The ``Internet of Things'' intends to enhance items of our everyday life with information and/or processing and interconnect them, so that computers can sense, integrate, present, and react on all kinds of aspects of the physical world. As this implies that enormous numbers of data sources need to be connected and related to each other, flexible and dynamic middleware support essentially providing zero-programming deployment is a key requirement to cope with the sheer scale of this task and the heterogeneity of available technologies. In this paper we briefly overview our Global Sensor Networks (GSN) middleware which supports these tasks and offers a flexible, zero-programming deployment and integration infrastructure. GSN's central concept is the virtual sensor abstraction which enables the user to declaratively specify XML-based deployment descriptors in combination with the possibility to integrate sensor network data through plain SQL queries over local and remote sensor data sources. The GSN implementation is available from http://gsn.sourceforge.net/.


There is a great deal of public art in Pittsburgh. Surveying some examples of this public sculpture suggests some general lessons about the role of such art. Art in public spaces needs to be accessible to the public. One way to make it so is to present local history, commemorating local sports heroes, politicians or artists. Public art also needs to be placed in a way that is sensitive to local history. Most public art in Pittsburgh is not successful because it does not deal with the interesting history of that city. Much sculpture that is successful in a museum is not good public art, and some successful public art in Pittsburgh does not belong in a museum.


This paper proposes a new method for model assessment based on Renormalization Group. Renormalization Group is applied to the original data set to obtain the transformed data set with the majority rule to set its labels. The assessment is first performed on the data level without invoking any learning method, and the consistency and nonrandomness indices are defined by comparing two data sets to reveal informative content of the data. When the indices indicate informative data, the next assessment is carried out at the model level, and the predictions are compared between two models learnt from the original and transformed data sets, respectively. The model consistency and reliability indices are introduced accordingly. Unlike cross-validation and other standard methods in the literature, the proposed method creates a new data set and data assessment. Besides, it requires only two models and thus less computational burden for model assessment. The proposed method is illustrated with academic and practical examples.


Increasingly, Queensland farmers are choosing to store grain longer on farm, and many farmers are investing in new silos to increase storage capacity. This trend is driven mainly by the desire of farmers to manage their harvest logistics rather than seeking to maximise profit. The problem is that increasing on-farm storage comes with an increasing risk of insect infestation. There is an urgent need, therefore, for appropriate sampling methods to help farmers manage this risk and minimize marketing delays. Ideally, they should be simple, safe, cost effective and easy to interpret. The project aim was to investigate such options and it had three deliverables: a review of the relevant peer reviewed literature, preliminary sampling data from farm trials in Queensland, and feedback from farmers and stakeholders on sampling needs and preferences of farmers. The literature review highlighted the value in direct sampling of grain for insects and the use of probe traps in the grain bulk. It also highlighted the need for locally generated trial data, because of the need for data that are relevant to local storage conditions. A successful pilot study was completed on two farms in southern Queensland. A series of recommendations was developed and knowledge gaps requiring further research were identified. Three industry meetings provided opportunities to highlight the urgent need for sampling methods for farmers, to present results of the field study and to receive industry feedback. The project represents a first step towards providing farmers with the ability to monitor for grain insects, but more research is needed to before this goal can be achieved.


: - This research was motivated by an interest in the ethno-agronomy of the Wangi-Wangi Island community in Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Wangi-Wangi Island as small islands has a determination of dry land resources with a dry climate. On this island there are relatively agricultural products that can support the community's food security in a sustainable manner. This sustainability based on the community of local wisdom in the traditional agricultural system which is welia manifest. This research aims to finding welia 's resilience as ethno agronomy in small island community. This research has a case study design, and was conducted in April 2018 to August 2019. Data was collected through observation, interviews, literature study and laboratory test with the triangulation method. Informants are determined by certain criteria, consisting of 1 key informant and 63 key informants. The results showed that welia is local wisdom in cultivating plants on dry land and dry climate. This system was born from a farming culture (ethno-agronomy) and centered on land (agro-centric). welia with a pair of red bean and corn by 100% canopy follow lighting will have optimal crop production. The vegetation in welia consists of climbing poles or stakes and shade trees ( toropanga ) in maintaining soil fertility to support plant productivity. Welia is a land management system that relies on vegetation and fire. Farmers should use fire wisely as agro-technology in burning land. The wise use of fire can support the sustainability of welia 's vegetation.


A longstanding finding in the forecasting literature is that averaging forecasts from different models often improves upon forecasts based on a single model, with equal weight averaging working particularly well. This paper analyzes the effects of trimming the set of models prior to averaging. We compare different trimming schemes and propose a new one based on Model Confidence Sets that take into account the statistical significance of historical out-of-sample forecasting performance. In an empirical application of forecasting U.S. macroeconomic indicators, we find significant gains in out-of-sample forecast accuracy from our proposed trimming method.


ATP is an endothelium-dependent vasodilator, and findings regarding the underlying signaling mechanisms are equivocal. We sought to determine the independent and interactive roles of nitric oxide (NO) and vasodilating prostaglandins (PGs) in ATP-mediated vasodilation in young, healthy humans and determine whether any potential role was dependent on ATP dose or the timing of inhibition. In protocol 1 (n = 18), a dose-response curve to intrabrachial infusion of ATP was performed before and after both single and combined inhibition of NO synthase [N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA)] and cyclooxygenase (ketorolac). Forearm blood flow (FBF) was measured via venous occlusion plethysmography and forearm vascular conductance (FVC) was calculated. In this protocol, neither individual nor combined NO/PG inhibition had any effect on the vasodilatory response (P = 0.22-0.99). In protocol 2 (n = 16), we determined whether any possible contribution of both NO and PGs to ATP vasodilation was greater at low vs. high doses of ATP and whether inhibition during steady-state infusion of the respective dose of ATP impacted the dilation. FBF in this protocol was measured via Doppler ultrasound. In protocol 2, infusion of low (n = 8)- and high-dose (n = 8) ATP for 5 min evoked a significant increase in FVC above baseline (low = 198 ± 24%; high = 706 ± 79%). Infusion of L-NMMA and ketorolac together reduced steady-state FVC during both low- and high-dose ATP (P < 0.05), and in a subsequent trial with continuous NO/PG blockade, the vasodilator response from baseline to 5 min of steady-state infusion was similarly reduced for both low (ΔFVC = -31 ± 11%)- and high-dose ATP (ΔFVC -25 ± 11%; P = 0.70 low vs. high dose). Collectively, our findings indicate a potential modest role for NO and PGs in the vasodilatory response to exogenous ATP in the human forearm that does not appear to be dose or timing dependent; however, this is dependent on the method for assessing forearm vascular responses. Importantly, the majority of ATP-mediated vasodilation is independent of these putative endothelium-dependent pathways in humans.


In Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa9s Democracies , M. Anne Pitcher offers an engaging new theory to explain the different trajectories of private sector development across contemporary Africa. Pitcher argues that the outcomes of economic reforms depend not only on the kinds of institutional arrangements adopted by states in order to create or expand their private sectors but also on the nature of party system competition and the quality of democracy in particular countries. To illustrate her claim, Pitcher draws on several original datasets covering twenty-seven countries in Africa and detailed case studies of the privatization process in Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa. This study underscores the importance of formal institutions and political context to the design and outcome of economic policies in developing countries.


Abstract The thrombospondin type 1 repeat (TSR) is an ancient extracellular protein domain that is commonly found in invertebrate and vertebrate proteins. The ADAMTSL4 protein, also known as TSRC1, belongs to the TSR superfamily and has multiple thrombospondin repeats, most of which are clustered at the C-terminus. It has been reported that some TSP1 domain-containing proteins, e.g. thrombospondin 1 and thrombospondin 2, could induce apoptosis of endothelial cells but it is not clear how these proteins operate in death pathways. Our recent work shows that mutations in ADAMTSL4 are responsible for autosomal-recessive isolated ectopia lentis, i.e. abnormal positioning of the lens of the eye and affect the development of the zonular fiber. However, little is known about the function of ADAMTSL4. To shed more light on the function of the ADMTSL4 and its roles in different tissues we extended our work to carry out molecular characterization of this gene and its variants. We have obtained cDNA clones encoding the full ADAMTSL4 protein and its truncated isoform. Both are subcloned into the pET28a vector for expression in E. coli. In anticipation of possible expression challenges in this host, e.g. formation of inclusion bodies or lack of expression, we subcloned each fragment into the yeast vector, pYES2. The gene in both cases has been fused in frame with a region encoding an N-terminal His-Tag to facilitate the purification of the recombinant protein. DNA analysis indicates that each fragment has been correctly cloned into the pYES2 vector. Each construct was transformed into Saccharomyces cerevisiae for protein expression. Our preliminary analysis indicates that one of the genes is expressed in S. cerevisiae but at a very low level. Work to optimize the expression of ADAMTSL4 in yeast as well as in E. coli is in progress. We also extracted the seven domains of the ADAMTSL4 using PCR. Each domain was subcloned into the E. coli overexpression vector, pET28a. Expression studies of all the constructs have shown that the seven domains have been successfully overexpressed in E. coli. The overexpression was confirmed using Western blot techniques. The recombinant protein of each domain is purified for NMR and x-ray studies.


The concept of 'communities of practice' (Lave and Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998) has become an influential one in education, management, and social sciences in recent years. This book consists of a series of studies by linguists and educational researchers, examining and developing aspects of the concept which have remained relatively unexplored. Framings provided by theories of language-in-use, literacy practices, and discourse extend the concept, bringing to light issues around conflict, power, and the significance of the broader social context which have been overlooked. Chapters assess the relationship between communities of practice and other theories including literacy studies, critical language studies, the ethnography of communication, socio-cultural activity theory, and sociological theories of risk. Domains of empirical research reported include schools, police stations, adult basic education, higher education, and multilingual settings. The book highlights the need to incorporate thinking around language-in-use, power and conflict, and social context into communities of practice.
• Addresses and develops a significant and influential concept, 'communities of practice'
• Makes language and power central to communities of practice
• Important case studies of communities of practice in different contexts including education, computer gaming, and workplaces.
Contents:
Introduction; 1. Literacy, reification, and the dynamics of social interaction - David Barton and Mary Hamilton; 2. Language and power in communities of practice - Karin Tusting; 3. Mediating allegations of racism in a multiethnic London school: what speech communities and communities of practice can tell us about discourse and power - Angela Creese; 4. 'I've picked some up from a colleague': language, sharing, and communities of practice in an institutional setting - Frances Rock; 5. The person in the doing: negotiating the experience of self - Maria Clara Keating; 6. Communities of practice and learning communities: do bilingual co-workers learn in community? - Deirdre Martin; 7. Moving beyond communities of practice in adult basic education - Steven Robert Harris and Nicola Shelswell; 8. Communities of practice in higher education: useful heuristic or educational model? - Mary Lea; 9. Communities of practice, risk, and Sellafield - Greg Myers; 10. Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: from 'the age of mythology' to today's schools - James Paul Gee.


The lived experiences of three Black, male youth apprentices in North Carolina were told through a qualitative multi-case study. The participants in each case began recruitment for apprenticeship as a high school student though a pre-apprenticeship experience and were hired as full-time apprentices upon completing their program. All of the apprentices were exposed to career awareness activities that connected them to real-world experiences and career pathways before, during and after their recruitment. They also experienced economic mobility by choosing an apprenticeship pathway. Wrap-around services that included support from parents, school, work, other apprentices and the apprentices themselves sustained the apprentices and led to their persistence. The findings suggest that exposure to career awareness, the benefits of economic mobility and strategic supportive services support the recruitment and retention of Black, male youth apprentices.


Vlad the Impaler is often buried in the vampire myths of Count Dracula, even in Romania where the Impaler lived and died.  His castles are forgotten, while those stolen by Bram Stoker and Hollywood reap the benefits of a shadow of association.  Despite this, Romania capitalizes on Vlad's image, and blends it with the vampire to create a booming tourist industry.  If this continues, Vlad the Impaler, who is identified as a Romanian national hero, will be lost in the image of something far worse, and Romania will lose its hero to a myth. Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476) was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, and the Impaler's family name was in fact Dracula.  Stoker adopted the name for his blood-sucking Count, and now the two seem interchangeable.  Castle Bran is called Dracula's Castle, but little evidence suggests that Vlad was ever there.  Vlad the Impaler's castle is largely unknown, yet has a completely different history and exemplifies the Impaler's drive for order and defense, and also supports his position as a national hero.  A Dracula Land theme park in 2001 was supposedly going to mix the Count and the Prince, making it educational yet interesting, and making resources available for both the Count and the Impaler.  Finally, the Impaler's lost grave, and corpse, has not helped the vampire myth.  These aspects of the Prince-Count confusion require analysis in order to separate the two.  By examining two castles, a failed theme park, and the alleged grave of the Impaler, the Prince and the Count can be distinguished, the Impaler's national-hero status can be evaluated, and potential impacts on Romanian tourism can be explored.


The authors describe the design and performance of an ultrafast optical clock recovery system that is based on two-photon absorption (TPA) in a silicon avalanche photodiode. Unlike many other optical clock recovery techniques, the system is shown to be polarization insensitive, broadband, low jitter, and scalable to high data rates. Moreover, the system is simple, economical, and suitable for integration with silicon electronics. Successful operation of the system is reported for speeds up to 80 Gb/s and transmission distances up to 840 km using a recirculating loop. The authors introduce a new dithering detection scheme that dramatically improves the dynamic range and decreases polarization and wavelength dependence, without introducing an additional timing jitter. The system achieves a dynamic range of 10 dB and optical bandwidth exceeding 35 nm


"An important objective in the construction of real estate price indices is the creation of subindices by region or by neighbourhood. Environmental changes such as the improvement in the accessibility of a neighbourhood will result in different price changes across neighbourhoods. It is important that an appropriate method be selected for constructing such indices. One such method is the repeat sales method which has the advantage that it does not require the attributes of properties. In this paper, we construct an index of a particular house type in Bordeaux (the """"Echoppes"""") for the period 1985-1997. This index shows steady price increases even during the bearish real estate markets of the early 1990s. When the city is divided into two regions, differences in price changes are observed."


Objective: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) for use with ICD-9-CM data. Many countries have adopted ICD-10 for coding hospital diagnoses. We conducted this study to develop an internationally harmonized ICD-10 coding algorithm for the AHRQ PSIs. Methods: The AHRQ PSI Version 2.1 has been translated into ICD-10-AM (Australian Modification), and PSI Version 3.0a has been independently translated into ICD-10-GM (German Modification). We converted these two country-specific coding algorithms into ICD-10-WHO (World Health Organization version) and combined them to form one master list. Members of an international expert panel-including physicians, professional medical coders, disease classification specialists, health services researchers, epidemiologists, and users of the PSI-independently evaluated this master list and rated each code as either "include," "exclude," or "uncertain," following the AHRQ PSI definitions. After summarizing the independent rating results, we held a face-to-face meeting to discuss codes for which there was no unanimous consensus and newly proposed codes. A modified Delphi method was employed to generate a final ICD-10 WHO coding list. Results: Of 20 PSIs, 15 that were based mainly on diagnosis codes were selected for translation. At the meeting, panelists discussed 794 codes for which consensus had not been achieved and 2,541 additional codes that were proposed by individual panelists for consideration prior to the meeting. Three documents were generated: a PSI ICD-10-WHO version-coding list, a list of issues for consideration on certain AHRQ PSIs and ICD-9-CM codes, and a recommendation to WHO to improve specification of some disease classifications. Conclusion: An ICD-10-WHO PSI coding list has been developed and structured in a manner similar to the AHRQ manual. Although face validity of the list has been ensured through a rigorous expert panel assessment, its true validity and applicability should be assessed internationally.


The post-cold war generation of citizens is forgetting nuclear weapon-related dangers and becoming indifferent to the issue. At the same time, the absence of mass grass-roots, anti-nuclear protest suggests tacit support for current nuclear weapon policies. These three common diagnoses are potentially contradictory and, more importantly, are only assumptions. This paper is the first systematic attempt at assessing the attitude of the under 30s generation of European Union (EU) citizens with regard to nuclear weapons. It is based on a poll of over 10 000 citizens across the 28 EU member countries. The paper finds that none of these assumptions holds. Except for the cases of near nuclear use, the lack of knowledge about nuclear danger is not that widespread; it only increases slowly and not uniformly. Similarly, the lack of popular engagement in the nuclear weapon debate does not mean support for existing policies. In this paper, the sentiment of support is assessed with a set of three criteria: the feeling of safety attained from nuclear weapons; satisfaction with policies taken in one's name; and acceptance of vulnerabilities arising from the possession of nuclear weapons. This paper finds that overall support in these areas is below 30 per cent in every country for which there was a representative sample of respondents. Neither do the youth express a lack of concern, but rather a strong feeling of inability to affect the outcome. This suggests the need for both a research agenda and a reform of EU educational policies aimed at this generation on nuclear weapons.


Abhishek Ghoshal is a PhD scholar with Nature Conservation Foundation and Wildlife Institute of India. His research interests include wildlife ecology and conservation in the Indian Himalayas and Trans-Himalayas. Snow leopard, an elusive mammal species of the cat family, is the top-predator of the Central and South Asian, highaltitude ecosystem. Snow leopards occur at low densities across the Central Asian mountains and the Indian Himalayan region. Owing to their secretive nature and inaccessible habitat, little is known about its ecology and distribution. Due to its endangered status and high aesthetic value, the snow leopard is considered as an 'umbrella species' for wildlife conservation in the Indian Himalayas. This article summarizes the current knowledge on snow leopard ecology and conservation issues in the Indian context.


Background: Although sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of children living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), little is known about the prevalence of HIV related kidney disease in these children despite the recognition of HIV infection as a strong risk factor for kidney disease. This study investigated the prevalence and factors associated with renal dysfunction in HIV positive paediatric patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy at the Paediatric Centre of Excellence (PCOE) of the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Lusaka, Zambia. Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted at the PCOE of the UTH in Lusaka, Zambia. Enrolment of all eligible participants was from April to September 2014. The Inclusion criteria were patients aged 18 months to 16 years who consented or and assented to the study and were on HAART. Renal dysfunction was defined as at least abnormal renal laboratory values in at least 1 of 3 measures of proteinuria, serum creatinine or Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) 60mL/min/1.73m2 for the age and height-adjusted value as defined by The Kidney Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) 2012 on two occasions. A file review and clinical evaluation was done by the study physician to determine the factors associated with renal dysfunction. Blood was drawn for CD4 count, Haemoglobin (HB), Creatinine and Urine was taken for dipstick urinalysis. Results: Of the 209 participants enrolled in this cross-sectional study, 105(50.2%) were females. This study found a prevalence of 8.1% (CI=5.0-12.5), of renal dysfunction among paediatric HIV patients, followed up at PCOE. Children aged 13 and above had on average 23 times greater odds for renal dysfunction [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 23.76, and 95% confidence interval (CI) = (5.30 – 106.53), P-value <0.01] compared to children under 13 years old. Children receiving nephrotoxic HAART had on average 6 times greater odds for renal dysfunction [OR=5.55, CI= (1.57 – 19.65), P-value = 0.01] compared to children receiving Non-Nephrotoxic HAART. Conclusion: The prevalence of renal dysfunction among paediatric HIV infected patients followed up at the PCOE at UTH in Lusaka Zambia is 8.1%, at 95% CI= (5.0-12.5) and associated factors include an increase in age and nephrotoxic HAART.


Habitants of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) currently suffer from extreme commutes due to urban sprawl, lack of major roadways, and insufficient public transit. As gas prices continue to increase, people are constantly looking for ways to reduce their fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions, and battery electric vehicles can reduce both of these needs. The lack of charging infrastructure is causing "range anxiety" – fear of being stranded without power. As public charging stations become more common, range anxiety should be alleviated and allow for wider public acceptance. Currently there are three main categories of electric vehicles: gasoline/diesel hybrid electric vehicle, plug-in electric hybrid, and battery electric vehicles. All of these vehicles have the common parts: electric motor, inverter, and battery. There are 3 levels of battery charging: Level 1 charging is from a common electrical 110V outlet, and may take up to 20h to fully charge a depleted pack; Level 2 charging uses a 220V (washing machine) outlet, and will require 4-6 hours; Level 3 charging will complete in less than 30 minutes, and will be similar to a gas station. Based on the acceptance of hybrid electric vehicles, early adopters aged 40 to 50 with at least a bachelors degree should adopt the technology first. Car sharing programs, taxis, and delivery trucks will also quickly adopt electric vehicles into their fleets because it is more economical than gasoline cars. Each of the 44 wards in Toronto were scored on population, age, household income, level of education, and number of daily auto trips. According to the normalized score, the first wards to adopt electric vehicle technology are wards 23, 22, 25, 27, and 16. Infrastructure should be built in these wards to accelerate public acceptance. In the near future, automakers should: retrain their staff to service electric vehicles, focus on reducing car weight and size to maximize vehicle range, continue battery research and development, and determine how to properly dispose of batteries. The Toronto government should follow lead of other governments and regulate gasoline prices, and provide tax incentives and subsidies to electric vehicles and infrastructure to promote adoption.


Current research of complex chemical systems, including biomass pyrolysis, petroleum refining, and wastewater remediation requires analysis of large analyte mixtures (>100 compounds). Quantification of each carbon-containing analyte by existing methods (flame ionization detection) requires extensive identification and calibration. In this work, we describe an integrated microreactor system called the Quantitative Carbon Detector (QCD) for use with current gas chromatography techniques for calibration-free quantitation of analyte mixtures. Combined heating, catalytic combustion, methanation and gas co-reactant mixing within a single modular reactor fully converts all analytes to methane (>99.9%) within a thermodynamic operable regime. Residence time distribution of the QCD reveals negligible loss in chromatographic resolution consistent with fine separation of complex mixtures including cellulose pyrolysis products.


In this paper, we derive estimates for willingness to pay for rainfall-index based insurance contracts. Surveys were undertaken in four regions in Morocco, representing different mean and variability of rainfall conditions. Results indicate that respondents in the high variability regions preferred contracts that paid out more often (had higher rainfall trigger levels), and which were more costly. In fact, a strong majority of respondents indicated they would purchase these contracts at the fair-value price; the estimated median willingness to pay for such contracts was between 12-20 percent above the fair value contract. However, in the lower rainfall variability regions, the cheaper contracts with lower trigger values were the only contracts for which the estimated median willingness to pay was greater than the fair-value of the contract. Finally, estimated coefficients for explanatory variables such as human and physical assets, debt levels, etc. did not have consistent impacts, either across or within regions.


Quantitative imaging stratifies glioblastoma into three different phenotypes with distinct molecular activities independent of established molecular markers and clinical status. Brain images create cancer clusters When directing therapies toward tumors, a sample of the cancerous tissue is needed to identify molecular targets. For patients with glioblastoma, however, it is invasive to biopsy the brain. Itakura et al. sought to identify noninvasive determinants of tumor phenotype that would potentially correlate with molecular pathways, thus allowing for targeted therapy without such brain invasion. The authors used magnetic resonance imaging to look at solitary, unilateral tumors from 121 glioblastoma patients and then generated nearly 400 unique image features that could be used to describe each tumor. The tumors could be grouped into three different phenotypes or "clusters": pre-multifocal cluster, with highly irregular tumor shapes; spherical cluster, with defined edges; and rim-enhancing cluster, with a hypointense center ringed by hyperintensity. The distinct clusters were further validated in a separate cohort of 144 patients. These clusters could be used to stratify patients not only according to molecular pathways for targeted therapy but also by survival, indicating the potential for such noninvasive image-based quantitative biomarkers to be used for patient prognosis. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and highly lethal primary malignant brain tumor in adults. There is a dire need for easily accessible, noninvasive biomarkers that can delineate underlying molecular activities and predict response to therapy. To this end, we sought to identify subtypes of GBM, differentiated solely by quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging features, that could be used for better management of GBM patients. Quantitative image features capturing the shape, texture, and edge sharpness of each lesion were extracted from MR images of 121 single-institution patients with de novo, solitary, unilateral GBM. Three distinct phenotypic "clusters" emerged in the development cohort using consensus clustering with 10,000 iterations on these image features. These three clusters—pre-multifocal, spherical, and rim-enhancing, names reflecting their image features—were validated in an independent cohort consisting of 144 multi-institution patients with similar tumor characteristics from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Each cluster mapped to a unique set of molecular signaling pathways using pathway activity estimates derived from the analysis of TCGA tumor copy number and gene expression data with the PARADIGM (Pathway Recognition Algorithm Using Data Integration on Genomic Models) algorithm. Distinct pathways, such as c-Kit and FOXA, were enriched in each cluster, indicating differential molecular activities as determined by the image features. Each cluster also demonstrated differential probabilities of survival, indicating prognostic importance. Our imaging method offers a noninvasive approach to stratify GBM patients and also provides unique sets of molecular signatures to inform targeted therapy and personalized treatment of GBM.


Following a major natural disaster, many turn to social media to communicate about their situation and try to seek help in disaster recovery. With millions of social media posts, it can be difficult for disaster management organizations to tap into these immense social networks to find the data needed and to connect individuals to networks that can provide assistance. This study takes big data analytics methods and applies them to a specific context, examining how active and influential members of Facebook groups aided in disaster recovery following Hurricane Sandy. It uses network analysis methods for finding influential members and a web-survey for learning about their background and volunteer activity inside and outside of their Facebook groups. The findings show that the majority of the active online members are also actively involved in on-the-ground recovery activities. They also have the capacity and willingness to work as volunteers. These members have important roles in the integration of online and on-the-ground disaster recovery efforts. Local governments and disaster management organizations should be prepared to incorporate social media data in their formal disaster recovery processes. This incorporation requires the integration of big data analysis methods with social science theories and methods.


Aim/Purpose: To study associations between elementary-, middle- and high-school students' perceptions of classroom environment and student-teacher relationship and their out-of-class communication practices via WhatsApp app.

Background: Communication between students and teachers is usually extended beyond the classroom's time and space. This communication, referred to as out-of-class communication (OCC), may impact students' academic, social, and emotional development. Today, OCC is facilitated via social media and instant messaging services, which may have impact on its nature.

Methodology: Methodology was quantitative in nature. Data was collected using an online questionnaire (implemented on Google Forms, http://forms.google.com , during June-July 2016. Participants (n=300), from 5th-12th grades (11-18 years old), were recruited in schools in a few Arab villages in northern Israel, with the assistance of their teachers.

Contribution: The present study expands the growing body of knowledge about student-teacher communication via online social networks, specifically regarding out-of-class communication. We identify the unique aspects of WhatsApp-based out-of-class communication, which shed light on student-teacher relationship at large. Findings from this study may assist educators (while in training and/or professional development programs) to reflect upon their own educational agenda and to check if and how they and their students can benefit from OCC.

Findings: Overall, we identify WhatsApp's important, unique role in promoting good student-teacher relationship and positive classroom environment.

Recommendations for Practitioners: The findings regarding the unique contribution of WhatsApp to student-teacher out-of-class communication should be taken into consideration by policy makers while formulating policies for the use of online social networks in educational settings. Teachers should be aware of the important role this type of communication plays for their students and for their classroom. Both teachers and students should communicate respectfully, with teachers serving as role models for their students regarding proper digital behavior.

Recommendation for Researchers: This study should be replicated to more populations and to more communication platforms, in order to validate its findings.

Impact on Society: The associations between out-of-class communication via online social networks and student-teacher relationship have two main effects on society at large. First, promoting better student-teacher communication could improve learning and teaching. Second, if this communication is to be carried out properly, the students - who are the future citizens - will learn how to behave correctly in the digital age.

Future Research: It is advised to explore the studied associations in other populations and regarding other communication platforms. Also, qualitative exploration is advisable, as it may shed more light on the unique aspects of WhatsApp-based student-teacher out-of-class communication.


Agile methods provide an organization or a team with the flexibility to adopt a selected subset of principles and practices based on their culture, their values, and the types of systems that they develop. More specifically, every organization or team implements a customized agile method, tailored to better accommodate its needs. However, the extent to which a customized method supports the organizational objectives, i.e. the 'goodness' of that method, should be demonstrable. Existing agile assessment approaches focus on comparative analyses, or are limited in scope and application. In this research, we propose a systematic, comprehensive approach to assessing the 'goodness' of agile methods. We examine an agile method based on (1) its adequacy, (2) the capability of the organization to support the adopted principles and strategies specified by the method, and (3) the method's effectiveness. We propose the Objectives, Principles and Strategies (OPS) Framework to guide our assessment process. The Framework identifies (a) objectives of the agile philosophy, (b) principles that support the objectives and (c) strategies that implement the principles. It also defines (d) linkages that relate objectives to principles, and principles to strategies, and finally, (e) indicators for assessing the extent to which an organization supports the implementation and effectiveness of those strategies. The propagation of indicator values along the linkages provides a multi-level assessment view of the agile method. In this dissertation, we present our assessment methodology, guiding Framework, validation approach, results and findings, and future directions.


Normalizing flows (NF) are expressive as well as tractable density estimation methods whenever the support of the density is diffeomorphic to the entire dataspace. However, real-world data sets typically live on (or very close to) lowdimensional manifolds thereby challenging the applicability of standard NF on realworld problems. Here we propose a novel method called Denoising Normalizing Flow (DNF) that estimates the density on the low-dimensional manifold while learning the manifold as well. The DNF works in 3 steps. First, it inflates the manifold making it diffeomorphic to the entire data-space. Secondly, it learns an NF on the inflated manifold and finally it learns a denoising mapping similarly to denoising autoencoders. The DNF relies on a single cost function and does not require to alternate between a density estimation phase and a manifold learning phase as it is the case with other recent methods. Furthermore, we show that the DNF can learn meaningful low-dimensional representations from naturalistic images as well as generate high-quality samples.


The AI City Challenge was created to accelerate intelligent video analysis that helps make cities smarter and safer. Transportation is one of the largest segments that can benefit from actionable insights derived from data captured by sensors, where computer vision and deep learning have shown promise in achieving large-scale practical deployment. The 4th annual edition of the AI City Challenge has attracted 315 participating teams across 37 countries, who leverage city-scale real traffic data and high-quality synthetic data to compete in four challenge tracks. Track 1 addressed video-based automatic vehicle counting, where the evaluation is conducted on both algorithmic effectiveness and computational efficiency. Track 2 addressed city-scale vehicle re-identification with augmented synthetic data to substantially increase the training set for the task. Track 3 addressed city-scale multi-target multi-camera vehicle tracking. Track 4 addressed traffic anomaly detection. The evaluation system shows two leader boards, in which a general leader board shows all submitted results, and a public leader board shows results limited to our contest participation rules, that teams are not allowed to use external data in their work. The general leader board shows results more close to real-world situations where annotated data are limited. Our results show promise that AI technology can enable smarter and safer transportation systems.


Purpose: To report two cases of retinoblastomas detected by "white pupillary reflex" end-gaze leukocoria via flash photographs reported by parents Case reports: Retinoblastoma, a malignant ocular tumor, can be manifested by leukocoria. Herein, we report two cases, a 4-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, presented with the parents' chief complaint of end-gaze leukocoria. In further evaluations retinoblastoma was detected and treated. Conclusion: Leukocoria is an alarming sign specially in pediatrics age group which should be detected and treated promptly. It may be detected solely in end-gaze by the child's parents or in photographs in the early stages of retinoblastoma.


Evangelicalism is experiencing spectacular growth on the African continent. However definitions of Evangelicalism continue to be dominated by a western understanding of the phenomenon. An African understanding of Evangelicalism as well as African examples need to feature in discussions of the topic. Evangelicalism in Africa should be understood more by what it does for its adherents than by its doctrinal formulations. Its success on the sub-continent of Africa could be due to the fact that it transacts at the interface of a modern and pre-modern worldview. It meets the needs that an African condition creates and opens the way to what a modern condition demands. It resonates both with the spirituality of Africa and the materialism and individualism of modernity and provides its adherents the sense of agency demanded in the modern world but which is opaque and complex in an African universe. It translates in various and diverse ways, both positively and negatively, into the social, economic, and political structures of African society.


As a developing country we know India is facing the problem of poverty & unemployment like any other under developed country. With the initiation taken by NABARD in 1986-87, Self Help Group was linked with banks. Formation of SHGs in rural areas to generate micro credits has become viable units to support various activities related to agriculture, dairy, cattle grazing, rural enterprises & the like. SHGs enhance the equality of status of women as participants by empowering them and also now society is considering women as opinion leaders. NABARD & other state government have revealed the information that the present challenge is to induce SHGs & their members to graduate into matured levels of enterprise. The overall objective of the present micro level study is to analyze the economic empowerment of women through SHGs in some selected villages of Tumkur District of Karnataka and to study and demonstrate that SHGs are the best formal micro level finance institutions to generate additional employment and income for needy people by involving them in planning, decision making and management of sustainable natural resource .The study showed that many members as individual & also as group are involved in entrepreneurial work .It was also observed that there is lot of scope for SHGs to take up venture.


Can the momentous events in Tianamen Square and the revolutionary changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe be seen as the inevitable triumph of one political ideology over another? Was there a political morality of "Official Communism"? The author identifies the features and framework within which Marxism endured, particularly as a promise of "political emancipation" whereby the individual would achieve "universal freedom" from capitalism and slavery through cooperation and struggle. Yet, ultimately, the pluralist-led events of 1989 demonstrated that protests were aimed at achieving justice, fairness, and identity in the name of the "people," a refutation of oppression and the arbitrary allocation of resources and advantages by the nomenklatura. The author contends that the Marxist morality failed because it didnt deliver on its promises.


Recent years have witnessed the emergence and rapid development of collaborative Web-based applications exemplified by Web-based office productivity applications. One major challenge in building these applications is maintaining data consistency while meeting the requirements of fast local response, total work preservation, unconstrained interaction, and customizable collaboration mode. These requirements are important in determining users' experiences in interaction and collaboration, and in meeting users' diverse needs under complex and dynamic collaboration and networking environments; but none of existing solutions is able to meet all of them. In this article, we present a data consistency maintenance solution capable of meeting these requirements for collaborative Web-based applications. Major technical contributions include an efficient sequence-based operation transformation control algorithm based on the concept of contextualization, an operation broadcast protocol for supporting a variety of collaboration modes, an operation replaying algorithm for ensuring fast local response and efficient remote operation replay, and a set of communication protocols for managing the integrity of collaborative Web-based sessions. The proposed solution has been implemented in a prototype collaborative Web-based editor WRACE and the correctness of the solution is formally verified in the article.


Pyrrolidine-amide oligonucleotide mimics (POMs) exhibit promising properties for potential applications, including in vivo DNA and RNA targeting, diagnostics and bioanalysis. Before POMs can be evaluated in these applications it is first necessary to synthesise and establish the properties of fully modified oligomers, with biologically relevant mixed sequences. Accordingly, Boc-Z-protected thyminyl, adeninyl and cytosinyl POM monomers were prepared and used in the first successful solid phase synthesis of a mixed sequence POM, Lys-TCACAACTT-NH2. UV thermal denaturation studies revealed that the POM oligomer is capable of hybridising with sequence selectivity to both complementary parallel and antiparallel RNA and DNA strands. Whilst the duplex melting temperatures (Tm) were higher than the corresponding duplexes formed with isosequential PNA, DNA and RNA oligomers the rates of association/dissociation of the mixed sequence POM with DNA/RNA targets were noticeably slower.


Optical phase conjugation by degenerate four-wave mixing has been achieved in a liquid suspension of polymer microellipsoids as a result of light-induced rotational effects. Different polarization configurations of the pump and probe beams have been used, and the resulting conjugate polarization states have been discriminated. The results are discussed in terms of different kinds of particle orientational gratings.


textabstractAbstract
Metabolic syndrome during clozapine treatment
Objective: To assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in inpatients with psychotic disorders treated with clozapine for at least one year.
Design: Chronically admitted patients were screened on the use of
clozapine and the presence of metabolic side effects.
Methods: The Third Adult Treatment Panel was used tot assess metabolic syndrome. In addition, patient variables, dosage and plasma concentration of clozapine were recorded.
Results: Included were 62 patients with a most prevalent diagnosis of schizophrenia. Mean duration of treatment with clozapine was 9.2 years. Metabolic syndrome was present in 60% of the patients and more frequent in cases with comedication of
mood stabilizers.
Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent among patients treated with clozapine for psychotic disorders. Additional
factors in the emergence of metabolic syndrome are: unhealthy
life style, inactivity and comedication.


This guide is designed to help students with library research as they complete research for their Top 10 Lists in Professor Keefe's Intro to Humanities course at Lake Nona.


For a spectroscopy purpose, we are interested in producing continuous wave (CW) UV laser light at 243 nm with at least 2 mW power. The theory of nonlinear optics suggests that we should be able to produce a desired 2.9 mW of 243 nm light by second harmonic generation (SHG) from a 50 mW blue laser at 486 nm using a BBO crystal in a build up cavity. The most important physical parameters are calculated. A 10 mm Brewster cut BBO crystal can provide phase matching conditions for coupling two ordinary photons at 486 nm and make a secondary beam at 243 nm. The single pass conversion efficiency is calculated not to be enough to generate 2.9 mW of SH light. My investigation shows that a standing wave build up cavity can provide a buildup factor of 94 and an overall conversion efficiency of 5.9% if one use an input coupler mirror with 1.1% transmission at 486 nm.


This 15th edition of the wiiw-wifo Database on foreign direct investment (FDI) contains 2002 data for the Central and East European countries (CEECs) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU). It also makes a forecast for the year 2003 based on the balance of payments of the first quarter of the year and press reports about projects in the pipeline. For the first time, basic data are calculated also in euro. New tables inform about FDI outflows and outward FDI stocks.A brief analysis of current FDI trends in CEECs is provided. Special attention is devoted to Austrian direct investments in the region. The sources of data are official publications of the countries under survey. All data have been revised and the national banks of the respective countries were taken as the main source of reference. Methodological explanations are given in footnotes and in chapter 4. The data have been processed and commented on by Gabor Hunya (wiiw) and Jan Stankovsky (WIFO) with the help of both institutes (Monika Schwarzhappel , wiiw and Gabriele Wellan, WIFO). In this joint effort, wiiw and WIFO combine the overlapping parts of the two institutes FDI databases. In addition to the tables presented in this publication, wiiw maintains a separate database concerning the performance of foreign investment enterprises in the CEECs, while WIFO runs a detailed database covering FDI by Austrian firms and FDI in Austria.


The safe margin of eugenol for sedation of the healthy post larvae (PL) of white Indian shrimp (Fenneropenaeus indicus) was determined by estimating the median lethal concentration of eugenol during 24 hours (24hLC50). Sedation concentration of eugenol was obtained experimentally by considering behavioral factors of PLs such as response to indirect stimuli and changes in water quality parameters. Applying the estimated concentrations of eugenol for 12 hours transportation of PLs, biometric parameters of sedated animals were compared with the control after 96 hours post transportation at P<0.05. The 24hLC50 of eugenol for experimental PLs was found to be 5.2 mg/L with minimum confidence limit of 5.0 mg/L and maximum confidence limit of 5.3 mg/L. The sedation concentrations for PLs varied from a minimum level of 1.3 mg/L to a maximum level of 3.7 mg/L. During 24 hours sedation, significant reductions were found in the oxygen consumption of PLs where as no significant changes occurred in their ammonia secretion. There was no change in biometric parameters in sedated animals after 12 hours transportation. The results indicate that eugenol can be used as a sedative during transportation of PLs of F. indicus and concentration of 1.3 mg/L considered is safe which showed the lowest induction of bottom sitting.


Geological mapping and detailed biostratigraphic analysis of the shallow-water carbonate successions of the Mt. Fellino Ridge (Campania Appennines), has led to the recognition of a km-scale overturned anticline characterized by tight geometry and associated with a NW-verging thrust which brought Jurassic over Cretaceous successions. The overturned fold is a N50-70 degrees -trending non-cylindrical structure, whereas the thrust is refolded by a N100-120 degrees -trending open anticline. Such a structure is recognizable also toward the south-east not far from the investigated area (i.e. Nola-Lauro Ridge). The angle between the two fold hinges is 40 degrees -60 degrees , as shown by geological mapping. The geometric reconstruction of the geological structures out-cropping in the study area has been realized by means of two viable cross-sections (called AA9 and BB9 in fig. 6). The construction of the geological sections has been carried out considering the thickness obtained by the stratigraphic analysis of carbonate successions outcropping along the Mt. Fellino Ridge (fig. 2). Further, the stratigraphic analysis of several carbonate successions outcropping both along the Mt. Fellino Ridge and in the wider area of the Avella Mts-Nola-Lauro Ridge allowed five chronostratigraphic units to be characterized, showing different litho-sedimentological features and biostratigraphic content. In particular, the five chronostratigraphic Mesozoic units are, from bottom to top: - Lias: about 700 m of limestones and dolomite containing mainly Palaeodasycladus mediterraneus (Pia), Orbitopsella praecursor (Guembel) and, in the upper part, large spathic shells of bivalves of the "Lithiotis facies" Auct.; - Dogger: about 400 m of oolitic and pseudo-oolitic limestones and subordinate dolomite, containing mainly Valvulina lugeoni Septfontaine, Mesoendothyra croatica Gusic, the dasycladaceans Selliporella donzellii Sartoni & Crescenti, Pfenderina salernitana Sartoni & Crescenti, Pfenderella arabica Redmond, Satorina apuliensis Fourcade & Chorowics; - Malm: about 400-450 of limestones which consist of calcilutites and rarely of calcarenites, sometimes oolitic, containing Cladocoropsis mirabilis Felix, Kurnubia palastiniensis Henson, Valvulina lugeoni Septfontaine, Parurgonina caelinensis Cuvilier, Foury & Pignatti-Morano, Clypeina jurassica Favre, Salpingoporella annulata Carozzi and Campbelliella striata (Carozzi); - Lower Cretaceous (Neocomian-Albian): about 600 m of whitish limestones (from mudstones to grainstones) containing mainly Praechrysalidina infracretacea Luperto Sinni, Orbitolina (Mesorbitolina) texana (Roemer), Orbitolina (Mesorbitolina) parva Douglas, Cuneolina laurentii Sartoni & Crescenti, Cuneolina scarsellai De Castro, Sabaudia minuta (Hofker), Ovalveolina reicheli De Castro, Paracoskinolina tunesiana Peybernes, Neoiraqia insolita (Decrouez & Moullade), dasycladacean algae among which, in the lower part of the succession, Salpingoporella cemi Radoicic, Salpingoporella annulata Carozzi, Praturlonella danilovae (Radoicic), and in the upper part Salpingoporella dinarica Radoicic and Salpingoporella turgida Radoidid. - Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Senonian): about 650 m of limestones (mainly mudstones-wackestones), sometimes loferitic and stromatolitic, with rare intercalations of dolomites in the lower portion, and greenish marls. This interval contains Sellialveolina viallii Colalongo, Pseudorhapydionina dubia (De Castro), Biplanata peneropliformis Hamaoui & Saint-Marc, Nezzazata simplex Omara, Biconcava bentori Hamaoui & Saint-Marc, Cisalve-olina fraasi (Guembel), Pseudolituonella reicheli Marie, Chrysalidina gradata D9Orbigny, Cuneolina pavonia parva Henson, Nezzazatinella cf. aegyptiaca (Said & Kenawy), Dicyclina schlumbergeri Munter-Chalmas, Accordiella conica Farinacci, Moncharmontia apenninica (De Castro), Scandonea samnitica De Castro. Among the macrofossils fragments and shells of Rudists are abundant. The trace of the cross-section AA9 is N120 degrees -trending (i.e. sub-orthogonal to the first phase fold axis), whereas the trace of the cross-section BB9 is N20 degrees (i.e. perpendicular to the second phase fold axis). In the geological section AA9, one can observe the N50-70 degrees -trending overturned fold with a tight geometry (Fleuty, 1964), in the hangingwall of the thrust. Moreover, a splay thrust cuts the Malm deposits, causing the imbrication of two different slices. The tight geometry of the plicative structure could be linked to the evolution of a previous blind-thrust into a breakthrough thrust (Suppe & Medwedeff, 1990). In the geological section BB9 is possible to detect the refolding of the first phase fold by a N100-120 degrees -trending open fold.


Graphic designers have the unique ability to make hidden ecological processes visible by revealing relationships, patterns and dynamics in complex socio-ecological systems. This paper describes how communication design can support relational perceptual practices and even nurture ecological perception. It presents specific methods to harness the latent potential of graphic design to communicate the context, comparisons, connections and causality. It proposes that aesthetics experiences can provoke deep perceptual insights supporting new ways of perceiving our relationship with the environment, our ecological context. In ways described in this paper, graphic design has the potential to nurture the ability to 'see systems' – supporting both ecological perception and ecological literacy.


Abstract Climate change is causing the warming and deoxygenation of coastal habitats like Chesapeake Bay that serve as important nursery habitats for many marine fish species. As conditions continue to change, it is important to understand how these changes impact individual species' behavioral and metabolic performance. The sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) is an obligate ram-ventilating apex predator whose juveniles use Chesapeake Bay as a nursery ground up to 10 years of age. The objective of this study was to measure juvenile sandbar shark metabolic and behavioral performance as a proxy for overall performance (i.e. fitness or success) when exposed to warm and hypoxic water. Juvenile sandbar sharks (79.5–113.5 cm total length) were collected from an estuary along the eastern shore of Virginia and returned to lab where they were fitted with an accelerometer, placed in a respirometer and exposed to varying temperatures and oxygen levels. Juvenile sandbar shark overall performance declined substantially at 32°C or when dissolved oxygen concentration was reduced below 3.5 mg l−1 (51% oxygen saturation between 24–32°C). As the extent of warm hypoxic water increases in Chesapeake Bay, we expect that the available sandbar shark nursery habitat will be reduced, which may negatively impact the population of sandbar sharks in the western Atlantic as well as the overall health of the ecosystem within Chesapeake Bay.


We present nuclear resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (NRIXS) and synchrotron Mossbauer spectroscopy (SMS) measurements, both nuclear resonant X-ray spectroscopic methods, on synthetic samples of orthoenstatite-structured (Mg,^(57)Fe)SiO_3, a representative component in Earth's upper mantle. All measurements were performed at ambient conditions. NRIXS spectra were measured for three samples of orthoenstatite containing 20, 13, and 7 mol% FeSiO_3. The Debye sound velocities were determined from the low-energy region of the partial phonon density of states (PDOS). With known density and bulk modulus, the shear modulus, compressional and shear wave velocities have been computed. The sound velocities obtained from NRIXS are in good agreement with sound velocities obtained using Brillouin spectroscopy and ultrasonic methods for similar compositions. An important advantage of NRIXS is access to additional thermodynamic information, such as the average force constant, mean-square displacement, obtained from the PDOS. We discuss the contribution of the vibrational spectra to these quantities. In addition to the PDOS, the electronic environment of the iron sites in (Mg_(0.87)^(57)Fe_(0.13))SiO_3 orthoenstatite was determined using ^(57)Fe SMS and conventional Mossbauer spectroscopy. Evaluation of the Mossbauer spectra reveals two distinct iron sites, which are well distinguished by their hyperfine fields. The minority and majority sites are consistent with high-spin Fe^(2+) in the M1 and M2 sites, respectively.


Statement of the Problem On November 17, 1873, the General Conference adopted George I. Butler's leadership philosophy, which officially centralized ecclesiastical authority within one person. This statement on leadership and authority was deemed highly important and several resolutions, as well as a covenantal pledge, were voted and signed in promise that this new policy would be strictly followed. What led the Adventist Church to adopt such a policy and bind itself to it in this manner? What were the philosophical and theological tenets that the policy espoused? Since this position on leadership is no longer accepted in the Adventist Church today, what led the denomination to change its mind and how did the Leadership Controversy that erupted as a result of Butler's philosophy impact the history of the church? The purpose of this thesis is to answer these questions in a threefold manner: (1) to set Butler's "leadership doctrine" within its Adventist historical context and briefly chronicle the events that prompted him to write Leadership, (2) to analyze, evaluate and critique Butler's philosophy of leadership, and (3) to chronicle the responses to Butler's essay and note the impact the Leadership Controversy had on the Seventh-day Adventist Church in subsequent years. Methodology This study was conducted on the basis of primary source research. The documents referenced include church publications and periodicals as well as correspondence, diaries, church record books, and other germane documents. More recent studies by scholars are also cited on occasion as secondary sources, either for support or critique. Conclusion Between the 1840s and 1863, James White, in effect, led the Sabbatarian Adventist movement as one man. Evidently, this informal type of governance was appropriate for this small group of Sabbath-keepers during this time. When the denomination officially organized in 1863, however, the locus of authority officially broadened from one informal leader to the formally elected three-person General Conference Executive Committee. It was difficult for Adventists to make this transition and questions regarding leadership began to arise. This became particularly pronounced during the years following James White's first stroke (1866-1877) as a controversy between leaders began to threaten denominational unity. In response, George I. Butler led Adventists to accept his philosophy of leadership and centralize power within one person for the sake of protection. This caused the Adventist Church to officially revert to its first (though unofficial) conceptualization of church governance that was practiced between the 1840s and 1863. Though this reversion came with great enthusiasm in 1873, it eventually sparked the Leadership Controversy of the 1870s as certain Adventists began to challenge Butler's philosophy. This controversy concluded in 1877 when the Adventist Church officially reaffirmed the oligarchical understanding of leadership that it adopted in 1863. In this way, the Leadership Controversy was resolved by broadening the locus of authority from one person to a small group of persons. Within the next decade, however, Ellen G. White realized that the church had grown too large to be governed so closely by the small General Conference Executive Committee. Though she supported an oligarchical form of leadership and authority in 1875, she began calling for change after the General Conference session in 1888. Eventually, in 1901, the Adventist Church recognized the need to broaden the locus of authority once again. In order to affirm this final shift between practiced models of leadership, Ellen White gave her final response to the Leadership Controversy of the 1870s in 1909, stating explicitly that ecclesiastical authority should not be centralized in one person or a small group of persons.


The cult of artistic and existential evasion in Dada and surrealism made suicide a leitmotif of literary life in inter-war France. Dadaists and surrealists exploited suicide as a figure of evasion from reality, from social and moral conventions, and from the "bourgeois" concepts of talent, ambition, and remuneration associated with literature. Galvanized by the "intolerable malaise" of the war experience (Soupault, Memoires 1914-1923, 70-75, 96), Andre Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon questioned the very validity of literary activity. In the first issue of their ironically entitled review, Litterature (1919), the upcoming poets asked French literati: "Why are you writing?" In 1924, the young critic and novelist Marcel Arland suggested that the whole spiritual atmosphere shared by his peers was similar to the Romantic "malady of the century" ("Nouveau Mal du siecle" 11). Since Dada and surrealism were seen as the products of a "new malady of the century," their suicidal tendencies recalled those in the Romantic "malady." Thus, in his essays "Le Suicide en litterature" (1930) and "L'Art de mourir" (1932), Paul Morand argued that the deaths of many contemporary avant-garde artists were as esthetically motivated as the suicides of Werther's admirers. (1) Victor Crastre also thought that the 1929 suicide of the former dadaist Jacques Rigaut "echoed Werther's gunshot" because "Dada and surrealism clearly affirmed the value of suicide" ("Jacques Rigaut" 253). (2) In the 1979 preface to his novel En Joue! (1925), which had anticipated a number of suicides in the milieu of the French avant-garde, Philippe Soupault, a veteran of both artistic movements, wrote that he chronicled an epoque in which "the sons of the bourgeoisie failed to overcome the insecurity, anxiety, and chaos of the post-war years" (11). The present article will explore the place of suicide in the mythology and artistic praxis of the French avant-garde between the two world wars. I contend that many French literati involved in the activities of Dada and/or surrealism viewed suicide as an ideal means of evasion from reality conceived by the positivist theory and as an ultimate artistic statement, a "lived poem" far superior to a "written poem" by virtue of its "realism" and "sincerity." Suicide as a Founding Myth of Dada and Surrealism Choosing their "ancestors" from among those artists who seemed to have realized literally the ideal of evasion, dadaists and surrealists were profoundly influenced by the personal mythology of Arthur Rimbaud, the Count of Lautreamont, Jacques Vache, and Arthur Cravan. According to these models, one could escape the vanity of art through complete "silence," realize one's anti-social stance by leaving society, and flee positivist reality in dreams, the unconscious, drugs, and death. In the cultural mythology of the French avant-garde, Rimbaud and Lautreamont incarnated the ideal of artistic, social, and existential evasion. Their personal myths provided a paradigm for life-in-poetry. Andre Breton, who saw no value in literature if it was not supported by the writer's attitude to lire, wrote that "Rimbaud was a surrealist by virtue of his lifestyle" ("Manifeste" 38). According to their myths, Rimbaud rejected art (he "fell silent") and society (he left for Africa), while Lautreamont was the author of a sole text, died young and left no biographical trace. Soupault modeled his frequent trips abroad along the lines of the Rimbaud-Lautreamont paradigm. "J'etais toujours, plus ou moins consciemment, influence par la destinee de Rimbaud," recalled the poet, "lui qui avait decide, a n'importe quel prix, de fuir les milieux litteraires. L' `exemple' de Rimbaud, et le besoin de m'evader [...] m'obligerent, le mot n'est pas trop fort, a partir" (Memoires 1923-1926 167-68). (3) Soupault was not the only young Parisian avant-gardist who drew on the revered "example" to show his contempt for "literature. …


When celebrity journalist Anna Hunt takes a break from her glamorous, high-powered and fast-paced job to live in Peru for three months, none of her friends take her seriously. A burn-the-candle-at-both-ends 29-year-old with a love of stilettos, chocolate, fast cars and Sauvignon Blanc, she seems to have it all, including a wealthy boyfriend and a comfortable pad in Marylebone. How will she manage in a Third World country? Anna's quest takes her from the wilderness of the Amazon jungle where she drinks ayahuasca, one of the most mysterious and potent hallucinogens known to man, to a passionate affair with Maximo Morales, a disarmingly seductive and charismatic shaman who offers her the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become his apprentice. Anna embarks on what is to be an utterly exhilarating, life-changing journey of mysterious rituals and burning passion. Will she find the fulfilment and inner peace she craves? And how will she bridge her two worlds and bring the ancient healing arts home to 21st century London?


The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of artificial weathering and cyclic movement in a laboratory test based on the RILEM Technical Recommendation (RTR) "Durability Test Method for Curtain Wall Joint Sealants." Eleven sealants being used in Japan were tested, including two silicones, two silicon-modified polyethers, two polysulfides, two polyurethanes — each as one- and two-part products — one two-part silicon-modified polyisobutylene, one two-part urethane cure acrylic, and one one-part water-borne acrylic. The two-part polyurethane, the two-part urethane-cure acrylic, and the one-part water-borne acrylic were also evaluated with and without painting the sealant surface. Test specimens were prepared using anodized aluminum and mortar as substrate materials; primers were used for all sealant/substrate combinations as recommended by the manufacturers. All sealant specimens were conditioned according to Method A. The durability test, consisting of weathering and thermo-mechanical cycling, was carried out both with and without the influence of fatigue cycling. The durability cycles were repeated three times. Weathering was conducted in a fully automatic weathering machine using a xenon arc light source. Sealants without painting were observed to chalk and craze at an earlier stage in the durability cycles than the ones with painted surfaces, confirming the effectiveness of painting the sealant surface in protecting organic sealants from aging. A substantial difference in the behavior of sealants was observed for exposures with and without fatigue cycling, confirming the importance of fatigue cycling in the degradation of sealants. In order to obtain a good correlation between accelerated weathering and actual service performance, a proper balance of degradation factors is essential.


The World Wide Web has revolutionized the way we find, exchange, reuse and integrate information at a rate inconceivable only a generation ago; but for all its perks it has one big weakness: trusting that the information retrieved is accurate. Web technologies and applications allows anyone to share information. This work aims to assist humans (and eventually autonomous agents) in the task of trusting Web resources, a very important step when reusing information found on the Web. In this research, we propose a new algorithm to tackle the challenge of assigning trust to Web resources. Our algorithm is inspired on Google's famous algorithm PageRank and generates values of trustworthiness of Web resources based on dynamically adjusted user credentials on different areas of study and history of interactions. The proposed algorithm was implemented in the Virtual Learning Commons, a bookmarking system, developed and hosted at the Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence. The proposed algorithm was evaluated in an academic environment but can be used in other applications. The evaluation shows that the algorithm produced outperforms two out of the three algorithms we benchmarked against, while matching the results of the third. The evaluation results also show that the algorithm provides adequate trust assessments for Web resources. Future work includes the extension of this algorithm to consider additional variables (i.e., beyond user credentials) and a more comprehensive evaluation settings, including a more diverse subject population. Efforts that facilitate Web users to assign values of trustworthiness to Web resources will contribute to the overall utility of the world wide web, it will leverage the knowledge of the world and will formalize said knowledge so that machine agents may use to our benefit.


Light emission during the collision of ions and cluster ions on a metal surface covered by rare gas matrices of variable thickness is reported. The light intensity as a function of distance from the metal surface follows the classical image dipole theory. The spectral signature of the light corresponds to the ∞uorescence of the neutral cluster species deposited as well as to fragments. The nature of the processes involved in this luminescence, in the neutralization and the excitation are discussed. A microscopic model for the mechanism is proposed: in this model rare gas excitons are produced in the collision process.


Family disputes are one of the major growth areas for mediation in USA, Canada and many European countries. Mediation is just starting to be used in Lithuania. The first exeprimental court mediation project was ratified in 2005. Mediation is going to be tendered in civil cases. Nevertheless family mediation was not distinguished as a special service. In this article we made an attempt to analyse experience of foreign countries in the family mediation and to consider psychological aspects of family mediation. Analysis of literature helped to formulate suggestions for family mediation model in Lithuania. It is important to inform those seeking legal aid in family disputes about the availability of family mediation. It is important to include psychologists, social work specialists not only lawyers in preparation of family mediation programs. State service model of family mediation is more suitable for Lithuania. Family mediation is more able to satisfy needs of the clients and their children than traditional court processes.


The design of Medicare Part D causes most Medicare beneficiaries to receive fragmented health insurance, whereby prescription drugs and other medical care are covered by separate insurance plans. Fragmentation of insurance plans is potentially inefficient since separate insurers maximize profits over only one component of healthcare spending, despite many complementarities and substitutabilities between types of healthcare. Fragmentation of some plans but not others can also lead to market distortions due to differential adverse selection, as integrated plans may use drug formulary designs to induce enrollment by patients who are profitable under Parts A & B, while stand-alone drug plans have no such incentive. We study whether the design of insurance plans in Medicare Part D reflects these two differences in incentives using data on the universe of Part D plan formularies, drug prices, and Medicare claims data. We find evidence consistent with both hypotheses. Relative to fragmented plans, integrated plans systematically design their drug formularies to encourage enrollment by beneficiaries with medical conditions that are profitable under Parts A & B. However, integrated plans also more generously cover drugs that have the potential to causally reduce medical costs. These large differences in incentives and plan design between integrated and fragmented plans are likely the precursors of substantial differential selection of enrollees, and the basic design of Medicare Part D abets this covert selection.


What rhetorics run throughout radical discourse, and why do some gain prominence over others? The scholarship on radicalism largely portrays radical discourse as opposition to powerful ideas and enemies, but radicals often evince great interest in personal and local concerns. To shed light on how radicals use and adopt rhetoric, we analyze an original corpus of more than 23,000 pages produced by Afghan radical groups between 1979 and 2001 using a novel computational abductive approach. We first identify how radicalism not only attacks dominant ideas, actors, and institutions using a rhetoric of subversion, but also how it can use a rhetoric of reversion to urge intimate transformations in morals and behavior. Next, we find evidence that radicals' networks of support affect the rhetorical mixture they espouse, due to social ties drawing radicals into encounters with backers' social domains. Our study advances a relational understanding of radical discourse, while also showing how a combination of computational and abductive methods can help theorize and analyze discourses of contention.


Cloud computing and distributed Grid computations in the e-science and commercial spheres are beginning to make accessible huge amounts of computing power with "just in time" availability. However, the economic models surrounding these systems are static and uniform, with charging models that, for web-based cloud systems work on a price per unit per hour basis, whilst for educational type resources, fixed contractual arrangements and multi-year projects are more prevalent. The common place practice of using just-in-time capacity planning and variable pricing algorithms, such as those pioneered by airlines like EasyJet, tells us that the cost of delivering these services and the price that should be paid for them is a much more complex beast. Future Grid and Cloud Computing computations will be enabled by participants trading resources in order to construct bundles of goods or services in both new commercial arenas and the more well established "e-science" experiments in science, engineering and, now emerging, social sciences. A combinatorial auction (CA) is a natural choice for determining the optimal allocation for a bundle of required goods and services, but the space and time dimensions that characterise a Grid compute cloud would appear to indicate they are incompatible. This thesis proposes that an analogue of a physical commodities market is more appropriate for distributed resource allocation and that there is a class of bundling problems whose complexity properties appear to make the utilisation of a CA impractical. We therefore compare the two techniques for resource bundling and investigate the crossover point, to enrich our understanding of how combinatorial auctions and distributed markets may be used together to improve distributed resource allocation practices.


Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are defined as 'systemically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances'.
The main purposes of GPGs are: (i) to improve the quality of patient care and health care outcomes; (ii) to make clinical decisions more transparent; (iii) to promote efficient use of resources; (iv) to provide guidance for involved stakeholders (health professionals, patients, industry, health care providers and policies makers); (v) to support quality control.
The original idea for the creation of the ESMO CPGs came in 1998 and in 1999 the ESMO Guidelines Task Force was constituted. The structure of the ESMO …


Search engine results influence the visibility of different viewpoints in political, cultural, and scientific debates. Treating search engines as editorial products with intrinsic biases can help understand the structure of information flows in new media. This paper outlines an empirical methodology to analyze the representation of topics in search engines, reducing the spatial and temporal biases in the results. As a case study, the methodology is applied to 15 popular conspiracy theories, examining type of content and ideological bias, demonstrating how this approach can inform debates in this field, specifically in relation to the representation of non-mainstream positions, the suppression of controversies and relativism.


César Moscoso Carrasco (1904–1966), a central figure in Bolivia's mid-20th-century public health system, wanted to liberate Bolivia from malaria. In a career that spanned three decades, he came close to achieving this goal, but ultimately did not live to see successful eradication. Moscoso was one of the first Bolivian public health specialists in malariology, and was recognized by the World Health Organization for his contributions to the field in 1963. At all stages of his career, he fortuitously aligned himself with the individual or organization that could help him accomplish his professional ambitions and his mission of eradicating malaria in Bolivia. He was the founder and director of the National Anti-Malaria Service in 1929, where he made a name for himself working to halt the spread of malaria in Mizque, in the Cochabamba region. In the 1940s, he secured a position with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he had access to resources beyond the scope of the Bolivian government and an international network of public health specialists. Finally, in the 1950s, he headed the newly formed National Service for Malaria Eradication, which was a Bolivian government initiative supported by international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau. In the 1950s and 1960s, he came the closest to achieving his goal. Unfortunately, he died the same way he lived: fighting a disease, possibly malaria, which he contracted on a visit to Ceylon as a malaria expert and consultant.
 Moscoso's life is a window into many aspects of Bolivia's 20th-century history. First, his life story illustrates both the potential and limitations of the Bolivian healthcare system. Indeed, Moscoso often had to work with international or binational organizations to accomplish the work that he saw as necessary and important. Second, his career shows how political changes in Bolivia impacted healthcare. Since his career spans the Chaco War of 1932–1935, the politically tumultuous 1940s, and the 1952 National Revolution, it provides a personal account of how these events changed healthcare in Bolivia. His story demonstrates the hardships that Bolivian doctors faced as they worked to improve their healthcare system, including low pay, few resources, and little respect from their foreign colleagues.


This is a study of the contest over political and social legitimacy in a former precolonial kingdom, Oukwanyama, in northern Namibia, from 1915 to the present. It tracks the historical shifts in this long time frame through the history of one place, a site of important local power, Omhedi. The research begins with the colonial occupation of the kingdom by Portugal and South Africa during World War 1, which resulted in the displacement of the kingship to the southern half of the territory which was now bifurcated by an international boundary between Angola and South West Africa. Following resistance by the last king Mandume, the institution of kingship was abolished and a Council of Headmen installed in its place. Omhedi emerged as a site of important opposition to Mandume by a leading headman, Ndjukuma, and he became one of the senior headman elevated to new levels of authority by colonial rule. The thesis tracks the establishment and consolidation of the policy of Indirect Rule under South Africa, whose aim was the efficient supply of migrant labour to the south, and the selective preservation of traditional customs in Oukwanyama in order to maintain stability in a time of rapid change. The main contribution of the research however is to follow this story into the second half of the 20 century, when Ndjukuma was succeeded by Nehemia Shoovaleka and then Gabriel Kautwima, at a time when nationalist opposition to South African rule was growing and old political legitimacies were tested. Omhedi became a site of the enforcement of headmen's authority over both striking workers and the educated elite in the early 1970s when Ovamboland became a Bantustan homeland under apartheid. After Independence in 1990 and the demise of Kautwima, Omhedi remained empty until the restoration of the Kwanyama kingship occurred under postcolonial legislation on Traditional Authorities. The question becomes one of how political legitimacy can be reactivated at such a contradictory site of 'traditional' power like Omhedi, now the seat of the new Kwanyama Queen. The thesis engages with notions of gender, history, landscape and memory, as well as theories of space developed by Lefebvre and de Certeau, in order to understand the local reconceptualisation of Omhedi as different things over different times. It also analyses the textual, visual and cultural representations of the place, most notably under colonial rule, and the impact of this archive (or its limits) on postcolonial political developments.


The market for modular buildings based on prefabricated room modules made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) is rapidly growing in Europe. Short construction times combined with high construction quality due to prefabrication are highly attractive features of this construction method. While structural design aspects have been steadily improved, only little attention has been paid to mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems so far. However, the integration of water-bearing pipes and surface seals must be done with great care, since a permanent exposure of the timber construction to moisture caused by leaks may result in biological degradation of the wooden structure. The risk of moisture damage can be reduced by decreasing the length of horizontal piping by means of intelligent pipe routing. In addition, sensor technology can be used to detect water leaks in critical areas where other measures fail to provide sufficient protection. Both aspects are addressed in this paper. First, the results of an analysis of nine completed construction projects based on CLT modules including hotels, student residences, nursing homes, and health care centers are presented. The projects were used to identify the current state of practice regarding the design of CLT room modules with respect to the integration of MEP installations. In a next step, general strategies for a safe integration of MEP installations in timber buildings are outlined. A bathroom layout with optimized pipe routing based on three individual shafts is chosen to show the application of these strategies. The approach enables a considerable reduction of horizontal pipe length while maintaining the functional and architectural requirements of the room module. Finally, a new planar sensor for detecting water leaks is presented. The results were developed in the research project SensGT and will lead to standardized solutions for a safe integration of MEP installations in CLT room modules.


Penile metastases of adenocarcinoma of prostate is rarely seen. It is a devitalizing condition at presentation with poor prognostic implication and poor survival. Conservative management is generally recommended with focus on improving the quality of life of such patients. We present a case of 93 yr male patient with a whitish growth over the glans penis along with left sided inguinal lymphadenopathy. Patient was a known case of prostatic ca Histopathological examination and Immunohistochemistry with Prostatic specific antigen revealed the diagnosis of metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma


Aquaporins (AQPs) are biological water channels known for fast water transport (∼10(8)-10(9) molecules/s/channel) with ion exclusion. Few synthetic channels have been designed to mimic this high water permeability, and none reject ions at a significant level. Selective water translocation has previously been shown to depend on water-wires spanning the AQP pore that reverse their orientation, combined with correlated channel motions. No quantitative correlation between the dipolar orientation of the water-wires and their effects on water and proton translocation has been reported. Here, we use complementary X-ray structural data, bilayer transport experiments, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to gain key insights and quantify transport. We report artificial imidazole-quartet water channels with 2.6 Å pores, similar to AQP channels, that encapsulate oriented dipolar water-wires in a confined chiral conduit. These channels are able to transport ∼10(6) water molecules/s, which is within 2 orders of magnitude of AQPs' rates, and reject all ions except protons. The proton conductance is high (∼5 H(+)/s/channel) and approximately half that of the M2 proton channel at neutral pH. Chirality is a key feature influencing channel efficiency.


Nopal a (prickly pear tree) is a kind of plant xerophytes belonging to the family of Cactaceae, the fruit is consumed exclusively in a fresh state. It is claimed to be an excellent source of natural oligoelements which may improve human health and nutrition, it also used in traditional medicine. The objective of this work is to extract and analyze the lipid fraction of prickly pear seeds (Opuntia ficus–indica L.) and to determine the psychotropic activity of prickly pear seed extracts (Opuntia ficus-indica) to achieve a primary pharmacological screening contained in these extracts (aqueous, hydro-ethanol). The oil of seeds is rich in fatty-acids poly-unsaturated, Main fatty acids identified were linoleic (C18:2), oleic (C18:1), palmitic (C16:0), and palmitoleic (C16:1) acids with respective contents 81.25%, 3.70% and 15.03%. These results are returned account that the food quality of prickly pear seeds is very important and its natural source of edible oil containing of the essential fatty-acids. The study of the pharmacological activity showed that the extracts a bases seeds with the tested amounts are endowed with sedative effects, myorelaxant and tranquillizing.


It is generally believed that students should use multiple representations in solving certain physics problems. In this study, we interview expert and novice physicists as they solve two types of multiple representations problems: those in which multiple representations are provided for them, and those in which the students must construct their own representations. We analyze in detail the types of representations subjects use and the order and manner in which they are used. Somewhat surprisingly, both experts and novices make significant use of multiple representations. Some differences emerge: Expert use of multiple representations is more dense in time, and novices tend to move between the available representations more often. In addition, we find that an examination of multiple representation use alone is inadequate to fully characterize a problem‐solving episode; one must also consider the purpose behind the use of the available representations.


An efficient and robust predictive technique has been developed for the analysis of dynamically loaded, flexible journal bearings using the finite element method. The work is in two parts. In the first part a fast predictive technique is developed for the analysis of dynamically loaded, rigid journal bearings. The finite element formulation of Reynolds equation is presented using both 3-node triangular and 8-node isoparamteric elements to model the lubricant film. The latter are shown to approximate the problem more closely using fewer nodal points and hence requiring fewer equations. The Gauss-Seidel over-relaxation method is used to solve the resulting system equations and the sparseness of these equations is exploited. Comprehensive results are presented for the Ruston and Hornsby 6VEB Mk ifi marine diesel engine connecting rod bearing. Two different time stepping methods are considered and the effects of incorporating various oil feed features in the analysis are also presented. The second part of the work deals with the flexible bearing problem. The method of carrying out the structural modelling and the way in which the structural compliance relationships are obtained is described. A fast matrix inversion technique used to obtain these relationships is also described. Based on the rigid bearing work 8-node isoparametric elements are used to model the lubricant film. Two methods are presented for coupling the structural and lubrication analysis. The first method, the under-relaxation method, although proving straightforward to implement is shown to be unsatisfactory for this particular problem due to to convegnence problems. The second method is the Newton-Raphson method which is shown to be highly convergent. The Newton-Raphson method is subsequently highly modified to produce a fast solution method. This is shown to be several orders of magnitude faster than any previously developed method making this technique viable as a general design tool rather than just providing benchmarks against which to compare simpler analysis techniques. Again results are presented for the Ruston bearing showing the effect upon the predicted performance of incorporating elasticity into the analysis.


Introduction Computer Engineering studies combine two different fields of knowledge: hardware and software. Computer Engineering deals mainly with computer architecture and begins with the hardware-software hierarchy level of abstraction from digital logic, whereas Electrical Engineering deals with hardware below this level of abstraction--from silicon layers, to transistors, logic gate implementation, and digital logic. The border between the two is rarely dealt with. In the integrative concept, one wishes to strengthen the synergism between these two worlds, and to emphasize the importance of studying Computer Architecture to Programming studies, and especially Assembly Language. Curriculum development requires that the developers engage in analysis and decision-making concerning the required number of software and hardware courses studied and concerning the dependency between the two. This is essential in order to define the proper order in acquiring knowledge. As the ACM--Association for Computer Machinery (2004) declared in ACM/IEEE Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula, "Students need to understand computer architecture in order to structure a program so that it runs more efficiently on a real machine. In selecting a system to use, they should be able to understand the trade off among various components, such as CPU clock speed vs. memory size". The aim of the research presented here was to review the curriculum in order to improve its coverage, with the goal of better preparing graduates to pursue a wider range of professional careers, as recommended by McGettrick et al. (2003). The paper in organized as follows: the rest of this section presents the program of a newly founded Engineering program and focuses on the characteristics of computer architecture topics and teaching approaches. The next section describes the goal of the research and the experimental framework and the third section details the methodology. The results are presented in the fourth section. The final section summarizes the conclusions and examines the perspectives. Computer Engineering Undergraduate Studies In this section, the authors present the concept of a new Computer Engineering (CE) program that was implemented in the newly founded School of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. The concept includes a description of the basic ideas concerning the structure of the CE Department, its organization, the CE curriculum, issues concerning teaching and research, the infrastructure of the laboratories, ideas of assessment, and organization of the final project. Establishing a new Engineering Department has always been considered as a challenge. In particular, regarding a Computer Engineering (CE) Department, this challenge is even greater for a number of reasons: (a) the high prestige of computer-related professions in today's society; (b) rapid development of new information technologies and the appearance of corresponding innovative teaching strategies and new learning environments including laboratory infrastructures; (c) the great influence of the modern high-tech industry on the content of the engineering curriculum. At the same time, the challenge is also motivated by the need to distinguish the CE studies from the Computer Science studies, which are widely known and have been intensively developed during the last decades. More specifically, two main dilemmas have to be resolved when developing a new Computer Engineering Curriculum. 1) The "Theory vs. Practice dilemma" that deals with a compromise between fundamental studies, which are oriented toward basic academic subjects based on classical science and engineering university studies, and industry oriented studies based on rapidly changing computing and information innovations. 2) The "Programming vs. Designing dilemma" that deals with the compromises between programming as the main computing skill and designing as the more subject-oriented professional skill. …