1. From a single strain of Wistar rats two lines of normotensive rats (NR) and two lines of hypertensive rats (SHR) were developed by selective breeding. 2. One line of normotensive rats and one of hypertensive rats were used as recipients and the remaining two were used as donors for cross-transplantation of kidneys from hypertensive to normotensive rats and vice versa. Transplantations between the two hypertensive lines and the two normotensive ones were carried out to provide animals for control studies. 3. Normotensive recipients of kidneys from SHR developed hypertension whereas the recipients of kidneys from NR remained normotensive. The serum urea changes were equal in both groups. 4. Transplantation of normotensive kidneys reduced the blood pressure of hypertensive recipients, but transplantation of hypertensive kidneys did not alter blood pressure. The serum urea concentrations were higher in the recipients of hypertensive kidneys. These results, obtained in 3–4-month-old rats, indicate that the kidneys of adult hypertensive rats are involved in the maintenance of hypertension. 5. To evaluate whether the kidneys from hypertensive rats may also initiate hypertension, young normotensive recipients were given kidneys taken from the NR or SHR strain while the latter were still normotensive. Transplantation of kidneys from these SHR donors resulted in significantly higher blood pressure values and serum urea concentrations than transplantation of kidneys from NR donors.


In Brennan and Lo (2010), a mean-variance efficient frontier is defined as "impossible†if every portfolio on that frontier has negative weights, which is incompatible with the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) requirement that the market portfolio is mean-variance efficient. We prove that as the number of assets n grows, the probability that a randomly chosen frontier is impossible tends to one at a geometric rate, implying that the set of parameters for which the CAPM holds is extremely rare. Levy and Roll (2014) argue that while such "possible†frontiers are rare, they are ubiquitous. In this reply, we show that this is not the case; possible frontiers are not only rare, but they occupy an isolated region of mean-variance parameter space that becomes increasingly remote as n increases. Ingersoll (2014) observes that parameter restrictions can rule out impossible frontiers, but in many cases these restrictions contradict empirical fact and must be questioned rather than blindly imposed.


In this paper we investigate GMM-derived features recently introduced for adaptation of context-dependent deep neural network HMM (CD-DNN-HMM) acoustic models. We improve the previously proposed adaptation algorithm by applying the concept of speaker adaptive training (SAT) to DNNs built on GMM-derived features and by using fMLLR-adapted features for training an auxiliary GMM model. Traditional adaptation algorithms, such as maximum a posteriori adaptation (MAP) and feature space maximum likelihood linear regression (fMLLR) are performed for the auxiliary GMM model used in a SAT procedure for a DNN. Experimental results on the Wall Street Jour-nal (WSJ0) corpus show that the proposed adaptation technique can provide, on average, a 17 – 28% relative word error rate (WER) reduction on different adaptation sets under an unsupervised adaptation setup, compared to speaker independent (SI) DNN-HMM systems built on conventional features. We found that fMLLR adaptation for the SAT DNN trained on GMM-derived features outperforms fMLLR adaptation for the SAT DNN trained on conventional features by up to 14% of relative WER reduction.


1 This paper inverts the usual logic of applied optimal income taxation. It starts from the observed distribution of income before and after redistribution and corresponding marginal tax rates. Under a set of simplifying assumptions, it is then possible to recover the social welfare function that would make the observed marginal tax rate schedule optimal. In this framework, the issue of the optimality of an existing tax-benefit system is transformed into the issue of the shape of the social welfare function associated with that system and whether it satisfies elementary properties. This method is applied to the French redistribution system with the interesting implication that the French redistribution authority may appear, under some plausible scenario concerning the size of the labor supply behavioral reactions, non Paretian (e.g. giving negative marginal social weights to the richest class of tax payers).


Charles Bernstein is our postmodern jester of American poesy, equal part surveyor of democratic vistas and scholar of avant-garde sensibilities. In a career spanning thirty-five years and forty books, he has challenged and provoked us with writing that is decidedly unafraid of the tensions between ordinary and poetic language and between everyday life and its adversaries. "Attack of the Difficult Poems", his latest collection of essays, gathers some of his most memorably irreverent work while addressing seriously and comprehensively the state of contemporary humanities, the teaching of unconventional forms, fresh approaches to translation, the history of language media, and the connections between poetry and visual art. Applying an array of essayistic styles, "Attack of the Difficult Poems" ardently engages with the promise of its title. Bernstein introduces his key theme of the difficulty of poems and defends, often in comedic ways, not just difficult poetry but poetry itself. Bernstein never loses his ingenious ability to argue or his consummate attention to detail. Along the way, he offers a wide-ranging critique of literature's place in the academy, taking on the vexed role of innovation and approaching it from the perspective of both teacher and practitioner. From blues artists to Tin Pan Alley song lyricists to second wave modernist poets, "Attack of the Difficult Poems" sounds both a battle cry and a lament for the task of the language maker and the fate of invention.


Evolved representations in evolutionary computation are often fragile, which can impede representation-dependent mechanisms such as self-adaptation. In contrast, evolved representations in nature are robust, evolvable, and creatively exploit available representational features. This paper provides evidence that this disparity may partially result from a key difference between natural evolution and most evolutionary algorithms: Natural evolution has no overarching objective. That is, nature tends to continually accumulate novel forms without any final goal, while most evolutionary algorithms eventually converge to a point in the search space that locally maximizes the fitness function. The problem is that individuals that maximize fitness do not need good representations because a representation's future potential is not reflected by its current fitness. In contrast, search methods without explicit objectives that are consequently divergent may implicitly reward lineages that continually diverge, thereby indirectly selecting for evolvable representations that are better able to diverge further. This paper reviews a range of past results that support such a hypothesis from a method called novelty search, which explicitly rewards novelty, i.e. behaviors that diverge from previously encountered behaviors. In many experiments, novelty search demonstrates significant representational advantages over traditional fitness-based search, such as evolving more compact solutions, uncovering more evolvable representations, and more fully exploiting representational features. The conclusion is that divergent evolutionary algorithms like novelty search may exert selection pressure towards higher quality representations than traditional convergent approaches to search.


In a former communication to the Geological Society I presented an outline of the features of the coast in the vicinity of Lyme Regis; but having there described the lias only in a general manner, it is my present purpose to offer a more detailed account of that formation, as I am not acquainted with any situation where its geological structure and composition, and the organic remains which it contains, can be better studied. The relative position of the cliffs referred to in the following description is represented in the section connected with my former paper upon this subject*:—And the annexed sketch (Pl. III. fig. 1.) represents the order of superposition of the inferior oolite sands, the lias formation, and the upper beds of the red marl, as they appear in the section between Down Cliff and Culverhole Point; the beds being supposed to be placed horizontally above each other, and the superincumbent chalk and green-sand removed. The uppermost beds of the lias rise from beneath the sands of the inferior oolite at Down Cliff, on the west of Bridport Harbour; where a section is afforded of about one hundred and eighty feet of sand, in which large flattened masses of limestone occur, containing Pectens, Belemnites, Terebratulæ, &c. These sands are calcareo-siliceous, their colour is a ferruginous yellow, and they contain an abundance of mica in their lower parts. A bed of grey marl occurs in them about one hundred feet above the commencement of the lias. The calcareous


In 1964 the question of Weber's present-day significance was an open one which was passionately debated, but in 2014 his canonical position is so secure that it seems superfluous. Nonetheless, the question should be asked, because if it is not, then any view of Max Weber as an integral thinker recedes into the distance, and he dissolves into a series of specialized fragments. The lecture suggests that Weber is important above all because he is a universalist thinker capable of operating under modern conditions, such as specialization and cultural difference, that are radically hostile to universalism. How could he do this ? To answer this question, we should consider, first, the more obviously universalist areas of his thought (academic "science" or Wissenschaft, religion, law) and then the one that is not (politics). However, this is matter for four lectures at least. So here we shall begin at the beginning: with Wissenschaft.


This dissertation investigates the very important and current problem of modelling human expertise. This is an apparent issue in any computer system emulating human decision making. It is prominent in Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) due to the complexity of the induction process and the vast number of parameters in most cases. Other issues such as human error and missing or incomplete data present further challenges. In this thesis, the Galatean Risk Screening Tool (GRiST) is used as an example of modelling clinical expertise and parameter elicitation. The tool is a mental health clinical record management system with a top layer of decision support capabilities. It is currently being deployed by several NHS mental health trusts across the UK. The aim of the research is to investigate the problem of parameter elicitation by inducing them from real clinical data rather than from the human experts who provided the decision model. The induced parameters provide an insight into both the data relationships and how experts make decisions themselves. The outcomes help further understand human decision making and, in particular, help GRiST provide more accurate emulations of risk judgements. Although the algorithms and methods presented in this dissertation are applied to GRiST, they can be adopted for other human knowledge engineering domains.


"Private law" embraces the traditional common law subjects (property, contracts, and torts), as well as adjacent more statutory areas such as intellectual property and commercial law. It also includes important areas that have been neglected in the United States but are beginning to make a comeback. These include unjust enrichment, restitution, equity, and remedies more generally. "Private law" can also mean private law as a whole, which invites consideration of issues such as the public-private distinction, the similarities and differences between the various areas of private law, and the institutional framework supporting private law – including courts, arbitrators, and even custom.

The New Private Law is an approach to these subjects that aims to reinvigorate the study of private law by moving beyond reductively instrumentalist policy evaluation and narrow, rule-by-rule, doctrine-by-doctrine analysis, so as to consider and capture how private law's various features fit and work together, as well as the normative underpinnings of these larger structures. This movement has begun resuscitating the notion of private law itself in the United States and has brought an interdisciplinary perspective to the more traditional, doctrinal approach prevalent in Commonwealth countries. The Handbook embraces a broad range of perspectives to private law – including philosophical, economic, historical, psychological, to name a few – yet it offers a unifying theme of seriousness about the structure and content of private law. This Introduction introduces the New Private Law and briefly summarizes the chapters in the volume.


The objective of this paper is to describe a developed model and its corresponding application, known as System to Evaluate the Water Consumption at Home (SEWAT). The aim is to create a new model to evaluate the efficiency of water consumption. Thanks to the input of the water bills by users, the model allows them to check if water consumption is efficient, in order to give them an opportunity to evaluate their water usage. To succeed in it, several researches were tracked in order to establish consumer trends and to identify the most efficient value for this magnitude. Furthermore, a survey was conducted to obtain updated values to validate information from previous studies. However, the main aim of this model is to use the resources efficiently, so it has to be useful accordingly. Therefore, after the evaluation, the application has a section with recommendations for the users to reduce their water consumption through a range of different indications. This section is divided into four: bathroom, kitchen, new appliance and reusing water. Each section shows the expected benefits if the users follow the recommended options. The main result is a unique application in Spain, which includes a system of evaluation, comparison and a section of recommendations for the users. Eventually, the model will have a promising outcome, because it surely will change the awareness of citizens about this subject.


The number of students who are labeled as having some form of behavioural disorder which requires specialized assistance in the regular school setting is growing. Current approaches to working with these students are often based on the standardized application of treatments designed to modify general symptoms rather than specific behaviours. It is noted that this approach to behaviour-change is limited because it does not seek to understand the reasons why particular behaviours are being used by students in particular settings. This paper will present an idiographic framework as an alternative approach to creating meaningful and long-term changes in the behavioural difficulties which occur in the school setting. This approach is based on developing a clear understanding of the purpose and usefulness of difficult student behaviour by investigating how that behaviour assists the student in gaining access to valued outcomes. Of particular significance to this assessment and intervention framework is the inclusion of the student's perceptions about the difficult behaviour and its impact on self, the environment and others. It is argued that effective changes in behaviour can only occur when the student's specific difficulties are understood and the student is taught specific skills to overcome these in the school setting.


A three-dimensional numerical model of a thermoelectric module (TEM) is constructed using COMSOL simulation software basing on HZ-type thermoelectric material. First, the different models are compared with considering variable physical property and equal internal resistance or not. Then, the geometric structure on P(N) leg of TEM is optimized by taking the power density as the optimal objective. The results show that the optimal geometric size combination of p-n legs is l opt = 6.9 mm and h opt = 0.8 mm. The peak power density with optimal structure can increase by 75% compared to Hz products.


Anthropogenically-forced changes in the ocean are underway and critical for the ocean's role as a carbon sink and marine habitat. Detecting such changes will require quantification of not only the magnitude of the change (anthropogenic signal) but also the natural variability inherent to the climate system (noise). This work uses Earth System Models (ESMs) to (1) evaluate timescales over which anthropogenic signals in the contemporary ocean emerge from natural climate variability and (2) interpret observed variability in the Pacific Basin. We apply time-of-emergence (ToE) diagnostics to a Large Ensemble experiment of an ESM, providing both a conceptual framework for interpreting the detectability of anthropogenic impacts on the ocean carbon cycle and observational sampling strategies required to achieve detection. We find ToEs for di↵erent components of the ocean carbon cycle range from under a decade to over a century, a consequence of the time-lag between chemical and radiative impacts of rising atmospheric CO2 on the ocean. Processes sensitive to chemical changes emerge rapidly, such as impacts of acidification on the calcium-carbonate pump (10-20 years), and the invasion of anthropogenic CO2 into the ocean (20-30 years). Processes sensitive to the ocean's physical state, such as the soft-tissue pump, which depends on nutrients supplied through circulation, emerge decades later (20-80+ years). Next, we evaluate the modeland scenario-sensitivity of ToEs through comparing Large Ensembles from four ESMs. We find ToEs are robust across models for variables that are tied directly with the rise in atmospheric CO2 namely rising sea surface temperature and the invasion of anthropogenic CO2 into the ocean (ToE 2030 years). For the soft-tissue pump, ocean color, and sea surface salinity, ToEs are longer (50+ years), less robust across the ESMs, and more sensitive to the forcing scenario considered.


The technological and electoral landscapes have changed drastically since the turn of the century. While it once might have made sense to view voting online as unconstitutional, as opposed to merely impractical, the expanded range of Internet access for minority communities has made that argument tenuous at best. While there still may exist practical and political reasons to avoid Internet voting, the Constitution no longer stands as an effective wall against the practice. Furthermore, the primary statutory obstacle to the implementation of Internet voting on a local level, the Voting Rights Act, has been greatly weakened by the recent Supreme Court decision in Shelby County. As such, now is the perfect time for state-level experimentation in the field of Internet voting.


Anthracyclines were standard chemotherapy agents in the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer. Taxanes are newer tubulin-targeting agents that have little cross-resistance and limited overlapping toxicities with anthracyclines. In the past decade, large number of randomized phase-III clinical trials has been conducted worldwide to determine if the addition of taxanes to anthracyclines would improve the disease-free or overall survival of patients with early breast cancer. Many of these first-generation taxane trials are now mature with available survival data. Pooled analyses from these trials consistently demonstrated survival advantage when taxanes were added to anthracyclines or nonanthracycline regimen. The second-generation taxane trials are focusing on how to optimally combine taxanes with the anthracyclines, sequentially, or concurrently, dosing and frequency of administration, duration of therapy and measures to reduce the taxane toxicity. The future direction of clinical research on taxanes or third-generation taxane trials involves identification of predictive markers for response to taxanes, application of novel taxanes and combination of taxanes to other biological agents in order to offer taxanes to selected patients with early breast cancer to increase the efficacy and minimize the toxicity. While many of the second-generation taxane trials are still ongoing, the choice of specific taxane regimen should be based on evidence from the published clinical trials and tailoring to the particular needs of individual patient.


A single-polarization (SP) coupler based on air-core photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs) is proposed and numerically simulated. The physical mechanism is the decoupling phenomenon occurring at special separations between the cores of the dual-core PBFs called decoupling points. The coupling length of one polarization in the coupler tends to be infinite while the coupling length of other polarization remains in normal level. The coupling ratio for the primary polarization can vary by adjusting the length of the coupler since the other polarization is always decoupled out at any length of the coupler. When this novel SP coupler is incorporated into a PBFs based fiber ring resonator, its unique polarization property is theoretically simulated. In this full-PBFs configuration, the SP coupler functions as the power splitter and the polarizer simultaneously. By the finite element method, the feasibility of the SP coupler to filter the secondary eigenstate of polarization (ESOP) propagating in the resonator is proved. And the performance of the SP coupler to suppress the temperature-related polarization fluctuation in the resonant fiber optic gyro is promised to be more significant to the in-line polarizer integrating in the resonator. Furthermore, the mechanism of decoupling phenomenon in the SP coupler and the influence of polarization-axis angular misalignment are discussed. In conclusion, an optimized SP coupler can couple the primary ESOP properly, and a polarization extinct ratio larger than 30 dB can be achieved within the angular misalignment of 0.9 degree. The aforementioned unique properties make this novel SP coupler attractive for the resonant fiber optic gyro.


The COVID-19 Pandemic affected all sectors worldwide including education sector changing the students learning environment at a large scale. In the education sector, governments had to close schools and universities around the world and turn into online mode of delivery. The sudden transformation to online learning demands educators and institutions to develop more innovative teaching methods in supporting students during this growing crisis. It is pertinent that this is the era of large-scale online learning, where education is delivered remotely utilizing various digital platforms. To this end, this move presented many challenges to students, educators, families, administrators, and government regulations. In this paper, we conduct an oriented and well-rounded survey that captures all aspects of distance learning verticals as perceived by educators in order to study online delivery aspects, including teaching models, communication media, and teaching best practices in distance learning. The paper will answer subtle and comprehensive questions related to student satisfaction and success, technical needs and challenges, teaching models, educator mobility, etc. across different universities in the UAE. In particular, the paper tries to identify best model to use given many key issues related to the adoption of e-learning during COVID-19. Overall, the survey results showed almost all participants agreed that online learning during the COVID-19 is a very good alternative solution to Face-to-Face approach. However, teaching models do vary in promoting students' participation and students' engagement. All participants agree that absence of the proper infrastructure at home will hinder the operation especially in courses with hands-on components. Finally, the educators questioned the credibility of online assessments despite the enforced exam integrity tools and methods. The paper concluded with many recommendations for continuous development of the distance learning systems during and after COVID-19. © 2021 by the authors;licensee CEDTECH by Bastas. This article.


Recently emerged intelligent assistants on smartphones and home electronics (e.g., Siri and Alexa) can be seen as novel hybrids of domain-specific task-oriented spoken dialogue systems and open-domain non-task-oriented ones. To realize such hybrid dialogue systems, this paper investigates determining whether or not a user is going to have a chat with the system. To address the lack of benchmark datasets for this task, we construct a new dataset consisting of 15,160 utterances collected from the real log data of a commercial intelligent assistant (and will release the dataset to facilitate future research activity). In addition, we investigate using tweets and Web search queries for handling open-domain user utterances, which characterize the task of chat detection. Experimental experiments demonstrated that, while simple supervised methods are effective, the use of the tweets and search queries further improves the F_1-score from 86.21 to 87.53.


This article aims to fulfill administrative duties and educational supervision. Where this article is titled "Curriculum Administration." This article writing technique is taken by looking for existing information. Curriculum administration is the entire process of activities planned to help achieve educational goals. The curriculum administration process is curriculum planning, curriculum implementation, curriculum supervision, and curriculum evaluation. The role of teachers in curriculum administration is as implementers, adapters, developers, and researchers.


This thesis reports on the research undertaken to improve the end-of-life management of
Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) through the generation of
bespoke recycling process plans for various electrical and electronic products. The
principle objective of this research is to develop an integrated framework to incorporate
the related product, process and legislative information during the end-of-life
management to promote sustainable practices of processing of such waste.
The research contributions are divided into three major parts. The first part reviews the
relevant literature in the areas of environmental concerns related to the electrical and
electronic recovery sector and end-of-life product recovery decision support tools. The
second part investigates the 'Recycling Process Planning' framework which incorporates
product evaluation, legislative compliance monitoring, and an ecological and economical
assessmentto generate bespoke eco-efficient recycling process plans for recovery and
recycling of electrical and electronic equipment The third part includes the design and
implementation of a novel computer aided recycling process planner that demonstrates
the application of recycling process planning framework and the associated ecological
and economical assessment methodology to identify the most appropriate end-of-life
options for WEEE.
The validity of the research concept has been demonstrated via three case studies. The
results from these case studies have highlighted the impact that the proposed recycling
process planning framework could have in identifying many improvements which could
be made in current recovery and recycling practices through adoption of a systematical
approach for generation of recycling process plans based on the most up-to-date
information and knowledge on recycling processes.
In summary, this research has generated practical and powerful models and tools to
improve the environmental and economical performance of WEEE recycling and to
provide invaluable support for long term sustainability of the electrical and electronic
recovery sector.


A 3D scanner is capable of capturing surface shapes of the objects as a set of point cloud and is extending its applicability toward examining, re-designing and preserving the existing constructions as well as on-site information for BIM. One of the most difficult problems to collect complete surface data of outdoor constructions is to avoid self and mutual occlusions. If we want to collect complete data for covering whole surfaces of the constructions, then we have to measure them from multiple points usually. Moreover, multiple measurements require plenty of time and labor, and each measurement gives a data set consisting of hundreds of millions of 3D points to be processed for further computations. So it is very important to make an effective measurement plan a priori for avoiding redundancy for both labor and computational costs. In this research, therefore, we propose a method for 3D-scan planning of outdoor constructions based on photogrammetric models and mathematical optimization methods. In our proposed method, we first use photogrammetric techniques and make a rough 3D model of measurement scenery: we take photographs of the targets by a calibrated digital camera, and find corresponding characteristic points over the photographs, for example corners and intersection points of edge lines. Next, we triangulate the corresponding points by using 3D photo-modeling software. Finally, we obtain the rough 3D mesh model. After that, we make the optimal scan plan based on the rough 3D mesh model by using some mathematical methods: we examine the visibility and self/mutual occlusion property of each polygon of the 3D mesh, and calculate the minimum number of measurement points and their layout to scan all the surfaces of the targets. Moreover, our proposed method can calculate the optimal layout of the designated number of measurement points to maximize the obtainable data.


Preparing a data set for analysis is generally the most time consuming task in a data mining project, requiring many complex SQL queries, joining tables and aggregating columns. Ex isting SQL aggregations have limitations to prepare data sets because they return one column per aggregated group. In general, a significant manual effort is required to build d ata sets, where a horizontal layout is required. We propose simple, yet powerful , methods to generate SQL code to return aggregated columns in a horizontal tabular layout, returning a set of numbers instead of one number per row. This new class of functions is called horizontal aggregations. Horizontal aggregations build data se ts with a horizontal denormalized layout (e.g. poin t-dimension, observationvariable, instance-feature), which is the standard layout required by most data mining algorithms. We propose three fundamental methods to evaluate horizontal aggregations: CASE: Exploiting the programming CASE construct; SPJ: Based on standard relational algebra operators (SPJ queries); PIVOT: Using the PIVOT operator, which is offered by some DBMSs. Experiments with large tables compare the proposed query evalua tion methods. Our CASE method has similar speed to the PIVOT operator and it is much faster than the SPJ method. In gener al, the CASE and PIVOT methods exhibit linear scalability, whereas the SPJ method does not.


While the focus here will be on the development of governmental systems for disaster management, it is appropriate to provide some initial remarks about the rather confusing concepts of "disaster." It has many different meanings in popular discourse. A number of years ago, (Dynes, 1974), I noted at least four different meanings: (a) the designation of a disaster agent, such as a flood or an earthquake; (b) the indicator of physical damage, such as a hundred houses destroyed; (c) an indicator of social damage, the uprooting of family living or the destruction of family relationships and (d) an indicator of a negative evaluation, such as a failed culinary effort or a troublesome friend. Unfortunately, these different meanings have little consistent relationship among them. Even considerable physical damage does not automatically translate into social damage. This can be illustrated by the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. That earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter Scale, killed approximately 25,000, injured more than 3 1,000 and left 514,000 homeless. The next year, an earthquake of greater magnitude (7.1) occurred in the United States; the Lorna Prieta earthquake killed 62, injured 3,757 and left more than 12,000 homeless. Floods and earthquakes have social consequences only as a result of the actions of human beings and societies. In effect, all "natural disasters" are social.


The purpose of this study was to describe characteristics of exposure to non-domestic violence, and to evaluate shortand long-term psychological consequences and the impact on quality of life. Demography, physical injuries, crime characteristics, and emotions during the assault were described, based on a cross-sectional design that combined data collected by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The association between these factors was also evaluated (Paper I). Our results showed that most of the victims were young men assaulted by unknown attackers in public places. Seventy-six per cent of the participants suffered injuries to the head, face or eyes. Anxiety was the most frequent emotion felt during the assault. About 60% experienced a combination of subjective factors, such as fear of serious injury or fear of being killed during the assault, and actual physical injury. Acute and subacute post-traumatic reactions were described through the examination of frequency and intensity of peritraumatic dissociation (PD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the relationships between psychological reactions, level of physical injury, perceived threat, and sociodemographic variables were explored (Paper II). Thirty-three per cent of the victims scored as probable PTSD cases according to the PTSS-10; the corresponding IES-15 score identified prevalence of 34% respectively. Forty-four per cent scored as cases with probable anxiety and depression, according to the HSCL-25. Severity of perceived threat predicted higher scores on all measures of psychological reactions. Analyses of acute or subacute reactions showed no statistical significant differences between elapsed time since exposure to violence and PD, PTSD, anxiety and depression, or threat level. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms was measured in a one-year longitudinal perspective of physically injured victims. Furthermore, the predictors of PTSD symptoms were analysed in relation to PD, physical injury, perceived life threat, prior experience of violence, perceived social support, and perceived self-efficacy (Paper III). Results showed a high prevalence and severity of PTSD on all outcomes. Either injury severity or prior experience of being a victim of violence predicted PTSD in this study. Perceived life threat was a predictor of PD and early PTSD predicted subsequent PTSD in the present study. Low perceived self-efficacy was a predictor of PTSD and influenced perceived social support at T1. Furthermore, lack of perceived social support was a predictor of PTSD symptoms at T3. Quality of life (QoL) was also assessed in a one-year longitudinal perspective, and finally, possible predictive factors of QoL (prior experience of violence, level of physical injury, perceived life threat, cohabitation, and PTSD symptoms) were examined (Paper IV). Generally, WHOQOL-Bref values associated with probable PTSD were lower than values associated with no cases. Individuals who scored as probable PTSD or as risk level cases had significantly lower scores on the QoL domains such as physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environmental than those without PTSD symptoms. For each category of PTSD (probable cases, risk level cases and no cases), the mean levels of the WHOQOLBref subscales (the four domains and the two single items) were stable across time of assessment. PTSD symptoms predicted lower QoL at all three assessments. Similarly PTSD symptoms at T1 predicted lower QoL at T2 and PTSD symptoms at T2 predicted lower QoL at T3. Our findings support the understanding of PTSD as a complex phenomenon. Early identification of important risk factors, included in an optimal treatment strategy, would perhaps protect against the development of PTSD. Being aware of symptoms such as perceived life threat and PD during the event and PTSD symptoms in the acute phase, would help to identify some of those in need of special follow-ups.


Mobile ad hoc networks have very attractive intrinsic qualities. However they will be adopted only if they are able to support applications with QoS requirements. They must provide a route providing the QoS requested by a flow. The OLSR routing protocol can be extended for that purpose. OLSR relies on multipoint relay (MPR) selection that has an important effect on the routing protocol's performances. Indeed, the overhead generated by the OLSR protocol and more particularly the flooding efficiency depend on MPR selection. Moreover, MPRs are used as intermediate nodes in the routes. The analysis of MPR selection presented in this report gives quantitative results and also takes into consideration QoS support. Simulations on large and dense networks show that our analysis is highly accurate.


Distribution patterns of epibenthic assemblages, sea urchins and fishes were assessed in NE Sardinia (Mediterranean Sea) in shallow (4 to 7 m depth) rocky habitats with 2 rock-type substrates, i.e. limestone and granite, to examine possible differences related to the mineralogical composition of rocks. Sessile organisms and sea urchins were sampled in situ within quadrats. Fishes were assessed by visual census transects. Sessile epibenthic assemblages significantly differed between granite and limestone substrates, and the number of epibenthic sessile taxa was greater on limestone. Average cover of the algae mat (unidentified mixture of filamentous and mucilaginous algae) was significantly greater on granite than limestone, while no significant differences were detected in total cover or in the average cover of the remaining most common epibenthic taxa. Densities of sea urchins (i.e. Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula) did not differ between the 2 rock types. Fish assemblages were significantly different between granite and limestone rock substrates. Labrids of the genus Symphodus and Serranus scriba were more abundant on granite, whereas Serranus cabrilla, Parablennius rouxi, Gobius bucchichi and Thalassoma pavo showed greater densities on limestone. Sarpa salpa (the most important herbivorous fish in the Mediterranean sublittoral) did not show any significant difference between granite and limestone substrates. These results suggest that rock type may have the potential to influence marine assemblages, probably through direct effects on epibenthic organisms (e.g. the presence of quartz and substrate texture, both related to the mineralogical features of rocks), and indirect effects on fishes (e.g. the influence of the structure of the epibenthic cover). These results suggest a possible role of the mineralogical composition of rocks in 'bottom-up' processes influencing marine assemblages in shallow sublittoral rocky habitats in the Mediterranean, where direct effects on sessile organisms (e.g. macroalgae) may cascade up through the entire community and affect higher trophic levels (e.g. carnivorous fishes). However, extensive experimental work is needed before drawing any conclusion about the specific processes determining the patterns we observed.


Since becoming an economically viable means of extracting of oil and gas in the early 21st century, hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking" as the process is commonly known) has become a major component of the American and world energy sectors. In 2015, about half of the oil and natural gas produced in the United States came from these processes compared to less than 5% a decade ago. The rise of hydraulic fracturing has had enormous impacts on energy markets worldwide and has been widely credited with playing a large role in lower energy prices in recent years. However, there has also been tremendous controversy surrounding the environmental and health effects associated with the use of fracking both in the United States and abroad. It is against this backdrop that the Fall 2015 National Survey on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) examined American views on hydraulic fracturing.


Given the global public good properties of climate change mitigation, mitigation efforts have to rely on the willingness of individuals to voluntarily contribute to this public good, either under the form of "green" consumer behavior or through the acceptance of costly climate policy. This paper discusses and reconciles two seminal contributions identifying the rationales for voluntary efforts toward climate change mitigation. Based on the existing literature, it confirms that conditional cooperation may respond to perceived effectiveness and social norms, as suggested by the theory. When the social norm is not visible, conditional cooperation may rely on general beliefs of trustworthiness, i.e. trust. As a result, the conceptual framework of this paper supports the idea of reciprocal countries, thus contributing to endogenize the participation of countries to emissions abatement efforts and to international climate agreements.


Building on the companion piece by Christine Parker and Hope Johnson on international instruments supporting holistic dietary guidelines, this article examines potential concerns raised by such guidelines under international trade law and international investment law. Drawing lessons from the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ('WHO FCTC') and its relevance to recent disputes in international economic law, this article examines the role of international instruments in supporting domestic dietary guidelines that could be challenged in the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization ('WTO') or under investor-state dispute settlement. The article includes an assessment of the potential impact of international economic laws on holistic dietary guidelines and related regulatory interventions, as well as a discussion of how a WHO treaty on healthy and sustainable diets could influence the interpretation and application of key trade and investment provisions. The article concludes that holistic dietary guidelines can be implemented in a manner consistent with international economic law, at least if local products are not prioritised.


Abstract The hydrothermal reactivity of a smectite saturated with K was studied experimentally at 300°C and 100 bar in (Na,K) chloride solutions (Na/K = 0, 50 and 100, liquid/ solid ratio = 10/1). X-ray diffraction, TEM and microprobe results show: (1) a partial to total dissolution of the initial smectite layers; and (2) the crystallization of newly-formed euhedral I-S. Random I-S is formed after 7 days, but an ordered mixed-layer I-S containing <30% expandable layers formed in the longest runs (112 days). The I-S is characterized by non-expandable layers of two distinct types: dehydrated smectite and illite. The Si content is lower in the I-S than in the initial smectite, thus creating a charge deficit, mostly compensated by the introduction of Na to the interlayer space, and yielding a silica release to the solution and subsequent crystallization of quartz and cristobalite.


This is a compelling, authoritative account of Ayatollah Khomeini and his baleful legacy from the bestselling author of "Saddam: His Secret Life".On 1 February 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to a tumultuous welcome and the Iranian revolution that that he masterminded has become one of the defining moments of the modern age. Today the challenge of radical Islam represents the greatest threat to world peace seen since the darkest days of the Cold War, and the legacy of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution lies at the heart of many of the world's most intractable conflicts."Khomeini's Ghost" is the definitive biographical account of how an impoverished young student from a remote area of southern Iran came to be the political and the spiritual leader of his country. Drawing on a wide variety of Iranian sources, including religious figures who knew and worked with Khomeini both in exile and in power, Con Coughlin examines in detail the principles of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution and the impact of his legacy today, whether it is in Iran's support for radical Islamic groups or Iran's commitment to developing an atom bomb. Frighteningly topical, compellingly readable and written with authority and profound understanding of the subject, this is political biography at its best.


Controlling resource usage is important for the reliability, efficiency and security of software systems. Automated analyses for bounding resource usage can be invaluable tools for ensuring these properties. Hofmann and Jost have developed an automated static analysis for finding linear heap space bounds in terms of the input size for programs in a simple functional programming language. Memory requirements are amortized by representing them as a requirement for an abstract quantity, potential, which is supplied by assigning potential to data structures in proportion to their size. This assignment is represented by annotations on their types. The type system then ensures that all potential requirements can be met from the original input's potential if a set of linear constraints can be solved. Linear programming can optimise this amount of potential subject to the constraints, yielding a upper bound on the memory requirements. However, obtaining bounds on the heap space requirements does not detect a faulty or malicious program which uses excessive stack space. In this thesis, we investigate extending Hofmann and Jost's techniques to infer bounds on stack space usage, first by examining two approaches: using the HofmannJost analysis unchanged by applying a CPS transformation to the program being analysed, then showing that this predicts the stack space requirements of the original program; and directly adapting the analysis itself, which we will show is more practical. We then consider how to deal with the different allocation patterns stack space usage presents. In particular, the temporary nature of stack allocation leads us to a system where we calculate the total potential after evaluating an expression in terms of assignments of potential to the variables appearing in the expression as well as the result. We also show that this analysis subsumes our previous systems, and improves upon them. We further increase the precision of the bounds inferred by noting the importance of expressing stack memory bounds in terms of the depth of data structures and by taking the maximum of the usage bounds of subexpressions. We develop an analysis which uses richer definitions of the potential calculation to allow depth and maxima to be used, albeit with a more subtle inference process.


This is the first issue of Girlhood Studies that we have devoted primarily to method and methodology related to deepening an understanding of girlhood and girls' lives. From the very inception of the journal in 2008 we imagined that there would be themed issues devoted to what we have termed "girl-method" (Mitchell and Reid-Walsh 2009: 214), so as to explore the various approaches to studying girlhood, and especially to make explicit the positionality of feminist researchers writing in academic contexts about girlhood. We frame this project as one that aims to be productive and generative and able to take its place alongside transformative themes in feminist methodology, as we see, for example, in the work of Burt and Code (1995) Changing Methods: Feminists Transforming Practice, and Creese and Frisby (2011) Feminist Community Research. However, even though there has been a rich body of work and a long history of research that addresses the nuances of women researching women, particularly in the area of the autobiographical such as, for example, Ann Oakley's (1981) ground breaking article "Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms," there remain gaps in feminist discourse that concerns itself with a framework to name and explicate method work that seeks to address working with girls, for girls and about girlhood. Making method, then, seems to us to be a useful framing term to talk about methodology and method in the area of girlhood studies. In one sense the term can signal the idea of making in relation to becoming as a feature of the social constructions of girlhood and the highly contextualized question of "Who is a girl anyway?" It also picks up on the idea of claiming and creating an identity as we see in Gerry Bloustien's (2004) notion of girlmaking in her work with adolescent girls and video-making. But it also speaks to the need for alternative approaches to making meaning, and so, as feminist researchers working in this area, we may find ourselves making it up, in much the same way that Oakley and others have done, and, in so


In this PhD research, the major environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change, sustainable energy transition and scarcity of resources, are approached from a spatial, landscape-architectural perspective. The goal is to accelerate the transition to liveable, low carbon cities. The focus of the research is at the local scale and attempts to turn challenges into opportunities for a better quality of life and living environment. Since 1857, when Frederick Law Olmsted combined the construction of two large drinking water reservoirs for the city of New York with the design of a beautiful park, these types of assignments are part of a landscape architect's job. At that time, the issue was to solve the problem of drinking water while now we are concerned about solving the combination of very diverse and different flows. This renders the assignment more complex but certainly no less landscape architectonic.

As part of this research, many functions, flows, areas and actors in the urban landscape system of Rotterdam have been studied. This research focuses on the development, design and testing of new approaches to strengthen existing urban qualities and to tackle problems in such a way that positive effects for other functions (synergies) arise at the same time in order to improve the quality of life in cities.

The themes researched are:

• Water and climate change: stormwater challenges and water in the city (such as flooding) and how these might provide opportunities for a better environment

• Energy transition: exchange of residual flows of heat in order to achieve a more sustainable energy supply.

• Urban agriculture and nutrients: urban waste flows of phosphorus and urban agriculture as related to liveability.

All these themes could also be investigated per sector and that is often what is done, however this research looks at their inter-connectedness and the possibility to promote synergies.

For this, it is important to know what kind of synergies can be achieved and for whom. As a result, planning for synergies in a structured way is possible. Landscape architectural, urban ecological and governance theories are used to extract building blocks and to set up a so-called Synergetic Urban Landscape Planning (SULP) approach. This is an integrated approach that allows us to explore, imagine and plan synergies so as to accelerate the transition to a liveable, low carbon city. During the research process, SULP has continuously been reinforced by incorporating the results of the separate studies on water, climate, energy, urban agriculture and nutrients. Synergetic urban landscape planning forms the bridge between CO2 and livability goals on the one hand, and principles for sustainable urban development on the other. This research and this approach were fed with, and strengthened by, the results of separate studies on water, climate, energy, urban agriculture and nutrients.

To test this approach, SULP building blocks were used in the inner city of Rotterdam. Possible densification and greening strategies were built together with stakeholders. This has resulted in a plan for the various components such as water and energy, which greatly improved multiple liveability aspects of the inner city and reduced CO2 emissions per capita. These results were also used to further develop the SULP approach such as the development of the 'Smart City Planner', based on the principles and indicators of sustainable cities, an assessment tool linked to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). This tool can be used to assess the sustainability performance of neighbourhoods as well as to plan for synergies.

This research contributes to sustainable urban development and emphasizes the role of landscape architecture in this regard as it provides synergies within urban metabolism (flows in the city). It also leads to closer cooperation with other disciplines. New approaches have been developed through SULP some of which have already been successfully applied, for example, the 'Rotterdam Energy Approach and Planning' (REAP) as well as the 'Smart City Planner'. Approaches that accelerate the transition to a liveable, low carbon city!


In the ongoing courageous struggle of a relatively small group of Chinese to prevent the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in China, Dai Qing is the outspoken leader whose eloquent voice is always heard despite threats and intimidation by the Chinese authorities to silence it. Dai Qing, an investigative journalist and author with a wide audience in China and abroad, compiled this book of essays and field reports assessing the impact of the Three Gorges megadam now under construction at Sandouping in China's Hubei province at great risk to her own freedom. This book is an effort to prevent history from repeating itself ten-fold (a reference to the great floods in 1975 during which over 60 dams collapsed and at least 100,000 people lost their lives) if the 39 billion cubic metres of water in the Three Gorges reservoir ever escapes by natural or man-made catastrophes. These comprehensive essays reveal the deep rooted problems presented by the Three Gorges project that the government is attempting to disguise or suppress. The main concerns are population resettlement and human rights, the irreversible environmental and economic impact, the loss of cultural antiquities and historical sites, military considerations, and hidden dam disasters from the past. Opponents of the dam are attempting to kill the project or at least reduce the size of the megadam now planned to be the biggest, most expensive and, incidentally, the most hazardous of all hydro-electric projects on this planet.


A specific linear array of square patches is considered. The array, measured feed radiation, and sources of feed radiation are examined. It is shown that radiation from a coplanar microstrip feed network can degrade the patterns of a linear patch array to an extent that is unacceptable in many applications. The problem arises when the microstrip substrate parameters are chosen to maximize radiation at the patch edges, thus undermining the ability of the feed network to guide waves. One solution is to use a relatively thin, high-relative permittivity substrate. This has the disadvantage of reduced bandwidth. Another approach is to sacrifice the low-cost coplanar feed by placing the feed on the opposite side of the ground plane from the radiating elements, and using coaxial pins to drive the patches. In this way, the radiation and guided wave functions are separated and the substrate parameters can be separately optimized for each. The feed can also be screened.<<ETX>>


While the workings of the mind are the subject of increasing discussion and interest to all of us, layman and scientist, philosophers attempt to define consciousness. This short article, reprinted by permission from The Washington Post of 5 Mar. 1990, discusses artificial intelligence.


The article reads Sigmund Freud and Claudio Monteverdi's understanding of musicality, its affinity with rhetoric, and the way this relation informs their individual oeuvres. Both Monteverdi and Freud, each in his own way, were condemned to live with an aversion to musicality that strengthened their hermeneutics of psychic and discursive disturbance. Through the specific rhetorical figure of the musical lament found in psychoanalytical discourse, the article demonstrates the way dissonances implicate opera, the madrigal, and the talking-cure, making aporetic claims, especially in the face of Freud's self-attestation—his resolute conviction that he was "ganz unmusikalisch"—which astonishingly matches Monteverdi's own resistance to music.


In this study, a novel solar tower-based gas turbine-driven multi-generation plant is proposed and analyzed in detail with energy, exergy, economic, and environmental impact analysis. A multiobjective optimization is performed by incorporating all performance indicators simultaneously. The proposed plant consists of an intercooling-regenerative-reheat solarized gas turbine cycle as the primary power cycle of a multi-generation plant for the first time. Two organic Rankine cycles are used to utilize waste heat of intercooling section and exhaust of gas turbine. To produce the multi-generation products of power, cooling, industrial process heating, fresh water, floor heating, green hydrogen, domestic hot water, hot air for food drying, and greenhouse heating, power cycles are integrated with a multi-effect desalination, a double-effect absorption refrigeration cycle, an electrolyzer, a drying hot air unit, a greenhouse heater, and an industrial process heater. A rigorous parametric analysis is performed to reveal the effects of variations of decision variables on the plant performance. At the optimum conditions, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, average unit product exergy cost, and emission savings values are determined as 57.23%, 40.7%, 0.08315 $/kWh, and 948.7 kg CO2/h, respectively. Moreover, proposed plant can produce 1962 kW power and 3.353 kg/h hydrogen in addition to other utilities with a system cost rate of 0.05134 $/s and 3226 kW exergy destruction rate.


Open data and the geoweb have emerged, along with the rhetoric of democratization and a promise that increased user participation would lead to more empowered citizens. Recently, European rules have attempted to make the availability and re-use of data from everywhere much easier. The EU Open Data rules are shifting issues from finding information to selecting the more relevant data and enabling new approaches to the real-time scrutiny of powerful institutions. However, geography, open data and the Internet are obviously not intrinsically subversive. Moving from transparency to accountability, and from critical thinking to political leverage, requires making sense of data and empowering people with it. This suggests that crowdsourcing geography is not so much about collaboratively distributing the production of data but instead about shifting the production of meaning from the few to the many, soliciting contributions for the critical analysis of data, openly distributing problem-solving and using the exchanges between people from different backgrounds all across the world to construct the interpretation. Crowdsourcing geography reduces information asymmetry and enables power strategies, deconstruction and counter-hegemonic initiatives to jump spatial scales, thereby allowing them to leverage public opinion on a global scale. This is an opportunity for guerrilla cartography, transforming data and geographical knowledge into real-time leverage and coming unexpectedly, because it can be launched from virtually any place, crowdsourced, and spawn followers around the world. However, shifting the production of meaning from the few to the many requires more trained brains than dot.com domains. What matters most is grasping 'dead' data, giving it 'live' meaning, producing reusable information just in time, rapidly transforming data into political leverage and sharing it in an efficient manner. This paper showcases the possibilities of crowdsourcing geography and guerrilla cartography by using the political crisis in Romania that took place during the summer of 2012.


Abstract. The Toba eruption that occurred some 74 ka ago in Sumatra, Indonesia, is among the largest volcanic events on Earth over the last 2 million years. Tephra from this eruption has been spread over vast areas in Asia, where it constitutes a major time marker close to the Marine Isotope Stage 4/5 boundary. As yet, no tephra associated with Toba has been identified in Greenland or Antarctic ice cores. Based on new accurate dating of Toba tephra and on accurately dated European stalagmites, the Toba event is known to occur between the onsets of Greenland interstadials (GI) 19 and 20. Furthermore, the existing linking of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores by gas records and by the bipolar seesaw hypothesis suggests that the Antarctic counterpart is situated between Antarctic Isotope Maxima (AIM) 19 and 20. In this work we suggest a direct synchronization of Greenland (NGRIP) and Antarctic (EDML) ice cores at the Toba eruption based on matching of a pattern of bipolar volcanic spikes. Annual layer counting between volcanic spikes in both cores allows for a unique match. We first demonstrate this bipolar matching technique at the already synchronized Laschamp geomagnetic excursion (41 ka BP) before we apply it to the suggested Toba interval. The Toba synchronization pattern covers some 2000 yr in GI-20 and AIM-19/20 and includes nine acidity peaks that are recognized in both ice cores. The suggested bipolar Toba synchronization has decadal precision. It thus allows a determination of the exact phasing of inter-hemispheric climate in a time interval of poorly constrained ice core records, and it allows for a discussion of the climatic impact of the Toba eruption in a global perspective. The bipolar linking gives no support for a long-term global cooling caused by the Toba eruption as Antarctica experiences a major warming shortly after the event. Furthermore, our bipolar match provides a way to place palaeo-environmental records other than ice cores into a precise climatic context.


The goal of our study was to develop a panel of tumor cell lines along with paired non‐malignant cell lines or strains collected from breast cancers, predominantly primary tumors. From a total of 189 breast tumor samples consisting of 177 primary tumors and 12 metastatic tissues, we established 21 human breast tumor cell lines that included 18 cell lines derived from primary tumors and 3 derived from metastatic lesions. Cell lines included those from patients with germline BRCA1 and FHIT gene mutations and others with possible genetic predisposition. For 19 tumor cell lines, we also established one or more corresponding non‐malignant cell strains or B lymphoblastoid (BL) lines, which included 16 BL lines and 7 breast epithelial (2) or stromal (5) cell strains. The present report describes clinical, pathological and molecular information regarding the normal and tumor tissue sources along with relevant personal information and familial medical history. Analysis of the breast tumor cell lines indicated that most of the cell lines had the following features: they were derived from large tumors with or without axillary node metastases; were aneuploid and exhibited a moderate to poorly differentiated phenotype; were estrogen receptor (ER)‐ and progesterone receptor (PR)‐negative; and overexpressed p53 and HER2/neu proteins. Of 13 patients with primary breast cancers receiving curative intent mastectomies, 7 were dead after a mean period of 10 months. Our panel of paired tumor and non‐malignant cell lines should provide important new reagents for breast cancer research. Int. J. Cancer 78:766–774, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In this paper, we consider the problem of maximizing the spread of influence through a social network. This optimization problem is formally defined as follows. We are given a graph G = (V,E), a positive integer k and a threshold value thr(v) attached to each vertex v ∈ V . The objective is then to find a subset of k vertices to "activate" such that the number of activated vertices at the end of a propagation process is maximum. A vertex v gets activated if at least thr(v) of its neighbors are. We show that this problem is strongly inapproximable in fpt-time with respect to (w.r.t.) parameter k even for very restrictive thresholds. For unanimity thresholds, we prove that the problem is inapproximable in polynomial time and the decision version is W[1]-hard w.r.t. parameter k. On the positive side, it becomes r(n)-approximable in fpt-time w.r.t. parameter k for any strictly increasing function r. Moreover, we give an fpt-time algorithm to solve the decision version for bounded degree graphs.


Commercial-scale applications of nanotechnology are rapidly increasing. Enhanced production of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products and their resultant disposal lead to concomitant increases in the volume of nanomaterial wastes (i.e., nanowaste). Many nanotechnologies employ resource-limited materials, such as precious metals and rare earth elements that ultimately end up as nanowaste. To make nanotechnology more sustainable it is essential to develop strategies to recover these high-value, resource-limited materials. To address this complex issue, we developed laboratory-scale methods to recover nanowaste gold. To this end, α-cyclodextrin facilitated host–guest inclusion complex formation involving second-sphere coordination of [AuBr4]− and [K(OH2)6]+ was used for gold recovery and the recovered gold was then used to produce new nanoparticles. To quantify the environmental impacts of this gold recycling process we then produced life cycle assessments to compare nanoparticulate gold production scenarios with and without recycling. The LCA results indicate that recovery and recycling of nanowaste gold can significantly reduce the environmental impacts of gold nanoparticle synthesis.


Amphibians live in varied habitats. This fact probably explains the great morphofunctional diversity in their skins. Although the integument is the structural and functional interface between the organism and its environment, the morphological and complexity of amphibian skin is not fully understand. There is practically no information on the integument of the tree frog Polypedates leucomystax found in Cherrapunjee.  Therefore, ultrastructure of the skin of the adult frog of Polypedates leucomystax was studied during the breeding phase with the help of transmission electron microscopy. Adult males and females of Polypedated leucomystax were collected from the study sites at Cherrapunjee. The epidermis consisted of four layers namely, stratum corneum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum and stratum germinativum. Desmosomes, ribosomes, tonofilaments, golgi bodies, vacuoles and collagen fibres were observed in the epidermal cells.  The basement membrane composed of collagenous fibres separated the epidermis from the dermis. Pigment cells like pterinosomes, melanophores and iridophores were abserved and these pigment cells may work together to determine the varied skin colouration and patterns displayed in Polypedates leucomystax and may have important roles in adapting this frog to its environment.


Abstract Before the Late Cretaceous opening of the Black Sea, the Central Pontides constituted part of the southern margin of Laurasia. Two features that distinguish the Central Pontides from the neighbouring Pontide regions are the presence of an extensive Lower Cretaceous submarine turbidite fan (the Çağlayan Formation) in the north, and a huge area of Jurassic–Cretaceous subduction–accretion complexes in the south. The Central Pontides comprise two terranes, the Istanbul Zone in the west and the Sakarya Zone in the east, which were amalgamated before the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian), most probably during the Triassic. The basement in the western Central Pontides (the Istanbul Zone) is made up of a Palaeozoic sedimentary sequence, which ends with Carboniferous coal measures and Permo-Triassic red beds. In the eastern Central Pontides, the basement consists of Permo-Carboniferous granites and an Upper Triassic forearc sequence of siliciclastic turbidites with tectonic slivers of pre-Jurassic ophiolite (the Küre Complex). The Küre Complex is intruded by Middle Jurassic granites and porphyries, which constitute the western termination of a major magmatic arc. Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous shallow-marine limestones (the İnaltı Formation) lie unconformably over both the Istanbul and Sakarya sequences in the Central Pontides. Two new measured stratigraphic sections from the İnaltı Formation constrain the age of the İnaltı Formation as Kimmeridgian–Berriasian. After a period of uplift and erosion during the Valanginian and Hauterivian, the İnaltı Formation is unconformably overlain by an over 2 km-thick sequence of Barremian–Aptian turbidites. Palaeocurrent measurements and detrital zircons indicate that the major part of the turbidites was derived from the East European Platform, implying that the Black Sea was not open before the Aptian. The Çağlayan turbidites pass northwards to a coeval carbonate–clastic shelf exposed along the present Black Sea coast. In the southern part of the Central Pontides, the Lower Cretaceous turbidites were deformed and metamorphosed in the Albian. Albian times also witnessed accretion of Tethyan oceanic crustal and mantle sequences to the southern margin of Laurasia, represented by Albian eclogites and blueschists in the Central Pontides. A new depositional cycle started in the Late Cretaceous with Coniacian–Santonian red pelagic limestones, which lie unconformably over the older units. The limestones pass up into thick sequences of Santonian–Campanian arc volcanic rocks. The volcanism ceased in the middle Campanian, and the interval between late Campanian and middle Eocene is represented by a thick sequence of siliciclastic and calciclastic turbidites in the northern part of the Central Pontides. Coeval sequences in the south are shallow marine and are separated by unconformities. The marine deposition in the Central Pontides ended in the Middle Eocene as a consequence of collision of the Pontides with the Kırşehir Massif.


...one component, B, of the Phaneron may be quite unsupposable (at any rate, by any ordinary mind), without supposing the full and perfect presence of a certain other constituent, A; and yet it may be [that] A may be supposed to be present while B is present in widely varying degrees (or, perhaps sometimes is quite absent). In such a case, we not only get by prescission a concept of A unmixed with B, but we are able to recognize B as a constituent different from its constant and inseparable companion, A. For example, being able to imagine visual surfaces of various colors (or perhaps even colorless, as the boundary between media of widely different indices of refraction; but it is not necessary to resort to such phenomena) we come to recognize color as something quite different from visible superficies, notwithstanding the utter impossibility (for most people) of imagining color without superficial extension. I called this mode of analysis discrimination. It is highly important not to lose sight of it.


Most quality management systems (QMS) which integrate software development are based on a single software development method. This particular method is enforced on all projects. The resulting QMS has to fulfil the ISO 9000 standards [13] and enables the control of the projects and the improvement of the development process, supporting it with all necessary guidelines and providing one terminology for the whole company. However, using only one specific method is not necessarily the best solution for a company with very heterogeneous projects and products. Requirements of customers, existing experience and training in the teams, projects still using structured methods and newer ones using object-oriented methods, adaptation of methods for special circumstances, and evolving modelling techniques, all of these factors call for the coexistence of different modelling methods within one company. If a QMS is based on only a single method, many projects might run outside the quality management regulations, unless the QMS excludes the details of the software development process. This problem can be overcome by the use of model architectures and model architecture frames. A model architecture describes the models that are developed within one specific method or project. All the different model architectures are derived from the generic model architecture frame. Such a frame, and not just one specific method, becomes the basis for the company wide regulations. This paper describes reasons for having multiple methods and life cycle models within one QMS, explains the basic concepts of defining a QMS using model architectures and model architecture frames, and shows how this approach may be applied in a project.


Since the early 2000s, the ability of a self-represented litigant alleged to have used domestic and family violence including sexual violence to personally cross-examine the alleged victim of that violence has been steadily restricted or prohibited across the Australian jurisdictions. These statutory limitations recognise the traumatic and negative impact such personal cross-examination can have on the alleged victim. All Australian jurisdictions restrict such personal cross-examination in sexual offence proceedings. Many jurisdictions also impose similar limitations in proceedings for other domestic and family violence related criminal proceedings and civil protection order proceedings. This article reveals a marked unevenness in protection for alleged victims both across and within jurisdictions. The lack of consistency in approach and lack of uniformity in provisions across the jurisdictions means that not all victims of domestic and family violence are protected, and for those who are, the nature and extent of those protections differ.


The bulk elemental composition of soil subsurface (B) horizons is influenced by environmental, biological, geological, and climatic factors. Because fossil soils (paleosols) are common in the geologic record, quantitative models that link climate to paleosol geochemistry are highly desirable in the paleoclimate community. Error associated with these models is typically reported as the root mean square error (RMSE) of a regression analysis and reflects the variability imparted by non-climatic influences on soil formation and the uncertainty associated with model fitting. However, for prediction purposes, the RMSE is well known to underestimate model uncertainty. In this work we re-evaluate a widely used transfer function for mean annual precipitation (MAP) based on the chemical index of alteration minus potassium (CIA-K) using data science best practices on two continental-scale soil data sets. Data set inter-comparisons and cross-validation of exponential regression models indicate that the root mean square prediction error (RMSPE) between CIA-K and MAP for soils representative of climates across the continental United States is around 299 mm, significantly higher than the currently accepted 182 mm RMSE. Further, CIA-K is unable to predict perhumid (>2000 mm MAP) climate zones. We show that transitioning from a simple regression framework to one of recursive partitioning via random forests can significantly increase prediction accuracy while automating variable selection. We introduce two new, widely applicable random forest models for MAP (RF-MAP) that use 10 elemental oxides as input variables and were calibrated on the Baylor University Soil Informatics (BU-SI) data set. RF-MAP version 1.0 (RF-MAP1.0) was generated using the entire BU-SI data set (n = 685) and can predict MAP values up to 6865 mm with a RMSPE of 395 mm. RF-MAP version 2.0 (RF-MAP2.0) was generated using a modification of the BU-SI data set (n = 642) and can predict MAP values up to ∼1600 mm with a RMSPE of 209 mm. Pruned regression trees provide insight into the mechanisms driving the random forest models and demonstrate the first empirical confirmation of the sensitivity of soil elemental responses to global climate zones. The RF-MAP1.0 and RF-MAP2.0 models predict MAP values comparable to independent proxy estimates for a range of deep-time paleosols. We advocate for application of RF-MAP1.0 in settings where no a priori information on paleoclimate is available, and encourage the use of either RF-MAP1.0 or RF-MAP2.0 if users have independent constraints that paleo-MAP was below 1600 mm.


Recessions are conventionally considered as times when the least productive firms are driven out of the market. How do credit frictions affect this cleansing effect of recessions? We build and calibrate a model of firm dynamics with credit frictions and endogenous entry and exit to investigate this question. We find that there is a cleansing effect of recessions in the presence of credit frictions, despite their effect on the selection of exiting and entering firms. This result holds true regardless of the nature of the recession: average firm-level productivity rises following a negative aggregate productivity shock, as well as following a negative financial shock. The intensity of the cleansing effect of recessions is however lower in the presence of credit frictions, especially when the recession is driven by a financial shock.


Research into geographic variation in the agamid lizard Ctenophorus fordi supports a pattern of regional lineage diversity identified in earlier genetic studies, and provides new information on differences in morphology diagnostic of these lineages. One of the most genetically divergent and morphologically distinctive of these lineages is that consisting of populations from Triodia Mallee habitat of the red sandplains of inland southeast Australia. Populations from this region are the sister lineage to all other "C. fordi", a suite of four genetically regionally discrete lineages distributed across the arid inland of southern Australia. They can be distinguished by a unique black "T" shaped chest pattern in adult males which, in combination with certain features of body proportions and scalation, diagnose the lineage from all other "C. fordi". On the strength of these differences we describe populations belonging to this lineage as a new species, Ctenophorus spinodomus sp. nov. This new species is highly restricted in the habitat it occupies, and its ecology tied to a reliance on the presence of Triodia hummock grass groundcover (spinifex) for shelter, foraging and social interactions. It appears to be most abundant in areas of extensive and healthy Triodia that develop 20–50 years post-burn, and as a consequence too many or too few fires can both have negative impacts on the suitability of hummock grass groundcover for this species. Mallee habitat in southeast Australia is fragmented, and large fires in the smaller isolated areas of habitat could result in loss of suitable habitat for the species, resulting in localized extinction with no opportunity for recruitment. These factors in combination with ongoing loss of habitat place the remaining populations of C. spinodomus sp. nov. at a high level of vulnerability.


The aim of this study was to investigate the water release from seeds of three rape hybrids, ('Artus', 'Baldur' and 'Titan'), during the convection drying of the seeds at three different drying temperature (40, 60 and 80 °C). The drying was conducted in laboratory scale drier which can simulate the conditions of large drier. The air velocity in the drier was maintained at 1.0 m/s. Activation energy needed for starting the process of water release during the convective drying of oil seed rape seeds was also studied. According to the obtained values, the mathematical models (equations and curves) of kinematic drying were determined. By comparing the exponential equations and the constants of water release from seeds it was observed that drying of hybrid Artus was the slowest and the one of hybrid Titan the fastest. Results showed that there was a significant difference between all investigated hybrids in water release rate and that within the same drying conditions, hybrids showed different behaviour. Moreover, air temperature increase caused significant increase in water release from the seeds. The highest activation energy needed for starting the process of water release from the seeds had the hybrid Artus and the lowest one hybrid Titan. Due to this, it can be concluded that the activation energy was reversely proportional to the water release rate from the seeds.


Since 1998, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided funding for the Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) program, which allowed eligible grantees to hire Service Coordinators to connect residents of public housing and tribal designated housing entities (TDHEs) to local services to meet a variety of tenant needs. In 2008, the ROSS program was consolidated again, the provision of direct services was removed (with the exception of coverage of certain allowable participant out-of-pocket costs) and only the service coordination approach was authorized, and was renamed the Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator (ROSS-SC) program. In 2013, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report identifying significant gaps in data needed to document the effectiveness of the program. This study responds to Congress' request to conduct an evaluation of the ROSS-SC program in response to the GAO report. Through a multi-method approach this first study of the ROSS-SC program found that ROSS Service Coordinators help residents of public housing and TDHEs access critical services, including help with emergency and long-term needs such as food security, transportation, healthcare, education, employment, youth services, and financial literacy. However, barriers, such as a lack of transportation and childcare, and a lack of service providers in lower-resourced, geographically isolated, smaller communities remain that prevent residents from getting the help they need. Service coordinators are educated and experienced, use a blended approach of case management and a broader connection to services through outreach and events, and rely on community partners for service connection and property managers to troubleshoot housing stability issues, such as property maintenance and eviction prevention.


A story of a young boy's adventures working as a paperboy on the busy trams, travelling to Bondi Beach. It was Kieran's dream to be a paperboy and when he finally gets the chance finds it's not as easy as he thought it would be but with his friend Saxon teaching him the ropes he eventually gets the opportunity to work at his favourite place...the beach, and the tram rides are the best part of the job to Kieran. When he grows up he won't be a paper boy, he'll be a tram driver rattling and flying down the hill to Bondi Beach. A story of a young boy's adventures working as a paperboy on the busy trams, travelling to Bondi Beach. It was Kieran's dream to be a paperboy and when he finally gets the chance finds it's not as easy as he thought it would be but with his friend Saxon teaching him the ropes he eventually gets the opportunity to work at his favourite place...the beach, and the tram rides are the best part of the job to Kieran. When he grows up he won't be a paper boy, he'll be a tram driver rattling and flying down the hill to Bondi Beach.


Teaching medical writing is a varied, interesting, and satisfying role. You might find yourself teaching PhD students to write theses, laboratory scientists to write posters, clinicians to write papers, or professional medical writers to improve their skills. Each of these groups starts with different levels of knowledge and requires different teaching approaches. There is no single prescription for the ideal training course. In fact, to provide maximum benefit to trainee writers, each course will have to be fully tailored to their needs and designed to keep them interested and involved. This article provides ideas to help develop and run effective (and fun) writing training courses. The five main aspects covered are research, planning, developing content, assembling course materials, and managing the training day.


We consider the problem of node positioning in ad hoc networks. We propose a distributed, infrastructure-free positioning algorithm that does not rely on GPS (Global Positioning System). Instead, the algorithm uses the distances between the nodes to build a relative coordinate system in which the node positions are computed in two dimensions. Despite the distance measurement errors and the motion of the nodes, the algorithm provides sufficient location information and accuracy to support basic network functions. Examples of applications where this algorithm can be used include Location Aided Routing [10] and Geodesic Packet Forwarding [2]. Another example are sensor networks, where mobility is less of a problem. The main contribution of this work is to define and compute relative positions of the nodes in an ad hoc network without using GPS. We further explain how the proposed approach can be applied to wide area ad hoc networks.


Sindhi language possesses very rich literary traditions. Sindhi is a living and a thriving language. Its writers have contributed extensively in every field and form of its literature-folk as well as other forms: classical as well as pervianised and modern forms from the period long before the advent of Islam in Sindh in 93 A.H./711 A.D. Some examples of literary forms have been found from the libraries and temples of old states of Kutch, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Hariana and Hamachal Pardesh of India. The second and 5th centuring A.D., i.e. 500 yeas before the conquest of Arabs in Sindh in the year 93 A.H./711 A.D. The scholars like Dr. Muhammad Hassan, Dr. S.K. Chatterji and Dr. Murlidhar Jetley have quotted some instances of the earliest poetry of second century.


The question of what co-operatives can contribute to the left is explored in the light of Rosa Luxemburg's apparent rejection of reformist organisations in her 'Reform or revolution', written at the beginning of the early twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with worker co-operatives in the UK cultural industries, Sandoval teases out the politics of working in co-ops, and shows that, although the kinds of co-ops she is discussing tend to operate at the small-scale prefigurative level, they help open up the political spaces on which bigger political action can build - although this undoubtedly requires making connections both between individual co-ops and between co-ops and the wider left. Her conclusion is that different times require different tactics, and that, though Luxemburg would not have seen much value in co-ops solely as a form of prefigurative politics, she would have valued them if they could at the same time contribute to advancing the greater goal of building a radical alternative.


Abstract. Surface albedo has been identified as an important parameter for understanding and quantifying the Earth's radiation budget. EUMETSAT generated the Meteosat Surface Albedo (MSA) Climate Data Record (CDR) currently comprising up to 24 years (1982–2006) of continuous surface albedo coverage for large areas of the Earth. This CDR has been created within the Sustained, Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) framework. The long-term consistency of the MSA CDR is high and meets the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) stability requirements for desert reference sites. The limitation in quality due to non-removed clouds by the embedded cloud screening procedure is the most relevant weakness in the retrieval process. A twofold strategy is applied to efficiently improve the cloud detection and removal. The first step consists of the application of a robust and reliable cloud mask, taking advantage of the information contained in the measurements of the infrared and visible bands. Due to the limited information available from old radiometers, some clouds can still remain undetected. A second step relies on a post-processing analysis of the albedo seasonal variation together with the usage of a background albedo map in order to detect and screen out such outliers. The usage of a reliable cloud mask has a double effect. It enhances the number of high-quality retrievals for tropical forest areas sensed under low view angles and removes the most frequently unrealistic retrievals on similar surfaces sensed under high view angles. As expected, the usage of a cloud mask has a negligible impact on desert areas where clear conditions dominate. The exploitation of the albedo seasonal variation for cloud removal has good potentialities but it needs to be carefully addressed. Nevertheless it is shown that the inclusion of cloud masking and removal strategy is a key point for the generation of the next MSA CDR release.


A new modular, digital, distributed feedback control system has been developed and installed to control the TCV plasma. With many more inputs and outputs, it provides the possibility to build control algorithms using far more information on the plasma state than previously possible as well as the ability to control many more actuators, including the multi-megawatt, multi-launcher electron cyclotron heating and current drive system. This paper provides an overview of the new control system, its integration into the TCV systems and its successful application to control the TCV plasma discharge.


A medley of spring mushrooms roasted with garlic and pine nuts. Grilled summer corn on the cob with chile-lime butter. Sauteed shallots in a velvety red wine sauce. What compares to the flavor of seasonal vegetables picked and cooked at their peak of ripeness? Williams-Sonoma Collection "Vegetable" offers more than 40 recipes, organized by season to assist you in selecting the perfect vegetable dishes to serve year-round. Whether you are in search of a delicious way to make fava beans in the springtime or need a savory preparation for carrots when cold weather arrives, in these pages you'll find a recipe that brings out the best in vegetables for any occasion. A chapter of hearty main dishes will inspire you to make vegetables the star of your dinner table, while a selection of classics -- including a delightfully rich potato gratin -- completes the collection. Full-color photographs of each recipe make it easy to choose which to prepare, and each dish is accompanied by a photographic side note that highlights a cooking technique or ingredient, making "Vegetable" more than a simple collection of recipes. A comprehensive basics section and glossary fill in all you need to know to create an enticing combination of flavors, textures, and colors the next time you prepare vegetables. Fresh, crisp, and bursting with color and flavor, vegetables embody the changing of the seasons more than any other food. From tender spring peas to rich, creamy-textured winter squash, we look forward to their arrival in the market year after year. Williams-Sonoma Collection "Vegetable" offers more than 40 delicious recipes, including both the classics and fresh new ideas. In these pages, you'll find versatile vegetable dishes for every season and every occasion -- from a late summer lunch to a midwinter dinner party. This vibrantly photographed, full-color recipe collection promises to become an essential addition to your kitchen bookshelf."


The recent Italian seismic decrees (OPCM 3274/2003 and OPCM 3431/2005) have strongly modified the safety concept for existing buildings. This code introduces the idea of design and verification through performance-based analysis. Unfortunately, in case of monumental heritage, the OPCM 3431 decree does not propose a specific methodology. For masonry historical structures, the available literature on this topic generally deals with the out-of-plane overturning mechanism, considering the wall as an oscillating rigid block (e.g., facades or bell towers). As a matter of fact, for these structures or macroelements, the fundamental periods are large, even for the initial elastic range, and they can increase because of cracking in masonry, typically considered as no-tension material. The effects of these features on the dynamic response and the related prediction of displacement capacity need to be investigated. For this purpose, non-linear dynamic analyses on the equivalent SDOF systems are performed, employing different input ground motions. These analyses may be useful to evaluate the influence of factors such as: 1) the feasibility of the equivalent SDOF system definition for the displacement-based procedure (as for mainly rocking system, the model is derived by Housner's non-linear oscillator, having elastic behaviour, with softening range); 2) the equivalent viscous damping relationship and the consequent displacement response spectrum reduction for the long-period range.


The focus of our research is to analyze, within the framework of the theory of resources and capabilities (TRC), what is the importance of intangible assets in the strategic management of the firms. An empirical application for the financial sector has been provided, a highly competitive industry which is undergoing big and major changes, and in particular the Santander Group.Specifically, we have analyzed the configuration of strategy, within the Group, at different levels: Corporate, Business, Segment and Functional. Meanwhile, due to the huge importance that corporate level is acquiring, we have also analyzed the values that underpin the organization, the source of competitive advantage, growth strategy and business levels that directly depend upon it. To respond to these objectives, we have developed a questionnaire for managers of Santander Group offices.We show the preliminary results in which we want to emphasize, as well as predicted by TRC, the importance of intangible assets in achieving results, both in terms of competition as well as purely economic. It is also noteworthy, according to managers' perception, that the competitive advantage on which strategy is built is differentiation with a scope focused on the entire market. Similarly, this differentiation is supported by its financial strength, leadership and brand image.


The Open University (UK) Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme is a distance learning pre-service course in teacher education which integrates learning in the practice setting with university-based learning. This programme, which has flexible start and finish points and either training or assessment only routes, uses a web-based Needs Analysis process to reflect on prior experience and to determine individualized university and practice-based curriculum and assessment and is set in the context of an external regulatory framework which demands that teacher education courses in England fulfil certain national requirements and that student-teachers meet identified standards or competences. These requirements and standards are inspected by the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED) and the outcomes of inspection lead to a 'Quality Grade' which determines government funding.

This PGCE course, therefore, presents a radically flexible, practice integrated programme which faces both internal, University based quality assurance processes and procedures and 'high stakes' external inspection. This paper reflects on the tensions between quality compliance and quality assurance in practice integrated learning and suggests that quality assurance processes which open up a discourse of personal and professional development and which might support the exploration of dissonance between and within practices can improve, rather than merely maintain, programme quality.


A Living Wage, Jobs for All Act - Declares that the Congress affirms the basic economic rights and responsibilities under the 1944 Economic Bill of Rights, while updating and extending it to include: (1) certain rights to decent jobs, income security for individuals unable to work for pay, a decent living for farm families, freedom from monopolies, decent housing, adequate health services, social security in old age, sickness, accidental injury, and unemployment, and education and work training; and (2) certain other rights relating to collective bargaining, a safe working environment, information on trends in pollution sources and products and processes that affect the well-being of workers throughout the world, voting and campaigning, and personal security.Requires corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose fully in annual reports the impact of their activities in the United States and other countries on environmental quality and on the rights of other stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and communities. Requires each State, as a condition of Federal grants and contracts, also to require all State-chartered corporations to submit such annual reports.Directs the Attorney General to establish a computerized registration program of all corporations found guilty of violating a Federal or State law. Authorizes the President to deny Federal contracts, loans, or loan guarantees to non-compliant corporations.Requires Federal agencies and commissions, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, to help establish and maintain conditions under which all adult Americans may freely exercise the economic rights specified in 1944 and in this Act. Prohibits Federal agencies or commissions from promoting recession, stagnation, or unemployment to reduce wages or inflation.Directs the President to establish a full employment framework for the annual budget submitted to the Congress that meets specified goals for: (1) quality of life and environment