine from 1918 embodies the prescriptions of theory developed decades later. The second is how well theories developed for copyright and patent law, the creativity domain of IP, fit trademark law, the fraud and competition domain. This article demonstrates that the three approaches to determining the optimal scope of copyright and patent protection involve a balancing of interests equally applicable to trademark issues. In trademark law, those interests are the creation of incentives to engage in trademarking activity and the use of marks to lower search costs and increase competition. Balancing these interests for any type of use of a mark requires weighing the benefits of exclusive rights and the benefits of free access. Courts that enjoin conduct leading to Internet initial interest confusion tend to focus solely on goodwill, the dynamic efficiency side of the balance. When accepting such claims, courts offer no limits on the internalization of externalities and ignore the inherent balancing. The mixed public goods nature of trademarks means that that the balance between incentives and access might differ for different uses of trademarks. The discussion of Internet initial interest confusion, sponsorship confusion, and post-sale confusion illustrates how to perform this balancing.


The spectroscopic properties of Pr;Yb:YLiF4 and Pr,Yb:YAlO3 are presented. Whereas Pr;Yb:YLiF4 exhibits an avalanche-type excitation mechanism under infrared pumping, no such behavior is observed for Pr,Yb:YAlO3. A time dependent rate equation model was developed to describe these behaviors. The absence of an avalanche-type excitation mechanism in Pr,Yb:YAlO3 is mainly caused by a better spectral overlap between the excited state absorption in the Pr and the ground state absorption of Yb, as well as by higher transfer rates between Yb and Pr and within the Pr in this material.


As healthcare expenditures continue to climb, politicians, business leaders, and patients avidly search for new methods to reduce healthcare costs. In an eleven-point plan released this summer, a group of the nation's top healthcare experts listed "full transparency of prices" as one potential solution to reduce healthcare costs. The experts, some of whom helped write the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, argued that price transparency would allow consumers to compare prices before choosing a provider or hospital and, consequently, better anticipate their overall costs. In turn, they argued that making price information publicly accessible would also reduce excess healthcare spending by encouraging providers to offer more competitive pricing. Other health services research, however, suggests that legislative and regulatory efforts to promote price transparency may result in increased healthcare costs depending on the market conditions and the various stakeholders targeted. Consequently, any price transparency initiative must not only make prices transparent, but also account for the differences between markets, either by reducing the economic inefficiencies that keep price transparency from being effective or by targeting only the specific regions where the market would support such an initiative. This article analyzes whether price transparency initiatives can be effectively used to reduce healthcare costs, and if so, what conditions must be met for them to do so. The features of a well-designed price transparency initiative will vary depending upon the targeted population (patients, employers, providers, or insurers) and the particular features of the target market. We argue that the most effective solutions will mandate disclosure of price and quality information at the appropriate stakeholder levels and, simultaneously, break down provider market leverage where it prevents price transparency from helping consumers. Together, these two elements have the potential to lower healthcare costs. Finally, we present four possible price transparency initiatives that represent a range of possible avenues to promoting effective price transparency including litigation, legislation, regulation, and consumer driven initiatives.


The most common means of visualizing data sets with geospatial data is by employing map-based visualization models such as graduated symbol and choropleth. I argue that these models are in fact not the most efficient and effective visualization models for processing geospatial data, especially when the data set holds a notable quantity of location data. To support my argument I designed and developed two alternate models, one that did not use a map, and one that used an abstract version of one: a scatterplot model with geographic references, and a hexagon model. User tests were then performed to evaluate these models. This thesis describes the process, outcomes and future directions of my research. It also provides a literature review that addresses the definition and attributes of data visualization, a taxonomy of data visualization models, and a description of the mechanics of the visual cognition and colour theory employed.


An extension of the signal-detection theory framework is described and demonstrated for two-alternative identification tasks. The extended framework assumes that the subject and an arbitrary model (or two subjects, or the same subject on two occasions) are performing the same task with the same stimuli, and that on each trial they both compute values of a decision variable. Thus, their joint performance is described by six fundamental quantities: two levels of intrinsic discriminability (d′), two values of decision criterion, and two decision-variable correlations (DVCs), one for each of the two categories of stimuli. The framework should be widely applicable for testing models and characterizing individual differences in behavioral and neurophysiological studies of perception and cognition. We demonstrate the framework for the well-known task of detecting a Gaussian target in white noise. We find that (a) subjects' DVCs are approximately equal to the square root of their efficiency relative to ideal (in agreement with the prediction of a popular class of models), (b) between-subjects and within-subject (double-pass) DVCs increase with target contrast and are greater for target-present than target-absent trials (rejecting many models), (c) model parameters can be estimated by maximizing DVCs between the model and subject, (d) a model with a center–surround template and a specific (modest) level of position uncertainty predicts the trial-by-trial performance of subjects as well as (or better than) presenting the same stimulus again to the subjects (i.e., the double-pass DVCs), and (e) models of trial-by-trial performance should not include a representation of internal noise.


This thesis makes a number of new contributions to control and sensing for unmanned vehicles. I begin by developing a non-linear simulation of a small unmanned helicopter and then proceed to develop new algorithms for control and sensing using the simulation. The work is field-tested in successful flight trials of biologically inspired vision and neural network control for an unstable rotorcraft. The techniques are more robust and more easily implemented on a small flying vehicle than previously attempted methods. Experiments from biology suggest that the sensing of image motion or optic flow in insects provides a means of determining the range to obstacles and terrain. This biologically inspired approach is applied to control of height in a helicopter, leading to the World's first optic flow based terrain following controller for an unmanned helicopter in forward flight. Another novel optic flow based controller is developed for the control of velocity in hover. Using the measurements of height from other sensors, optic flow is used to provide a measure of the helicopters lateral and longitudinal velocities relative to the ground plane. Feedback of these velocity measurements enables automated hover with a drift of only a few cm per second, which is sufficient to allow a helicopter to land autonomously in gusty conditions with no absolute measurement of position. New techniques for sensor fusion using Extended Kalman Filtering are developed to estimate attitude and velocity from noisy inertial sensors and optic flow measurements. However, such control and sensor fusion techniques can be computationally intensive, rendering them difficult or impossible to implement on a small unmanned vehicle due to limitations on computing resources. Since neural networks can perform these functions with minimal computing hardware, a new technique of control using neural networks is presented. First a hybrid plant model consisting of exactly known dynamics is combined with a black-box representation of the unknown dynamics. Simulated trajectories are then calculated for the plant using an optimal controller. Finally, a neural network is trained to mimic the optimal controller. Flight test results of control of the heave dynamics of a helicopter confirm the neural network controller's ability to operate in high disturbance conditions and suggest that the neural network outperforms a PD controller. Sensor fusion and control of the lateral and longitudinal dynamics of the helicopter are also shown to be easily achieved using computationally modest neural networks.


The purpose of this article is to identify provisions in SEC Regulation AB that will change the way public offerings of auto asset-backed securities are conducted, and to analyze various approaches that transaction parties may adopt to comply with these rules. Auto securitization sponsors and servicers should begin the process of reviewing their underwriting, servicing, and compliance procedures in order to comply with this regulation. Most auto securitization issuers will need to re-write much of their standard disclosure in order to tailor it to the new requirements of Regulation AB. In addition, a greater degree of cooperation in developing disclosure will be required from non-affiliates of the securitization sponsor such as trustees, non-affiliated originators, third-party credit enhancement providers, and derivate counterparties.


Abstract. The aim of this research is to investigate possibility for interactive semi-automatic interpretation of digital images in humanitarian demining for the purpose of detection and extraction of (strong) indicators of mine presence which can be seen on the images, according to the parameters of the general geometric shapes rather than radiometric characteristics. For that purpose, objects are created by segmentation. The segments represent the observed indicator and the objects that surround them (for analysis of the degree of discrimination of objects from the environment) in the best possible way. These indicators cover a certain characteristic surface. These areas are determined by segmenting the digital image. Sets of pixels that form such surface on images have specific geometric features. In this way, it is provided to analyze the features of the segments on the basis of the object, rather than the pixel level. Factor analysis of geometric parameters of this segments is performed in order to identify parameters that can be distinguished from the other parameters according to their geometric features. Factor analysis was carried out in two different ways, according to the characteristics of the general geometric shape and to the type of strong indicators of mine presence. The continuation of this research is the implementation of the automatic extraction of indicators of mine presence according results presented in this paper.


As the constitutionalisation of political life has been sweeping across the world, British legal scholars have felt emboldened to reconstruct the British constitution in the image of a modern constitutional framework of hierarchically-ordered fundamental law. This has resulted in a great deal of imaginative re-interpretation in which fluid practices have been invested with implausible normative authority, with the author's political beliefs only just lurking below the surface. I try to avoid some of the major pitfalls of this approach by examining not the 'thing in itself' but its various meanings. I therefore present a simplified historical sketch of modern constitutional development in order to show how at distinct periods the meaning of the word 'constitution' has been shaped by the political forces of the time. I conclude that none of the conceptions that were dominant in the various phases of modern development is now able to command authority and this helps to explain why what counts as 'constitutional' is an intensely contested matter.


Gene frequency data for 25 loci (2 HLA loci, 9 blood group loci, and 14 electrophoretically detectable loci) were collected from the literature of 18 human populations from all over the world. The data were subjected to a hierarchical gene diversity analysis to provide an estimate of the relative distribution of genetic variation between and within populations and population groups for different types of loci. Two different ways of grouping the populations, i.e., according to anthropological criteria and to a cluster analysis based on gene frequency data, gave essentially the same results. For all loci combined approximately 86% of total gene diversity was found within populations, 3% was associated with differences between populations within groups, and 11% related to group differences. These results are very similar to those obtained in previous studies based on fewer loci and different sets of populations. The distribution of genetic variation is different for different types of loci. The HLA loci give a picture very similar to that of the electrophoretic loci while the blood group loci have a substantially larger fraction of the total gene diversity distributed between populations or population groups.


1 Background: Chemoradiation (CRT) with temozolomide (TMZ/RT→TMZ) is the standard of care for newly diagnosed GBM. This trial determined if the addition of Bev to standard CRT improves survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in newly diagnosed GBM.

METHODS
This phase III trial was conducted by the RTOG, NCCTG, and ECOG. Neurologically stable pts > 18 yrs with KPS ≥ 60, and > 1cm3 tumor tissue block, were randomized to Arm 1: standard CRT + placebo or Arm 2: standard CRT plus Bev (10 mg/kg iv q 2wks). Experimental treatment began at wk 4 of radiation then thru 6-12 cycles of maintenance chemotherapy. Protocol specified co-primary endpoints were OS and PFS, with significance levels of .023 and .002, respectively. At progression, treatment was unblinded and pts allowed to crossover or continue Bev. Symptom, QOL and neurocognitive (NCF) testing was performed in the majority of pts. Secondary analyses evaluated impact of MGMT methylation (meth) and prognostic 9 gene signature status.

RESULTS
From 978 registered pts, 637 were randomized. Inadequate tissue (n=105) and blood on imaging (n=40) were key reasons for non-randomization. No difference was found between arms for OS (median 16.1 vs. 15.7 mo, p = 0.11). PFS was extended for Arm 2 (7.3 vs. 10.7 mo, p = 0.004). Pts with MGMT meth had superior OS (23.2 vs. 14.3 mo, p < 0.001) and PFS (14.1 vs. 8.2 mo, p < 0.001). Neither the 9 gene signature nor MGMT predicted selective benefit for Bev treatment, but best prognosis pts (MGMT meth, favorable 9-gene), had a worse survival trend with Bev (15.7 vs 25 mo p = 0.08). To date, 128 pts were unblinded on Arm 1 (salvage Bev in 86) and 87 pts on Arm 2 (continued Bev in 39). Increased grade ≥ 3 toxicity was seen with Bev, mostly neutropenia, hypertension, and DVT/PE.

CONCLUSIONS
The addition of Bev for newly diagnosed GBM did not improve OS, did improve PFS but did not reach the significance criterion. MGMT and 9 gene profile did not identify selective benefit, but risk subset results suggested strongly against the upfront use of Bev in the best prognosis pts. Full interpretation of the PFS results incorporating symptom burden, QOL, and NCF is ongoing. Support: NCI U10 CA 21661, U10 CA37422, and Genentech.

CLINICAL TRIAL INFORMATION
NCT00884741.


Sorafenib is the standard first-line therapeutic treatment for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its use is hampered by the development of drug resistance. The activation of Akt by sorafenib is thought to be responsible for this resistance. Bufalin is the major active ingredient of the traditional Chinese medicine Chan su, which inhibits Akt activation; therefore, Chan su is currently used in the clinic to treat cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the ability of bufalin to reverse both inherent and acquired resistance to sorafenib. Bufalin synergized with sorafenib to inhibit tumor cell proliferation and induce apoptosis. This effect was at least partially due to the ability of bufalin to inhibit Akt activation by sorafenib. Moreover, the ability of bufalin to inactivate Akt depended on endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress mediated by inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1). Silencing IRE1 with siRNA blocked the bufalin-induced Akt inactivation, but silencing eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2) or C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP) did not have the same effect. Additionally, silencing Akt did not influence IRE1, CHOP or phosphorylated eIF2α expression. Two sorafenib-resistant HCC cell lines, which were established from human HCC HepG2 and Huh7 cells, were refractory to sorafenib-induced growth inhibition but were sensitive to bufalin. Thus, Bufalin reversed acquired resistance to sorafenib by downregulating phosphorylated Akt in an ER-stress-dependent manner via the IRE1 pathway. These findings warrant further studies to examine the utility of bufalin alone or in combination with sorafenib as a first- or second-line treatment after sorafenib failure for advanced HCC.


The significance of fluctuations in attachment for maladaptive behaviours in adolescence is the focus of this longitudinal study. The adolescent years represent a time of great change, both at the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. As teens are shaping their conceptions about themselves and the world, many engage in a wide range of maladaptive exploratory behaviours, such as delinquency, substance use, and irresponsible sex. Attachment security has been shown to have implications for adjustment throughout the lifespan. Attachment styles are considered to be relatively stable over time, although fluctuations are not atypical. The principal question we wished to address in the present study is the following: are adolescents who remain insecurely attached over time more likely to be maladjusted than adolescents who fluctuate from secure to insecure or vice versa, and from adolescents who remain securely attached over time? Adolescents (n = 131) who had (a) stable secure; (b) stable insecure; (c) unstable attachment styles completed self-report measures of delinquency, drug use, sexuality, and attachment style to mother twice, once when they were in grade 10 or 11 (Time 1), and again one year later (Time 2). Results indicated that adolescents whose attachment style fluctuated (unstable group) engaged in a significantly wider variety of delinquent activities at Time 1 than the adolescents who remained secure from Time 1 to Time 2. Also, unstables decreased in variety of delinquent acts from Time 1 to Time 2. The findings are discussed in light of the significance of attachment instability, as well as the relation between instability and maladjustment in adolescence.


With the increasing number of students enrolled in fully online programs and subjects across different Australian universities, online education has become a popular higher education alternative. The University of Melbourne has responded to this challenge by establishing the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE), where the learning designers (LDs), project managers, educational technologists, graphic designers and video producers work collaboratively with subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the university to create high-quality fully online graduate subjects. The case study presented in this article examines how MSPACE used this team-based approach to design and develop Psychodynamic Psychiatry, a six-week elective in the Master of Psychiatry. This paper examines a number of pedagogical challenges that arise when converting a pre-existing face-to-face subject to a fully online subject, as well as some relatively unique aspects in the design and development process utilised by MSPACE. While the approach provided by MSPACE currently focuses on supporting SMEs by providing access to third-space professionals, it is hoped that this will act as a conduit through which the SMEs are enculturated into the ways of design thinking for effective online teaching and learning practice.


Despite the key role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis and monitoring of multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), the association between clinical and radiological disease manifestations is often only moderate, limiting the use of MRI-derived markers in the clinical routine or as endpoints in clinical trials. In the projects conducted as part of this thesis, we addressed this clinico-radiological gap using two different approaches. Lesion-symptom association: In two voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping studies, we aimed at strengthening lesion-symptom associations by identifying strategic lesion locations. Lesion mapping was performed in two large cohorts: a dataset of 2348 relapsing-remitting MS patients, and a population-based cohort of 1017 elderly subjects. T2-weighted lesion masks were anatomically aligned and a voxel-based statistical approach to relate lesion location to different clinical rating scales was implemented. In the MS lesion mapping, significant associations between white matter (WM) lesion location and several clinical scores were found in periventricular areas. Such lesion clusters appear to be associated with impairment of different physical and cognitive abilities, probably because they affect commissural and long projection fibers. In the SVD lesion mapping, the same WM fibers and the caudate nucleus were identified to significantly relate to the subjects' cerebrovascular risk profiles, while no other locations were found to be associated with cognitive impairment. Atrophy-symptom association: With the construction of an anatomical physical phantom, we aimed at addressing reliability and robustness of atrophy-symptom associations through the provision of a "ground truth" for atrophy quantification. The built phantom prototype is composed of agar gels doped with MRI and computed tomography (CT) contrast agents, which realistically mimic T1 relaxation times of WM and grey matter (GM) and showing distinguishable attenuation coefficients using CT. Moreover, due to the design of anatomically simulated molds, both WM and GM are characterized by shapes comparable to the human counterpart. In a proof-of-principle study, the designed phantom was used to validate automatic brain tissue quantification by two popular software tools, where "ground truth" volumes were derived from high-resolution CT scans. In general, results from the same software yielded reliable and robust results across scans, while results across software were highly variable reaching volume differences of up to 8%.


Inadequate reliability is a well-known issue for reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. This problem has gained increasing attention in recent years, and efforts to improve it have grown substantially. To aid RL researchers and production users with the evaluation and improvement of reliability, we propose a novel set of metrics that quantitatively measure different aspects of reliability. In this work, we address variability and risk, both during training and after learning (on a fixed policy). We designed these metrics to be general-purpose, and we also designed complementary statistical tests to enable rigorous comparisons on these metrics. In this paper, we first describe the desired properties of the metrics and their design, the aspects of reliability that they measure, and their applicability to different scenarios. We then describe the statistical tests and make additional practical recommendations for reporting results. Finally, we apply our metrics to a set of common RL algorithms and environments, compare them, and analyze the results.


This project's goal is to develop remote sensing methods for early detection and spatial mapping, over whole regions simultaneously, of any surface areas under which there are significant CO2 leaks from deep underground storage formations. If large amounts of CO2 gas percolated up from a storage formation below to within plant root depth of the surface, the CO2 soil concentrations near the surface would become elevated and would affect individual plants and their local plant ecologies. Excessive soil CO2 concentrations are observed to significantly affect local plant and animal ecologies in our geothermal exploration, remote sensing research program at Mammoth Mountain CA USA. We also know from our geothermal exploration remote sensing programs, that we can map subtle hidden faults by spatial signatures of altered minerals and of plant species and health distributions. Mapping hidden faults is important because in our experience these highly localized (one to several centimeters) spatial pathways are good candidates for potentially significant CO2 leaks from deep underground formations. The detection and discrimination method we are developing uses primarily airborne hyperspectral, high spatial (3 meter) with 128 band wavelength resolution, visible and near infrared reflected light imagery. We also are using the newly available ''Quickbird'' satellite imagery that has high spatial resolution (0.6 meter for panchromatic images, 2.4 meters for multispectral). We have a commercial provider, HyVista Corp of Sydney Australia, of airborne hyperspectral imagery acquisitions and very relevant image data post processing, so that eventually the ongoing surveillance of CO2 storage fields can be contracted for commercially. In this project we have imaged the Rangely Colorado Oil field and surrounding areas with an airborne hyperspectral visible and near infrared reflected light sensor. The images were analyzed by several methods using the suite of tools available in the ENVI commercial hyperspectral image processing software. We have also begun to use the high resolution (0.6 meter) commercial satellite QuickBird in our technology development. This hyperspectral imaging project for CO2 leakage monitoring has focused on using the extensive hyperspectral imagery set that we acquired of the Rangely CO enhanced oil recovery field in August 2002. We have accomplished extensive analysis of this imagery. We have created highly detailed maps of soil types, plant coverages, plant health, local ecologies or habitats, water conditions, and manmade objects throughout the entire Rangely Oil field and surrounding areas. The results were verified during a field trip to Rangely CO in August 2003. These maps establish an environmental and ecological baseline against which any future CO2 leakage effects on the plants, plant habitats, soils and water conditions can be detected and verified. We have also seen signatures that may be subtle hidden faults. If confirmed these faults might provide pathways for upward CO2 migration if that occurred at any time during the future. We have found a result that was unexpected, new to us, and potentially very important to the task of monitoring for CO2 that has leaked to within the plant root depths near the surface. The discovery is that one of our analysis techniques has picked out finely detailed mapping of local ecologies. Some of which are found to extend across the entire Rangely oil field and into the surrounding areas. These ecologies appear to be made up of a fairly narrow range of percentage admixtures of two or three very specific plant types and soil types. It is likely that any large amounts of CO2 reaching the root depth near the surface would begin to modify the shapes of the habitats. These habitat changes will be easy to detect by repeat imaging of the area. The habitat modification signature is probably detectable earlier following the start of CO2 build up in the soil, than looking for individual plant stress. We strongly recommend a long term research effort that will establish what CO2 soil concentration levels produce observable changes in the biosphere and the corresponding subtle and complex ecological distributions in various environments (including terrestrial and marine). This is an extremely important and highly relevant task for CCP SMV to pursue in our opinion.


Despite the progress that has recently been made in the field of corpus linguistics and language teaching, it is not clear what impact corpora have actually had so far on English language teaching practice. Corpus researchers often claim that corpus linguistics can make a difference for language teaching and that it has an immense potential to improve pedagogy, but perhaps do not focus enough on the interface of research and practice. They do not make sufficient efforts to reach practitioners, especially teachers, with the 'corpus mission', do not know enough about the needs of teachers, and do not show them where corpora can help them solve everyday problems. The present chapter aims to address these issues. It centres on a teachers' needs analysis carried out to capture important aspects about the situation of teachers, their problems and wishes they might have. A questionnaire was devised that covered topics such as the quality of existing teaching materials, authenticity in language teaching, and the teachers' language competence and exam marking. This chapter will present selected results from the teachers' survey and discuss where corpus linguistics (or corpus linguists, rather) could, and should perhaps, offer help to teachers, hence showing them that corpus research can have an impact on pedagogical practice and that corpora can actually make a difference.


The authors present the conceptual design of a system to power an 18-shot, salvo fire 30 mm railgun. The performance of components was selected to be slightly beyond the state of the art but achievable in the near term. For instance, the baseline PFN utilizes a 935 kJ capacitor bank made up of Aerovox 1.3 J/g, 2.5 A/J, 80% efficient capacitor technology. It was sized assuming a 33% efficiency from capacitor to launch package. These capacitors would require some development and are based on the 1.5 J/g technology developed under the BTI/Army Pulse Power Module Program. The 1.5 J/g technology is based on high-voltage (24 kV), low-current capacitors. 1.3 J/g is estimated for lower-voltage (8 kV), higher-current devices. The alternator has power density of about 12 kW/kg. Compulsators have demonstrated peak powers of 100 kW/kg and are being designed to produce 500 kW/kg. The energy storage flywheel design is based on the minimization of overall system mass. >


Using a sample of China's listed entrepreneurial firms, we investigate the relationship between bank connection, corruption and collateral requirements. We find that when a firm is connected with banks, collateral requirements are significantly lower. We also find that bank connection is the channel through which corruption is exercised to benefit those firms with favoured loan terms. Our analysis further reveals that bank connection and corruption have jointly improved bank lending efficiency. However, these positive effects become weaker with government intervention in the form of an economic stimulus package. We argue that in an emerging market, bank connection facilitates rent seeking and helps entrepreneurial firms to access bank loans with favoured loan terms, and this relationship-based financing relies on corruption. Overall, our results are consistent with the view that in an emerging market non-state sector growth is supported by relationshipbased external financing and unconventional governance methods.


Three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) promise to overcome barriers in interconnect scaling, thereby offering an opportunity to get higher performance using CMOS technology. Despite these benefits, testing remains a major obstacle that hinders the adoption of 3D integration. Test techniques and design-for-testability (DfT) solutions for 3D ICs have remained largely unexplored in the research community, even though experts in industry have identified a number of test challenges related to the lack of probe access for wafers, test access to modules in stacked wafers/dies, thermal concerns, test economics, and new defects arising from unique processing steps such as wafer thinning, alignment, and bonding. In this embedded tutorial, the speaker will present an overview of 3D integration, its unique processing and assembly steps, testing and DfT challenges, and some of the solutions being advocated for these challenges. The speaker will focus on proposals for pre-bond testing of dies and TSVs, DfT innovations related to the optimization of die wrappers, test scheduling solutions, and access to dies and inter-die interconnects during stack testing. Time permitting, the speaker will also highlight recent work on comprehensive cost modeling for 3D ICs, which includes the cost of design, manufacture, testing, and test flows.


We screened a variety of lectins with different sugar specificates to determine whether subpopulations of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in the chick can be distinguished by the carbohydrates they express. Of the 15 lectins tested only those that recognize N-acetylgalactosamine (galNac) residues labeled a subset of DRG neurons. For example, Dolichos biflorus (DBA) labeled a population of small-diameter neurons in the dorsomedial DRG and their terminals in the dorsal horn in hatchling chicks. Staining of live neurons in vitro demonstrated that DBA was binding to the cell surface. Labeling first appeared in sensory neurons at about St.38 (E12) and in dorsal horn laminae 1 and 2 at about St.42 (E16). Fainter labeling appeared somewhat later in lamina 3, after hatching. Labeling of the tissue sections was eliminated by chloroform: methanol extraction and reduced by alpha-N- acetylgalactosaminidase digestion, but survived trypsinization. Together these results suggest that a subset of DRG neurons in the chick can be identified by the presence of a cell surface glycoconjugate, perhaps a glycolipid, containing terminal alpha-linked galNac residues.


Both a healthy lifestyle and financially responsible behavior contribute to individual wellbeing and benefit society. Motivated by the fact that both types of behavior involve short-term sacrifices in exchange for uncertain long-term benefits and require self-control, we examine individuals' consistency in behavior across the health and financial domains. Using a large-scale dataset of 3,752 employed Australians, we find that the majority of individuals behave in a consistently beneficial or detrimental way across both domains. This behavioral consistency relates to fundamental life outcomes, including physical and mental health, financial prosperity, and life satisfaction. In a new contribution to the literature, we show how personality traits – Locus of Control, the Big Five, Achievement Motivation – have a meaningful role in explaining the simultaneous pursuit of a healthy lifestyle and financially responsible behavior. These behavioral insights can guide policymakers in developing more effective strategies to steer individuals towards beneficial health and financial outcomes.


With the high consumption and increasing price of lithium resources, sodium ion batteries (SIBs) have been considered as attractive and promising potential alternatives to lithium ion batteries, owing to the abundance and low cost of sodium resources, and the similar electrochemical properties of sodium to lithium. Nevertheless, the lower energy density and limited cycling life of SIBs are still the main challenges impeding their wide application. Tremendous work has been done on anode materials for SIBs, and rational structural design is considered as an effective way to enhance their electrochemical performance. In this review, different types of anode materials for SIBs are summarized according to their reaction mechanism, and the problems for each type are pointed out. Specific structural design approaches for each type of anode material to improve its sodium storage performance are described in detail, and the benefits of different structural designs are explained as well.


Given a complete Riemannian manifold that looks enough like Euclidean space at infinity, physicists have defined a quantity called the "mass" that measures the asymptotic deviation of the geometry from the Euclidean model. After first providing a self-contained introduction to the key underlying geometric concepts, I will go on to explain a simple formula, discovered in joint work with Hajo Hein, for the mass of any asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) Kahler manifold. When the metric is actually AE (asymptotically Euclidean), our formula not only implies the positive mass theorem for Kahler metrics, but also yields a Penrose-type inequality for the mass. I will also briefly indicate some recent technical improvements that allow one to prove these results assuming only minimal metric fall-off assumptions at infinity.


We used whole‐stream and benthic chamber methods to measure rates of metabolism and determine the contribution of the hyporheic zone to ecosystem respiration (R) in two streams with differing surface‐subsurface exchange characteristics, Rio Calaveras and Gallina Creek, New Mexico. We used the difference between whole‐stream and benthic R to calculate the rate of hyporheic zone R and coupled this estimate to an independent measure of hyporheic sediment R to estimate the cross‐sectional area of the hyporheic zone (AH) for two reaches from each stream. Conservative tracer injections and solute transport modeling were used to characterize surface‐subsurface hydrologic exchange by determining values of the cross‐sectional area of the transient storage zone (As). The hyporheic zone contributed a substantial proportion of whole‐stream R in all four study reaches, ranging from 40 to 93%. Wholestream R, hyporheic R, and percent contribution of hyporheic R all increased as transient storage increased, with whole‐stream and hyporheic R exhibiting significant relationships with As. All three measures of respiration and values of AH were much greater for both reaches of the stream with greater surface‐subsurface exchange. AH is valuable for cross‐site comparisons because it accounts for differences in rates of both benthic and hyporheic sediment R and can be used to predict the importance of the hyporheic zone to other stream ecosystem processes.


This paper presents light curves as well as the first systematic characterization of variability of the 106 objects in the high-confidence Fermi Large Area Telescope Bright AGN Sample (LBAS). Weekly light curves of this sample, obtained during the first 11 months of the Fermi survey (2008 August 4–2009 July 4), are tested for variability and their properties are quantified through autocorrelation function and structure function analysis. For the brightest sources, 3 or 4 day binned light curves are extracted in order to determine power density spectra (PDSs) and to fit the temporal structure of major flares. More than 50% of the sources are found to be variable with high significance, where high states do not exceed 1/4 of the total observation range. Variation amplitudes are larger for flat spectrum radio quasars and low/intermediate synchrotron frequency peaked BL Lac objects. Autocorrelation timescales derived from weekly light curves vary from four to a dozen of weeks. Variable sources of the sample have weekly and 3–4 day bin light curves that can be described by 1/fα PDS, and show two kinds of gamma-ray variability: (1) rather constant baseline with sporadic flaring activity characterized by flatter PDS slopes resembling flickering and red noise with occasional intermittence and (2)—measured for a few blazars showing strong activity—complex and structured temporal profiles characterized by long-term memory and steeper PDS slopes, reflecting a random walk underlying mechanism. The average slope of the PDS of the brightest 22 FSRQs and of the 6 brightest BL Lacs is 1.5 and 1.7, respectively. The study of temporal profiles of well-resolved flares observed in the 10 brightest LBAS sources shows that they generally have symmetric profiles and that their total duration vary between 10 and 100 days. Results presented here can assist in source class recognition for unidentified sources and can serve as reference for more detailed analysis of the brightest gamma-ray blazars.


The third paper in this special graduate studies division panel session focuses on issues driving reform of faculty reward systems to advance professional graduate engineering education. Creative engineering practice and leadership of technological innovation to enhance U.S. competitiveness is mission critical to economic development and growth of jobs within the United States of America. The paper and presentation will addresses the need for appropriate recognition of adjunct industrial faculty in professional graduate engineering programs. As identified by the Council of Graduate Schools recently, faculty engaged in professional practice are a major attribute for developing and sustaining high-quality professional graduate programs in engineering and technology. Reward systems and professional recognition of these expert faculty must be improved in order to attract high-caliber, experienced, practicing engineers and industrial leaders from industry. Adjunct industrial faculty teaching in engineering and technology professional graduate programs add remarkable leading edge insight to the needs of industry to be more competitive. Because of current emphasis on research-driven graduate education and the university quest for federal funding, our nation's experienced professional engineering talent in industry has been one of the most underutilized U.S. faculty resources. The opportunity for innovative universities to better recruit, develop, and reward this unique resource of U.S. domestic engineering talent must not be ignored. Use of this experienced resource in combination with core university faculty, builds a formidable U.S. strength for engagement with industry to improve professional graduate engineering education for world-class competitiveness as a professional complement to the existing academic research strength.


Tunnel valleys are kilometre-scale, channel-like, incised subglacial landforms usually associated with glaciated lowlands (O Cofaigh 1996). Tunnel valleys related to the Pleistocene glaciations are present onshore and offshore of NW Europe (e.g. Huuse & Lykke-Andersen 2000; Van der Vegt et al. 2012). In the central North Sea, tunnel valleys are found buried in the Quaternary succession and as bathymetric deeps at the seabed. Three-dimensional (3D) seismic data from the central North Sea image extensive networks of buried tunnel valleys that consist of multiple generations of cross-cutting landforms (Stewart et al. 2013). Seabed tunnel valleys are identified in high-resolution bathymetric data, and form another set of younger glacial landforms. Morphological measurements of the buried and seabed tunnel valleys are compared to infer their relationship to past ice-margins and highlight the differences in ice-sheet configuration over time.

In the central North Sea, over 180 buried tunnel valleys are clearly imaged within 14 overlapping 3D seismic datasets originally acquired for the hydrocarbons industry (Fig. 1a; Stewart et al. 2013). The survey area lies within 56–59° N and 1° W to 2° E, in water depths of 90–150 m. The buried tunnel valleys form part of the extensive erosive surface at the top of the Aberdeen Ground Formation, usually related to the Pleistocene glaciations of the region from the middle Quaternary onwards (Stoker et al. 1983; Graham et al. 2011). The buried valleys overlie the Bruhnes–Matuyama magnetic reversal (dated at 780±5 ka BP from boreholes in the region, Stoker et al. 1983) and are overlain by sediments dated to 30 14C ka BP (Graham et al. 2010).

 Fig. 1.
( a ) Location of the study area, three-dimensional (3D) seismic volumes and examples in the central North Sea. Map from GEBCO_08. WB, Witch Ground Basin. ( b ) All the tunnel valley outlines mapped within …


This paper describes the design of a large-scale emulation engine and an application example from the field of low-power wireless devices. The primary goal of the emulator is to support design space exploration of real-time algorithms. The emulator is customized for dataflow dominant architectures, especially focusing on telecommunication-related applications. Due to its novel routing architecture and application-specific nature, the emulator is capable of real-time execution of a class of algorithms in its application space. Moreover, the dataflow structure facilitates the development of a highly abstracted design flow for the emulator. Simulations and practical measurements on commercial development boards are used to verify that real-time emulation of a low-power TDMA receiver is feasible at a clock speed of 25 MHz.


Analysis of the NASDAQ Composite index in the 36 year period since its inception in 1971 reveals that the probability density function of 1-day returns is highly leptokurtotic; the maximum 1-day loss is more than 9 standard deviations from the mean. The excess kurtosis is, however, reduced by more than an order of magnitude when annual returns are considered. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to test whether this behavior could be attributed to random processes. Widely different 1-day cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) were sampled and it was found that the distribution of annual returns is independent of the shape of the sampling distribution and depends only on the mean and standard deviation of the 1-day returns. The kurtotic behavior of the Monte Carlo results is similar to that observed with the real data and the Monte Carlo simulations do a reasonably good job of bounding the annual return time series data. However, the simulated CDFs do not match the data, i.e., there is a considerably higher probability of loss than predicted by the simulations. This is highly suggestive of non-random behavior and is reinforced by the fact that the standard deviation of M-day returns from the data increased monotonically faster than square-root-M scaling of 1-day returns. To assess whether long-term dependence is present in the NASDAQ time series, rescaled range-statistic calculations were carried out to determine the Hurst exponent, H. It was found that H was 0.59 for 1-day returns and increased monotonically to a value of 0.87 for 250-day (annual) returns. However, most of this increase was also observed in simulated returns derived via a Gaussian random walk. Comparing the two resulted in a DH of 0.06 for 1-day returns and this difference diminished monotonically with increasing period, vanishing altogether after about 100 days.


Traditionally, the selective preservation of certain recalcitrant organic compounds and the formation of recalcitrant humic substances have been regarded as an important mechanism for soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization. Based on a critical overview of available methods and on results from a cooperative research program, this paper evaluates how relevant recalcitrance is for the long-term stabilization of SOM or its fractions. Methodologically, recalcitrance is difficult to assess, since the persistence of certain SOM fractions or specific compounds may also be caused by other stabilization mechanisms, such as physical protection or chemical interactions with mineral surfaces. If only free particulate SOM obtained from density fractionation is considered, it rarely reaches ages exceeding 50 y. Older light particles have often been identified as charred plant residues or as fossil C. The degradability of the readily bioavailable dissolved or water-extractable OM fraction is often negatively correlated with its content in aromatic compounds, which therefore has been associated with recalcitrance. But in subsoils, dissolved organic matter aromaticity and biodegradability both are very low, indicating that other factors or compounds limit its degradation. Among the investigated specific compounds, lignin, lipids, and their derivatives have mean turnover times faster or similar as that of bulk SOM. Only a small fraction of the lignin inputs seems to persist in soils and is mainly found in the fine textural size fraction ( 40–50 y, unless fossil C was present in substantial amounts, as at a site exposed to lignite inputs in the past. Here, turnover of pyrolysis products seemed to be much longer, even for those attributed to carbohydrates or proteins. Apparently, fossil C from lignite coal is also utilized by soil organisms, which is further evidenced by low 14C concentrations in microbial phospholipid fatty acids from this site. Also, black C from charred plant materials was susceptible to microbial degradation in a short-term (60 d) and a long-term (2 y) incubation experiment. This degradation was enhanced, when glucose was supplied as an easily available microbial substrate. Similarly, SOM mineralization in many soils generally increased after addition of carbohydrates, amino acids, or simple organic acids, thus indicating that stability may also be caused by substrate limitations. It is concluded that the presented results do not provide much evidence that the selective preservation of recalcitrant primary biogenic compounds is a major SOM-stabilization mechanism. Old SOM fractions with slow turnover rates were generally only found in association with soil minerals. The only not mineral-associated SOM components that may be persistent in soils appear to be black and fossil C.


This study focused on South African siblings' experiences of a brother or sister with cancer. Social constructionism was used as an epistemological framework. Three in-depth interviews with siblings (ages 12 – 16 years) of pediatric cancer patients, were done. The case study approach was chosen as the most suitable method to gain the information. The thematic content analysis was the method of analysis. Participants' experiences with regard to their siblings' cancer were reconstructed according to themes. Recurring themes were elucidated and linked with the literature. The study allowed participants to express their conscious and unconscious experiences by means of verbal and non-verbal (art activities) communication. Results support the concern by previous studies about siblings' vulnerability since the diagnosis of a brother's/sister's cancer. The uniqueness of each sib's experience and the implementation of individualy-centered intervention strategies is emphasized. Educational Psychologists as well as members of the multidisciplinary team (teachers, medical and nursing staff, parents, family and peers) interested in supporting siblings of pediatric cancer patients can benefit from this study. Key terms: siblings; experiences; South Africa; Educational Psychology; verbal communication; non-verbal communication; conscious experiences; unconscious experiences; art therapy techniques; intervention.


There is a global trend toward improving the student learning experience in higher education. Industry-oriented educational courses must also consider how to prepare graduates for their future professional practice with an awareness of holism and system thinking sustainability, tolerance of uncertainty, knowledge of relevant digital technologies and use of theory.

This study responds to these challenges and illustrates an alternative pedagogic approach for the emerging sub-discipline of fashion business. Fashion business is an important and emerging subdiscipline of fashion with limited published educational research. This subdiscipline has particular significance given the cultural importance, economic significance, ethical and environmental impact of the associated industry. The acceleration and influence of technology is significantly affecting industrial working practices through the adoption of knowledge management systems such as product life-cycle management (PLM). This study represents the first implementation of a PLM philosophy and system within an undergraduate course aligned with the retail, footwear and apparel sector.

The study aimed to employ PLM to establish a community of learning between students, educators and industry with the intention of creating a participatory learning experience that mimics current practice and supports professional identity formation rather than adding digital transformation to the curriculum. The PLM system was used to update, sequence and connect the subject- and work-based elements more coherently such that engagement in practice is a source of critical and innovative thinking empowering graduates to take the practice of fashion business forward.

This action research study involved the implementation of PLM as a way of teaching a global sourcing module in the second year of the course (cohort n=28) over a phased implementation from 2014 to 2018. Communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) is used to understand the learning design and the identity work that students engage in as they develop professionally. Data was collected from students via video and interview, from the practitioner researcher and from external stakeholders. Data from all sources were analysed collectively by using Wenger's (1998) learning architecture to establish a coding scheme.

This thesis describes how the adoption of PLM established a community of learning (CoL) through an educational partnership with the global technology company, PTC Inc. It argues that PLM is a powerful tool of collaboration between students, industry and educators and provides a robust mechanism to establish a community of learning, which also preserves the unique principles derived from design pedagogy. This thesis asserts that a design pedagogy supports students' professional development and bring coherence and relevance to the curriculum and argues for the preservation of this unique learning experience in order to support the successful transition through education and onto the workplace. Further, this thesis illustrates how the insight and energy of students and graduates, who are at the periphery of practice, have much to contribute to the development of ways of working in an industry in transition. The value of closer collaboration between industry and academia is identified and the thesis makes recommendations for ways that PLM might be developed to achieve this. The study also demonstrates the applicability and value of the methodology of action research to collaborative and change projects in higher education.


This thesis is in the first place an "adventure" in three domains of application of Raman spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool for the non-destructive study of cultural heritage materials, namely ancient pottery, porcelains and mosaic glasses. While the use of this technique is well established for the analysis of historic pigments and precious stones, its application to these three types of materials is more recent and still an expanding field. The first chapter illustrates the main objectives of the use of scientific techniques for the analysis of these kinds of materials. It also contains a synthetic review of how Raman spectroscopy has so far been applied to archaeometric studies on cultural heritage materials, and specifically on ancient pottery, porcelains and glasses. The research strategy and the organization of the thesis have been based on this review. Chapter 2 provides a brief introduction to Raman spectroscopy, with its advantages and limitations, as well as a description of the instrumentations and data processing methodologies used. Chapter 3 includes three different experiences regarding the application of Raman spectroscopy to ceramic materials, both in the form of ancient artefacts and of modern test samples. In all cases this technique was combined with other analytical methods, in order to provide information on the raw materials and/or on the production processes of ancient pottery. Chapter 4 constitutes the most voluminous part of this thesis. It deals in general with the potentials of a Raman study of porcelain, and more specifically with the characterization of the 18th century productions of the Bourbon manufactures of Capodimonte and Buen Retiro, through the analysis of both excavation fragments and intact objects belonging to the Sevres Museum. Raman analyses confirmed the uniqueness of the Capodimonte production, and specific Raman signatures were identified for pastes and glazes, which might serve as a "reference" group for the identification of products issued from this manufacture. High similarities were found with the Raman signatures of some Buen Retiro samples, which would assign them to the early stage of the Spanish production. On the other hand, other Spanish samples belonging to later periods of the same factory display peculiar signatures both in the paste and in the glaze. The acquired data could be further treated, in order also to investigate more deeply the correlations existing between the results of Raman analysis and those obtained from other (destructive) techniques. The data presented in this work will hopefully integrate those relative to a number of other early European productions of porcelain which have so far been published. Such a large corpus of spectroscopic data needs now to be systematized, in order to identify "reference" Raman signatures for each manufacture and possibly to standardize the experimental procedure for Raman analyses on ancient porcelains. Up to now a similar need has been fulfilled for the Raman spectra of pigments, which have been the object not only of many publications, but also of some systematization and implementation over the internet. Hopefully the establishment of such a database and experimental protocol will be the object of more research in the near future. Chapter 5 details the results of a preliminary Raman study carried out on Roman age mosaic glass tesserae, which allowed a good characterization of both the glass matrix and the crystalline inclusions. It also led to the identification in some blue, turquoise and green tesserae of calcium antimoniate, whose Raman signature does not seem to have been recognized so far in the scientific literature on mosaic glasses. Moreover, the extreme homogeneity of the Raman spectra of all the ancient samples well reflected the limited variability of their chemical composition, and gave yet another proof of the high level of standardization of glass production in the Roman Age, through a completely non-destructive analytical approach. These were then the reasons of interest and the main results obtained in the three chosen domains of application of Raman spectroscopy; while dealing with different materials, they are far from being "stranger" to each other. In fact, we deal with colouring agents used as pigments in the decoration layers of ancient pottery and porcelain, as well as in bulk glasses. Also, pottery and porcelain glazes have the same material structure as mosaic glasses, and therefore the treatment of their Raman spectra is exactly the same, and similar kinds of information can be be extracted for glazes and glasses. Needless to say, these three types of materials are often found together in historical and archaeological contexts, or even in the same work of art (such as ancient mosaics, often realized using both ceramic and glass tesserae), and may therefore suffer similar pollution and degradation conditions, or need to be jointly analyzed and restored. Studying such different types of materials actually allowed making some comments on the importance of choosing the "best" Raman instrument for the analysis of each of them. Different spectrometers were used, allowing testing different laser colours, instrumental optics and filters. Macroscopic and microscopic approaches were compared, and a last generation portable Raman spectrometer was used for the on-site analysis of some porcelain museum objects, demonstrating its high-standard performances, fully comparable with those of lab instruments. Generally speaking, this work showed once again the usefulness of Raman spectroscopy for the non-destructive analysis of cultural heritage materials. More particularly, its capability to characterize glassy structures should be underlined. Further results could be obtained by enlarging the set of samples of which both the chemical composition and the Raman spectra be known. This may in fact improve the correlations established in previous works and in the present thesis. This would in turn enhance the reliability of Raman spectroscopy and support its role as a routine technique, both fast and non-invasive, useful for preliminary screenings of large numbers of artefacts. At the same time, it seems important to proceed to a standardization of experimental procedures and data processing methods, in order to facilitate comparisons among results obtained in different labs.


Denervation has been shown to impair the ability of insulin to stimulate glycogen synthesis and, to a lesser extent, glucose transport in rat skeletal muscle. Insulin binding to its receptor, activation of the receptor tyrosine kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase do not appear to be involved. On the other hand, it has been shown that denervation causes an increase in the total diacylglycerol (DAG) content and membrane-associated protein kinase C (PKC) activity. In this study, we further characterize these changes in PKC and assess other possible signaling abnormalities that might be related to the decrease of glycogen synthesis. The results reveal that PKC-epsilon and -theta;, but not -alpha or -zeta, are increased in the membrane fraction 24 h after denervation and that the timing of these changes parallels the impaired ability of insulin to stimulate glycogen synthesis. At 24 h, these changes were associated with a 65% decrease in glycogen synthase (GS) activity ratio and decreased electrophoretic mobility, indicative of phosphorylation in GS in muscles incubated in the absence of insulin. Incubation of the denervated soleus with insulin for 30 min minimally increased glucose incorporation into glycogen; however, it increased GS activity threefold, to a value still less than that of control muscle, and it eliminated the gel shift. In addition, insulin increased the apparent abundance of GS kinase (GSK)-3 and protein phosphatase (PP)1 alpha in the supernatant fraction of muscle homogenate to control values, and it caused the same increases in GSK-3 and Akt/protein kinase B (PKB) phosphorylation and Akt/PKB activity that it did in nondenervated muscle. No alterations in hexokinase I or II activity were observed after denervation; however, in agreement with a previous report, glucose 6-phosphate levels were diminished in 24-h-denervated soleus, and they did not increase after insulin stimulation. These results indicate that alterations in the distribution of PKC-epsilon and -theta; accompany the impairment of glycogen synthesis in the 24-h-denervated soleus. They also indicate that the basal rate of glycogen synthesis and its stimulation by insulin in these muscles are diminished despite a normal activation of Akt/PKB and phosphorylation of GSK-3. The significance of the observed alterations to GSK-3 and PP1 alpha distribution remain to be determined.


This project investigated the ways in which new technologies impact on
our relationship to the landscape, and the metaphorical possibilities of
boundary zones in the landscape; those found between the city and the
wilderness. These zones encompass a convergence of different realms of
experience; landscapes we inhabit, landscape we have passed through to
get here, and the changes we have imposed in the process.
In the postmodern world, modern technologies of travel and
communication have shrunk the globe and population movement has
increased dramatically. In defining self-identity, notions of place are no
longer necessarily a dominant factor. This is the broad context of this
research project, addressed in terms of my personal experience of
migration and through theoretical and historical comparisons.
Issues related to migration are epitomised by the experience of John
Glover, and how his experience is reflected by his paintings. As an artist
originating from England and dealing with pastoral themes I compare my
response to his. I contextualise my images with those of contemporary
Australian artists whose work addresses shifting boundaries and multiple
perspectives in landscape, or whose work involves new technologies.
Artists who use a horizontal or panoramic format to convey specific
readings of landscape have been of particular importance and inspiration
in the development of my images.
The major body of images consists of fourteen large-scale computer inkjet
prints, on translucent and transparent polyester paper and white
glossy paper. They are based on local landscapes: 'natural' bush, urban
reserves, farmland and parks. The artworks are derived from video.
Colour, scale and form have been digitally altered. The artworks can be
layered and illuminated in the gallery to manipulate the viewer's
perspective and promote a sense of movement through rhythm and
sequence.
The artworks are intended to challenge traditionally fixed views of
landscape, through the use of digital manipulation, to create generic and
symbolic landscape images. The artworks emphasise transitory
perspectives that characterise contemporary experience.


This thesis presents an investigation into the population geography of Jewish residents of England and Wales in the twenty-first century. The aims of the study are to understand the spatial distribution of the group; identify whether there are distinct differences between groupings in different parts of the country; identify whether the demographics and nature of these groups is changing over time; and to examine whether the pattern for Jews is similar to those for other minority groups of comparable size. Most importantly, the thesis theorises what the patterns found may mean for the demographic future of Anglo-Jewry. The results provide a clearer foundation for organisations responsible for the social welfare of Jewish groups in various parts of the country. In addition, as Jews have been present in Britain in significant numbers for longer than other minority groups, it provides useful insights into future trajectories for more-recently arrived groups. Thus, the findings provide an improved basis for policy formulation by the public authorities with wider responsibilities for combating disadvantage and improving social cohesion. Building on an understanding of the history of Jewish settlement in Britain, and existing demographic studies, the analysis presented takes advantage of the inclusion of a question on religion in the 2001 and 2011 censuses. The principal data sources are census outputs, including Special Migration Statistics, individual microdata, and the Longitudinal Study. The analysis investigates the heterogeneity of the group through the development of a novel geodemographic classification methodology that addresses weaknesses in other approaches and the particular needs of small, unevenly distributed sub-populations. It finds evidence of seven distinct classes, with a strong spatial clustering to their distribution. The spatial distribution of Anglo-Jewry is examined in the context of other minority groups, including previously under-studied Arabs and Sikhs; that analysis finds a strong commonality to the pattern for Jews and some other small groups – their trajectories demonstrating a tension between the benefits of group congregation (apparently driven by religion, even in sub-populations defined by ethnic group) and a desire for suburbanisation. It also identifies the strong impact of geographic scale when drawing conclusions based on distribution indices. The underlying drivers of internal migration, an important contributor to changes in spatial distribution, are examined using logistic regression, having first legitimated the use of (post-move) census-derived characteristics in migration analysis. The assessment finds a broad consistency in underlying determinants of migration and, for the Jewish group, an absence of a group penalty inhibiting the propensity to move home, present for other small groups. The patterns of recent internal migration are analysed using spatial interaction modelling and multi-nominal logistic regression; longer term (1971 onwards) patterns are also examined. Based on these analyses, and allowing for potential future patterns of births and longevity, population trends found through an innovative application of the 2011-based geodemographic analysis to 2001 census data are extrapolated to produce estimates of the Jewish population of England and Wales for future decades. The novel approach used takes account of group heterogeneity and absence of group-specific fertility and mortality data. The projection demonstrates an increasing Jewish population, in contrast to the reduction seen during the second half of the twentieth century, but with a growing proportion being found in strictly orthodox enclaves, which gives rise to a number of societal and policy implications.


The issue regarding the interrelationships between economic development and environmental pollution has been of major concern in many countries. Many economic/mathematical models have been developed to describe or predict these complex phenomena. In this research, an aggregated model of a large scale region of a nation was developed for exploring the environmental burden/pollution attributable to economic development and changes in the industrial structure. A system-dynamics based software Vensim® was employed to serve as the modeling tool. In the economic division, sectoral GDP's were computed using the Cobb-Douglas production functions in which the technique coefficient and labor share for each economic sector were calibrated in advance based on historical data. Three major employment categories, industrial, service, and agricultural, were defined. Among these, there are 12 industrial, 4 service, and 2 agricultural sectors. In the environmental division, key variables regarding river, air, and waste pollution were incorporated in the simulation model. For river pollution, BOD5 was selected as the target pollutant and the receiving water bodies were 29 main rivers in Taiwan. For air pollution, TSP, SOX, NOX, and VOCs were the target pollutants and they were generated from both stationary and mobile sources. As for waste pollution, hazardous and nonhazardous wastes from various sources were key pollutants. In each of these environmental submodels, the generation, treatment, emission, accompanying costs, and other important variables were simulated according to many scenarios designed by taking into account essential policy variables or parameters in practice. Through these scenario simulations, policy variables sensitive to the concerned system performances can be identified. Thus, the approaches to reach some preannounced environmental goals could be understood. In addition, to reflect the environmental degradations caused by various pollutions, the concepts of "Green Accounting" were employed and the "Green GDP's" obtained by considering these pollutions were calculated. This simulation model is a good prototype for integrating economic and environmental issues in a dynamic, interactive, and user-friendly framework. © 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-720-5 The Sustainable City III, N. Marchettini, C. A. Brebbia, E. Tiezzi & L. C. Wadhwa (Editors)


A young couple poses before a painted backdrop depicting a modern building set in a volcanic landscape; a college student grabs his camera as he heads to a political demonstration; a man poses stiffly for his identity photograph; amateur photographers look for picturesque images in a rural village; an old woman leafs through a family album. In Refracted Visions , Karen Strassler argues that popular photographic practices such as these have played a crucial role in the making of modern national subjects in postcolonial Java. Contending that photographic genres cultivate distinctive ways of seeing and positioning oneself and others within the affective, ideological, and temporal location of Indonesia, she examines genres ranging from state identification photos to pictures documenting family rituals.

Oriented to projects of selfhood, memory, and social affiliation, popular photographs recast national iconographies in an intimate register. They convey the longings of Indonesian national modernity: nostalgia for rural idylls and "tradition," desires for the trappings of modernity and affluence, dreams of historical agency, and hopes for political authenticity. Yet photography also brings people into contact with ideas and images that transcend and at times undermine a strictly national frame. Photography's primary practitioners in the postcolonial era have been Chinese Indonesians. Acting as cultural brokers who translate global and colonial imageries into national idioms, these members of a transnational minority have helped shape the visual contours of Indonesian belonging even as their own place within the nation remains tenuous. Refracted Visions illuminates the ways that everyday photographic practices generate visual habits that in turn give rise to political subjects and communities.


Historic data and old topographic maps include information on historical floods and paleo-floods. This paper aims at identifying the flood hazard by using historic data in the drainage basin of Pinios (Peneus) River, in Thessaly, central Greece. For this purpose, a catalogue of historical flood events that occurred between 1979 and 2010 and old topographic maps of 1881 were used. Moreover, geomorphic parameters such as elevation, slope, aspect and slope curvature were taken into account. The data were combined with the Geographical Information System to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of flood events. The results show that a total number of 146 flood events were recorded in the study area. The number of flood events reaches its maximum value in the year 1994, while October contains the most flood events. The flood occurrences increased during the period 1990–2010. The flooded area reaches its maximum value in the year 1987, and November is the month with the most records. The type of damages with the most records is for rural land use. Regarding the class of damages, no human casualties were recorded during the studied period. The annual and monthly distribution of the very high category reaches the maximum values, respectively, in the year 2005 and in June. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the floods proves that most of the occurrences are recorded in the southern part of the study area. There is a certain amount of clustering of flood events in the areas of former marshes and lakes along with the lowest and flattest parts of the study area. These areas are located in the central, southern, south-eastern and coastal part of the study area and create favorable conditions for flooding. The proposed method estimates the localization of sites prone to flood, and it may be used for flood hazard assessment mapping and for flood risk management.


In this work a technique capable to investigate the near-wake stability properties of a wind turbine immersed in the atmospheric boundary layer is presented. Specifically, a 2D local spatial stability analysis is developed in order to take into account typical flow features of real operating wind turbines, such as the presence of the atmospheric boundary layer and the turbulence heterogeneity of the oncoming wind. This stability analysis can be generally applied on either experimental measurements or numerical data. In this paper it was carried out on wind tunnel experiments, for which a downscaled wind turbine is immersed in a turbulent boundary layer. Through spatial stability analysis, the dominant mode in the near wake, i.e. the most amplified one, is characterized and its frequency matches the hub-vortex instability frequency measured in the wind tunnel. As in the case of [10], where an axisymmetric wake condition was investigated, the hub-vortex instability results in a single-helical mode.


Article history: Received October 31 2015 Received in Revised Format December 21 2015 Accepted January 28 2016 Available online January 28 2016 In this paper, the ranking performance of six most popular and easily comprehensive multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, i.e. weighted sum method (WSM), weighted product method (WPM), weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method, multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis and reference point approach (MOORA) method, and multiplicative form of MOORA method (MULTIMOORA) is investigated using two real time industrial robot selection problems. Both single dimensional and high dimensional weight sensitivity analyses are performed to study the effects of weight variations of the most important as well as the most critical criterion on the ranking stability of all the six considered MCDM methods. The identified local weight stability interval indicates the range of weights within which the rank of the best alternative remains unaltered, whereas, the global weight stability interval determines the range of weights within which the overall rank order of all the alternatives remains unaffected. It is observed that for both the problems, multiplicative form of MOORA is the most robust method being least affected by the changing weights of the most important and the most critical criteria. © 2016 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved


This paper analyses the recession in 2008/2009 in Germany, which is very different from previous recessions, in particular regarding its cause and magnitude. We show to what extent forecasters and forecasts based on leading indicators fail to detect the timing and the magnitude of the recession. This study shows that large forecast errors for both expert forecasts and forecasts based on leading indicators resulted during this recession which implies that the recession was very difficult to forecast. However, some leading indicators (survey data, risk spreads, stock prices) have indicated an economic downturn and hence, beat univariate time series models. Although the combination of individual forecasts provides an improvement compared to the benchmark model, the combined forecasts are worse than several individual models. A comparison of expert forecasts with the best forecasts based on leading indicators shows only minor deviations. Overall, the range for an improvement of expert forecasts during the crisis compared to indicator forecasts is relatively small.


Business competitiveness requires the company's ability to define and implement competitive strategies that will allow its survival and development in the long term - in other words, its sustainability. Among these strategies, technological innovation associated with the development of the technical-scientific capacity of the company, and therefore, of the individuals who work in its various processes, has acquired a position of growing importance in corporate planning and actions. Accordingly, interpersonal relations are a critical factor for innovation processes, which must be continuously improved. The main objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics associated with these processes from the case study conducted focusing on procedures and information flows generated by the Capacity Management of a large telecommunications company in Brazil. The research was carried out based on qualitative and quantitative approaches. On the one hand, from the philosophical perspective of interpretation and based on the qualitative research, it was possible to study the social phenomenon related to the diffusion of knowledge among members of a team responsible for the actions and technical proposals in the capacity management of the telecom company being studied. On the other hand, the quantitative approach allowed the use of mathematical models in order to measure properties (e.g. cohesion, centrality, prestige and connectivity) of the networks studied and to provide their topological characterization. The present study was developed based on the model proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1977) in order to analyze and describe the processes of creation and dissemination of knowledge in the organization, associated with the methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA). The results suggest that the networks studied exhibit scale-free topology, which makes the flow of information and knowledge resistant to random "attacks" (e.g. spontaneous resignation of a team member), but vulnerable to planned "attacks" (e.g. either reallocation or dismissal of well-connected individuals or hubs).


The tokamak is so far the most promising magnetic configuration for achieving a net production of fusion energy. The D-T fusion reactions result in 3.5 MeV alpha-particles, which may destabilize Alfven eigenmodes through wave-particle interaction. These instabilities redistribute the alpha-particles from the central region of the plasma towards the edge, where they are thermalized, and hence result in a reduced heating efficiency. The high-energy alpha-particles may even be thrown out of the plasma and may damage the wall. To investigate the destabilization of Alfven eigenmodes by high-energy ions, ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) and neutral beam injection (NBI) are often used to create a high-energy tail on the distribution function. The ICRH does not only produce high-energy anisotropic tails, it also decorrelates the wave-particle interaction with the Alfven eigenmodes. Without decorrelation of the wave-particle interaction an ion will undergo a superadiabatic oscillation in phase space and there will be no net transfer of energy to the mode. For the thermal ions the decorrelation from collisions dominates while for the high-energy ions the decorrelation from ICRH dominates. As the unstable modes grow up, the gradients in phase space, which drive the mode, are reduced, resulting in a weaker drive. The dynamics of the system becomes non-linear due to a continuous restoration of the gradients by D-T reactions and ICRH. In this thesis the non-linear dynamics of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) during ICRH has been investigated using the SELFO code. The SELFO code, which calculates the distribution function during ICRH self-consistently using a Monte-Carlo metod, has been upgraded to include interactions with TAEs. The fast decay of the mode amplitude as the ICRH is switched off, which is seen in experiments, as well as the oscillation of the mode amplitude as the distribution function is repetetively built up by the ICRH and flattened by the TAE has been reproduced using numerical simulations. In the presence of several unstable modes the dynamics become more complicated. The redistribution of an alpha-particle slowing down distribution function as well as the reduced heating efficiency in the presence of several modes has also been investigated.


"Every Catholic Child in a Catholic School": Historical Resistance to State Schooling, Contemporary Private Competition, and Student Achievement across Countries Nineteenth-Century Catholic doctrine strongly opposed state schooling. We show that countries with larger shares of Catholics in 1900 (but without a Catholic state religion) tend to have larger shares of privately operated schools even today. We use this historical pattern as a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of contemporary private competition on student achievement in cross-country student-level analyses. Our results show that larger shares of privately operated schools lead to better student achievement in mathematics, science, and reading and to lower total education spending, even after controlling for current Catholic shares. JEL Classification: I20, L33, N30, Z12