The relationships between service quality, consumer satisfaction, and loyalty have been widely discussed in the service marketing literature, but there is still an ongoing debate about these relationships because they have not been well studied in spectator sport industry (Theodorakis & Alexandris, 2008). Schmitt (2011) claimed that consumer experiential could be a new perspective for evaluating the nature of these relationships. However, experience marketing has some special and unique attributes requiring specific definitions in specific research contexts. Thus, the current research attempts to (1) identify what kinds of experiences are found in Taiwanese professional baseball games; (2) test models of relationships between consumer experience, service quality, satisfaction and loyalty taking into account the unique aspects of the specific context of Taiwanese professional baseball games; and (3) test the role of consumer experience on the relationships between perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty.
In order to achieve the research aims, the current research adopted a mixed method approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Four focus groups, representing the qualitative stage, were conducted to acquire a better understanding of consumer experience types and characteristics in Taiwanese professional baseball games. The main findings of the focus groups are that (1) ordinary experiences include the game itself while additional events and activities characterise extraordinary experiences. However, (2) when games involve a special performance and record or modifies a ranking position, they can be seen as extraordinary experiences as well. Moreover, ordinary experience and extraordinary experiences also depend on clubs, game days, and stadiums. A questionnaire survey, representing the quantitative stage, was used to investigate the relationships between consume experience, service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The sampling strategy was designed based on the specific research context features (i.e., different clubs, dates and stadia), and 1,229 questionnaires were collected. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in order to test the measurement model and compare theoretical models according to specific research context features. The main findings were that: (1) the degree of association between consumer experience and service quality is significant, (2) both direct and indirect relationships of consumer experience on consumer satisfaction and loyalty are significant, (3) only an indirect influence, via consumer satisfaction, of service quality on consumer loyalty is significant, (4) the differences of relationships are significant between clubs, but not significant between dates and stadia.
 The current research concluded that (1) consumer experience is an important dimension to take into consideration to better understand the formation of consumer loyalty, (2) there is a two-way relationship between service quality and consumer experience, (3) Intangible experience elements are captured by consumer experience while tangible experience elements are captured by service quality, (4) Extraordinary experiences in sport spectating events are highly dependent on situational factors, (5) specific research contexts features are important to take into consideration when conducting consumer experience research.


Meta-model based coupled simulation-optimization methodology is an effective tool in developing sustainable saltwater intrusion management strategies for coastal aquifers. Such management strategies largely depend on the accuracy, reliability, and computational feasibility of meta-models and the numerical simulation model. However, groundwater models are associated with a certain amount of uncertainties, e.g. parameter uncertainty and uncertainty in prediction. This study addresses uncertainties related to input parameters of the groundwater flow and transport system by using a set of randomized input parameters. Three meta-models are compared to characterize responses of water quality in coastal aquifers due to groundwater extraction patterns under parameter uncertainty. The ensemble of the best meta-model is then coupled with a multi-objective optimization algorithm to develop a saltwater intrusion management model. Uncertainties in hydraulic conductivity, compressibility, bulk density, and aquifer recharge are incorporated in the proposed approach. These uncertainties in the physical system are captured by the meta-models whereas the prediction uncertainties of meta-models are further addressed by the ensemble approach. An illustrative multi-layered coastal aquifer system is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. Evaluation results indicate the capability of the proposed approach to develop accurate and reliable management strategies for groundwater extraction to control saltwater intrusion.


Feral and stray domestic cats occupy many different habitats. They can resist dehydration for months by relying exclusively on the tissue water of their prey allowing them to colonize remote deserts and other inhospitable places. They thrive and reproduce in humid equatorial rainforests and windswept subantarctic islands. In many areas of the world feral cats have driven some species of birds and mammals to extinction and others to the edge, becoming a huge conservation concern. With the control of feral and stray cats now a top conservation priority, biologists are intensifying efforts to understand cat behaviour, reproductive biology, use of space, intraspecies interaction, dietary requirements, prey preferences, and vulnerability to different management strategies. This book provides the most comprehensive review yet published on the behavior, ecology and management of free-ranging domestic cats, whether they be owned, stray, or feral. It reviews management methods and their progress, and questions several widely accepted views of freeranging cats, notably that they live within dominance hierarchies and are highly social. Insightful and objective, this book includes: (1) a functional approach, emphasizing sensory biology, reproductive physiology, nutrition, and space partitioning; (2) clear treatment of how freeranging cats should be managed; (3) extensive critical interpretation of the world's existing literature; (4) results of studies of cats in laboratories under controlled conditions, with data that can also be applied to pet cats. Free-ranging cats: Behavior, ecology, management is valuable to ecologists, conservation scientists, animal behaviorists, wildlife nutritionists, wildlife biologists, research and wildlife veterinarians, clinical veterinarians, mammalogists, and park and game reserve planners and administrators. Dr Stephen Spotte is a marine scientist and an adjunt scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory (Sarasota, Florida). He is an author or co-author of more than 80 scientific papers and has written 18 books.


Mathematical models have played an essential role in elucidating various functions of the kidney, including the mechanism by which the avian and mammalian kidney can produce a urine that is more concentrated than blood plasma, quasi-isosmotic reabsorption along the proximal tubule, and the control and regulation of glomerular filtration by the myogenic and tubuloglomerular feedback mechanisms. This review includes a brief description of relevant renal physiology, a summary of the contributions of mathematical models at various levels and describes our recent work toward the Renal Physiome.


The argument structure of verbs, defined as the part of grammar that deals with how participants in verbal events are expressed in clauses, is a classical topic in linguistics that has received considerable attention in the literature. This book investigates argument structure in English from a usage-based perspective, taking the view that the cognitive representation of grammar is shaped by language use, and that crucial aspects of grammatical organization are tied to the frequency with which words and syntactic constructions are used. On the basis of several case studies combining quantitative corpus studies and psycholinguistic experiments, it is shown how a usage-based approach sheds new light on a number of issues in argument realization and offers frequency-based explanations for its organizing principles at three levels of generality: verbs, constructions, and argument structure alternations.


Cooking is an important technology for its capacity to increase food digestibility, particularly for plant foods, potentially playing a significant role in human evolution to increase nutritional acquisition. However, the contextual impetus for cooking is less well understood. One mode of cooking used by modern humans is to roast food directly in an open flame fire for very brief durations. This technique may be a behavioral analogue to that of early human ancestors. Here, we provide experimental data on starch gelatinization patterns in domesticated underground storage organs and starchy fruit as a result of brief fire roasting. We employed a count-based method using light-microscopy and a semi-quantitative photometric strategy to observe the kinetic process of gelatinization. We find that brief roasting over an open fire results in low levels of starch gelatinization. These findings suggest that brief roasting may not benefit a consumer through changes to starch structure alone.


Abstract IIR filters have the advantage of low delay, high selectivity and stopband attenuation as compared to their counterpart FIR filters. In the present work, a low delay two Channel Quadrature Mirror Filter (QMF) bank using IIR filter has been proposed. The IIR prototype filter has been designed by approximating the FIR lowpass filter using the least square approximation. The length of the IIR filter has been selected using the bi-section method. The performance of the proposed design method has been evaluated in terms of mean square error in the pass band (Ep), mean square error in the stop band (Es), peak reconstruction error (PRE) and stop-band first side lobe level (A1). It has been observed that the IIR QMF filter bank outperformed to its counterpart with lesser number of filter taps. Keywords: IIR QMF bank, low delay, Bi-section method, peak reconstruction error, least square approximation Cite this Article Aman Kumar, Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria. A Low Delay Two Channel Quadrature Mirror Filter Bank using IIR Filter. Current Trends in Signal Processing. 2017; 7(2): 1–7p.


In an important contribution to the burgeoning area of philosophy of emotions, Phil Hutchinson engages with philosophers of emotion in both the analytic and continental traditions. Shame and Philosophy advances a framework for understanding emotion: world-taking cognitivism. He argues that reductionist accounts of emotion leave us in a state of poverty regarding our understanding of our world and ourselves. The book contains detailed engagements with theorists of emotions such as Peter Goldie, Paul Griffiths, Jesse Prinz and Jenefer Robinson as well as a chapter on the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, which also contains a detailed critical engagement with Jacques Derrida's work. The Chapter on Griffiths' work also contains a detailed critique of the program of natural kind semantics. As the book progresses it becomes more and more concerned to meditate on shame as discussed by Primo Levi and other survivors of extreme trauma. The book moves towards conclusion by suggesting further directions for study.


Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) has monitored fish populations annually (except 1998) since 1993 on the Niobrara River in Nebraska, in the vicinity of Spencer Hydropower Project before and after "flushing" or "sluicing" activities. These activities could alter water quality in the river downstream, which can negatively impact fish populations. Intensive sluicing-monitoring studies coupled with operational adjustments indicated minimal impacts were occurring to fish populations in the vicinity of the hydro. Long-term diversity and abundance of fish species has been a historical concern, so annual fish sampling has continued through the present. Ofthe 13,063 fishes in 26 species sampled below the hydropower complex, six species composed approximately 96.5 percent of the total sample. The most common species sampled were sand shiner, Notropis ludibundus (38.6%); red shiner, Notropis lutrensis (34.0%); flathead chub, Hybopsis gracilis (12.2%); carpsuckers, Carpiodes spp. (5.6%); bigmouth shiner, Notropis dorsalis (3.9%); and channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (2.2%). Over the nine-year period, catch-per-uniteffort trends indicated no significant increases or decreases among years sampled and the respective species collected. Fish CPUE was not significantly affected by short-term annual sluicing.


Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are universally recognized as the most effective anti-cancer therapies. Despite significant advances directed towards elucidating molecular mechanisms and developing clinical trials, cancer still remains a major public health issue. Recent studies have showed that cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subpopulation of tumor cells, can generate bulk populations of nontumorigenic cancer cell progeny through the self-renewal and differentiation processes. As CSCs are proposed to persist in tumors as a distinct population and cause relapse and metastasis by giving rise to new tumors, development of CSC-targeted therapeutic strategies holds new hope for improving survival and quality of life in patients with cancer. Therapeutic innovations will emerge from a better understanding of the biology and environment of CSCs, which, however, are largely unexplored. This review summarizes the characteristics, evidences and development of CSCs, as well as implications and challenges for cancer treatment.


BACKGROUND
Increasing numbers of individuals are traveling to areas of high hepatitis A endemicity and require immunization against the hepatitis A virus (HAV). The option of using a virosomal, aluminum-free, HAV vaccine (Epaxal) for booster immunization following primary vaccination with an aluminum-adsorbed vaccine has been assessed.

METHODS
In total, 142 healthy subjects, 79 men and 63 women, aged 12 to 72 years, were injected intramuscularly with a booster dose of Epaxal (0.5 mL containing < or =500 RIA units of HAV antigen) 6 to 24 months after primary vaccination with Havrix (0.5 or 1.0 mL containing 720 or 1440 ELISA units of HAV antigen, respectively, adsorbed onto aluminum hydroxide). Anti-HAV antibody titers were measured on days 0 and 28 by an enzyme immunoassay. Adverse events were recorded for 1 month postinjection.

RESULTS
Overall, 98/118 subjects (83%) with no serologic evidence of past HAV infection were still seroprotected at enrolment (anti-HAV antibody titer < or = 20 mIU/mL). The seroprotection rate was 87% in those primed with Havrix 1440 6 to 12 months earlier (n=93) and 60% in those primed < or =12 months before enrolment (n=20, mean 16 months). The geometric mean anti-HAV antibody titer increased from 65 mIU/mL at day 0 to 1,722 mIU/mL at day 28 after a single booster dose with Epaxal in evaluable subjects who were primarily vaccinated with either a single dose of Havrix 1440 (n=111) or two separate doses of Havrix 720 (n=4). All subjects were seroprotected at day 28, and 98% showed at least a four-fold increase in anti-HAV antibody titer. Epaxal was well tolerated and no serious adverse events were reported. At day 28, the tolerability of the vaccination was judged as either "very good" or "good" by 96% of vaccinees and by all investigators.

CONCLUSION
Epaxal can be successfully used to boost immunization following primary vaccination with an aluminum-adsorbed vaccine, and is well tolerated.


We identify several subsets of the partitions of $[n]$, each characterized by the avoidance of a pair of patterns, respectively of lengths four and five.  Each of the classes we consider is enumerated by the Catalan numbers.  Furthermore, the members of each class having a prescribed number of blocks are enumerated by the Narayana numbers.  We use both algebraic and combinatorial methods to establish our results.  In some of the cases, we make use of the kernel method to solve the recurrence arising when a further statistic is considered.  In other cases, we define bijections with previously enumerated classes which preserve the number of blocks.  Two of our bijections are of an algorithmic nature and systematically replace the occurrences of one pattern with those of another having the same length.


Source quantification of carbonaceous aerosols in the Chinese outflow regions still remains uncertain despite their high mass concentrations. Here, we unambiguously quantified fossil and nonfossil contributions to elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) of total suspended particles (TSP) from a regional receptor site in the outflow of Northeast China using radiocarbon measurement. OC and EC concentrations were lower in summer, representing mainly marine air, than in other seasons, when air masses mostly traveled over continental regions in Mongolia and northeast China. The annual-mean contribution from fossil-fuel combustion to EC was 76 ± 11% (0.1-1.3 μg m(-3)). The remaining 24 ± 11% (0.03-0.42 μg m(-3)) was attributed to biomass burning, with slightly higher contribution in the cold period (∼31%) compared to the warm period (∼21%) because of enhanced emissions from regional biomass combustion sources in China. OC was generally dominated by nonfossil sources, with an annual average of 66 ± 11% (0.5-2.8 μg m(-3)), approximately half of which was apportioned to primary biomass-burning sources (34 ± 6%). In winter, OC almost equally originated from primary OC (POC) emissions and secondary OC (SOC) formation from fossil fuel and biomass-burning sources. In contrast, summertime OC was dominated by primary biogenic emissions as well as secondary production from biogenic and biomass-burning sources, but fossil-derived SOC was the smallest contributor. Distinction of POC and SOC was performed using primary POC-to-EC emission ratios separated for fossil and nonfossil emissions.


This article addresses what is often described as the "peace versus justice" problem, in the context of prosecutorial discretion at the International Criminal Court. The problem typically arises when the threat of prosecution would derail peace negotiations or deter a tyrant from relinquishing power. It already confronts the ICC in its first referral, concerning crimes against humanity committed during an on-going civil war in Uganda, where many victims and their families are imploring the prosecutor to foreswear prosecution. They argue that indictments will deter the rebels from negotiations, and that their traditional restorative justice mechanisms will serve to promote justice and reconciliation far better than prosecutions. This article analyzes the conflicting claims of peace, pluralism and punishment in such cases. Among the central questions explored in the article are the following: (1) Does justice in the aftermath of crime always require prosecution? The answer explores the nature of retributive justice and its relationship to victims of crime. (2) If justice does require prosecution, does this obligation outweigh all other considerations? The analysis considers three alternative ways of handling a conflict between the obligations of justice and the dire impact fulfilling them would have on third parties, when such is the case. (3) As a global institution, how much deference should the ICC afford to diverse state approaches to the previous two questions? The article suggests that for procedural, substantive, and pragmatic reasons, the Court and its prosecutor should adopt a pluralist philosophy in its charging decisions and complementarity assessments. ICC decisions on these issues will shape the contours of an emerging standard of global criminal justice.


Reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is becoming increasingly important in the United States, and new legislation can be expected in the near future that will affect trucks either directly or indirectly. This work is a qualitative examination of operational strategies for reducing fuel consumption from freight trucking, and also compares them with vehicular strategies. A focus is placed on who implements, benefits from, and pays for each strategy, and what type of trucking each strategy is applicable to.


Iris recognition is one of the most accurate biometric technologies. The uniqueness of iris, also known as iris individuality, has been widely accepted as one foundation for iris recognition. Although a few iris individuality models have been proposed, they are either incomplete or less accurate. In this paper, we investigate the iris individuality problem using Daugman's iris code method. We divide the bits in an iriscode into two groups, i.e., consistent and inconsistent bits, and provide the individuality analysis by both FAR and FRR modeling. Numeric evaluation using real iris data shows its usefulness in predicting the empirical performance. Furthermore, till now it is just experimentally confirmed that the recognition accuracy could be improved by masking out inconsistent bits. In order to formally e- valuate the effectiveness of this strategy, we derive the iris individuality model after masking out the inconsistent bits. Comparison of the two models has demonstrated the improved accuracy of the masking strategy, and the drop of EER is up to about 80%.


This paper discusses immigrant identity and place in contemporary Ireland. It draws from a longitudinal research project that involved recent immigrants to Ireland. Participants in the project came from 18 different countries, and ranged in age from 22 to 68. Their reasons for moving to Ireland were varied, and included work, adventure, and personal relationships. Combining insights from sociolinguistics and human geography, the paper first considers the different ways in which immigrants to Ireland narrate place and identity, paying particular attention to content and linguistic strategies. It then provides a more detailed discussion of the relationship between immigrant identity and place through a focus on the concept of "home," highlighting the linguistic strategies and means that immigrants used to discursively construct notions of home and identity in their interviews. The paper concludes by arguing that detailed discourse level analysis of people's narratives of place offers new insights into the relationship between immigrant identity and place.


Private property and liberty, particularly in the case of privately owned land, are intertwined more complexly than we commonly realize. When we study how private property operates in daily life, looking at the full array of land-use conflicts, what we see is that private rights backed by state power are as apt to restrict liberty as they are to promote it. To regain the complexity of the situation in human-inhabited landscapes is to see why we cannot start with the idea of liberty, or with any conception of natural rights, and produce a working, morally justified system of private property. To produce such a system, we need to start instead in a much different place, looking to the various ways that private property can foster the common good. Ultimately, lawmakers crafting and updating a scheme of property must choose among the many types of liberty that they want to secure, based on their assessment of the common good. Only after they have done that, choosing among the options, can we see how private property promotes liberty. Liberty, in short, is the product of a private property regime, not a point of beginning to craft such a regime.


The polarization of job growth is a key development trend in today's labour markets. This study focuses mainly on those individuals whose jobs are most strongly threatened by the negative aspects of polarizing labour markets. These people are working in private-sector jobs, the employment role of which is weakening. In other words, a shrinking share of private-sector employees is engaged in these jobs. Moreover, these jobs are typically not only characterized by a declining employment share, but often by a reduction also in absolute terms. Accordingly there is reason to ask what is happening to the employees holding such jobs. What do their job careers look like and do their labour market outcomes vary depending on the jobs they perform? Which factors and mechanisms affect the observed job careers and to what extent? The occupations identified to have been declining are Office clerks, Metal, machinery and related trades workers, Other craft and related trades workers, Wood-processing and papermaking plant operators, Rubber, paper, and textile products machine operators, and Product assemblers. The labour market status of the individuals working in these occupations in 1995 is traced up to 2009. Additionally, attempts are made to identify the background factors having most strongly affected the individual transition patterns observed. The results suggest, inter alia, that Office clerks have had the best prospects to shift to another job, that is, either to a non-shrinking occupation in the private sector or to a job in the public sector. Apart from the occupation itself, especially age and formal education stand out as having been decisive for the individual's future labour market outcomes.


© 2017 Deputy of Research and Technology of Baqiyatallah Hospital Abstract Introduction: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from various channels, directly and indirectly, effects on public health level in community. Accordingly, the major purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of FDI on health in developing countries. Materials and Methods: This study was examined the long-term relationship between health indicator, the share of FDI in GDP, per capita physician, income per capita, enrollment rates in secondary courses and urbanization rate, by using the statistical data of 25 developing countries during the period of 1995-2014 years via Continuously-updated and Fully-Modified (Cup-FM) estimator. The statistical analyzes were performed using the STATA and GAUSS software. Results: Based on the results of the estimation model, the share of FDI in GDP, per capita physician, income per capita, enrollment rates in secondary courses and urbanization rate; improve the health indicator in the long-term. One percent increase in the share of FDI in GDP, reduce the infant mortality rate (IMR) in developing countries by about 0.07 percent, in the long-term. Conclusions: Providing the necessary conditions for attracting FDI in developing countries, can promote the health in these countries.


Thermal comfort is, by definition, the condition of the mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment, and is assessed by subject evaluation. ASHRAE 55 Standard is a form of subjective evaluation that formalises the impact of the prevailing mean outdoor temperature as a major contributing factor on occupants' ability to adapt to the comfort levels of the maintained indoor temperatures. In a hot climatic region such as the GCC, occupants spend the majority of their time indoors with artificially cooled environments where the prevailing mean temperatures are not necessarily as dictated in the Standard to be the outdoor temperature. ASHRAE 55 evaluates the adaptive thermal comfort expectation of occupants and outlines the acceptable percentage of people who may feel uncomfortable based on the impact of prevailing mean outdoor temperatures. However, in the GCC, the prevailing mean temperatures may be more influenced by the mean indoor temperatures of the buildings where people spend the most significant amount of time, or a proportionate factor of the multiple buildings in which they spend their time. This study determines the prevailing mean temperature variables that influence the GCC occupants' thermal comfort, and how these factors inversely translate to an intolerance of outdoor temperatures driving the occupants further indoors.


Purpose: To determine if metabolic, ventilatory, or cardiovascular response to isometric squats with or without external load was enhanced by the addition of a whole body vibration (WBV). Methods: Fifteen subjects (28.4±6.5y; 173.7±8.6 cm; 75.5±20.8 kg) underwent four exercise sessions with three days' rest between sessions. The sample included 7 males and 8 females. Subject performed 10-sets of one-minute isometrics squats with 45 degrees of knee flexion standing on a WBV platform under four conditions: Unloaded, Unloaded Vibration, Loaded, and Loaded Vibration. Each condition was performed on a separate day; the session order was presented at random. One-minute recovery was given between sets. During the vibration conditions, the plate vibrated at 4mm peak-to-peak displacement and 30Hz. Loaded sessions were performed with a barbell equal to 30% body weight across the subjects shoulder. Oxygen consumption (VO2) and ventilation (VE) were measured using a metabolic cart and heart rate was obtained using polar chest straps. A 2x2 ANOVA was used to evaluate main effects for vibration (vibration vs. no vibration), load (loaded vs. unloaded), and interactions. Results: There were significant vibration (p = 0.02) and load (p = 0.003) main effects for VO2. VO2 during vibration (9.2±3.3 mL.kg-1.min-1) was significantly greater than no vibration (7.9±1.2 mL.kg-1.min-1); VO2 was also greater during the loaded (9.6 ± 3.1 mL . kg-1 . min-1) condition compared to unloaded (7.5±1.1 mL.kg-1.min-1). There were significant vibration (p=0.01) and load (p=0.01) main effects for VE. VE during vibration (20.8±10.0 L.min-1) was greater than no vibration (17.8±4.8 L.min-1); VE was greater during loaded (21.5±9.4 L.min-1) conditions compared to unloaded (17.7±5.5 L.min-1). There were significant vibration (p=0.02) and load (p=0.008) main effects for HR. HR during vibration (97.0±20.3 beats . min-1) was greater than no vibration (86.8 ± 25.7 beats . min-1); HR was also greater during loaded (101.3±20.8 beats . min-1) conditions compared to unloaded (90.8±12.6 beats.min-1). No interaction effects were detected for VO2 (p= 0.16), VE (p=0.14), or HR (p=0.84). Conclusion: Significant differences were observed in VO2, VE, and HR while exercising with WBV. Differences were similar across loaded and unloaded conditions. It is unclear if these small differences would be sufficient to induce enhanced long-term training adaptations. Future research should investigate similar physiological responses during dynamic exercise with a range of loads. Further, research is also needed to determine if these responses are enhanced or diminished by the amplitude, frequency, or duration of the vibration stimulus.


In this themed issue of the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, we bring together an eclectic mix of papers focusing on how expert performers learn the skills needed to compete at the highest level in sport. In the preface, we highlight the value of adopting the expert performance approach as a systematic framework for the evaluation and development of expertise and expert performance in sport. We then place each of the empirical papers published in this issue into context and briefly outline their unique contributions to knowledge in this area. Finally, we highlight several potential avenues for future research in the hope of encouraging others to scientifically study how experts acquire the mechanisms mediating superior performance in sport and how coaches can draw on this knowledge to guide their athletes toward the most effective training activities.


This paper is an exploration of the theory of endogenous regime changes which takes as an illustration the making of the classical gold standard. The international gold-based fixed exchange rate regime that surfaced during the 1870s has traditionally been interpreted as resulting from a mix of structural factors (Kindleberger (1993)), free-rider problems (Kenwood and Lougheed (1972)), transaction costs considerations (Redish (1992)), or political economy forces (Gallarotti (1990)). This paper - initially written to disentangle these various theories - argues that none of the traditionally accepted views proves sufficiently robust to closer scrutiny. We build a model of the pre-1870 international monetary system which allows us to formally test and reject the `free-rider' and `structural' views. We rely on historical and microeconomic evidence to criticize the `transaction costs' and `political economy' theories. Finally, we provide an alternative explanation of the emergence of the gold standard. Our conclusion is twofold. First, we argue that the making of the gold standard was very much the result of path-dependency and coordination problems. Second, we claim that the very process through which the gold standard was adopted played a major role in shaping its operation.


Toward Never-Ending Object Learning for Robots Yuyin Sun Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Dieter Fox Computer Science and Engineering A household robot usually works in a complex working environment, where it will continuously see new objects and encounter new concepts in its lifetime. Therefore, being able to learn more objects is crucial for the robot to be continuously useful over its lifespan. Moving beyond previous object learning research problem, of which mostly focuses on learning with given training objects and concepts, this research addresses the problem of enabling a robot to learn new objects and concepts continuously. Specifically, our contributions are as follows: First, we study how to accurately identify target objects in scenes based on human users' language descriptions. We propose a novel identification system using an object's visual attributes and names to recognize objects. We also propose a method to enable the system to recognize objects based on new names without seeing any training instances of the names. The attributebased identification system improves both usability and accuracy over the previous ID-based object identification methods. Next, we consider the problem of organizing a large number of concepts into a semantic hierarchy. We propose a principle approach for creating semantic hierarchies of concepts via crowdsourcing. The approach can build hierarchies for various tasks and capture the uncertainty that naturally exists in these hierarchies. Experiments demonstrate that our method is more efficient, scalable, and accurate than previous methods. We also design a crowdsourcing evaluation to compare the hierarchies built by our method to expertly built ones. Results of the evaluation demonstrate that our approach outputs task-dependent hierarchies that can significantly improve user's performance of desired tasks. Finally, we build the first never-ending object learning framework, NEOL, that lets robots learn objects continuously. NEOL automatically learns to organize object names into a semantic hierarchy using the crowdsourcing method we propose. It then uses the hierarchy to improve the consistency and efficiency of annotating objects. Further, it adapts information from additional image datasets to learn object classifiers from a very small number of training examples. Experiments show that NEOL significantly improves robots' accuracy and efficiency in learning objects over previous methods.


Plant litter functional diversity effects on instream decomposition change across latitudes. Running waters contribute substantially to global carbon fluxes through decomposition of terrestrial plant litter by aquatic microorganisms and detritivores. Diversity of this litter may influence instream decomposition globally in ways that are not yet understood. We investigated latitudinal differences in decomposition of litter mixtures of low and high functional diversity in 40 streams on 6 continents and spanning 113° of latitude. Despite important variability in our dataset, we found latitudinal differences in the effect of litter functional diversity on decomposition, which we explained as evolutionary adaptations of litter-consuming detritivores to resource availability. Specifically, a balanced diet effect appears to operate at lower latitudes versus a resource concentration effect at higher latitudes. The latitudinal pattern indicates that loss of plant functional diversity will have different consequences on carbon fluxes across the globe, with greater repercussions likely at low latitudes.


Title of Dissertation: PLANT MIGRATIONS IMPACT ON POTENTIAL VEGETATION AND CARBON REDISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN NORTH AMERICA FROM CLIMATE CHANGE. Steven Anthony Flanagan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor. George C. Hurtt, Geographical Sciences Forests have a prominent role in carbon storage and sequestration. Anthropogenic forcing has the potential to accelerate climate change and alter the distribution of forests. How forests redistribute spatially and temporally in response to climate change can alter their carbon sequestration potential. The driving question for this research was: How does plant migration from climate change impact vegetation distribution and carbon sequestration potential over continental scales? Large-scale simulation of the equilibrium response of vegetation and carbon from future climate change has shown relatively modest net gains in sequestration potential, but studies of the transient response has been limited to the sub-continent or landscape scale. The transient response depends on fine scale processes such as competition, disturbance, landscape characteristics, dispersal, and other factors, which makes it computational prohibitive at large domain sizes. To address this, this research used an advanced mechanistic model (Ecosystem Demography Model, ED) that is individually based, but pseudo-spatial, that reduces computational intensity while maintaining the fine scale processes that drive the transient response. First, the model was validated against remote sensing data for current plant functional type distribution in northern North America with a current climatology, and then a future climatology was used to predict the potential equilibrium redistribution of vegetation and carbon from future climate change. Next, to enable transient calculations, a method was developed to simulate the spatially explicit process of dispersal in pseudo-spatial modeling frameworks. Finally, the new dispersal sub-model was implemented in the mechanistic ecosystem model, and a model experimental design was designed and completed to estimate the transient response of vegetation and carbon to climate change. The potential equilibrium forest response to future climate change was found to be large, with large gross changes in distribution of plant functional types and comparatively smaller changes in net carbon sequestration potential for the region. However, the transient response was found to be on the order of centuries, and to depend strongly on disturbance rates and dispersal distances. Future work should explore the impact of species-specific disturbance and dispersal rates, landscape fragmentation, and other processes that influence migration rates and have been simulated at the sub-continent scale, but now at continental scales, and explore a range of alternative future climate scenarios as they continue to be developed. PLANT MIGRATIONS IMPACT ON POTENTIAL VEGETATION AND CARBON REDISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN NORTH AMERICA FROM CLIMATE CHANGE. ITLE OF YOUR DOCUMENT HERE, ALL CAPS


Structural, metamorphic and geochronological data from the Valle del'Orco are best explained by an orogenic wedge model in which crustal slices from continent and ocean acted as passive blocks at different times in the Alpine orogeny. Deformation generally migrated westwards in this section, and metamorphic recrystallization at any given point was largely controlled by the pervasiveness of strain. The data suggest a dynamic crustal stacking system lasting from 70 to 35 Ma, rather than continental collision following long-lived B-type subduction, and offer a relevant and simple model for eclogite exhumation that requires exhumation of ductile shear-bounded slices within the orogenic wedge. The easternmost, internal unit of the Sesia-Lanzo Zone, the Eclogitic Micaschist Complex, was subducted and pervasively recrystallized under eclogite facies conditions during the early stages of convergence in the late Cretaceous. During the development of the major preserved structures, the eastern Eclogitic Micaschist Complex was undergoing general non-coaxial shear with an overall top-down to the east vorticity, suggesting a potential mechanism of exhuming an eclogitic 'pip'. Slices of pre-Alpine basement, the Vasario-Sparone Subunit, were incorporated into the lower (western) parts of this unit during the latest part of this phase, but do not show penetrative effects of the early Alpine deformation. They were passively folded during the early decompressional part of the P—T history, prior to the unit being juxtaposed against the underlying Gneiss Minuti Complex under blueschist-greenschist facies conditions. The Gneiss Minuti Complex itself was then recrystallized at high strain in the greenschist-facies in the latest Eocene. Fabrics developed at this stage indicate top-down-to-east extension which may have accommodated the exhumation of eclogitized Piemont oceanic material and the European continental material of the Gran Paradiso massif. Evidence of northwest-directed thrusting within the Gran Paradiso unit at the same time suggests again that the crustal block was transported on a deeper reverse-sense shear zone that presumably links to the more external thrusts now exposed to the west. High-pressure mineral lineations within the Piemont zone cannot be unequivocally assigned to either the burial or exhumation paths, but are consistent with the generally east-west transport directions observed in the structurally higher units.


Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized ledger for recording transactions. It is maintained and shared among the participating nodes by utilizing cryptographic primitives. A consensus protocol ensures that all nodes agree on a unique order in which records are appended. However, current blockchain solutions are facing scalability issues. Many methods, such as Off-chain and Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) solutions, have been proposed to address the issue. However, they have inherent drawbacks, e.g., forming parasite chains. Performance, such as throughput and latency, is also important to a blockchain system. Sharding has emerged as a good candidate that can overcome both the scalability and performance problems in blockchain. To date, there is no systematic work that analyzes the sharding protocols. To bridge this gap, this paper provides a systematic and comprehensive review on blockchain sharding techniques. We first present a general design flow of sharding protocols and then discuss key design challenges. For each challenge, we analyze and compare the techniques in state-of-the-art solutions. Finally, we discuss several potential research directions in blockchain sharding.


In this paper, we investigate the effect of voluntary carbon emissions disclosure on the cost of debt of publicly listed firms. Using a unique and comprehensive database on carbon emissions from CDP (formerly 'The Carbon Disclosure Project'), we study whether firms which choose to voluntarily disclose their carbon emissions enjoy more favorable lending conditions - in the form of lower spreads on their bank loans - than their non-disclosing counterparts. Our empirical results reveal a significant and negative relation between voluntarily disclosing carbon emission levels and the cost of bank loans for informationally opaque borrowers. Furthermore, we find that higher industry- and firm-size-adjusted carbon emissions have a positive and significant effect on loan spreads. These effects are common to all loans and not limited to loans which have been arranged by norms-constrained lenders suggesting that spread premia are driven by environmental risks rather than investor preferences.


As wireless computer networks grow in size and complexity, we are faced with the problem of providing scalable, high-bandwidth service to their users. Wired networks typically use "data pull," where users send requests to a server and the server responds with the desired information. In the wireless domain, "data push" promises to provide better performance for many applications [1]. The broadcast domain that is typical of wireless communication is very effective in distributing information to large audiences.

The idea of broadcast disks has been around since the Teletext system [3]. There is now an interest in applying these ideas to wireless computer networks. There are some interesting research questions about scheduling for data distribution. Computing optimal schedules has been shown to be difficult [18]. The optimal schedules themselves, however, seem to be less complex, and often periodic [4]. Xu [24] looks at the scheduling of streaming data, which involves splitting the data into smaller pieces. The idea of error correction is also important for wireless transmission due to the noisy nature of the channel [6].

We look at scheduling data for broadcast. We compare time-division scheduling and frequency-division scheduling for data items of equal length. We show that time-division is better for sending dynamic data. We then find optimal time-division schedules for two items. We show how the freedom to split items into smaller pieces can give improvements in performance. With a single split, where each of two items is split in half, we find the optimal schedules for items of equal length.

We continue with the idea of splitting items, and show what happens when the number of splits is very large. Then, we examine what happens when we add streaming data to our broadcast. We compare time-division and frequency-division as before, and now also look at a mix of the two. We prove bounds on where the mix is the best broadcast method.


The ongoing debate about the identity of the Information Systems (IS) discipline is examined from a new perspective. Two recent studies are contrasted to demonstrate the limits of retrospective analysis for defining the discipline of IS. A new model for discovery transdisciplinary IS research, based on concepts and discourses is suggested. Latent Semantic Analysis is proposed as an approach to identifying concepts which form transdisciplinary discourses. Conceptual mapping across disciplines may elucidate fruitful areas of research and a transdisciplinary approach to research may improve research salience and intellectual contributions. Such an approach may also weaken or dissolve the discipline as an applied business/organizational field focused on the information technology artifact. This may have the long term effect of maintaining intellectual plasticity and relevance, and expanding the range of intellectual contributions available to IS researchers. But moving beyond IS identity as presently constituted will require rethinking institutional structures upon which the identity of IS is currently dependent.


The construction industry has high rates of accidents, but most can be prevented. To prevent accidents, researchers have demonstrated that workers must first identify workplace hazards. However, workers fail to identify most hazards in construction environments. Previous studies report several factors (i.e., safety attitude) that impact construction workers' ability to recognize hazards. However, the role of superstitious beliefs in safety performance has not been studied. This research investigates how construction workers' superstitious beliefs impact their safety performance. To achieve the objectives, 135 construction workers participated in this study. The workers' safety beliefs and the role of supernatural myths in accident causation perception were studied through use of a validated survey instrument. Results revealed that the greater workers' superstitious beliefs, the more inferior their safety performance. Driven by superstitions, a worker believes that accidents are caused by supernatural powers and workers have little control over their fate resulting in inferior safety performance (i.e., hazard recognition). Poor safety performance, in turn, makes workers more vulnerable to accidents strengthening their superstitious beliefs. Results of this study highlight the role of personal superstitious beliefs in safety performance. Findings are beneficial for construction professionals and practitioners seeking long-lasting and effective interventions to improve safety performance.


There has been much written about the use of the Web in higher education, much of which advocates its use as an effective way of supporting learning, particularly in terms of the desirability of features such as flexibility and the value of online discussions. In this paper, a case study is described which calls some of this received wisdom into question. The study also explores wider issues of curriculum design, particularly in terms of the role of assessment and of self-assessment, both of which played a crucial role in the course. Unlike many studies, then, the purpose of this paper is not to demonstrate the success of a particular approach or to advocate particular forms of practice, but instead to highlight the shortcomings of existing guidelines for curriculum development in this area. This suggests that further inquiry into this form of education is required — and in particular, inquiry that pays detailed attention to the backgrounds of learners, and involves close study of their experiences. DOI:10.1080/0968776020100206


This paper affords an opportunity to study the early adoption, implementation and performance of an emerging technology by analyzing which members of Congress have been early adopters and extensive users of Twitter, and which have attracted the most followers. Our research questions and measures draw from the diffusion of innovation literature and early studies of online politics. Three multivariate analyses reveal that two motivators of adoption, party (Republican) and campaign resources are also drivers leading to extensive usage, but the other two, an urban constituency and the member"s own age do not. Instead, a large vote share in the last election joins party and funding in explaining high usage. The latter two plus high influential power differentiate between members with large and small numbers of followers. Collectively, these findings suggest that at this early developmental stage, Twitter is not a game changer, but an additional communications medium. They also underscore the contribution of diffusion of innovation literature to understanding how these interrelationships change depending upon whether we are examining adoption, implementation or performance.


ABSTRACT Emerging adulthood is a unique and distinct period demographically, subjectively, and in terms of identity exploration in developed and developing countries. This study aimed to investigate emerging adults' moral thinking and communication competencies, and their differences by socio-demographic factors (i.e., gender, religious affiliation, college major, educational stages), in Taiwan, the USA, and the UK, as well as compare similarities/common trends and diversities between the three groups. We modified and utilized the MTC-II scale, including two dilemma stories relating to an individual and societal moral dilemma, to assess 743 valid sample participants. We found that females in the Taiwan group scored highest on the MTC-II scale across the three samples, whereas religious affiliation differentiated the USA and the UK groups. We also noted differences in scores relating to the two stories and associated moral levels. These findings are interpreted as a foundation for future research and educational practice.


This article considers the role of norms in the debate on autonomous weapons systems (AWS). It argues that the academic and political discussion is largely dominated by considerations of how AWS relate to norms institutionalised in international law. While this debate on AWS has produced insights on legal and ethical norms and sounded options of a possible regulation or ban, it neglects to investigate how complex human-machine interactions in weapons systems can set standards of appropriate use of force, which are politically-normatively relevant but take place outside of formal, deliberative law-setting. While such procedural norms are already emerging in the practice of contemporary warfare, the increasing technological complexity of AI-driven weapons will add to their political-normative relevance. I argue that public deliberation about and political oversight and accountability of the use of force is at risk of being consumed and normalised by functional procedures and perceptions. This can have a profound impact on future of remote-warfare and security policy.


Employees are valuable assets of an organization and the organization should protect its
vital resource. However, the management at times fails to provide supportive work
culture and environment in terms of personal and professional relationship leading to
workers dissatisfaction and eventual turnover. Turnover of teachers in Kenya is a major
challenge as it negatively affects the delivery of quality education. Failure to address this
issue in public secondary schools would trickle down to the students and negatively
affect their performance, The primary purpose of the study therefore was to identify
factors that influence teacher turnover in public secondary schools. The specific
objectives of the study were; to establish how career development contributes towards
teacher turnover in secondary schools; determine the extent to which teacher
remuneration influences teacher turnover; how teachers characteristic contribute to
teacher turnover and how school characteristic influences the turnover of teachers.
Justification of the study was based on the fact that teacher turnover is a crucial challenge
to all the stake holders in the field of education including students, parents, community,
the Ministry of Education and other interest groups. This study used a descriptive survey
design and targeted teachers and principals of public secondary schools in Makadara
district. The target population consisted of 10 principals from 10 public secondary
schools in Makadara and 315 Teachers Service Commission teachers in those schools. A
representative sample of 65 teachers was obtained from the schools by use of a simple
random sampling technique. Research instruments were questionnaires with closed and
open ended questions for teachers and principals. A pilot study was carried out in a
randomly sampled school to test validityof the research instrument and reliability which
was measured by Cronbach Alpha Coefficient. Data Analysis was done using descriptive
statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program.
Findings of the study were that teacher turnover was mainly due to poor remuneration,
inadequate and dilapidated physical resources, methods of promotion, desire for career
development and stagnation in the same job group for very long. The study concluded
that poor remuneration, lack of motivation and conducive work environment contribute to
teacher turnover in public secondary schools. The study recommended that the
Government takes a census of turnover in schools and initiate measures that could curb
turnover. It also recommended a countrywide study to establish actual turnover and
compare turnover from the teaching profession to other fields with turnover across other
non teaching professions.


DSS develops, manages, and publishes digital content from curatorial collections, in support of academic programs, organizes conversion and ingest capabilities, facilitates awareness and coordinates instruction in scholarly use and development of digital


A guide to library and Internet resources that may be useful for researching the Atlantic World from 1500 to 1800.


In-library use data is crucial for modern libraries to understand the full spectrum of patron use, including patron self-service activities, circulation, and reference statistics. Rather than using tables and charts to display use data, a geographic information system (GIS) facilitates a more visually appealing graphical display of the data in the form of a map. GISs have been used by library and information science (LIS) researchers and practitioners to create maps that display analyses of service area populations and demographics, facilities space management issues, spatial distribution of in-library use of materials, planned branch consolidations, and so on. The "seating sweeps" method allows researchers and librarians to collect in-library use data regarding where patrons are locating themselves within the library and what they are doing at those locations, such as sitting and reading, studying in a group, or socializing. This paper proposes a GIS as a tool to visually display in-library use data collected via "seating sweeps" of a library. By using a GIS to store, manage, and display the data, researchers and librarians can create visually appealing maps that show areas of heavy use and evidence of the use and value of the library for a community. Example maps are included to facilitate the reader's understanding of the possibilities afforded by using GISs in LIS research.


Foliations with bundle-like metrics, conformal, minimal and totally geodesic foliations and minimal and geodesic plane fields have been subject to recent study. A. M. Naveira has fitted all these classes into a general scheme and has gotten thirty six classes of riemannian almostproduct manifolds. In this paper we give strict examples of these classes, showing that none of them is vacuous, and that the inclusion relations among them are strict. The basic riemannian manifolds for the construction of these examples are submanifolds of C" and H (C = complex field, H = quaternion field), and we use the canonical complex structures on these vector spaces. Perhaps the most interesting examples are those of minimal foliations which are not totally geodesic foliations.


Purpose: The concept of waste has been used in relation to production since the
beginning of the 20th century. As it is well-known, it is a foundational notion for the
Toyota Production System and its derivatives, like lean production. However, waste
is not a prevalent concept in the mainstream literature on economics, operations
management, construction management or management. The reasons for this
apparent aversion to the concept of waste are not well-understood. In view of this, we
present an overview on the historical development and diffusion of the concept of
waste. It is anticipated that such a long-term view would contribute to the current
discussion of the place of this concept in the theory and practice of production.
Method: The historical method is followed.
Findings: The history of the concept of waste can naturally be divided into a number
of periods: nascence up to the end of the 18th century, emergence of the classical
notion in the 19th century, flourishing during scientific management, decline starting
in the second quarter of the 20th century, and re-emergence in last quarter of that
century. From these, especially the emergence of the classical notion of waste as well
as its decline have been poorly understood. It is also an important insight that across
the different periods, waste has been understood in two dimensions: instrumentally
and intrinsically (morally).
Implications: Through an historical account, the relevance and texture of the concept
of waste can be better appreciated. The focus can be directed to critically assessing
the justification of the arguments that led to the decline of waste. All in all, the need
for the revival of waste as a basic concept in managerial discourse is illuminated


Chinese traditional medicine is a popular topic in the past years. Chinese Constitutional theories, as one brunch of Chinese traditional medicine, have been used mainly in the improvement of common people's health quality. Besides, the dietary based on Chinese traditional medicine also functions to help Chinese people remain healthy physical qualities. Once these two topics are combined, Chinese Constitutional Dietary has been on the stage. Though it has not been experimented in the competitive sports, its feasibilities can be foreseen. This thesis introduces body constitution system, its practice and its links with Chinese dietary to give an overview of Chinese Constitutional Dietary, then briefly presents how it can be combined into individual nutrition strategies for competitive athletes and finally confirms the feasibility of Chinese Constitutional Dietary on individual nutrition strategies in competitive sports.


A major question in the study of mutualism is to understand how mutualists may revert to antagonists that exploit the mutualism (i.e. switch to cheating ). In the classic pollination mutualism between yuccas and yucca moths, the cheater moth Tegeticula intermedia is sister to the pollinator moth T. cassandra . These moth species have similar ovipositor morphology, but T. intermedia emerges later, oviposits into fruit rather than flowers, and does not pollinate. 2. We tested if the pollinator, T. cassandra , was pre-adapted to evolve a cheater lineage by comparing its emergence and oviposition behaviour on yucca fruit to a distantly related pollinator, T. yuccasella , that differs in ovipositor morphology and oviposition behaviour. We predicted that if T. cassandra was pre-adapted to cheat, then these pollinators would emerge later and be able to oviposit into fruit in contrast to T. yuccasella . 3. Contrary to expectations, a common garden-rearing experiment demonstrated that emergence of T. cassandra was not significantly delayed relative to T. yuccasella . Moth emergence patterns overlapped broadly. 4. No choice oviposition experiments with female moths demonstrated that both pollinator species attempted to oviposit into fruit, but only T. cassandra was successful. Four out of 84 T. cassandra successfully oviposited into older fruit, whereas zero out of 79 T. yuccasella oviposited into older fruit. The rarity of the cheating behaviour in pollinators, however, meant that no significant difference in oviposition ability was detected. 5. The results suggest that a shift in emergence phenology is likely not a pre-adaptation to the evolution of cheating, but that the ability to successfully lay eggs into fruit may be. The results also demonstrate that cheating attempts are rare in these pollinator species and, hence, the evolutionary transition rate from pollinator to cheater is likely to be low.


MODERNISM IN THE ANIMAL TRAP? Stalling the Subject: Modernism and the Animal by Carrie Rohman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Pp 208. $90.00 cloth, $29.50 paper.It's interesting to observe how animal studies, or, to be more precise, critical animal studies, occupies a more and more significant place among what is broadly called human sciences. This is a part of a massive twentieth-century tectonic shift, where the very core of human sciences, i.e., the human itself, meets its limit. The human subject bids farewell to its dream of autonomy and attempts to define itself from without, through various figures of the nonhuman, the latter thought of in terms of radical alterity. This move tries to embrace the unstable domain beyond the border of humanity and, among nonhuman others, the animal is the most insistent and striking. The animal accompanied humanity, as its mirror twin, from its very birth in Paleolithic caves, and the animal is still here, still promising to reveal something that humans cannot grasp about themselves.Long after the Cartesian formula, linking the subject and the thought, the philosophy of animality turns to the question of how to think about this mode of existence that supposedly does not think itself. As opposed to the classical philosophical tradition characterized by an almost general disregard towards animals as a being deprived of thought, language, consciousness or subjectivity, contemporary thinkers working at the crossroads of animal studies, critical philosophy, and human and natural science are mainly trying to think about animality as another kind of subjectivity either by pragmatically locating this question in the domain of ethics, politics, and science or along the lines of a theoretical and critical deconstruction of classical philosophy and the metaphysical tradition. The animal turn in human sciences, most generally inspired, perhaps, by Peter Singer's practical ethics and animal liberation movement, but also by the theoretical interventions of Deleuze and European post-Heideggerianism, shapes a peculiar crossing point between philosophy, politics, psychoanalysis, literature, and other arts.Carrie Rohman's Stalling the Subject is a good example of interdisciplinary academic research in this field. It applies posthumanist theory to literary studies - namely, to studies in British modernist literature. Rohman thus does not speak about modernism in general, or the subject in general, or the animal in general; her work consists of critical analysis of works by T. S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, H. G. Wells, and Djuna Barnes that focus on the figure of the animal or animality. Such a clear framework, however, allows the author to make rather deep observations about socalled human nature as it is represented in this specific historical and cultural context, and to interrogate the most universal questions about the limits of humanity as tested by various experiences of sexuality, violence, poetry, etc.Rohman emphasizes that her work is mostly inspired by Gary Wolfs philo&oophy, but work by Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Gilles Deleuze, George Bataille, and Jacques Derrida - authors who deal with the human rather than with the animal, properly speaking - are other primary references. If Gary Wolf is searching for a "proper" nonhuman animal, Rohman addresses instead the experience of the human animal, exploring the thresholds and the borders, the places whereof the human and animal encounter each other within the world of the human rather than in the realm of the supposed animality per se. The question here, then, is not about what constitutes the animal, but how the animal makes humans think about themselves. Literature is taken as a place of such encounters because as the world of words, the domain of an extremely cultivated language, it tends to meet its opposite, the nonspeaking animal, as its very ontological limit.Modernist literature gives especially wide room for rethinking subjectivity through its relation to the animal. …


The study aimed to find out how Francisco Sionil Jose depicted the prevailing socio-economic and political issues in the selected short stories using the descriptive content analysis. This critical study ascertained the following: (1) the social issues revealed in the selected stories of F. Sionil Jose; (2) the author's depiction of class struggle, social relevance and commitment; and (3) the implications of the portrayal of these social issues in the development of Philippine literature and society. The most common social issues portrayed in the selected short stories are graft and corruption, poverty, prostitution, dishonesty, rebellion, oppression of the poor, racial discrimination, concubinage, and suppression of the freedom of the press. Moreover, the author's depiction of the social issues demonstrated relevance by vividly citing the ills of the society that were rampant at the time the stories were written. In this sense the author did not just write a story for the sake of writing, but at the same time inform the readers about the effect of these social ills to the people and the society as a whole. Social commitment is also evident in the stories by making the characters realized the gravity and impact of their actions at the end of each story. Given these portrayals of the prevailing social issues, one can say that indeed, there is a clear interrelationship between literature and society. The times and events at a given time in history and the author's experiences also shaped the materials of his stories. Based on the outcomes of this literary study, literature, especially the short stories of F. Sionil Jose, can be a vehicle for social transformation. F. Sionil Jose can then be referred to as the Jose Rizal of the present time. Keywords - social issue, short stories, literature, social transformation


Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are highly frequent mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract, which mainly affect the stomach and small intestine. GISTs frequently exist with unclear symptoms. Their initial clinical presentation as acute abdomen due to their perforation is particularly rare. In the present study we report a case of a 59-year-old male presenting with acute abdomen. The final diagnosis revealed a small bowel perforation due to GIST. In this paper, we report the clinical manifestation as well as computed tomography and histopathological findings helpful for the accurate diagnosis of this rare complication of GIST. Emergency laparotomy and complete resection of tumor are essential. Following surgical resection, adjuvant tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy should be considered for prevention of early recurrence.


While the Atlantic has lost the pre-eminence of times past, it is still an essential part of today's globalised world. This article gives an overview of the defining features of globalisation and looks at the shortcomings of global governance in the ongoing shift of power. The article analyses some of the challenges for the emergence of a wider Atlantic space. Failure to unite all regions bordering the Atlantic into a common view, the scepticism in South Atlantic countries about the very idea of the Atlantic space, the lack of efficient management of common and scarce resources, the food imbalances found in the Atlantic and the issues that come with state fragility are analysed here as some of the main obstacles to the emergence of a true Atlantic space based on cooperation and opportunities for all the regions. Finally, the paper concludes with a reflection on the potential for cooperation in the Atlantic in certain specific areas. . The first draft of this Scientific Paper was presented at the ATLANTIC FUTURE seminar in Rabat, October 2013.


This article explains why intercultural communication always should be studied in context and how even though misunderstanding is normally at stake in intercultural communication, one can argue that the promotion of mutual understanding actually is of mutual interest for all of humanity. Studying in context means paying attention to circumstances around the uses of signs as well as to the roles and moods of the users of signs. Promoting mutual understanding means avoiding a state of mind that implies the depreciation of the other. To be intercultural, a communication must not be infected by prejudices. Any real attempt at intercultural communication is a paradoxical procedure. It supposes that human beings who engage in it at one and the same time recognize the stranger as similar and as different. Also, it can lead to acceptance of the other and a better understanding of what communication is about as well as to rejection and obscurantism. In this paper, I argue that even though people always relate in various ways to common and different cultural backgrounds, they still have to relate to common issues that govern their ways, and that focusing on those common issues and studying the various communicative contexts and contents help promoting mutual understanding, as these activities highlight the implicit role of the value of respect in all interpersonal communication. Human beings cannot avoid evaluating situations, contexts, relations, peoples and cultures. How can we establish that mutual respect and open-mindedness are better than disdain and dogmatism? Well, precisely by affirming that human relations commonly build on the inevitability of communicating and contrasting values and norms. Meaning in interaction permanently transforms cultural elements and patterns into something new. Intercultural communication becomes more respectable when it acknowledges the variety of ways humans interact meaningfully and the plurality of their logic of (inter-)action. It is good and reasonable to value understanding because this variety and this pluralism always have kept the social alive and more than ever in our modern globalized world contribute to the creativity and interactivity of modern life. The interest of pragmatics in user attitudes, its focus on practical rather than on alethic modalities, can contribute to a more nuanced approach to intercultural communication, where the different elements of meaning in interaction can be studied in various bundles rather than in a single strand.


Abstract Unusual speleothems, associated with hyperalkaline (pH > 12) groundwaters have formed within a shallow, abandoned railway tunnel at Peak Dale, Derbyshire, UK. The hyperalkaline groundwaters are produced by the leaching of a thin layer (<2 m) of old lime-kiln waste on the soil-bedrock surface above the tunnel by rainwater. This results in a different reaction and chemical process to that more commonly associated with the formation of calcium carbonate speleothems from Ca-HCO3-type groundwaters and degassing of CO2. Stalagmites within the Peak Dale tunnel have grown rapidly (averaging 33 mm y-1), following the closure of the tunnel 70 years ago. They have an unusual morphology comprising a central sub-horizontallylaminated column of micro- to nano-crystalline calcium carbonate encompassed by an outer sub-vertical assymetric ripple-laminated layer. The stalagmites are composed largely of secondary calcite forming pseudomorphs (<1 mm) that we believe to be predominantly after the 'cold climate' calcium carbonate polymorph, ikaite (calcium carbonate hexahydrate: CaCO3 · 6H2O), with minor volumes of small (<5 μm) pseudomorphs after vaterite. The tunnel has a near constant temperature of 8-9°C, which is slightly above the previously published crystallization temperatures for ikaite (<6°C). Analysis of a stalagmite actively growing at the time of sampling, and preserved immediately within a dry nitrogen cryogenic vessel, indicates that following crystallization of ikaite, decomposition to calcite occurs rapidly, if not instantaneously. We believe this is the first occurrence of this calcium carbonate polymorph observed within speleothems.


This paper analyses the role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Afghan economy; the challenges of developing SMEs in an infant market economy; how SMEs are coping with the military transition and declining aide. The paper also looks at the role of SMEs in Afghanistan's trade with Central Asia and the hurdles impeding growth of that trade. The paper provides recommendations for strengthening SMEs and better - facilitating their role in trade.


The Information Society Technologies-all-optical LAbel SwApping employing optical logic Gates in NEtwork nodes (IST-LASAGNE) project aims at designing and implementing the first, modular, scalable, and truly all-optical photonic router capable of operating at 40 Gb/s. The results of the first project year are presented in this paper, with emphasis on the implementation of network node functionalities employing optical logic gates and optical flip-flops, as well as the definition of the network architecture and migration scenarios.


Blueprints for Tropical Dairy Farming provides insight into the logistics, infrastructure and management required for the development of small and large dairy farms in tropical developing countries. Farmers will learn how to improve the welfare, milk quality and productivity of their dairy herds. This book complements author John Moran's five previous books on the principles of tropical dairy farming.

The manual covers a wide range of topics related to ensuring the sustainability of dairy production systems in tropical developing countries, such as South and East Asia, Africa and Central America. It also provides guidelines for the best management practices of large-scale, more intensive dairy systems. While smallholder farms are the major suppliers of milk in the tropics, many larger farms are becoming established throughout the tropics to satisfy the increasing demands for fresh milk.

Blueprints for Tropical Dairy Farming will be a valuable resource for farmers and stockpeople who want to improve the productive performance of their dairy herds, farm advisers who can assist farmers to achieve this aim, educators who develop training programs for farmers or who train dairy advisers in the basics of dairy production technology, and other stakeholders in tropical dairy production, such as local agribusiness, policy makers and research scientists. National and international agencies will learn new insights into the required long-term logistics for regional dairy development, while potential investors will acquire knowledge into intensive tropical dairy farming.


With continued climate change, sea-level rise, and coastal development, concern about shoreline dynamics has expanded beyond oceanfront areas to encompass more protected coastal water bodies, such as estuaries. Because estuaries are critically important ecosystems, understanding coastline changes in these areas is necessary for evaluating resource risks. Throughout the recent decades various methods have been developed to calculate shoreline change and multiple parameters have been hypothesized to correlate with estuarine erosion, including fetch, wave energy, elevation, and vegetation. A transect-based approach is commonly used to quantify shoreline change on linear (i.e., ocean) shorelines; however, due to the complex morphology of the estuarine environments, a point-based approach was developed and applied in this study. Shoreline-change rates and additional parameters (i.e., wave energy and shoreline composition) were determined using 1958 and 1998 aerial photography and available datasets. From these data the average shoreline change of Cedar Island, NC is determined to be -0.24 m yr[superscript]-1, with 88% of the shoreline eroding. Of the parameters analyzed, shoreline composition appears to have an important control on shoreline erosion along Cedar Island, whereas wave energy is not significantly correlated with shoreline-change rates.  The point-based approach was applied to the trunk of the Neuse River Estuary to analyze parameters associated with estuarine erosion at two contrasting scales, regional (whole estuary) and local (estuary partitioned into 8 sections, based on orientation and exposure). With a mean shoreline-change rate of -0.58 m yr[superscript]-1, the majority (93%) of the Neuse River Estuary study area is eroding. Although linear regression analysis at the regional scale did not find significant correlations between shoreline change and the parameters analyzed, trends were determined at the local scale. Local-scale analysis determined higher erosion rates, higher elevation, and lower exposure and fetch up-estuary. Erosion rates, fetch, and wave exposure increase, while elevation decreases moving eastward, down-estuary. The general trends found at the local scale highlight the importance of the spatial distribution on shoreline-change rates and parameters analyzed within a complex estuarine system, like the Neuse River Estuary.   Linear regression analysis between mean fetch and mean shoreline-change rates at the Local Scale determined an equation to predict shoreline-change rates. Predicted shoreline-change rates overestimate erosion on extremely high fetch shorelines and underestimate erosion on shorelines classified as sediment bank. Overall, the model is conservative in predicting shoreline-change rates by underestimating erosion and accretion within the Neuse River Estuary. Further analysis of mean fetch by specific vegetation type may offer additional insight into the influencing forces on estuarine shoreline change.


An in situ acetate injection was used to determine the influence of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) availability on microbial respiration in the hyporheic zone of a headwater stream. We added bromide as a conservative tracer and acetate as an organic substrate to the hyporheic zone of Rio Calaveras, New Mexico, via an injection well. Tracer was observed in four of eight capture wells. Three of the four wells showed increases in bromide without concurrent increases in acetate concentration, suggesting 100% acetate retention. One well had 38% acetate retention. Pore velocity and acetate retention were negatively correlated, suggesting hydrologic control of acetate retention. Acetate did not significantly sorb to the sandy hyporheic sediments at this site, indicating biological consumption of acetate. Acetate addition stimulated total CO2 production along monitored flowpaths and led to changes in solutes associated with microbial terminal electron‐accepting processes (TEAPs). Dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate, and sulfate significantly decreased, and ferrous iron and methane significantly increased compared to background concentrations in most wells. These results support the hypothesis that microbial respiration in the hyporheic zone is limited by labile DOC availability. Furthermore, we have shown that a suite of metabolic processes, from aerobic respiration to methanogenesis, cooccur and that anaerobic processes dominate heterotrophic metabolism in the hyporheic zone of Rio Calaveras.


Extracted from text ... A number of developments took place at the interna- tional level over the past eighteen months, which have implica- tions for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in South Africa and other countries. This review highlights some of these developments. The African Committee on children's rights On 10 July 2001 members of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child were elected at the 37th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) held in Lusaka, Zambia. The Committee?s 11 members are from Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, ..


The multicore revolution has changed the way we think about computing. The same movement has also changed the way we look at on-chip interconnect because it is a key determinant of the performance and power efficiency of multicores. This talk will highlight some of the lesser known issues and opportunities of on-chip interconnect, such as protection, programming ease, and the impact on the basic structure of our software. The talk will borrow heavily from our experiences with on-chip interconnect in university research with the 16-core Raw multicore processor, in a commercial environment with Tilera's 64-core Tile processor, and in a future 1K-core multicore processor called ATAC that integrates optical and electrical interconnects.


Abstract. The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP) is the most recent interval in which atmospheric carbon dioxide was substantially higher than in modern pre-industrial times. It is, therefore, a potentially valuable target for testing the ability of climate models to simulate climates warmer than the pre-industrial state. The recent Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) presented boundary conditions for the mPWP and a protocol for climate model experiments. Here we analyse results from the PlioMIP and, for the first time, discuss the potential for this interval to usefully constrain the equilibrium climate sensitivity. We observe a correlation in the ensemble between their tropical temperature anomalies at the mPWP and their equilibrium sensitivities. If the real world is assumed to also obey this relationship, then the reconstructed tropical temperature anomaly at the mPWP can in principle generate a constraint on the true sensitivity. Directly applying this methodology using available data yields a range for the equilibrium sensitivity of 1.9–3.7 °C, but there are considerable additional uncertainties surrounding the analysis which are not included in this estimate. We consider the extent to which these uncertainties may be better quantified and perhaps lessened in the next few years.


Diagnosis of water quality can be assessed through toxicity tests and by analyzing the negative effects of water quality parameters. Such diagnosis provides an indicator of the condition of the shrimp ecosystem. In this research, three models for water quality diagnosis were proposed: first, a model for immediate assessment, second, a model for historical evaluation and third, a model for prediction of water quality. We evaluated water quality parameters by their negative ecological impacts using a new index (gamma). A fuzzy inference system assessed each harmful situation presented in the pond, providing a final index of water quality: IWQI for immediate measurements and HWQI for a set of measurements. An autoregressive model (AR) was used for predicting values of each water quality parameter; these values were assessed by the proposed fuzzy inference system, establishing a predictive water quality index (PWQI). Comparisons of our models against classical models in the literature show good performance of the algorithms proposed in this work.


While a number of commissions and organizations around Washington have produced plans for reducing the projected deficit in the decades ahead, most have not included a financial speculation tax (FST) in the mix. This seems peculiar since an FST has several features that could make it attractive as a revenue source.


— This paper describes several new models for sharing location information without disclosing identity data to some third party server. All our services proposed in this research share the common background idea. It could be described as a safe location sharing. It combines server-side (centralized) location information with the locally based distributed identity information. In this distributed data store, identity info is always saved locally. The proposed approach eliminates one of the biggest concerns for location based systems adoption – privacy. This article describes our approach as well as several generic implementations.


Summary.  Clustered progressive chronic disease processes arise when interest lies in modeling damage in paired organ systems (e.g., kidneys, eyes), in diseases manifest in different organ systems, or in systemic conditions for which damage may occur in several locations of the body. Multistate Markov models have considerable appeal for modeling damage in such settings, particularly when patients are only under intermittent observation. Generalizations are necessary, however, to deal with the fact that processes within subjects may not be independent. We describe a conditional Markov model in which the clustering in processes within subjects is addressed by the use of multiplicative random effects for each transition intensity. The random effects for the different transition intensities may be correlated within subjects, but are assumed to be independent for different subjects. We apply the mixed Markov model to a motivating data set of patients with psoriatic arthritis, and characterize the progressive course of damage in joints of the hand. A generalization to accommodate a subpopulation of "stayers" and extensions which facilitate regression are indicated and illustrated.


The proliferation of competition law has led to the emergence of a myriad of new antitrust regimes, most of which have less than 25 years of enforcement experience. Young jurisdictions display an inclination to adopt leniency programs, an investigative tool used in veteran antitrust systems which involves offering rewards to informants for their disclosure of information that serves as evidence of collusion. This paper attempts to develop a framework for effective leniency policy design in jurisdictions which have limited or no mileage enforcing antitrust laws. Such an endeavor requires the meticulous tailoring of the general principles developed in experienced regimes to address local needs. Through a solid review of legal and economic studies of leniency, and thorough comparative analysis, the article identifies a number of hurdles common in young systems that may be tackled with analogous solutions. Some issues ought to be addressed through the learning process given by the accumulation of experience, and require a methodological enforcement strategy and time. Others however might need the re-adjustment of either leniency programs themselves or the antitrust systems they help to enforce. While the latter approach is preferable, it more difficult to implement. The paper focuses on leniency design, and recommends three general strategies: rethinking the magnitude of the reward offered to amnesty applicants where penalties for collusion are modest; reducing discretion insofar as possible, to enhance transparency and predictability in the pre-enforcement experience phase; and ensuring a balance between the adequate protection of confidentiality on the one hand, and the need to foster international cooperation efforts to break cartels on the other. The proposals aim to contribute not only towards enhancing the efficiency of new antitrust systems. Importantly, "glocalized" efforts to tackle cartels create an invaluable joint deterrent effect, paramount to combatting the biggest and most harmful collusive practices.


A significant challenge arising from today's increasing Internet traffic is the ability to flexibly incorporate intelligent control in high performance commercial network devices. The paper tackles this challenge by introducing the active flow manipulation (AFM) mechanism to enhance traffic control intelligence of network devices through programmability. With AFM, customer network services can exercise active network control by identifying distinctive flows and applying specified actions to alter network behavior in real-time. These services are dynamically loaded through Openet by the CPU-based control unit of a network node and are closely coupled with its silicon-based forwarding engines, without negatively impacting forwarding performance. AFM is exposed as a key enabling technology of the programmable networking platform Openet. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated by four active network services on commercial network nodes.


This paper considers the problem of reusing synchronization constraints for concurrent objects with asynchronous method calls. Our approach extends the Creol language with a specialized composition operator expressing synchronized merge. The use of synchronized merge allows synchronization classes to be added and combined with general purpose classes by means of multiple inheritance. The paper presents proof rules for synchronized merge and several examples.


A central claim of democratic theory is that democracy induces governments to be responsive to the preferences of the people. Political parties organize politics in every modern democracy, and some observers claim that parties are what induce democracies to be responsive. Yet, according to others, parties give voice to extremists and reduce the responsiveness of governments to the citizenry. The debate about parties and democracy takes on renewed importance as new democracies around the globe struggle with issues of representation and governability. I show that our view of the impact of parties on democratic responsiveness hinges on what parties are—their objectives and organization. I review competing theories of parties, sketch their testable implications, and note the empirical findings that may help adjudicate among these theories. I also review debates about the origins of parties, about the determinants of party-system size and characteristics, and about party competition. Political parties created democracy...modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties. E. E. Schattschneider (1942)


Abstract. In this study, the feasibility of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometers and an image-assisted total station (IATS) for short- and long-term deformation monitoring of bridge structures is investigated. The MEMS sensors of type BNO055 from Bosch as part of a geo-sensor network are mounted at different positions of the bridge structure. In order to degrade the impact of systematic errors on the acceleration measurements, the deterministic calibration parameters are determined for fixed positions using a KUKA youBot in a climate chamber over certain temperature ranges. The measured acceleration data, with a sampling frequency of 100 Hz, yields accurate estimates of the modal parameters over short time intervals but suffer from accuracy degradation for absolute position estimates with time. To overcome this problem, video frames of a passive target, attached in the vicinity of one of the MEMS sensors, are captured from an embedded on-axis telescope camera of the IATS of type Leica Nova MS50 MultiStation with a practical sampling frequency of 10 Hz. To identify the modal parameters such as eigenfrequencies and modal damping for both acceleration and displacement time series, a damped harmonic oscillation model is employed together with an autoregressive (AR) model of coloured measurement noise. The AR model is solved by means of a generalized expectation maximization (GEM) algorithm. Subsequently, the estimated model parameters from the IATS are used for coordinate updates of the MEMS sensor within a Kalman filter approach. The experiment was performed for a synthetic bridge and the analysis shows an accuracy level of sub-millimetre for amplitudes and much better than 0.1 Hz for the frequencies.


This paper examines the finer details of women's avowals, ascriptions and disavowals of 'having PMS', as part of mundane conversation. The data examined is drawn from a corpus of publicly accessible weblog, newsgroup and chatlog transcripts. It is a delicate matter to attribute the 'moodiness', or 'rudeness' of another to PMS, just as it is to dismiss the claims of another to be 'having PMS'. The agency conventionally attributed to PMS – as an underlying hormonal explanation for women's excessive emotions, and capacity for rational behaviour – is often, in practice, actively contested by women so accused, whether these ascriptions form part of a 'caring' attribution by a partner, or are expressed in the form of an insult, or as an explanation for rude (or unpalatable) conduct. Indeed, the very possibility of encountering such an ascription – by which one's control of oneself and one's emotions is undermined by unruly hormones – may inform women's 'pre-emptive' disavowal of their status as pre-menstrual. Attention to those instances where women avow their status as pre-menstrual shows that, when such assertions are made, they are often presented as pragmatic and considered explanations for mood or conduct, amongst other possible accounts.


Real-world whole-body vibration exposures comprise motion in fore-aft, lateral, and vertical directions simultaneously. There can also be components of roll, pitch, and yaw. If evaluating vibration with respect to human response, most investigators will use methods defined in ISO 2631-1. This uses frequency weightings that were originally derived from laboratory studies of the subjective responses to vibration in one direction at a time. This paper describes experiments that were carried out using a 6 degree-of-freedom vibration simulator to validate the applicability of ISO 2631-1 in multi-axis environments. Fifteen subjects were exposed to 87 stimuli comprising single-axis, dual-axis, and tri-axial random vibration, to which they were required to produce subjective ratings. It is shown that in this study the root-sum-of-squares method of summation of subjective ratings in individual axes was an adequate technique for prediction of subjective rating of multi-axis vibration. Better agreement between objective and subjective measures of vibration was obtained for unweighted vibration than for frequency weighted signals. The best agreement for this study was achieved when axis multiplying factors were set at 2.2 and 2.4 for x- and y-axis vibration, respectively. Different values could be appropriate for other postures, seats, and vibration conditions and should be determined in future studies.


Work is both an essential part of our daily lives and one of the major policy concerns across Europe. Yet the public debate of labour issues is all too often driven by political rhetoric and short-term concerns. In this volume, researchers from seven European countries explain, in accessible language, the findings from various social sciences and what they mean for the future of labour in Europe. The conclusions they reach are addressed to policy-makers, the business world, journalists and fellow academics, and to anyone interested in the shape, size and character of the labour markets of tomorrow. "Many valuable synergies emerged between the various strands of NEUJOBS and the in-house analytical work of the European Commission." Laszlo Andor, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.