Resveratrol (RSV) is a natural nonflavonoid polyphenol compound containing a stilbene structure similar to that of estrogen diethylstilbestrol. It is a fat-soluble compound exist-ing in cis-, trans-, and piceid isomeric forms, isolated for the first time in 1940 from a plant used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine. Although initially used for cancer therapy, it has shown beneficial effects against most cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Its beneficial effects are mainly related to its antioxidant properties. Here, we review the metabolism and the ability of RSV to modulate redox signaling and to interact with multiple molecular targets of different intracellular pathways exerting protective effects against cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and metabolic disorders such as diabetes, reporting evidence in animal models and its efficacy and toxicity in humans. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the mechanisms, the biology, and the potential use of resvera- trol to prevent, protect and aid cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases.


A living cell's ability to assemble actin filaments in intracellular motile processes is directly dependent on the availability of polymerizable actin monomers which feed polarized filament growth. Continued generation of the monomer pool by filament disassembly is therefore crucial. Disassemblers like ADF/cofilin and filament cappers like Capping Protein (CP) are essential agonists of motility, but the exact molecular mechanisms by which they accelerate actin polymerization at the leading edge and filament turnover has been debated for over two decades. While filament fragmentation by ADF/cofilin has long been demonstrated by TIRF, filament depolymerization was only inferred from bulk solution assays. Using microfluidics-assisted TIRF microscopy, we provide the first direct visual evidence of ADF's simultaneous severing and rapid depolymerization of individual filaments. We have also built a conceptually novel assay to directly visualize ADF's effect on a filament population. We demonstrate that ADF's enhanced pointed-end depolymerization leads to an increase in polymerizable actin monomers co-existing with filaments, thus promoting faster barbed-end growth. We further reveal how ADF-enhanced filament depolymerization synergizes with CP's long-predicted "monomer funneling" and leads to skyrocketing of filament growth rates, close to estimated rates in the lamellipodia. The "Funneling model" hypothesized, on thermodynamic grounds, that at high enough extent of capping, the few noncapped filaments transiently grow much faster, an effect proposed to be very important for motility. We provide the first direct microscopic evidence of monomer funneling by CP at the scale of individual filaments. We believe that these results enlighten our understanding of the turnover of cellular actin networks.


3D reconstruction from a single RGB image is a challenging problem in computer vision. Previous methods are usually solely data-driven, which lead to inaccurate 3D shape recovery and limited generalization capability. In this work, we focus on object-level 3D reconstruction and present a geometry-based end-to-end deep learning framework that first detects the mirror plane of reflection symmetry that commonly exists in man-made objects and then predicts depth maps by finding the intra-image pixel-wise correspondence of the symmetry. Our method fully utilizes the geometric cues from symmetry during the test time by building plane-sweep cost volumes, a powerful tool that has been used in multi-view stereopsis. To our knowledge, this is the first work that uses the concept of cost volumes in the setting of single-image 3D reconstruction. We conduct extensive experiments on the ShapeNet dataset and find that our reconstruction method significantly outperforms the previous state-of-the-art single-view 3D reconstruction networks in term of the accuracy of camera poses and depth maps, without requiring objects being completely symmetric. Code is available at this https URL.


China's judiciary is becoming increasingly professionalized, and its courts are enjoying a degree of autonomy they have not enjoyed since the Revolution. By promulgating abstract interpretations of the code and through the selective publication of cases, Chinese judicial institutions today function as policymaking bodies on both national and local scales. But are they able to legitimize social policy? This question has received little attention from legal scholars, but its answer is important for our understanding of the judicial role in the governance of modern China.

We field a survey experiment that seeks to measure the persuasiveness of courts vis-a-vis administrative and non-regulatory actors. We find that courts are sometimes able to induce support for the policies they endorse. We also find, however, that this ability is not unique to courts and is at least equaled by administrative bodies.

Our results have profound implications for the future of judicialization in China. They illuminate the potential of litigation as a tool for fostering social change. But they also explain why the regime does not rely on judicial institutions to convince the public of the rightness of government policy: other governmental entities are as persuasive as courts, if not more so. More broadly, the empirical findings presented here suggest that while the Chinese party-state might find it advantageous to operate through law, it does not necessarily have to govern through courts.


A popular model for the locations of fibres or grains in composite materials
is the inhomogeneous Poisson process in dimension 3. Its local intensity function
may be estimated non-parametrically by local smoothing, e.g. by kernel
estimates. They crucially depend on the choice of bandwidths as tuning parameters
controlling the smoothness of the resulting function estimate. In this
thesis, we propose a fast algorithm for learning suitable global and local bandwidths
from the data. It is well-known, that intensity estimation is closely
related to probability density estimation. As a by-product of our study, we
show that the difference is asymptotically negligible regarding the choice of
good bandwidths, and, hence, we focus on density estimation.
There are quite a number of data-driven bandwidth selection methods for
kernel density estimates. cross-validation is a popular one and frequently proposed
to estimate the optimal bandwidth. However, if the sample size is very
large, it becomes computational expensive. In material science, in particular,
it is very common to have several thousand up to several million points.
Another type of bandwidth selection is a solve-the-equation plug-in approach
which involves replacing the unknown quantities in the asymptotically optimal
bandwidth formula by their estimates.
In this thesis, we develop such an iterative fast plug-in algorithm for estimating
the optimal global and local bandwidth for density and intensity estimation with a focus on 2- and 3-dimensional data. It is based on a detailed
asymptotics of the estimators of the intensity function and of its second
derivatives and integrals of second derivatives which appear in the formulae
for asymptotically optimal bandwidths. These asymptotics are utilised to determine
the exact number of iteration steps and some tuning parameters. For
both global and local case, fewer than 10 iterations suffice. Simulation studies
show that the estimated intensity by local bandwidth can better indicate
the variation of local intensity than that by global bandwidth. Finally, the
algorithm is applied to two real data sets from test bodies of fibre-reinforced
high-performance concrete, clearly showing some inhomogeneity of the fibre
intensity.


We have developed a simplified LCA method in order to estimate the approximate environmental loads of certain products. By this method, the life cycles of products are modeled in advance, and required data concerning the amounts of C02, SOx, and NOx emission are calculated from the Input-Output Tables, and also from the process analysis data. Applying this method to home appliances, we have obtained the following results. To reduce the environmental load, it is effective for washing machines to be designed so as to minimize the use of water and detergent at the using stage, for color TVs to be constructed of recyclable materials, and for telephones so as to be used fewer batteries.


Summary. Glutathione S‐transferases (GSTs) are implicated in cytotoxic drug resistance in leukaemia. In a previous study, expression of mu class GST (GSTM) was associated with poor prognosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), however, that study did not differentiate between individual GSTM isoforms. This study, therefore, investigated individual GSTM isoform expression in ALL blasts at the mRNA level. Leukaemic blasts from 21 children with ALL were studied. Interindividual variation in the pattern of GSTM mRNA isoform expression was demonstrated. GSTM2 transcript was expressed in all patients in contradistinction to GSTM5, which was not detected in any sample. GSTM3 and GSTM4 expression varied between individuals, with GSTM3 expressed in 62% and GSTM4 in 24% of patients. Lymphoblast expression of GSTM3 was positively related to good prognosis whereas expression of GSTM4 was not related to clinical outcome in this small cohort. No relationship was demonstrated with established indicators of prognosis, including sex, age, immunophenotype and presenting white cell count. The results suggest that expression of GSTM3 may play a role in determining prognosis in childhood ALL and could provide more information for accurate stratification of treatment. Further studies are required to determine whether there is a causal relationship between GSTM3 expression and clinical outcome.


Both uniform and nonuniform results concerning the security of the Diffie--Hellman key-exchange protocol are proved. First, it is shown that in a cyclic group G of order |G|=\prod{p_i^{e_i}}$, where all the multiple prime factors of |G| are polynomial in log|G|, there exists an algorithm that reduces the computation of discrete logarithms in G to breaking the Diffie--Hellman protocol in G and has complexity $\sqrt{\max\{\nu(p_i)\}}\cdot(\log|G|)^{O(1)}$, where $\nu(p)$ stands for the minimum of the set of largest prime factors of all the numbers d in the interval $[p-2\sqrt{p}+1,p+2\sqrt{p}+1]$. Under the unproven but plausible assumption that $\nu(p)$ is polynomial in log p, this reduction implies that the Diffie--Hellman problem and the discrete logarithm problem are polynomial-time equivalent in G. Second, it is proved that the Diffie--Hellman problem and the discrete logarithm problem are equivalent in a uniform sense for groups whose orders belong to certain classes: there exists a polynomial-time reduction algorithm that works for all those groups. Moreover, it is shown that breaking the Diffie--Hellman protocol for a small but nonnegligible fraction of the instances is equally difficult as breaking it for all instances. Finally, efficient constructions of groups are described for which the algorithm reducing the discrete logarithm problem to the Diffie--Hellman problem is efficiently constructible.


A key challenge in information retrieval is that of on-line ranker evaluation: determining which one of a finite set of rankers performs the best in expectation on the basis of user clicks on presented document lists. When the presented lists are constructed using interleaved comparison methods, which interleave lists proposed by two different candidate rankers, then the problem of minimizing the total regret accumulated while evaluating the rankers can be formalized as a K-armed dueling bandit problem. In the setting of web search, the number of rankers under consideration may be large. Scaling effectively in the presence of so many rankers is a key challenge not adequately addressed by existing algorithms. We propose a new method, which we call mergeRUCB, that uses "localized" comparisons to provide the first provably scalable K-armed dueling bandit algorithm. Empirical comparisons on several large learning to rank datasets show that mergeRUCB can substantially outperform the state of the art K-armed dueling bandit algorithms when many rankers must be compared. Moreover, we provide theoretical guarantees demonstrating the soundness of our algorithm.


This paper deals with the aggregate effects of small, exogenous but idiosyncratic technological shocks on locally interacting firms. Its main purpose is to model a situation in which technological paradigms emerge through endogenous propagation and diffusion of information leading to an aggregate pattern. We develop a theoretical framework in which large technological correlations emerge due to localised interaction of single firms. The paper states some simple results on spill-over dynamics determined by firms trying to improve their current technology and thus generating new information through investment in R&D and through localised technological search. The first part shows that different growth regimes can arise from the general framework of interaction that we propose. The second part shows that an interesting regime characterised both by long run innovation growth and endogenous short run fluctuations emerges spontaneously.


The historical data series were used to elaborate global scenarios underlying the projections in the forthcoming book of IIASA's Energy Systems Program, "Energy in a Finite World: A Global Systems Analysis". The series were also used to support the application of a macro-economic model called MACRO in the IIASA set of energy models in a study carried out under contract with the Commission of the European Communities.

The data base relates to population, energy, national accounts, foreign trade, annual investments, energy prices and labor. Part One explains the concepts and definitions; this should serve to understand the meaning of the variables and their use for international time series. Included in Part Two is a set of nearly 60 tables, providing an overview of the development of leading indicators over the last 25 years. Finally, in Part Three, the sources for compiling the statistics are detailed, so as to facilitate updating and possible expansion of the data base.

It is hoped that the historical data series may be helpful not only for IIASA's Energy Systems Program but outside the Program and IIASA as well.


Effective monitoring of bulbar disease progression in persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) requires rapid, objective, automatic assessment of speech loss. The purpose of this work was to identify acoustic features that aid in predicting intelligibility loss and speaking rate decline in individuals with ALS. Features were derived from statistics of the first (F1) and second (F2) formant frequency trajectories and their first and second derivatives. Motivated by a possible link between components of formant dynamics and specific articulator movements, these features were also computed for low-pass and high-pass filtered formant trajectories. When compared to clinician-rated intelligibility and speaking rate assessments, F2 features, particularly mean F2 speed and a novel feature, mean F2 acceleration, were most strongly correlated with intelligibility and speaking rate, respectively (Spearman correlations > 0.70, p < 0.0001). These features also yielded the best predictions in regression experiments (r > 0.60, p < 0.0001). Comparable results were achieved using low-pass filtered F2 trajectory features, with higher correlations and lower prediction errors achieved for speaking rate over intelligibility. These findings suggest information can be exploited in specific frequency components of formant trajectories, with implications for automatic monitoring of ALS.


This study set out to examine contextual level drivers of HIV among the South African Indian community of Chatsworth. Very little is currently known about HIV/AIDS among South African Indians. It was from this starting point that I set out to research this largely unexplored study topic, to gain insight into and understanding of the non-biological factors that underlie the spread of HIV/AIDS among people in Chatsworth. In-depth interviews, informal discussions and participant observation were carried out among community members, including members who were HIV positive. Findings revealed that poverty, gender power relations and stigma were major social factors contributing to the growth of HIV/AIDS within the South African Indian community of Chatsworth. Poverty places many in vulnerable positions, having to choose between treatment and disability grants to buy food for example, and gender inequalities make women more susceptible to contracting HIV than men. Culture plays a role in placing women in high risk situations. Furthermore stigma, denial and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS makes it very difficult for HIV positive people to disclose their status and to live their lives in the community. The importance of understanding the context in which the HIV/AIDS pandemic is occurring and the various cultural factors that play a role in the experience of HIV/AIDS in people"s lives, is argued to be vital to the development of successful strategies to prevent and manage the disease.


Abstract This article examines U.S. policy shaping of personal information flow in its historical trajectory. The analysis newly draws on the notion of the marketplace ideal in privacy debate and analyses a regulatory continuum that an online information protection regime is the product of active formulation of a policy principle. Proxy regulation that attributes the function of privacy protection to discrete commercial domains is analysed in analogy with the diversity principle of broadcasting. Alternative Internet policy models are discussed beyond the oversimplified dichotomy between market and government. In a critique of the Federal Trade Commission's latest proposal of "Do Not Track List," a thesis is advanced to encourage a simplified user interface with a forceful measure that can intervene in the marketplace.


Two recognized strains of Schistosoma intercalatum, one from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and the other from Cameroon, have been investigated using DNA sequences from 3 mitochondrial genes, cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (nad6) and the small ribosomal RNA gene (rrnS). In addition, partial DNA sequences from the nuclear large subunit ribosomal RNA gene (lsrDNA) were included within the study. Although partial lsrDNA alone reveals little taxonomic information, phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial data demonstrates a clear dichotomy between the 2 purported strains and it is proposed that they should be treated as distinct taxa. The 'original' S. intercalatum now falls relatively basal in the S. haematobium group, while the proposed new species is more derived and sister taxon to S. bovis and S. curassoni.


Abstract. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has been shown to form in biomass-burning emissions in laboratory and field studies. However, there is significant variability among studies in mass enhancement, which could be due to differences in fuels, fire conditions, dilution, and/or limitations of laboratory experiments and observations. This study focuses on understanding processes affecting biomass-burning SOA formation in laboratory smog-chamber experiments and in ambient plumes. Vapor wall losses have been demonstrated to be an important factor that can suppress SOA formation in laboratory studies of traditional SOA precursors; however, impacts of vapor wall losses on biomass-burning SOA have not yet been investigated. We use an aerosol-microphysical model that includes representations of volatility and oxidation chemistry to estimate the influence of vapor wall loss on SOA formation observed in the FLAME III smog-chamber studies. Our simulations with base-case assumptions for chemistry and wall loss predict a mean OA mass enhancement (the ratio of final to initial OA mass, corrected for particle-phase wall losses) of 1.8 across all experiments when vapor wall losses are modeled, roughly matching the mean observed enhancement during FLAME III. The mean OA enhancement increases to over 3 when vapor wall losses are turned off, implying that vapor wall losses reduce the apparent SOA formation. We find that this decrease in the apparent SOA formation due to vapor wall losses is robust across the ranges of uncertainties in the key model assumptions for wall-loss and mass-transfer coefficients and chemical mechanisms. We then apply similar assumptions regarding SOA formation chemistry and physics to smoke emitted into the atmosphere. In ambient plumes, the plume dilution rate impacts the organic partitioning between the gas and particle phases, which may impact the potential for SOA to form as well as the rate of SOA formation. We add Gaussian dispersion to our aerosol-microphysical model to estimate how SOA formation may vary under different ambient-plume conditions (e.g., fire size, emission mass flux, atmospheric stability). Smoke from small fires, such as typical prescribed burns, dilutes rapidly, which drives evaporation of organic vapor from the particle phase, leading to more effective SOA formation. Emissions from large fires, such as intense wildfires, dilute slowly, suppressing OA evaporation and subsequent SOA formation in the near field. We also demonstrate that different approaches to the calculation of OA enhancement in ambient plumes can lead to different conclusions regarding SOA formation. OA mass enhancement ratios of around 1 calculated using an inert tracer, such as black carbon or CO, have traditionally been interpreted as exhibiting little or no SOA formation; however, we show that SOA formation may have greatly contributed to the mass in these plumes. In comparison of laboratory and plume results, the possible inconsistency of OA enhancement between them could be in part attributed to the effect of chamber walls and plume dilution. Our results highlight that laboratory and field experiments that focus on the fuel and fire conditions also need to consider the effects of plume dilution or vapor losses to walls.


High inequality has long been regarded as one of the main problems facing Latin American countries. To understand better the determinants of inequality and to help guide thinking about policy options, it is useful to know whether inequality mainly reflects low intergenerational mobility or whether it is driven by differences in individual characteristics that arise independently of family background. In this paper we use five household surveys with questions about parental socioeconomic characteristics for adults, and a set of 112 standard household surveys to examine the intergenerational transmission of schooling and occupational status in Latin America and the United States. We find that intergenerational mobility is much higher in the United States than in Latin America, that there are sizable differences in mobility within Latin America, and that mobility in Latin America is strongly associated with schooling levels and expenditures on education.


Abstract In this article we shed light on the experiences of disabled students attending professional courses in higher education in Norway. The findings from this empirical study are based on interviews with 14 students with diverse impairments, ranging from the visible to the invisible. They faced barriers that they resolved to address on their own, using their capabilities and working 'in silence' to meet the expectations of normal students in academia as strong and independent. In addition to their own motivation and self-determination, what facilitated their progress in their studies was that some of the staff and fellow students met them respectfully as ordinary students, while recognizing their strain and providing support without calling attention to it. Leaning on the Nordic Relational Model of Disability, we call for greater awareness of the complex interactional processes between the disabled students and people in their social environment.


BACKGROUND
AUDIT is a self-reported questionnaire used to detect problem drinkers. It must be translated into Spanish and validated in order to be used in Chile.

AIM
To assess the validity of a Chilean version of the AUDIT questionnaire.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The English version of the questionnaire was translated into Spanish and adapted to the Chilean cultural environment. Using the Delphi method, an expert group examined the text and then decided on which would be the definitive version. This test was translated to English again and was approved by one of the original authors. It was then applied to 93 subjects aged 37 +/- 12 years (60% males) consulting at a primary health care center These subjects also answered the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), version 2.1 that was used as the gold standard for the diagnosis of hazardous drinking and alcohol dependence. Cronbach alpha and test-retest validity were analyzed. Sensitivity and specificity were determined using receiver operating (ROC) curves.

RESULTS
The internal consistency of AUDIT was 0.93, its test re-tests reliability was 0.97 (95% confidence intervals 0.96-0.98). Using a cutoff point of 6 for hazardous consumption, its sensitivity and specificity were 83% and 88%, respectively. The figures for dependence and harmful consumption, using a cutoff point of 9, were 87% and 85%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
AUDIT is a valid questionnaire to detect problem drinkers.


Using a difference-in-differences framework, this paper estimates the impact that Britain's July 2005 bombings had on the labor market outcomes of UK residents who are either Muslim by religious affiliation or whose nativity profiles are similar to the terrorists. We find a 10 percentage point decrease in the employment of very young Muslim men relative to non-Muslim immigrants after the London bombings. The drop in employment is accompanied by consistent declines in real earnings and hours worked. A weak association between the 9-11 terrorist attacks and a drop in the employment of very young male immigrants from Muslim-majority countries is also found. The terrorist events had little impact on the employment of older men.


This article reviews four books published in 2010 and 2011 on the topic of systems thinking in evaluation: Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use by Michael Q. Patton; Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models by Sue Funnell and Patricia Rogers; Systems Concepts in Action: A Practitioner's Toolkit by Bob Williams and Richard Hummelbrunner, and Evaluation in the Face of Uncertainty: Anticipating Surprise and Responding to the Inevitable by Jonathan Morell. These books describe the interdisciplinary landscape of systems theories, encompassing general systems theory, systems dynamics, complexity theory, network theory, and learning systems, and how they can be used to improve evaluation practice. The books appeal to many different and sometimes overlapping audiences. Separately, they address specific information needs about how to incorporate systems concepts into different aspects of evaluation design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Together, the books complement and reinforce each other, creating a cohesive picture of the state of the art of systems thinking by encouraging thinking about situational dynamics in an often complicated and complex world. The books' authors also advance systems thinking in evaluation by inviting their readers to test out the books' ideas and methods in their own evaluation work.


Network operators often need to ensure that important probabilistic properties are met, such as that the probability of network congestion is below a certain threshold. Ensuring such properties is challenging and requires both a suitable language for probabilistic networks and an automated procedure for answering probabilistic inference queries. We present Bayonet, a novel approach that consists of: (i) a probabilistic network programming language and (ii) a system that performs probabilistic inference on Bayonet programs. The key insight behind Bayonet is to phrase the problem of probabilistic network reasoning as inference in existing probabilistic languages. As a result, Bayonet directly leverages existing probabilistic inference systems and offers a flexible and expressive interface to operators. We present a detailed evaluation of Bayonet on common network scenarios, such as network congestion, reliability of packet delivery, and others. Our results indicate that Bayonet can express such practical scenarios and answer queries for realistic topology sizes (with up to 30 nodes).


This paper analyzes if pre-schoolers can distinguish fantasy from reality and what factors influence it. Garner, Curenton, Taylor (2005) method was used in this study. The participants were 48 preschoolers aged from 2 years and 9 months old till 7 years and 3 months old. We tried to evaluate if they could distinguish the events which happen in the real world and which happen only in fantasy and what arguments they use when giving their explanation. The study shows that age is an important factor in fantasy-reality understanding. Older pre-schoolers make fewer mistakes when making the decision on what is real and what is fantasy. Also, they more often give a right explanation about their decision, what shows that they have already gained strong knowledge about what is real in life and what is only a fantasy. In this study family background, like parents' education and children's birth order, was also analyzed, but it was not related with children's fantasy-reality understanding.


The objective was the study of the game action of indoor soccer teams through the analysis of offensive coefficients, verifying its relationship with field performance estimated by the final result of games. Competitions by the Federacion Gaucha de Futbol Sala (Brasil) were followed for 9 years. Shots were divided into three different categories: 1) LAN: shots+finish line shots+goals; 2) MET: finish line shots+goals; and 3) GOL: goals. From those data the following indexes were obtained: 1) Offensive Outpout: (PO): ratio LAN of team 'A'/LAN of antagonist {PO = (LAN 'A'*100) / (LAN 'A'+LAN 'B')}; 2) Objectivity Index (IO): percentage of shots that reached the finish line {IO=(MET*100)/LAN}; 3) Proficiency Index (IA): percentage of shots transformed into goals {IA=(GOL*100)/LAN}; 4) Proficiency/Objectivity Rate (TA/O): percentage of shots reaching the finish line (MET) transformed into goals {TA/O=(GOL*100)/MET}; and 5) Game Volume (VJ): TA/O+PO+IO. Results obtained show that PO, IA and VJ were higher in winner than in loser teams. Ratio of PO corresponding to winners and losers was higher than those for IA or VJ. This study confirms the validity of the evaluation of performance through shot characterization and allows to conclude that IA is a better predictor of performance than PO; that is, the quality of shots is more important than its quantity.


Abstract
Purpose
Companies are increasingly leveraging digital technologies toward innovation strategies that deliver novel features to customers sequentially through successive new product generations (i.e., successive innovation). Extant literature examining successive innovation is both limited and fragmented across marketing and management literatures. Our goal is to synthesize literature on concepts related to successive innovation (such as versioning and upgrades) to identify the core dimensions of successive innovation and provide a cohesive framework to guide future research in this domain.

Methodology/approach
Given the equivocality in understanding the conceptual domain of successive innovation, we review and synthesize literature across three disciplinary domains: marketing, management, and information and decision sciences. Based on the emerging patterns from the literature review, we develop a conceptual framework of successive innovation with the aim of moving the discussion toward greater theoretical clarity.

Findings
Based on the literature review and synthesis, we identify three core-dimensions that define successive innovation and compare these across digital and physical product realms: coexistence, embeddedness, and adoption controllability.

Research Implications
Our proposed conceptual dimensions of successive innovation, and discussion of differences across physical and digital product domains, offer important directions for future research and a common vocabulary.

As physical and digital successive innovations can differ in coexistence, embeddedness, and adoption controllability, firms need to consider relevant barriers to adoption of successive product generations and select appropriate strategies to promote and communicate successive innovation. Our proposed successive innovation conceptual dimensions help managers comprehend the complexity of arranging such innovation in business and consumer segments.

Originality/value
Our contribution to the emerging literature on successive innovation is threefold. First, by conducting a comprehensive literature review, we integrate insights from different fields of inquiry (i.e., marketing, management, and information and decision sciences). Second, based on the synthesis of the literature, we offer a conceptual framework of successive innovation, which aims to move the discussion toward greater theoretical clarity. Third, based on our review and conceptual framework, we discuss a set of future research directions to guide academic research efforts.


These survey results are from an online survey of 577 UK-based archaeological volunteers, professional archaeologists and archaeological organisations. These data cover a variety of topics related to how and why people access the Internet for information about archaeology, including demographic information, activity relating to accessing information on archaeological topics, archaeological sharing and networking and the use of mobile phone apps and QR codes for public engagement. There is wide scope for further qualitative and quantitative analysis of these data.


The English language makes ready use of nouns as modifiers of other nouns: lemon cake, garden party, etc. A wide range of meaning relationships may be associated to these constructions in English, such as content (a lemon cake is a cake that contains lemon or has lemon flavour) or place (a garden party is held in a garden). This variety in meaning leads to a number of possible grammatical resources available in Spanish to communicate these meanings. This paper analyses a number of English N+N constructions found in a real text, and the different options taken by the Spanish translator in each case. The structures were classified according to semantic criteria (Biber et al. 1999) and the Spanish equivalents were extracted for each case in order to determine the underlying semantic patterns in the Spanish translations. The aim is to establish the degree of typicality of certain constructions for particular meanings in Spanish.


The continuous rise of drug-related criminal activity in the United States indicates that current reform policies simply are not working. Many examining the existence of crime <http://www.criminology.com/> are puzzled by the problem that drugs create and how best to stop the trade without affirming the behavior. Incarceration and other forms of corporal punishment for drug offenses are not only costly, but are also proving largely ineffective. Re-offenses are very common, and there is no evidence that the threat of imprisonment serves as any sort of real deterrent. The current state of American drugrelated crime calls for an approach to the problem that is grounded in treatment and scientific research.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the absorptive capacity types in the knowledge management literature and aims to understand how companies can strength their contexts of cooperation in order to innovate. Design/methodology/approach: A balanced panel of 1,220 firms that respond to the Survey of Business Strategies for a three-year period was used, which represents a total of 3,660 observations. Findings: The justification of absorptive capacity typology for an innovation efficiency process. The influence of the potential and realized absorptive capacity on new products is significant and causes effects on internal research and development in diverse way. The impact of the joint ventures, suppliers' cooperation and customers' cooperation are significant on absorptive capacity. Research limitations/implications: It would be interesting to extend the research to another innovation metrics as new organizational methods, new processes, new designs or new methods in the use of sales channels. Practical implications: The agreement of cooperation activities constitutes an important decision for the firm's innovation. Companies must be conscious that while suppliers and customers' cooperation are relevant cooperation actions to increase the internal research and development, joint ventures and customers' cooperation are significant to the growth of the new products. Social implications: The types of absorptive capacity and internal research and development serve as mediating mechanisms between cooperative activities and innovative performance. Originality/value: This paper advances the literature on absorptive capacity by showing how firms use their positions of technological vigilance and management to form their capabilities, and subsequently, to enhance innovation outcomes. This study considers it is necessary to analyze the typology of the absorptive capacity that can allow managers to understand an innovation efficiency process in the cooperation context and make better decisions. The confluence of cooperation activities, absorptive capacity and organizational objectives in internal research and development obtain higher innovative results.


Turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat are important processes in the surface energy balance that drives snowmelt. Modeling these fluxes in a forested environment is complicated because of the canopy effects on the wind field. This paper presents and tests a turbulent flux model developed to represent these processes in an energy balance snowmelt model. The goal is to model these processes using the readily available inputs of canopy height and leaf area index in a way that minimizes the number of parameters, state variables, and assumptions about hard to quantify processes. Selected periods from 9 years of eddy‐covariance (EC) measurements at Niwot Ridge, Colorado, were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this modeling approach. The model was able to reproduce the above‐canopy sensible and latent heat fluxes reasonably with the correlation higher for sensible heat than latent heat. The modeled values of the below‐canopy latent heat fluxes also matched the EC‐measured values. The model captured the nighttime below‐canopy sensible heat flux quite well, but there were discrepancies in daytime sensible heat flux possibly due to mountain slope circulation not quantifiable in this kind of model. Despite the uncertainties in the below‐canopy sensible heat fluxes, the results are encouraging and suggest that reasonable predictions of turbulent flux energy exchanges and subsequent vapor losses from snow in forested environments can be obtained with a parsimonious single‐layer representation of the canopy. The model contributes an improved physically based capability for predicting the snow accumulation and melt in a forested environment.


We report a simple and general solution-based methodology to support reduced graphene oxide layers (rGO) onto micro-spikes engraved on Si to produce high-aspect ratio wrinkles and sharp protrusions. It is observed that as the number of deposited rGO layers is increased the wrinkle density progressively increases complemented by a remarkable folding of graphene sheets at the vicinity of the spike tips. Highly efficient and stable field emission with low turn-on fields was observed, attributed to the local enhancement of the electric field at the wrinkled rGO protrusions. The ability to produce wrinkled graphene from solution could allow large area deposition providing prospects for the development of practical electron sources and advanced devices based on graphene oxide field emitters. The contribution of this hierarchical, hybrid film morphology is evaluated and discussed.


Foreign aid can contribute to sustainable forestry in many ways. The goal is to secure forest benefits of the future, without compromising the needs of the present generations. This paper elaborates on forestry aid as it has evolved in the past. Future directions are suggested, referring to short and midterm projects, as well as long-term programmes. Tree planting has worked in the past, and is an option for scaling up the activity in the future. Distributing fuel efficient cooking stoves could work in a similar way, sparing trees and at the same time improving the quality of rural life. Planted trees and new stoves can be made available in the near term, that is, within a time horizon of one to five years. In the mid-term, over a time span of 5-15 years, forest inventory and monitoring systems are relevant candidates for successful foreign aid in forestry, although the methods are not yet sufficiently developed to become applied in tropical rain forests. The support of universities and the infrastructure for higher education in forestry, agriculture, and rural development, is important in the long term. Forestry, which generally operates in remote rural areas, is susceptible to logistical problems and resource misuse. It is important in forestry aid to circumvent corruption risks of both in recipient nations and in donor organizations. Forestry aid must emphasize domestic action by local experts, as well as capacity building in the recipient countries.


Although Adam Smith's 1776 Wealth of Nations is often cited as marking the birth of economics, it was really not until after the second world war that economics became the distinctive, more or less unified, and largely separate discipline summarised in the textbooks of today. Even a mere fifty years ago, it was possible for the intelligent reader to move with relative ease between economics on the one hand and political economy, sociology and social theory, psychology and philosophy on the other. This is now no longer the case, and most young economists are taught to think of their discipline, not primarily in terms of the particular economic social phenomena it was once taken to be about, but as a sophisticated and largely self-contained analytical approach to the investigation of social phenomena of any kind. Even so, economics has never been able to separate itself entirely from its sister disciplines, even at the high tide of mathematical economics and positivism during the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the most active new areas in economics currently involve some form of boundary crossing (e.g. experimental economics, neuroeconomics and computational economics to name just three). With respect to the philosophy of economics in particular, the last fifty years or so have seen a steady expansion in scholarly investigation into different connections between economics and philosophy, with the emergence of new journals, professional associations, research networks and the like. There has been a great deal of work on epistemological questions in the wake of the decline of positivism, on boundary issues and the question of whether or not economics constitutes a science, and on the rhetoric of economics, ethics, value and, latterly, the ontology of economics (Hands, 2001). It is against this background that, in 2004, three of us published the Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy (Davis, Marciano and Runde, 2004, henceforth the Companion), an edited collection aimed at documenting the current state of play in three important areas of the philosophy of economics:


This article takes its cue from Desai"s critique of the new communis ts of the commons , particularly her claim that their project is built upon a series of misunderstandings about the dynamics of capital accumulation, the production of value in post-Fordism and the concept of the "commons" itself. Focusing on earlier explorations by Italian feminists of the dynamic interaction between labour and value, the contribution this article makes to the commons debate is three-fold: first, it argues that the most interesting insights emerging from immaterial/cognitive/affective labour theories on which Italian post-workerists rely to put forward a renewed understanding of the commons derive from this feminist body of work. Secondly it shows how, despite being relied upon, the radical potential of this work has been limited by positing a qualitative shift to post-Fordist production that pays little attention to the important connections between labour and value that make up our common world. Finally, the article focuses exactly on this potential, that is, the challenge to capitalist value through the instantiation of other processes of valorisation, in light of the current attack on social reproduction.


Thirty-six isolated frog ventricles were attached to an inflow cannula with stopcocks that could permit direct systolic ejection back into the reservoir, return flow back to the reservoir by another route through a valve, or isochorie contractions. The heart, enclosed in a container with a "U" tube outlet, produced pressure changes (extra-cardiac) which could be used in determining the in-flow rate and transmural pressures. The rate of change of the transmural pressure was calculated for the frog ventricle during early diastole. This value was taken as a measurement of the rate of relaxation. The effects of epinephrine (.02 μg./ml.) were studied. At low filling pressures without valves (and therefore with outflow pressure equal to inflow pressure), epinephrine slows the rate of relaxation, although other inotropic effects, such as an increase in stroke volumes, are present. If, however, the heart contracts against a high outflow pressure or resistance the rate of relaxation is increased by epinephrine. The slowing of relaxation in the former case is a result of filling commencing before relaxation is complete. In the isochoric heart, epinephrine does not change the time of positive tension, but does accelerate the relaxation after contraction.


Anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha induced lupus (ATIL) represents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Most cases of ATIL are caused by infliximab, followed by etanercept and adalimumab. Symptoms can range from common, mild cutaneous lesions to rare, serious pleural or pericardial effusions, deep venous thrombosis, life-threatening pneumonitis, and neuritis. Constitutional symptoms often present in association with positive autoantibody serology. Diagnosis can be considered if there is a temporal relationship between symptoms and anti-tumor necrosis factor-� (TNF- � ) therapy and at least one serologic and one non-serologic American College of Rheumatology criteria. Since it is contraindicated to use anti-TNF-� drugs in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, it is recommended to perform a thorough immunological screening in any patient with polyarthritis to assure accurate diagnosis. In addition, prior to anti- TNF therapy, baseline immunological investigations (including antinuclear antibodies) should be performed, and there should be close follow up to assess the development of lupus manifestations. The main approach in the treatment of ATIL is withdrawal of the offending drug. Traditional therapy with corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents may be required to achieve full resolution of lupus symptoms. In this review, we discuss the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, and management of ATIL.


As part of an ongoing investigation, the influence of In Cylinder Pressure (ICP) and fuel injection pressure on the soot formation processes in a diesel fuel spray were studied. The work was performed using a rapid compression machine at ambient conditions representative of a modern High Speed Direct Injection diesel engine, and with fuel injection more representative of full load. Future tests will aim to consider the effects of pilot injections and EGR rates. The qualitative soot concentration was determined using the Laser Induced Incandescence (LII) technique both spatially and temporally at a range of test conditions. Peak soot concentration values were determined, from which a good correlation between soot concentration and injection pressure was observed. The peak soot concentration was found to correlate well with the velocity of the injected fuel jet. Charge air pressure was observed to have minimal effect on the peak soot concentration indicating insensitivity to ignition delay and spray break-up length. Injection pressure was also observed to strongly influence the early soot formation process. Soot was found to form earlier closer to the injector at high injection pressures. It was proposed that air-fuel mixing promoted by better atomisation of the spray at high injection pressures results in early pyrolysis of the fuel and the formation of soot.


A patient had repeated episodes of transient loss of memory, which had been attributed to psychogenic causes. Preservation of his sense of personal identity and the presence of repetitive questioning indicated an organic basis, however, and the multiplicity of the attacks and their brief duration suggested an epileptic aetiology. Although three standard EEGs, CT and MRI were all normal, two sleep EEGs confirmed bilateral foci in the temporal lobes. The attacks responded to an anticonvulsant. A fluoro-deoxyglucose PET scan, performed a few months after the most recent attack, was normal. The patient also had impaired anterograde memory that persisted six months after recovery from the acute attacks.


The Permian was a period of transition in Antarctica as the glaciers of the Carboniferous and Early Permian retreated (Isbell, 2010), and the landscape became dominated by the plants of the Glossopteridales. The geographic range of the glossopterids extended across all of subequatorial Gondwana (McLoughlin, 2011). The group is identified with tongue-shaped leaves (genus Glossopteris ) and is most often reconstructed as arborescent with Agathoxylon -type uniseriate coniferous wood. A distinctive rooting structure with conspicuous air spaces, Vertebraria , is found in association with the wood and leaf genera. These three genera are fairly conservative in their morphology across all of Gondwana. Glossopteris has hundreds of defined species, but the criteria used to delimit species relies heavily on secondary vein architecture and studies on extant plants have shown that there is a wide range of vein architecture found within a single plant (e.g., Boyce, 2009), suggesting that perhaps vein architectural features do not provide valid information on the diversity found within Glossopteris .

The diversity of the group is known from reproductive structures, and most often from ovulate structures (e.g., Ryberg, 2009; Prevec, 2011; McLoughlin, 2012; Ryberg et al., 2012a). More than 20 genera of ovulate organs are associated with the glossopterids from across Gondwana. In Antarctica at least five genera are known and they span three distinctive morphologies. The most common morphology, which is found on …


We study the impulsive phase of a C9.0 solar flare using high temporal and spatial resolution Hα images from Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in conjunction with high-cadence hard X-ray (HXR) observations from Yohkoh. During the early impulsive phase, HXR emission emerged from two kernels K1 and K2 which were connected by coronal loops observed in soft X-ray (SXR) images from Yohkoh. In Hα, the initial rise was observed in one flare kernel K2, which was followed within 10 s by enhanced emission in the associated kernel K1. Such a significant asymmetry was not observed at HXR wavelengths. Our analysis shows that the asymmetric Hα footpoint emission cannot be explained by the magnetic mirroring effect in which strong field footpoints show lower precipitation rates. Instead, we study this phenomenon by investigating the atmospheric response of the lower chromosphere to nonthermal beam heating. From numerical simulations, it is suggested that a cool atmosphere does not respond rapidly to beam impact, which may explain the missing Hα emission at K1 during the early impulsive phase. At K2, the early-phase atmosphere may be preferentially heated resulting in the Hα emission rapidly following the HXR emission. This is due to the fact that K2 is a compact source which received persistent energy deposition and consequent heating in a confined area during the early phase. K1, on the other hand, is a diffused source which therefore experienced a lower heating rate per unity area. We propose a scenario in which the flare loop consists of multiple magnetic "threads" connecting the compact footpoint K2 with the diffuse footpoint K1.


This monograph places the innovative residential complex, the New Danube Housing in Vienna, in the context of Vienna's history of social housing. Starting around 1900, it tells the story of Red Vienna with buildings such as the Karl-Marx-Hof or projects influenced by the Garden City movement, among them buildings constructed by architects such as Adolf Loos, Gerrit Rietveld, Josef Hoffmann or Richard Neutra. It continues by looking at post-1945 social housing and then considers the innovative architecture of Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster. Having examined historical and contemporary developments, the book gives detailed consideration to Harry Seidler's recently completed New Danube Housing, a complex of nearly 900 apartments built on a covered expressway along the Danube.


Pamela Rhodes, one of the first British policewomen, tells her fascinating story in Bobby on the Beat. Back in 1950 Pam became one of the first policewomen in the country. But the force's new female recruits faced a sceptical public in rural Yorkshire and even before they stepped out on the beat there were the prejudices of older male officers to overcome. Yet from the first Pam was thrust into the front line. From runaway bulls to investigating ladies of the night and cases of vice, her innocent eyes were quickly opened. And soon, spending her days on the streets, she came to know the neighbourhood and the extraordinary characters who lived on the right, as well as wrong, side of the law. In the charming Bobby on the Beat, Pamela Rhodes' tales of life as a copper provide a fascinating glimpse of country life now long gone - when seeing a bobby on the beat meant all was well. Pamela Rhodes lives in Scarborough, where she was one of the first WPCs in Britain in the 1960s. Her unique story was picked up when she entered the life-story competition run by Penguin and Saga Magazine, in which she placed as a runner-up. This is her first memoir.


Off-task and disruptive classroom behaviors have a negative impact on the learning environment and present a unique challenge for teachers to address. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Class Pass Intervention (CPI) as a behavior management strategy for secondary students with disruptive classroom behavior. The CPI consists of providing students with passes that they can either (1) use to appropriately request a break to engage in a preferred activity for a preset amount of time or (2) keep and later exchange for a preferred item or activity. Using an ABAB withdrawal design with replication through a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design, the CPI was shown to increase academic engagement, which is incompatible with disruptive behavior, in 4 students who engaged in high levels of disruptive behavior throughout the baseline condition. Results also demonstrated partial support for the durability of intervention effects over time and indicated that both teachers and students perceived the intervention to be socially feasible. Implications of the results and directions for future research are discussed.


A series of LN:Mo,Zr and LN:Mo,Mg crystals with different doping concentrations were grown and their holographic properties were investigated from UV to the visible range. Each crystal allows for holographic storage from UV to the visible as LN:Mo. When the concentration of MgO is enhanced to 6.5 mol%, the response time can be dramatically shortened to 0.22 s, 0.33 s, 0.37 s and 1.2 s for 351, 488, 532, and 671 nm laser, respectively. The results show that LN:Mo,Mg is a promising candidate for all-color holographic volume storage with fast response.


Hand-colored map of the state of Virginia in 1861, used by General Scott to plan campaigns during the Civil War. Counties are labeled and geographic features are noted, with relief shown by hachures. It includes advertisements, tables of population, steamboat routes, and altitudes, and notes on mapping and geology in text blocks around the outside of the map.


When operating in human environments, a robot should use predictable motions that allow humans to trust and anticipate its behavior. Heuristic search-based planning offers predictable motions and guarantees on completeness and sub-optimality of solutions. While search-based planning on motion primitive-based (lattice-based) graphs has been used extensively in navigation, application to high-dimensional state-spaces has, until recently, been thought impractical. This dissertation presents methods we have developed for applying these graphs to mobile manipulation, specifically for systems which contain closed chains. The formation of closed chains in tasks that involve contacts with the environment may reduce the number of available degrees-of-freedom but adds complexity in terms of constraints in the high-dimensional state-space. We exploit the dimensionality reduction inherent in closed kinematic chains to get efficient search-based planning. Our planner handles changing topologies (switching between open and closed-chains) in a single plan, including what transitions to include and when to include them. Thus, we can leverage existing results for search-based planning for open chains, combining open and closed chain manipulation planning into one framework. Proofs regarding the framework are introduced for the application to graph-search and its theoretical guarantees of optimality. The dimensionality-reduction is done in a manner that enables finding optimal solutions to low-dimensional problems which map to correspondingly optimal full-dimensional solutions. We apply this framework to planning for opening and navigating through non-spring and springloaded doors using a Willow Garage PR2. The framework motivates our approaches to the Atlas humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics for both stationary manipulation and quasi-static walking, as a closed chain is formed when both feet are on the ground. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics First Advisor Vijay Kumar Second Advisor Maxim Likhachev


Since a few years, hydrogen appears as a practical energy vector and some hydrogen applications are already on the market. However these applications are still considered dangerous, hazardous events like explosion could occur and some accidents, like the Hindenburg disaster, are still in the mind. Objectively, hydrogen ignites easily and explodes violently. Safety engineering has to be particularly strong and demonstrative; a method of precise identification of accidental scenarios ("probabilities"; "severity") is developed in this article. This method, derived from ARAMIS method, permits to identify and to estimate the most relevant safety barriers and therefore helps future users choose appropriate safety strategies.


Earth orbiting satellites come in a wide range of shapes and sizes to meet a diverse variety of uses and applications. Large satellites with masses over 1000 kg support high-resolution remote sensing of the Earth, high bandwidth communications services, and world-class scientific studies but take lengthy developments and are costly to build and launch. The advent of commercially available, high-volume, and hence low-cost microelectronics has enabled a different approach through miniaturization. This results in physically far smaller satellites that dramatically reduce timescales and costs and that are able to provide operational and commercially viable services. This paper charts the evolution and rise of small satellites from being an early curiosity with limited utility through to the present where small satellites are a key element of modern space capabilities.


Public organizations are relatively understudied in the strategic entrepreneurship literature. In this article, we submit that public organizations are usefully analyzed as entities that create and capture value in both the private and public sectors and that a capabilities lens sheds important new insights on their behavior. As they try to create and capture value, public organizations can act entrepreneurially by creating or leveraging bundles of capabilities, which may then shape subsequent entrepreneurial action. Such processes can involve complex interactions among public and private actors. For example, public organizations often partner with private firms to produce existing products, create new products, and establish new markets which, in turn, generate new capabilities for both public and private actors. Yet such coevolutionary processes are not guaranteed to create value, and capabilities acquired in the pursuit of public interests may, over time, enable activities that damage those same interests. We show how a capabilities approach helps explain the nature and evolution of public organizations and we apply this approach to a series of cases on the growth and diversification of public organizations, the private provision of public goods, and related issues. Copyright © 2013 Strategic Management Society.


Crosstalk in optical waveguide switches/modulators caused by having two polarizations simultaneously present is studied in this work. This situation is expected to arise when fiber optical transmission lines are coupled to integrated optical circuits. Modulator/switch performance is found to be strongly affected by having two propagating polarizations. Conditions on device design are found that minimize the polarization sensitivity of switches/modulators, making them suitable for use with fiber optic transmission lines.


This self-paced reading study explored how English and Dutch L2 learners of German process subject-object ambiguities in German and whether the location of the lexical verb influences on-line processing among L2 learners. Reading time results at the disambiguating region revealed a subject-first preference, regardless of the location of the lexical verb, for all three groups. This highlights the potential for native-like L2 processing. At the same time, however, differences emerged in reading times between the two L2 learner groups on later segments, suggesting that the L1 can influence L2 processing, even among advanced learners.


Abstract. The research record on the quantification of sediment transport processes in periglacial mountain environments in Scandinavia dates back to the 1950s. A wide range of measurements is available, especially from the Kärkevagge region of northern Sweden. Within this paper satellite image analysis and tools provided by geographic information systems (GIS) are exploited in order to extend and improve this research and to complement geophysical methods. The processes of interest include mass movements such as solifluction, slope wash, dirty avalanches and rock‐ and boulder falls. Geomorphic process units have been derived in order to allow quantification via GIS techniques at a catchment scale. Mass movement rates based on existing field measurements are employed in the budget calculations. In the Kärkevagge catchment, 80% of the area can be identified either as a source area for sediments or as a zone where sediments are deposited. The overall budget for the slopes beneath the rockwalls in the Kärkevagge is approximately 680 t a−1 whilst about 150 t a−1 are transported into the fluvial system.


With the fast growth of the amount of digitalized texts in recent years, text information management becomes increasingly important in people's daily life. Natural language processing provides the foundation of many modern text information management technologies. For many natural language processing tasks, the state-of-the-art solutions are based on supervised statistical machine learning methods, which require large manually annotated corpora. However, the variations of text in vocabulary, format, style, etc. in different domains and the large amount of human efforts needed to create labeled training data make it practically infeasible to directly apply supervised machine learning methods to natural language processing tasks in new domains. There is therefore a great need to develop special learning algorithms and techniques to adapt classifiers trained on some old domains to a different but related new domain.
This thesis aims at understanding the domain adaptation problem and developing general learning techniques for solving the problem. To understand domain adaptation, a formal analysis is conducted from different perspectives. First, we look at the intrinsic distributional difference between two domains, which leads to an instance weighting solution to domain adaptation. Second, we look at the the extrinsic functional difference between the optimal classifiers for two domains, which leads to a feature selection solution to domain adaptation. Third, we distinguish the domain difference that comes from the old training domain from the difference that comes from the new test domain, and accordingly propose that domain adaptation should consist of two stages.
The instance weighting and feature selection solutions are formally developed into two general and principled frameworks for domain adaptation. Both frameworks modify the objective function of the standard risk minimization framework for supervised learning, and include standard supervised learning and semi-supervised learning as special cases. Evaluation of the two frameworks on a number of natural language processing tasks using real data sets demonstrates the effectiveness of the domain adaptation techniques incorporated in the frameworks compared with standard supervised and semi-supervised learning.
Observing that the effectiveness of different domain adaptation techniques varies from data set to data set, we also study different types of domain adaptation and their associations with different domain adaptation techniques. Using perturbed real data sets, we are able to show that different types of domain difference indeed require different domain adaptation techniques. This analysis deepens our understanding of domain adaptation, and potentially helps us select the appropriate techniques for particular domain adaptation problems.
Although we focus on domain adaptation in natural language processing in this thesis, most of the analysis of the problem and the proposed domain adaptation techniques are not restricted to natural language processing problems but can be generally applied to most classification tasks when the training and the test domains differ.


We examined changes that occurred in acorns during storage at different temperatures and moisture contents over a period of 3 y. In general, we found that to achieve optimum viability, acorns must be stored fully hydrated. Acorns also survived longer and sprouted less while in storage if stored at -2 °C (28 °F) instead of the usual 4 °C (39 °F). However, we suspect damage to white oak embryonic axes at the lower temperature and at this time cannot recommend storage at -2 °C for this species. While we were able to store fully hydrated red oaks for as long as 3 y, we have been less successful with the white oaks. If you are in doubt about the quality of your acorns, go back to the basics—clip open a sample and check them for color and freshness.


Net sediment transport pathways have been determined in many environments by studying grain size trends. This approach is extended here to an inner shelf environment, with improved statistical techniques. Patterns of net surficial sediment transport are proposed, indicating that the area is dominated by up-estuary transport. Exceptions exist in the form of radial mud transport at the river mouths and (clockwise) sand circulation around linear sandbanks. Six different sedimentary environments are defined on the basis of the shape of the 'transfer function' and its relationship to the grain size distributions. Erosion takes place along the axis of the estuary. Dynamic equilibrium is reached around the linear sandbanks, whilst accretion occurs at the head of the estuary and where there are riverine inputs. The results are compared with numerical model outputs, representing water movement and sediment transport. Over the seaward part of the study area, there is agreement between the two approaches; contradictions increase, however, towards the upper reaches of the estuary. The discrepancies can be attributed to: (1) inherent differences between patterns of water and sediment movement; (2) difficulties in modelling intertidal boundary conditions; (3) inadequate representation of river influences in the models; and (4) time-scale differences, associated with sediment transport processes.


This study describes a non-invasive method for mapping interstitial fluid pressure within hydrogel-based microscale tissues. The method is based on embedding (or forming) a tissue within a silicone (PDMS) microfluidic device, and measuring the extremely slight displacement (<1 μm) of the PDMS optically when the device is pressurized under static and flow conditions. The displacement field under uniform pressure provides a map of the local device stiffness, which can then be used to obtain the non-uniform pressure field under flow conditions. We have validated this method numerically and applied it towards determining the hydraulic properties of tumor cell aggregates, blind-ended epithelial tubes, and perfused endothelial tubes that were all cultured within micropatterned collagen gels. The method provides an accessible tool for generating high-resolution maps of interstitial fluid pressure for studies in mechanobiology.


Annotations: The interest shown by scientists around the world to human heredity is not accidental. Currently, about 2000 hereditary diseases and genetically determined syndromes are known. Their number is constantly growing, dozens of new forms of hereditary pathology are described every year. At the present stage of development of medicine, recognition of various hereditary diseases and genetically determined syndromes is of exceptional importance.The lack of a generally accepted classification of hereditary diseases, their large polymorphism and the large number of phenocopies create difficulties in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of heredial forms of pathology.


Fishes are often stocked outside natural distribution ranges with inadequate information on target streams, particularly thermal regimes. Australian bass, Macquaria novemaculeata (Steindachner), is a catadromous species that is regularly stocked into upland reaches of rivers and impoundments in south-eastern Australia. Critical Thermal Minima (CTMin) were determined for age-0 Australian bass fingerlings with a mean fork length of 64.4 ± 0.4 mm and weighing 3.8 ± 0.8 g. Four treatments were used, including three replicate aquaria for each treatment. Fingerlings were acclimated at either 8 or 15 °C at densities of 15 fish in 56-L glass aquaria. Water temperatures were then decreased at either 1 °C day−1 or 1 °C h−1 until loss of equilibrium (LOE), which occurred between 3 and 7 °C. Mean CTMin among treatments was 3.22–4.64 °C and was influenced by acclimation temperature and rate of temperature decline. Fingerlings acclimated at 8 °C subjected to a temperature decline of 1 °C h−1 experienced highest LOE temperature. Post-LOE mortality among treatments was highest at 100% in the 8 °C acclimation with a 1 °C day−1 temperature decline. Mortalities following LOE occurred within 5 days. The results suggest that stocking age-0 Australian bass is unlikely to be successful in areas where winter temperatures fall below 6 °C.


In dependently typed programming, proofs of basic, structural properties can be embedded implicitly into programs and do not need to be written explicitly. Besides saving the effort of writing separate proofs, a most distinguishing and fascinating aspect of dependently typed programming is that it makes the idea of interactive type-driven development much more powerful, where expressive type information becomes useful hints that help the programmer to complete a program. There have not been many attempts at exploiting the full potential of the idea, though. As a departure from the usual properties dealt with in dependently typed programming, and as a demonstration that the idea of interactive type-driven development has more potential to be discovered, we conduct an experiment in "type-driven algorithm design": we develop algorithms from their specifications encoded in sophisticated types, to see how useful the hints provided by a type-aware interactive development environment can be. The algorithmic problem we choose is metamorphisms, whose definitional behaviour is consuming a data structure to compute an intermediate value and then producing a codata structure from that value, but there are other ways to compute metamorphisms. We develop Gibbons's streaming algorithm and Nakano's jigsaw model in the interactive development environment provided by the dependently typed language Agda, turning intuitive ideas about these algorithms into formal conditions and programs that are correct by construction.


The methods of 3D visualization of the main similarity measures for binary data and 2x2 tables are proposed. The shapes of Jaccard, Dice, Sokal & Sneath, Roger & Tanimoto and other similarity measures are presented. Such visualization of the similarity measures gives the direct, visual, method of comparison of these measures and helps to understand the similarity and the difference between them. Based on the visualization of the two known parametric families of similarity measures the paper proposes the new parametric family of measures generalizing these two families and giving the possibility to construct similarity measures occupying the intermediate position between them.


BACKGROUND
Probiotic administration may be a useful method for preventing allergies in infants; however, there have been controversial results about the efficacy. We investigated the effects of bifidobacterial supplementation on the risk of developing allergic diseases in the Japanese population.

METHODS
In an open trial, we gave Bifidobacterium breve M-16V and Bifidobacterium longum BB536 prenatally to 130 mothers beginning 1 month prior to delivery and postnatally to their infants for 6 months. Another 36 mother-infant pairs served as controls and did not receive the bifidobacterial supplementation. Development of allergic symptoms in the infants was assessed at 4, 10 and 18 months of age. Fecal samples were collected from the mothers and infants.

RESULTS
The risk of developing eczema/atopic dermatitis (AD) during the first 18 months of life was significantly reduced in infants in the probiotic group (OR: 0.231 [95% CI: 0.084-0.628] and 0.304 [0.105-0.892] at 10 and 18 months of age, respectively). Pyrosequencing analyses indicated an altered composition of the fecal microbiota at 4 months for infants who developed eczema/AD at 4 and 10 months of age. The proportion of Proteobacteria was significantly lower (P = 0.007) in mothers at the time of delivery who received the supplementation when compared with the control group and was positively correlated (r = 0.283, P = 0.024) with that of infants at 4 months of age. No adverse effects were related to the use of probiotics.

CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that the prenatal and postnatal supplementation of bifidobacteria is effective in primary preventing allergic diseases. Some limited changes in the composition of fecal microbiota by the bifidobacterial supplementation were observed.


Barrier dysfunction of pulmonary endothelial monolayer is associated with dramatic cytoskeletal reorganization, activation of actomyosin contractility, and gap formation. The linkage between the microtubule (MT) network and the contractile cytoskeleton has not been fully explored, however, clinical observations suggest that intravenous administration of anti‐cancer drugs and MT inhibitors (such as the vinca alkaloids) can lead to the sudden development of pulmonary edema in breast cancer patients. In this study, we investigated the crosstalk between MT and actomyosin cytoskeleton and characterized specific molecular mechanisms of endothelial cells (EC) barrier dysfunction induced by MT inhibitor nocodazole (ND). Our results demonstrate that MT disassembly by ND induced rapid decreases in transendothelial electrical resistance (TER) and actin cytoskeletal remodeling, indicating EC barrier dysfunction. These effects involved ND‐induced activation of Rho GTPase. Rho‐mediated activation of its downstream target, Rho‐kinase, induced phosphorylation of Rho‐kinase effector EC MLC phosphatase (MYPT1) at Thr696 and Thr850 resulting in MYPT1 inactivation. Phosphatase inhibition leaded to accumulation of diphospho‐MLC, which induced acto‐myosin polymerization, stress fiber formation and gap formation. Inhibition of Rho‐kinase by Y27632 abolished ND‐induced MYPT1 phosphorylation, MLC phosphorylation, and stress fiber formation. In addition, MT preservation via the MT stabilizer paclitaxel, Rho inhibition (via C3 exotoxin, or dominant negative (DN)‐Rho, or DN‐Rho‐kinase) attenuated ND‐induced TER decreases, stress fiber formation and MLC phosphorylation. Collectively, our results demonstrate a leading role for Rho‐dependent mechanisms in crosstalk between the MT and actomyosin cytoskeleton, and suggest Rho‐kinase and MYPT1 as major Rho effectors mediating pulmonary EC barrier disruption in response to ND‐induced MT disassembly. J. Cell. Physiol. 201: 55–70, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


An investigation of the jet-spreading characteristics of a 16 inch ram-jet engine was conducted in the 8 by 6 foot supersonic tunnel at a Mach number of 2.0; both a converging nozzle having a contraction ratio of 0.71 and a cylindrical extension to the combustion chamber were used. The jet boundaries determined by means of pitot pressure surveys were compared with boundaries calculated from one-dimensional continuity and momentum relations. For the cylindrical nozzle, the jet reaches its maximum diameter, 4 percent greater than calculated, about 0.6 nozzle-exit diameter downstream of the nozzle exit. The maximum diameter for the converging nozzle was 7 percent greater than calculated from one dimensional relations and occurred from 1 to 1.5 nozzle-exit diameters downstream of the exit. Non dimensional maximum jet diameters agreed closely with results of an investigation by Rousso and Baughman; these data were obtained with low-temperature jets exhausting into a stream at a Mach number of 1.91 from nozzles having exit diameters of 0.75 inch.


Following recent theoretical contributions, this article suggests a new approach to finding the governance in Internet governance. Studies on Internet governance rely on contradictory notions of governance. The common understanding of governance as some form of deliberate steering or regulation clashes with equally common definitions of Internet governance as distributed modes of ordering. Drawing on controversies in the broader field of governance and regulation studies, we propose to resolve this conceptual conundrum by grounding governance in mundane activities of coordination. We define governance as reflexive coordination – focusing on those 'critical moments', when routine activities become problematic and need to be revised, thus, when regular coordination itself requires coordination. Regulation, in turn, can be understood as targeted public or private interventions aiming to influence the behaviour of others. With this distinction between governance and regulation, we offer a conceptual framework for empirical studies of doing Internet governance.


In this paper, a real time sliding mode control scheme for a variable speed wind turbine that incorporates a doubly feed induction generator is described. In this design, the so-called vector control theory is applied, in order to simplify the system electrical equations. The proposed control scheme involves a low computational cost and therefore can be implemented in real-time applications using a low cost Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The stability analysis of the proposed sliding mode controller under disturbances and parameter uncertainties is provided using the Lyapunov stability theory. A new experimental platform has been designed and constructed in order to analyze the real-time performance of the proposed controller in a real system. Finally, the experimental validation carried out in the experimental platform shows; on the one hand that the proposed controller provides high-performance dynamic characteristics, and on the other hand that this scheme is robust with respect to the uncertainties that usually appear in the real systems.


We provide a mapping from classical extensional tableau proofs of higher-order formulas to intuitionistic non-extensional natural deduction proofs of semantically equivalent formulas. We show that the Kuroda transformation, which is known to map from first-order classical logic to first-order intuitionistic logic, extends to elementary type theory. Moreover, we introduce a transformation that we call Girard-Kuroda-Per and prove that this transformation maps from classical extensional to intuitionistic non-extensional simple type theory.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Minimum anesthetic volume (MAV) of local anesthetics corresponds to the effective volume for regional anesthesia in 50% of patients. In this study, MAV of 0.5% racemic bupivacaine, 0.5% levobupivacaine and enantiomeric S75/R25 bupivacaine were calculated and compared.

METHODS
This study involved two series of patients undergoing cataract extraction. Series 1 patients received either 0.5% racemic bupivacaine (n = 9) or 0.5% levobupivacaine (n = 11). Series 2 patients received either 0.5% racemic bupivacaine (n = 11) or 0.5% enantiomeric S75/R25 bupivacaine (n = 10). Blockades were achieved by single-injection and inferior-lateral approach. Motility of each rectus muscle was assessed 10 minutes later as: 0 (absent), 1 (decreased) or 2 (normal). Total muscle scores represented total eye motility score (TMS). Local anesthetic volume administered to the first patient of each group was 7.4 mL. Subsequent patients received volumes corresponding to 0.1 higher natural logarithm unit (if TME > 2) or lower (if TME < 2) as compared to natural logarithm of preceding volume. Massey and Dixon's formulae were used for MAV calculations.

RESULTS
MAVs of bupivacaine in both series were 6 mL and 6.2 mL, respectively. MAVs of levobupivacaine and enantiomeric S75/R25 bupivacaine were 5.7 mL and 5.8 mL, respectively. There were no differences between groups in effective anesthetic volumes.

CONCLUSIONS
Similar volumes of 0.5% racemic bupivacaine, 0.5% levobupivacaine and enantiomeric S75/R25 bupivacaine are needed for extraconal retrobulbar anesthesia.


The redox state in the cell plays a major role in determining vital functions and its major imbalance can lead to severe cell injury or death. Redox active proteins and cytokines involved in this process includes thioredoxin (Trx), protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamilies. Trx is a multipotent protein and key regulator of cellular redox balance operating in synergy with Trx reductase and NADPH (the Trx system). Trx has gene regulatory activity of several transcription factors. It also controls in a fascinating way redox-sensitive "on-off" decisions for apoptotic or hypertrophic pathways. Trx protects against H2O2 and TNFmediated cytotoxicity, a pathway in which TNF receptor-binding generates ROS. TNF is an autocrine growth factor and survival factor in vitro and in vivo for B-type of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells. The overall aim of this study was to investigate the importance of redox active proteins and cytokines in inflammation and cancer. We focused on: i) the role of Trx, TrxR, and selenium in carcinogenesis and in resistant cancer cells. ii) the importance of Trx in cancer cells and the redox regulation of TNF and its receptors TNFR1 and TNFR2. iii) the potential role of Trx as a key regulator in cellular redox balance, in the pathogenesis of cardiac dysfunction; its relationship to stress response parameters. iv) whether unmutated CLL (UCLL) responses to PKC and ROS pathways were different from mutated CLL (M-CLL) responses. Our results demonstrate pronounced selective selenium-mediated apoptosis in therapy resistant cells and suggest that redox regulation through the Trx system is an important target for cancer therapy. Trx was strikingly elevated in heart failure cases compared with controls signifying an adaptive stress response that is higher the more severe the disease. TNF autocrine release was redox modulated and the TNF receptors interacted at the cell surface membrane with the redox-active PDI, which excerted a stringent redox-control of the TNFR signaling. The proliferative response as well as increase of autocrine TNF and Trx were higher in U-CLL than in M-CLL. The overall conclusion of the four papers included in this thesis is that redox-active proteins and cytokines plays an important role in control and regulation of cancer and inflammation. Furthermore, redox regulation via thioredoxin by selenium, may offer novel treatment possibilities for resistant tumors disease.


A few studies have reported some of the costs associated with bringing to market genetically-modified (GM) crops but no comprehensive studies exist on the real cost of the entire process of developing and releasing one GM variety by a not-for-profit institution in a developing country for sustainable agriculture. Despite the lack of documented studies, it is commonly assumed that such an undertaking is cost prohibitive, based on mere hearsay, and on two private sector cost assessments. The present study assesses the costs and the time expenditures to two not-for-profit programs, one lead by CIP and the other by Cornell University, of developing a late blight resistant (LBr) potato variety for release in one developing country. CIP's costs run to $1.6 million over eight years, while Cornell's costs amount to $1.4 million over nine years. Exogenous disturbances might result in insignificant increases in cost, but can increase time expenditure significantly. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the total cost is markedly influenced by technical parameters determining the production and identification of the pre-commercial LBr transgenic event.


Mechanical face seals are wide-spread in many applications of powered equipment and turbomachinery. Often machine vibration and noise are unavoidable because of changing conditions which can be persistent and forceful. In critical applications when seals fail, they may have significant or even catastrophic consequences. To ensure the safety of such machinery and its associated mechanical components, machine vibration and noise must be diagnosed and quantified to keep the system's response within certain limits. This work focuses on the dynamics of a flexibly mounted stator mechanical face seal that is subjected to combinations of broad-band noisy vibrations of the shaft and the housing. In all previous work, the positions of the housing and the shaft have been considered fixed. The current work relaxes that condition, augmenting the equations of motion to incorporate equipment's noisy vibrations. Noises are expediently produced by the Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) fractal function. A numerical simulation ensues, and the time-domain responses are subject to spectral analyses. Results show that under some design conditions, the seal is largely insensitive to machine vibrations. However, under other conditions, the seal response to exterior machine noise exhibits a rich spectral content that stems from various transient phenomena that include intensified half-frequency whirl, near synchronous response at steady-state, and super-synchronous higher harmonic oscillations caused by face contact.


Events industry has become one of major tourism sectors and generated a significant economic contribution to the tourism industry. Recent terrorism events have spurred safety and security concerns in the events industry. This article introduces a developmental effort to establish an online knowledge-based eSAFE system based on knowledge management concepts (knowledge creation and sharing) for the events industry professionals. The goal of this system is to develop Web-based solutions for facilitating knowledge management in both individual and organizational learning in the context of safety and security of planning festivals and events. According to the Tourism Industry Association of America (2003), most (75%) U.S. adult travelers attended a cultural activity or event while on a trip in 2002. This translates to an estimated 109.8 million U.S. adults. In addition, one fifth of all U.S. travelers attend a fair, festival, or other special event during their vacation (Tourism Industry Association of America, 1999). Millions of individuals attend events throughout North America ranging from the Super Bowl to small town festivals and parades. These events have been described by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as �soft targets� because they enable terrorists to quickly make a powerful statement during a vulnerable and easily penetrable event. Research conducted in the National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce (NLTeC) at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania seeks to reduce these possibilities through the development of an online knowledge-based system called eSAFE (electronic Safe Festivals and Events) System based on knowledge management concepts. The goal of such a project is to develop Web-based solutions for facilitating knowledge management for both individual and organizational learning. This project is an important step involving the events industry and its stakeholders (potentially including the government) in planning secure events. Two major features of this forward-thinking development as: (1) Knowledge base � A knowledge-based system that facilitates fast yet flexible access to the integrated knowledge from explicit knowledge source (structural knowledge deconstructed from the respectfully publications) and tacit/implicit knowledge (expert interviews guided by meaningful knowledge structures through text-mining and ontological research from the explicit knowledge). Such a process of knowledge acquisition and creation enables continuing improvement and enhancement of the knowledge base about security/safety issues in special event planning. (2) ExpertNet � an expert-driven network (online community) that helps members of the community to connect with one another to locate specific event security knowledge on demand through a meaningful knowledge distribution structure that is constructed and based on the domains and levels of knowledge expertise, expert relationships, geographic distance, language abilities, and preferred communication methods. The system attempts to ensure that the learned knowledge in secure event planning can be both efficiently and effectively identified, transferred, shared and reused by the event organizers.


Abstract:In this essay, Thomas More's enduringly enigmatic Utopia (1516) is read alongside D.A.F. de Sade's "Frenchmen, Some More Effort if You Wish to Become Republicans" (1795), based on four distinct convergences between the two texts. In retracing and unpacking these synergies, it is demonstrated that reading More with Sade may generate a fresh perspective on what, in utopian studies, is designated as the "education of desire," as it impacts upon the vexed relationship between happiness and hedonism. It is argued, through a combined reading of More and Sade, that the texts celebrate satire as the most advanced technique for destabilizing doctrinal knowledge but also, and more importantly, that they may function as lasting reminders of the fictional status of autonomous selfhood and the intrinsic impossibility of full satisfaction—happiness being no more than an unpredictable momentary occurrence that is predicated upon the ineluctable dissatisfaction of desire and the empty promises of a limitless hedonism. The hope of these texts, which should also be the hope of all educational discourses in the twenty-first century, is that they do not contribute in any way to the promotion of a new disciplinary practice, through which desire would be modeled, shaped, and tamed, but rather to an emancipatory form of instruction, in which the "education of desire" is geared toward the creation of an endless "desire for education," supported by the faculty of critical analysis, whose distinguished flag features a really good nose, insofar as the latter epitomized the quintessential seat of satire during the Renaissance period.


Since the 1950s, the Netherlands has seen a steady growth of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) devoted to the cause of human rights. In the ensuing decades they proliferated and expanded their leverage. At the same time, human rights attained a more secure position on the foreign policy agenda of the Dutch government. Against this background the question arises, to what extent foreign policy-making in the field of human rights is determined by the activities of NGOs. The present study focuses on the efforts of domestic NGOs to have an impact on Dutch human rights policy towards South Africa, Namibia, Indonesia and East Timor from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. It appraises whether NGOs have been able to influence Dutch human rights policy towards these countries. Furthermore, it clarifies which factors contributed to and detracted from the influence of these groups. The characteristics of NGOs are taken into consideration, along with the strategies applied and the interaction between NGOs, as well as factors regarding the political environment. Conclusions about NGO-influence and contributive and detracting factors are reached on the basis of five case studies. These concern the efforts of NGOs (1) to press the government to implement a boycott of South African coal (1979-1990); (2) to promote an active policy against the application of capital punishment in South Africa under apartheid (1978-1993); (3) to end the enrichment of Namibian uranium in the Netherlands (1977-1989); (4) to promote an active policy against the execution of political prisoners in Indonesia (1979-1995); and finally, (5) to promote an active policy in reaction to the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor (1991-1995).


We demonstrate the possibility of using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) to distinguish between the chemical properties of the neuron membrane and of the cytoplasm in brain cells. This was possible by analysing cells de-capped by using a newly developed technique. The XPS spectra clearly show chemical differences between the cell cytoplasm and the membrane, for example between nitrogen in and , which are characteristic of the proteins and membrane phospholipids, respectively. A preliminary (and not conclusive) interpretation of all the observed spectroscopic features is given.


Deadly police-citizen encounters do not occur in a vacuum. They reflect our times and our society. Some view them as an internal police problem, others as a symbol of larger societal challenges, especially racism, or as a function of failed criminal justice policies. On a yet larger scale, police actions, and the ensuing community response, are intimately tied to the dominant economic and political climate. In many parts of the country decreased funding for vital governmental functions, especially since the depression of 2008, has shaped police enforcement goals and tactics. Those have contributed to the deterioration of community-police relations and the civilian death toll at the hands of police.
Not all police departments have been impacted equally but many have had to continue to diversify their funding streams with the downturn in municipal funding. The choices made to support department budgets – and those of other governmental entities – have impacted policing priorities and strategies, often leading to more intensive policing of poorer and minority neighborhoods. In turn, those decisions have increased community tensions with police. The focus on the larger economic picture is not designed to absolve police departments of blame for decisions made but to highlight the interdependencies between different government entities and broader challenges police will face in restructuring.
With the downturn in funding for all municipal activity, including policing, police forces turned to other sources of funding. Those have included forfeiture; revenues derived from citations for traffic and municipal violations; fees added to fines; free equipment, donated by the Department of Defense; and grants from the federal and state governments. Pressures to make budget enhanced the incentives to seize private property and increase the issuance of tickets. The latter has led to the now well-documented reinstitution of the so-called debtor's prison for individuals who have found themselves unable to pay off court-ordered debt.
Measurements of police performance that went along with grant funding continued numbers- and dollars-driven enforcement by emphasizing numbers of arrests, amounts of drug or money seizures, or numbers of citations issued. Combined these policies have increased the stakes in interactions between community members and police, leading to greater dangers for both sides.