In 2015, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement provided a basis for considerable optimism for the fight against climate change and efforts to promote sustainable development, but their implementation remains an enormous challenge. Finance, in turn, plays a key role in implementation. This thesis thus seeks to provide new insights into the challenge of implementing the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda by examining pertinent financial flows while taking into considering that making use of thematic overlaps between these two agendas can help to leverage synergies, especially if financial flows take adequate account of these overlaps. Since energy plays an essential role in both the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda (in SDG 7 and beyond it), this thesis focuses on countries' energy-related national commitments. Against this background, this thesis investigates the question which role energy plays in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and to what extent climate finance is considered in the context of the energy system transition. The key finding is that financial flow for renewable energy and energy efficiency improves globally with an unchanged track of non-renewable energy in the post-NDC period.


The beachrock formation on the Ariburnu coast situated in the Gelibolu Peninsula has been studied by field observation, thin-section interpretation, physicochemical analyses including ICP-AES and SEM/EDS, and OSL dating. These analyses reveal the presence of different amounts of major (Si, Ca, Mg, K, Fe, Al and Na) and trace elements within the beachrock cement with Si (36.2%) and Ca (32.68%) dominating the overall composition. Beachrocks composed of highly-fractured and friable beds reach a total thickness of 80 cm extending from +60 cm at the uppermost level down to -1 m at their most seaward extent and grade from conglomerate to lithic arkose in vertical section. The total amount of CaCO3 ranges between 59.08% and 36% and the cement consists of high-Mg calcite based on EDS analysis. From SEM examination, four main morphologies were identified in cement material: (1) micritic coatings, (2) cryptocrystalline pore-filling cement, (3) meniscus cement and (4) microbial cement and suggest the presence of marine phreatic conditions with the exception of meniscus bridges, which imply that cementation may have been dominated by carbonate-rich meteoric waters at any successive stage of cementation. Five buried beachrock samples under unconsolidated beach sand were sampled for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating and show that the minimum and maximum ages of beachrock are 1.42±0.20 ka and 2.28±0.28 ka BP, respectively.


We study coherent backscattering (CBS) of resonant light by cold atomic vapors, both experimentally and theoretically. The theory predicts a drastic reduction of the CBS enhancement factor when a degenerate internal structure is present in the ground state. We test this prediction in experiments using different atoms and various transitions.


ABSTRACT Pattern recognition receptor (PRR) detection of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as viral RNA, drives innate immune responses against West Nile virus (WNV), an emerging neurotropic pathogen. Here we demonstrate that WNV PAMPs orchestrate endothelial responses to WNV via competing innate immune cytokine signals at the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a multicellular interface with highly specialized brain endothelial cells that normally prevents pathogen entry. While Th1 cytokines increase the permeability of endothelial barriers, type I interferon (IFN) promoted and stabilized BBB function. Induction of innate cytokines by pattern recognition pathways directly regulated BBB permeability and tight junction formation via balanced activation of the small GTPases Rac1 and RhoA, which in turn regulated the transendothelial trafficking of WNV. In vivo, mice with attenuated type I IFN signaling or IFN induction (Ifnar−/− Irf7−/−) exhibited enhanced BBB permeability and tight junction dysregulation after WNV infection. Together, these data provide new insight into host-pathogen interactions at the BBB during neurotropic viral infection. IMPORTANCE West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging pathogen capable of infecting the central nervous system (CNS), causing fatal encephalitis. However, the mechanisms that control the ability of WNV to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and access the CNS are unclear. In this study, we show that detection of WNV by host tissues induces innate immune cytokine expression at the BBB, regulating BBB structure and function and impacting transendothelial trafficking of WNV. This regulatory effect is shown to happen rapidly following exposure to virus, to occur independently of viral replication within BBB cells, and to require the signaling of cytoskeletal regulatory Rho GTPases. These results provide new understanding of host-pathogen interactions at the BBB during viral encephalitis. West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging pathogen capable of infecting the central nervous system (CNS), causing fatal encephalitis. However, the mechanisms that control the ability of WNV to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and access the CNS are unclear. In this study, we show that detection of WNV by host tissues induces innate immune cytokine expression at the BBB, regulating BBB structure and function and impacting transendothelial trafficking of WNV. This regulatory effect is shown to happen rapidly following exposure to virus, to occur independently of viral replication within BBB cells, and to require the signaling of cytoskeletal regulatory Rho GTPases. These results provide new understanding of host-pathogen interactions at the BBB during viral encephalitis.


This research examines contingent faculty's perception of organizational support, workplace attitudes, and Student Ratings of Teaching (SRT) in a large public research university to investigate their employee-organization relationship. According to t-tests and regression analyses for samples of 2,229 faculty and instructional staff who answered the survey and had SRT data (tenured and tenure-track faculty: 1,708, 76.6% of total; contingent faculty: 521, 23.4% of total), employment relationship of contingent faculty in this institution was closer to a combined economic and social exchange model than to a pure economic exchange model or underinvestment model. Contingent faculty's satisfaction with work, satisfaction with coworkers, perception of being supported at work, and affective organizational commitment were higher than tenured and tenure-track faculty at a statistically significant level. In addition, contingent faculty had higher SRT mean results in all areas of SRT items in medium-size (10-30) classes and in 'class presentation,' 'feedback,' 'deeper understanding,' and 'interest stimulated' in large-size (30-50) classes than Tenured and Tenure-track Faculty. These results not only refute the misconception that contingent faculty have too little time to provide students with feedback but also support that they provide students with good teaching, at least in medium-size and large-size classes. Whereas these results might be partially attributable to the relatively stable status of contingent faculty in this study (who work for more than 50 percent FTE), they indicate that, as a collective, contingent faculty also represent a significant contributor to the university, who are satisfied with their work, enjoy the community they are in, and are committed to their institution.


This study was conducted to compare the interactive and interactional meta-discourse markers in conclusion sections of English Teaching, English Translation, and English Literature Master Theses to find out if there are significant differences among conclusion sections of these Master Theses in terms of the frequency and types of interactive and interactional meta-discourse markers. To this end, 30 Master Theses of English Translation, English Teaching, and English Literature (10 from each) were selected randomly from library of Isfahan University, Islamic Azad university of Arak, and Islamic Azad university of Najaf Abad. Conclusion sections of these theses were written and stored in folders of Teaching, Translation, and Literature in computer. These were followed by analyzing the frequency and types of interactive and interactional meta-discourse markers in each section-in accordance with Hyland (2005) Taxonomy. In Descriptive analysis, the results show that Interactional Markers among these disciplines were employed more than Interactive ones. Interactional Markers were used considerably more in English Translation than in English Teaching and English Literature. Transitions were applied more than other interactive markers. Moreover, the findings indicate that there are significant differences among these disciplines considering use of interactive and interactional markers. The results of the present study might offer pedagogical implication of this aspect of meta-discourse for Assistant professors, Master candidates of Applied Linguistics to consider these markers in Master Theses more efficiently.


Global temperatures (T) are rising, and for many plant species, their physiological response to this change has not been well characterized. In particular, how hydraulic parameters may change has only been examined experimentally for a few species. To address this, we measured characteristics of the hydraulic architecture of six species growing in ambient T and ambient +3.4 °C T plots in two experimentally warmed forest sites in Minnesota. These sites are at the temperate–boreal ecotone, and we measured three species from each forest type. We hypothesized that relative to boreal species, temperate species near their northern range border would increase xylem conduit diameters when grown under elevated T. We also predicted a continuum of responses among wood types, with conduit diameter increases correlating with increases in the complexity of wood structure. Finally, we predicted that increases in conduit diameter and specific hydraulic conductivity would positively affect photosynthetic rates and growth. Our results generally supported our hypotheses, and conduit diameter increased under elevated T across all species, although this pattern was driven predominantly by three species. Two of these species were temperate angiosperms, but one was a boreal conifer, contrary to predictions. We observed positive relationships between the change in specific hydraulic conductivity and both photosynthetic rate (P = 0.080) and growth (P = 0.012). Our results indicate that species differ in their ability to adjust hydraulically to increases in T. Specifically, species with more complex xylem anatomy, particularly those individuals growing near the cooler edge of their range, appeared to be better able to increase conduit diameters and specific hydraulic conductivity, which permitted increases in photosynthesis and growth. Our data support results that indicate individual's ability to physiologically adjust is related to their location within their species range, and highlight that some wood types may adjust more easily than others.


A series of acrylamide/dimethylaminoethylacrylate methyl chloride copolymers (AM-co-DMAEA) was evaluated as flocculants for model Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (FCC) in distilled water. These cationic polyelectrolytes (PEL) differed by their AM/DMAEA ratio, i.e., their charge density, chain architecture (linear and branched), their intrinsic viscosity (IV), and zeta potential of their aqueous solutions. The IV being directly related to the hydrodynamic volume of the PEL and the zeta potential reflecting the effective charges in suspension were selected for practically useful correlations with flocculation performance. The fractal dimension (d(F)) and the scattering exponent (SE) of the flocs, analyzed by the laser diffraction method, were taken as indication of primary particle and aggregate assembly. For the optimum PEL dosage, SE and d(F) varied with the IV and zeta potential. It was observable that floc size, floc resistance, and floc reorganization correlate with the PEL characteristics. Copolymers with lower IV, which is here associated with PEL of similar molar mass but lower charge density, yielded larger and less resistant flocs. Copolymers with higher IV originated smaller more compact flocs being more resistant. in high shear situations, where floc breakage should be avoided, as it is the case in papermaking, polymers with high IV yielding large SE are advantageous. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 116: 3603-3612,2010


INTRODUCTION Historically, rural villagers in northern Thailand had a stable coexistence with forest ecosystems due to the intrinsic value attached to forests in Thai culture as well as to customary common property management systems.(1) In the contemporary scene the state management of forests has gradually undermined these customary laws and the authority of traditional institutions.(2) This has created considerable tension between the traditional villagers' view of forests as common property resources, and official government policy. Rural communities dependent on forest resources are fighting for their rights to benefit from forest land they have long considered as their own. The case of Huey Kaew represents a bottom-up push for reestablishing common property rights. It is also a case where the Royal Forestry Department is attempting to integrate common property rights to forest lands into the framework of national policy. The purpose of this case study in Huey Kaew is to explore the dynamics involved in reestablishing common property rights. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY The contemporary situation in Thailand suggests that environmental degradation and natural resource allocation will continue to be major sources of conflict between the government and rural communities.(3) The community forest program in Huey Kaew therefore has the potential to provide a model for other forest communities that face such conflict.(4) The successful implementation of the Huey Kaew community forest is a goal of the Royal Forestry Department and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.(5) If it is successful, this program will provide benefits for both the villagers and the nation. The villagers will secure their ability to satisfy their own needs and the right to protect and manage forest resources, while the government will find a viable alternative to state control for managing Forest Reserve Land. DESCRIPTION OF HUEY KAEW The village of Huey Kaew is located in an upper valley floor in the northeast corner of Kaew sub-district in Chiang Mai Province. The upper part of the village is located within a Forest Reserve which contains a watershed covering 3000 rai (480 hectares) that supplies water to 10,000 rai (1,600 ha) of paddy land. The whole village is surrounded by mountain ranges and forests which are primarily secondary growth as a result of logging concessions in the early part of the century. The forest has been classified by the Royal Forestry Department as dry deciduous dipterocarp at the lower elevations and mixed deciduous at the higher elevations. Mixed Deciduous forests have great economic value because many commercial species are abundant. It is the primary habitat of teak (Tectona grandis).(7) The Dry Deciduous Dipterocarp forest has few trees of commercial importance but because trees in these forests are able to coppice freely they assure a continual source of fuelwood and various species of bamboo.(8) The watershed is the source of four streams, one of which flows through the village of Huey Kaew. This stream supplies sufficient water for cultivation and home consumption throughout the year. Two small traditional irrigation canals draw water to feed rice fields on both sides of the river. Huey Kaew is an oval shaped village surrounded by rice paddy and forest. Most houses are built along the main road. The houses of the wealthier families are generally made of teak with tile roofs, while the houses of the poor are generally made from bamboo materials with roofs made from leaves. The population of Huey Kaew is 513 people,(9) living in 126 households. Ninety-two of the households are landless.(10) The villagers of Huey Kaew understand the importance of conserving the forest in the watershed in order to maintain the source of water which irrigates their rice fields. Villagers depend on the forest as a source of building materials for their homes, fuelwood, grazing land for domestic animals such as water buffalo and cattle, natural foods, herbs and medicines, and as a hunting ground for small birds, animals and insects. …


Background: Although much work has been done on the theoretical links between agriculture and nutrition, there is limited understanding of the evidence from observational and experimental research studies on the impacts of agriculture programs on nutrition outcomes. Objective: To assess the emphasis of the literature on different agriculture–nutrition pathways in Bangladesh. Methods: Twenty databases and Web sites were searched, yielding more than 2400 resources that were pared down through an iterative, eliminative process to 60 articles. These articles were then rated for quality and mapped to 1 of the 6 agriculture–nutrition pathways. Results: The body of evidence reveals gaps in knowledge in all of the pathways, but especially in the areas of agriculture as a source of livelihoods, and women's role as intermediaries between agriculture and good nutrition and health within their household. Conclusion: More research is needed on the links between agriculture and nutrition in country-specific settings, particularly as regards the role of women. Nutrition-related outcomes, such as dietary diversity and women's empowerment, need to be measured more explicitly when evaluating the impact of agricultural production systems and development initiatives.


Controlled fires are beneficial for the generation of heat and power while uncontrolled fires, like fire incidents and wildfires, are detrimental and can cause enormous material damage and human suffering. Transport phenomena such as buoyant flow, momentum, convective heat and mass transfer as well as chemical reactions between combustible species and oxygen from the surrounding air play important turbulent mixing are important to the mechanism of flame heat transfer that govern fire release rates. The mechanisms of ignition, flame spread, steady burning flame extinction and smoke transport all need to be considered in fire modelling. In addition, temperature-dependent properties are important factors for consideration. For uncontrolled fires, the evolution in time is of great concern. This edited book presents the state of the art of modelling and numerical simulation of the important transport phenomena in fires. It describes how computational procedures can be used in analysis and design of fire protection and fire safety. Computational fluid dynamics, turbulence modelling, combustion, soot formation, thermal radiation modelling are demonstrated and applied to pool fires, flame spread, wildfires, fires in buildings and other examples. All of the chapters follow a unified outline and presentation to aid accessibility and the book provides invaluable information for both graduate researchers and R&D engineers in industry and consultancy. (Less)


Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest and most complete New Testament in Greek known to exist. Its two colophons at the end of 2 Esdras and Esther indicate a possible connection with Pamphilus' famous library at Caesarea in Palestine. Origen was head of a school for catechumens during his days in Alexandria in Egypt and later began a similar school in Caesarea. Pamphilus was Origen's star pupil and later directed his school in Caesarea. These colophons may connect Sinaiticus with an ancient tradition of early Christian worship and instruction of new converts, possibly exhibited in particular scribal features. These scribal features are primarily located at "twoways" lists of "virtue and vice" in the New Testament, which were popular methods of instructing the essentials of the faith and are found throughout early Christian literature. These areas in the New Testament (and in the epistle of Barnabas) were emphasized through paragraph 'lists' by the scribes of Sinaiticus. These 'lists' were most likely recited by the ancient reader in a distinctive way for the audience. It is possible that the audience interacted with the reader as the text was recited. This paper surveys the ancient practice of the public reading of scripture during Christian gatherings and the use of punctuation and lectional marking in manuscripts to aid readers in their task. A possible connection with earlier manuscripts is explored by a cursory examination of a similarity in formatting between Sinaiticus and P46, a second century copy of Paul's epistles. When taken collectively, though sparse and fragmentary, the evidence suggests that Sinaiticus preserves an ancient practice of Christian instruction located in the unique paragraph 'lists' of the "two-ways" theme.


Technology has changed our daily life routine as well as living style. So, student of school or colleges or university require application that supports smart phone to get all type of information related to examination, lecture notes, placement regarding question, notification, events, transportation etc. instead of calling system because almost all mobile users has smart phone now days. Each and every educational institute provides limited services to their users including students, parents, guardian and public. If provided services are more than ease of using is very difficult. That is why students interest towards using college or school or university is decreasing day by day. We designed an application to fulfil the requirement of students or parents or employee based on present scenario of market and latest technology like java, android, GPS etc. to solve the students' problem.


The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to concerns over the lack of security and privacy guarantees afforded by IoT systems. Homomorphic encryption (HE) is a promising privacy-preserving solution to allow devices to securely share data with a cloud backend; however, its high memory consumption and computational overhead have limited its use on resource-constrained embedded devices. To address this problem, we present SEAL-Embedded, the first HE library targeted for embedded devices, featuring the CKKS approximate homomorphic encryption scheme. SEAL-Embedded employs several computational and algorithmic optimizations along with a detailed memory re-use scheme to achieve memory efficient, high performance CKKS encoding and encryption on embedded devices without any sacrifice of security. We additionally provide an "adapter" server module to convert data encrypted by SEAL-Embedded to be compatible with the Microsoft SEAL library for homomorphic encryption, enabling an end-to-end solution for building privacy-preserving applications. For a polynomial ring degree of 4096, using RNS primes of 30 or fewer bits, our library can be configured to use between 64–137 KB of RAM and 1–264 KB of flash data, depending on developer-selected configurations and tradeoffs. Using these parameters, we evaluate SEAL-Embedded on two different IoT platforms with high performance, memory efficient, and balanced configurations of the library for asymmetric and symmetric encryption. With 136 KB of RAM, SEAL-Embedded can perform asymmetric encryption of 2048 single-precision numbers in 77 ms on the Azure Sphere Cortex-A7 and 737 ms on the Nordic nRF52840 Cortex-M4.


This article revisits the accuracy of inflation forecasting using activity and expectations variables. We apply Bayesian model averaging across different regression specifications selected from a set of potential predictors that includes lagged values of inflation, a host of real activity data, term structure data, (relative) price data, and surveys. In this model average, we can entertain different channels of structural instability, by either incorporating stochastic breaks in the regression parameters of each individual specification within this average, or allowing for breaks in the error variance of the overall model average, or both. Thus, our framework simultaneously addresses structural change and model uncertainty that would unavoidably affect any inflation forecast model. The different versions of our framework are used to model U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) deflator and gross domestic product (GDP) deflator inflation rates for the 1960–2011 period. A real-time inflation forecast evaluation shows that averaging over many predictors in a model that at least allows for structural breaks in the error variance results in very accurate point and density forecasts, especially for the post-1984 period. Our framework is especially useful when forecasting, in real-time, the likelihood of lower-than-usual inflation rates over the medium term. This article has online supplementary materials.


New sanitation and health technology applied to treatments, procedures, and devices is constantly revolutionizing epidemiological patterns. Since the early 1900s it has been responsible for significant improvements in population health by turning once-deadly diseases into curable or preventable conditions, by expanding the existing cures to more patients and diseases, and by simplifying procedures for both medical and organizational practices. Notwithstanding the benefits of technological progress for the population health, the innovation process is also an important driver of health expenditure growth across all countries. The technological progress generates additional financial burden and expands the volume of services provided, which constitutes a concern from an economic point of view. Moreover, the evolution of technology costs and their impact on healthcare spending is difficult to predict due to the revolutionary nature of many innovations and their adoption. In this respect, the challenge for policymakers is to discourage overadoption of ineffective, unnecessary, and inappropriate technologies. This task has been long carried out through regulation, which according to standard economic theory is the only response to market failures and socially undesirable outcomes of healthcare markets left on their own. The potential welfare loss of a market failure must be confronted with the costs of regulatory activities. While health technology evolution delivers important value for patients and societies, it will continue to pose important challenges for already overextended public finances.


There are two copies of each core histone in a nucleosome, however, it is unclear whether post-translational modifications on each molecule function redundantly or if symmetrical modifications are required to properly regulate gene expression. We tried to address this question by breaking nucleosomal symmetry and measuring its impact on gene expression. Our strategy includes re-engineering specific residues at the H3-H3 interface, generating pairs of mutant proteins, which were predicted by computational methods to form obligate heterodimers. Using S. cerevisiae as a model system, we tested the viability of strains with mutant histones, and analyzed the interaction between by co-immunoprecipitation from mononucleosome preparations. We also measured the changes of gene expression in the strains bearing single-tailed or tailless H3 heterodimers. The data suggested that the best computationally-derived H3 pair was frequently , but not exclusively heterodimeric in vivo . In order to obtain a more stringent H3 heterodimer, random mutagenesis was performed on four codons in the original computational design, and then genetic screening of the mutant libraries was performed.


The Simple Network Management Protocol, SNMP, is the most widespread standard for Internet management. As SNMP stacks are available on most equipment, this protocol has to be considered when it comes to performance management, traffic engineering and network control. However, especially when using the predominant version 1, SNMPv1, special care has to be taken to avoid erroneous results when calculating bit rates. In this work, we evalute six off-the-shelf network components. We demonstrate that bit rate measurements can be completely misleading if the sample intervals that are used are either too large or too small. We present solutions and work-arounds for these problems. The devices are evaluated with regards to their updating and response behavior.


Critical zone science seeks to develop mechanistic theories that describe critical zone structure, function, and long‐term evolution. One postulate is that hydrogeochemical controls on critical zone evolution can be inferred from solute discharges measured down‐gradient of reactive flow paths. These flow paths have variable lengths, interfacial compositions, and residence times, and their mixing is reflected in concentration‐discharge (C‐Q) relations. Motivation for this special section originates from a U.S. Critical Zone Observatories workshop that was held at the University of New Hampshire, 20–22 July 2015. The workshop focused on resolving mechanistic CZ controls over surface water chemical dynamics across the full range of lithogenic (e.g., nonhydrolyzing and hydrolyzing cations and oxyanions) and bioactive solutes (e.g., organic and inorganic forms of C, N, P, and S), including dissolved and colloidal species that may cooccur for a given element. Papers submitted to this special section on "concentration‐discharge relations in the critical zone" include those from authors who attended the workshop, as well as others who responded to the open solicitation. Submissions were invited that utilized information pertaining to internal, integrated catchment function (relations between hydrology, biogeochemistry, and landscape structure) to help illuminate controls on observed C‐Q relations.


Many supersymmetric models predict new particles within the reach of the next generation of colliders. For an understanding of the model structure and the mechanism(s) of symmetry breaking, it is important to know the masses of the new particles precisely. In this article the measurement of the mass of the scalar partner of the top quark (stop) at an e+e- collider is studied. A relatively light stop is motivated by attempts to explain electroweak baryogenesis and can play an important role in dark matter relic density. A method is presented which makes use of cross-section measurements near the pair-production threshold as well as at higher center-of-mass energies. It is shown that this method not only increases the statistical precision, but also greatly reduces the systematic uncertainties, which can be important. Numerical results are presented, based on a realistic event simulation, for two signal selection strategies: using conventional selection cuts, and using an Iterative Discriminant Analysis (IDA). Our studies indicate that a precision of {Delta}m{tilde t}{sub 1} = 0.42 GeV can be achieved, representing a major improvement over previous studies. While the analysis of stops is particularly challenging due to the possibility of stop hadronization, the general procedure could be appliedmore » to the mass measurement of other particles as well. We also comment on the potential of the IDA to discover a stop quark in this scenario, and we revisit the accuracy of the theoretical predictions for the neutralino relic density« less


This paper reviews some of the most prominent asset price bubbles from the past 400 years and documents how central banks (or other institutions) reacted to those bubbles. The historical evidence suggests that the emergence of bubbles is often preceded or accompanied by an expansionary monetary policy, lending booms, capital inflows, and financial innovation or deregulation. We find that the severity of the economic crisis following the bursting of a bubble is less linked to the type of asset than to the financing of the bubble – crises are most severe when they are accompanied by a lending boom, high leverage of market players, and when financial institutions themselves are participating in the buying frenzy. Past experience also suggests that a purely passive "cleaning up the mess" stance towards inflating bubbles in many cases is costly. At the same time, while interest - rate leaning policies and macroprudential tools can and sometimes have helped to deflate bubbles and mitigate the associated economic crises, the correct implementation of such proactive policy approaches remains fraught with difficulties.


Typing based interfaces are common across many mobile applications, especially messaging apps. To reduce the difficulty of typing using keyboard applications on smartphones, smartwatches with restricted space, several techniques, such as auto-complete, auto-suggest, are implemented. Although helpful, these techniques do add more cognitive load on the user. Hence beyond the importance to improve the word recommendations, it is useful to understand the pattern of use of auto-suggestions during typing. Among several factors that may influence use of auto-suggest, the role of emotion has been mostly overlooked, often due to the difficulty of unobtrusively inferring emotion. With advances in affective computing, and ability to infer user's emotional states accurately, it is imperative to investigate how auto-suggest can be guided by emotion aware decisions. In this work, we investigate correlations between user emotion and usage of auto-suggest i.e. whether users prefer to use auto-suggest in specific emotion states. We developed an Android keyboard application, which records auto-suggest usage and collects emotion self-reports from users in a 3-week in-the-wild study. Analysis of the dataset reveals relationship between user reported emotion state and use of auto-suggest. We used the data to train personalized models for predicting use of auto-suggest in specific emotion state. The model can predict use of auto-suggest with an average accuracy (AUCROC) of 82% showing the feasibility of emotion-aware auto-suggestion.


We describe the timely dataflow model for distributed computation and its implementation in the Naiad system. The model supports stateful iterative and incremental computations. It enables both low-latency stream processing and high-throughput batch processing, using a new approach to coordination that combines asynchronous and fine-grained synchronous execution. We describe two of the programming frameworks built on Naiad: GraphLINQ for parallel graph processing, and differential dataflow for nested iterative and incremental computations. We show that a general-purpose system can achieve performance that matches, and sometimes exceeds, that of specialized systems.


Congress adjourned on 18 May 1852 for Louisa Catherine Adams's funeral, according her an honor never before offered a first lady. But her life and influence merited this extraordinary tribute. She had been first the daughter-in-law and then the wife of a president. She had assisted her husband as a diplomat at three of the major capitals of Europe. She had served as a leading hostess and significant figure in Washington for three decades. And yet, a century and a half later, she is barely remembered. A Traveled First Lady: Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams" seeks to correct that oversight by sharing Adams's remarkable experiences in her own words.These excerpts from diaries and memoirs recount her early years in London and Paris (to this day she is the only foreign-born first lady), her courtship and marriage to John Quincy Adams, her time in the lavish courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg as a diplomat's wife, and her years aiding John Quincy's political career in Washington. Emotional, critical, witty, and, in the Adams tradition, always frank, her writings draw sharp portraits of people from every station, both servants and members of the imperial court, and deliver clear, well-informed opinions about the major issues of her day.Telling the story of her own life, juxtaposed with rich descriptions of European courts, Washington political maneuvers, and the continuing Adams family drama, Louisa Catherine Adams demonstrates why she was once considered one of the preeminent women of the nineteenth century.


Software developers rely on the abundance of online resources to meet their informal learning needs. Designing systems to effectively support this relies on a sound understanding of the informal learning process. In this paper, we show how the development and implementation of an ontological model can be used to increase understanding of informal learning needs and enhance system design. We interviewed developers about their informal online learning behaviors, and created a novel ontological model, LILO (Learning Informally Online), to represent user interaction with online learning resources by incorporating the resulting concepts, typologies, and relationships. From this ontology, we derive five main design requirements for an informal learning system for developers: keyword support, search support, resource genre utilization, reliability cues, and objective support. We then demonstrate how the ontology can be applied to advance system design using as an example CAN (Composable Accessibility Infrastructure), a system capable of supporting web developers' informal online learning.


Abstract : Currently, the United States Marine Corps is required by Congress to maintain its end strength between one-half percent below and one percent above 174,000. The main method of meeting this requirement is through careful accessions planning by the manpower planners at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps (HQMC). This thesis created an enlisted inventory projection model that forecasts required accessions using years of service (YOS) and pay grade as variables, whereas the current projection model in use at HQMC has only the YOS dimension. It is expected that by adding the pay grade variable, the model can more accurately calculate attrition, demotion, and promotion rates within each combination of pay grade-YOS category. This Excel based model has been constructed using forecasting techniques where attrition, promotion, and demotion rates are based on either a straight average, one specific fiscal year, a two year weighted average, or a three year weighted average. This model is an easy-to-use tool with flexibility to perform quick calculations of several scenarios for analysis, ultimately providing efficiency and accuracy in manpower planning. The model also has the potential to enable manpower planners to do more detailed end strength analyses.


Grid applications must increasingly self-adapt dynamically to changing environments. In most cases, adaptation has been implemented in an ad hoc fashion, on a per-application basis. This paper describes work which generalizes adaptation so that it can be used across applications by providing an adaptation framework. This framework uses a software architectural model of the system to analyze whether the application requires adaptation, and allows repairs to be written in the context of the architectural model and propagated to the running system. In this paper, we exemplify our framework by applying it to the domain of load-balancing a client-server system. We report on an experiment conducted using our framework, which illustrates that this approach maintains architectural requirements.


The hanging drop tissue culture is a technique utilized in embryology [4] and other fields to allow growth that would otherwise be restricted by the flat plane of culture dishes and also to minimize the surface area to volume ratio, slowing evaporation. The classic hanging drop culture is a small drop of liquid, such as plasma or some other media allowing tissue growth, suspended from an inverted watch glass. The hanging drop is then suspended by gravity and surface tension, rather than spreading across a plate. This allows tissues or other cell types to be examined without being squashed against a dish.


Our analysis investigates variations among intended reforms as demonstrated by observed teacher practice in 36 California restructuring schools. We identify a series of individual and school-wide influences that shape any teacher's relationship to the particular reform(s), therefore leading each teacher to mediate the reform(s) in individual ways. This paper posits a theoretical model of the teacher-as-mediator process which we use to shed analytic light on the "black box" of the teacher-as-mediator role in the reform process. We use data collected over 3 years in 36 schools to highlight a process whereby three concurrent strands of "mediating influences" (the formal implementation process, school-wide influences shaping climate, and individual influences on the teacher) interrelate to mold each teacher's disposition to implement the particular reform. This disposition, which we call "individual's mediating responses," determines the shape, color, and tenor of the reform as it unfolds through teacher practice in the classroom. This produces the variation between teachers in a given school, between departments, between schools adopting similar reforms, and the discrepancy between intended reform consequences on the one hand and actual classroom practices on the other. Our essay illuminates the mediation process by identifying and illustrating lines of influences on teachers enacting reform and by exploring how those influences interrelated in practice. Our conclusion offers a series of questions researchers and policy makers may wish to take up as they consider how to better align school-wide reform efforts with actual practices of classroom teachers.


This edited collection surveys how non-Western states have responded to the threats of domestic and international terrorism in ways consistent with and reflective of their broad historical, political, cultural and religious traditions. It presents a series of eighteen case studies of counterterrorism theory and practice in the non-Western world, including countries such as China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Brazil. These case studies, written by country experts and drawing on original language sources, demonstrate the diversity of counter-terrorism theory and practice and illustrate how the world 'sees' and responds to terrorism is different from the way that the United States, the United Kingdom and many European governments do. This volume – the first ever comprehensive account of counter-terrorism in the non-Western world – will be of interest to students, scholars, students and policymakers responsible for developing counter-terrorism policy.


Many state-of-the-art biometric systems use feature vectors of high dimension and call for dimensionality reduction techniques to avoid the co-called `curse of dimensionality.' Supervised approaches such as Linear Discriminant Analysis can extract discriminative features and is used widely, but suffers from over-fitting when used with small datasets. Through the imposition of local adjacency constraints, semi-supervised dimensionality reduction techniques can make use of abundant, unlabelled data to improve classification performance. This paper reports a new multi-view, semi-supervised discriminant analysis (MSDA) algorithm and its application in audio-visual person recognition. In contrast to existing approaches which typically utilize a single view, MSDA determines a more reliable neighbourhood constraint built jointly from multiple views of the same data. Experimental results on the standard MOBIO database show that our algorithm not only outperforms baseline supervised and unsupervised methods, but that it also outperforms single-view semi-supervised dimension reduction techniques in single view.


This study was carried out to determine the crop water requirement of some selected vegetable crops cultivated at the Central Experimental Site for Urban Food Plus Project. These crops include `Ayoyo` (Corchorus spp), Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ), Cabbage (Brassica oleracea), Amaranthus (Amaranthus candatus) and Carrot ( Daucus carota ). Crop water requirement for each of the crops was determined by using 30-year climatic data from the Tamale Synoptic station as and input in CROPWAT programme, FAO, version 8, 2014. Using CROPWAT, Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) was determined using the FAO Penman Monteith method. For all the crops, daily, decadal and seasonal crop and net irrigation requirements were computed for the various growth stages: initial, development, mid-season and late season. The soil infiltration test was conducted in situ while composite soil samples were also collected for laboratory analysis of some soil physico-chemical properties of the experimental site. The study shows that the soil was low in organic matter content, slightly acidic, but not saline and also has low water holding capacity due to its low amount of clay content. The site however, is well drained and is therefore suitable for cultivation of vegetables and upland arable crops. Climate conditions, however demand considerable amount of irrigation to supplement rainfall in the period mid- November to March, when the experiment was taking place. Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) varied from 3.9 mm / d in August to 8.9 mm / d in February. Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) for `ayoyo` varied from 4.03 to 8.81 mm / d, for cabbage from 4.03 to 9.43 mm / d, for lettuce from 4.03 to 9.19 mm / d, for carrot, 4.03 to 10.53 mm / d, for amaranthus from 4.03 to 9.75 mm / d. Thus, with the calculation of crop water requirement and net irrigation demand for each of the crops cultivated, an appropriate water planning and management can be scheduled to ensure that  adequate soil water is maintained by rainfall and/or irrigation, so that it does not limit plant growth and crop yield.


Tissue engineering scaffolds are porous structures that allow bone cells to reside and produce bone. This process involves migration and differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells and production of cartilage and bone by chondrocytes and osteoblasts, which is basically a bone healing process. Based on a mechanistic model of fracture healing, a 2D model of bone formation inside scaffold will be developed. Extensive experimental data from an in vivo study is available which will be used to verify the results of this mathematical model. This project demands working with MATLAB and COMSOL. A good mathematical background is highly recommended.


This paper studies the effect of mandated severance pay in a matching model featuring wage rigidity for ongoing, but not new, matches. Mandated severance pay matters only if binding real wage rigidities imply inefficient separation under employment at will. In such a case, large enough severance payments reduce job destruction, and increase job creation and social efficiency, under very mild conditions. Furthermore, mandated severance pay never results in inefficient labor hoarding. Whenever separation is jointly optimal, the parties agree to end the match with a spot severance payment below the statutory one. The marginal effect of mandated severance pay is zero when its size exceeds that which induces the same allocation that would prevail in the absence of wage rigidity. The results hold under alternative micro-foundations for wage rigidity. JEL classification: E24, J64, J65.


Abstract. Mercury transformation mechanisms and speciation profiles are reviewed for mercury formed in and released from flue gases of coal-fired boilers, non-ferrous metal smelters, cement plants, iron and steel plants, waste incinerators, biomass burning and so on. Mercury in coal, ores, and other raw materials is released to flue gases in the form of Hg0 during combustion or smelting in boilers, kilns or furnaces. Decreasing temperature from over 800 °C to below 300 °C in flue gases leaving boilers, kilns or furnaces promotes homogeneous and heterogeneous oxidation of Hg0 to gaseous divalent mercury (Hg2+), with a portion of Hg2+ adsorbed onto fly ash to form particulate-bound mercury (Hgp). Halogen is the primary oxidizer for Hg0 in flue gases, and active components (e.g., TiO2, Fe2O3, etc.) on fly ash promote heterogeneous oxidation and adsorption processes. In addition to mercury removal, mercury transformation also occurs when passing through air pollution control devices (APCDs), affecting the mercury speciation in flue gases. In coal-fired power plants, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system promotes mercury oxidation by 34–85 %, electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and fabric filter (FF) remove over 99 % of Hgp, and wet flue gas desulfurization system (WFGD) captures 60–95 % of Hg2+. In non-ferrous metal smelters, most Hg0 is converted to Hg2+ and removed in acid plants (APs). For cement clinker production, mercury cycling and operational conditions promote heterogeneous mercury oxidation and adsorption. The mercury speciation profiles in flue gases emitted to the atmosphere are determined by transformation mechanisms and mercury removal efficiencies by various APCDs. For all the sectors reviewed in this study, Hgp accounts for less than 5 % in flue gases. In China, mercury emission has a higher Hg0 fraction (66–82 % of total mercury) in flue gases from coal combustion, in contrast to a greater Hg2+ fraction (29–90 %) from non-ferrous metal smelting, cement and iron and/or steel production. The higher Hg2+ fractions shown here than previous estimates may imply stronger local environmental impacts than previously thought, caused by mercury emissions in East Asia. Future research should focus on determining mercury speciation in flue gases from iron and steel plants, waste incineration and biomass burning, and on elucidating the mechanisms of mercury oxidation and adsorption in flue gases.


We shed new light on two questions. The first question is why some target CEOs are hired by the acquirer firms while others would depart after the acquisitions, more exactly, what characteristics of the target firms or target CEOs themselves would make them stay in or depart from the acquirer firms. The second question is about the influence of the hired target CEOs in the post-acquisition performance of the acquirer firms. To answer the first question, we use a logistic regression to test the variables that might influence the target CEOs' employment in the acquirer firms. We find that target CEOs are more likely to be hired by acquirer firms in the following cases: (1) the target firm has better pre-acquisition performance (2) the target CEO has stronger control over the target firm (3) the target CEO has more work experience (4) the method of payment is stock. For the second question, we estimate a multivariate OLS regression with two dummy variables reflecting how long target CEOs work in the acquirer firm after the acquisitions, together with other pre-acquisition target/acquirer firm performance variables. Two measures of acquirer firms' performance are also used in the model: a market-based measure (buy & hold market-adjusted return) and an accounting-based measure (industry adjusted return on asset). Our findings are as following: (1) Pre-acquisition target and acquirer firms' performance (especially the target firms' performance) have more significant and positive influence on the second-year post-acquisition performance of the acquirer firms. (2) The hired target CEOs will negatively influence the first-year post-acquisition performance of the acquirer firms. (3) The target CEOs hired by acquirer firms for at least two years will significantly improve the second-year post-acquisition performance of the acquirer firms and this positive effect might continue to the third year.


ABSTRACT We hypothesize and find empirical evidence that two structural constraints of the industry are informative in the corporate failure prediction, industry concentration and dependence on customers and suppliers. Using an extensive database on corporate failures and bankruptcies in the U.S. market from 1998 to 2009 we find that the probabilities of failure and bankruptcy are significantly higher for firms in highly concentrated industries. The probability of bankruptcy is higher for firms in industries with stronger customer dependency, but this factor does not affect failure probabilities. Also in the case of failures the model's fit is noticeably higher than in the case of bankruptcies.


Arctic benthic ecosystems are facing high-speed environmental changes, such as decreased sea ice coverage, increased temperature and precipitations, as well as the invasion by non-indigenous species. Few sub-arctic fjords have the particularity to have an inner-most part forming a basin in which water remains very cold. Those fjords may offer a refugee for cold-water arctic species as well as a small-scale "laboratory" of the changes that arctic assemblages located at higher latitudes might face soon. The Porsangerfjord in Northern Norway is a sub-arctic fjord with an inner arctic part and face red king crabs Paralithodes camtchasticus invasion since the end of the 1990s. It offers a case study of the dynamics of arctic ecosystems facing multiple stressors, i.e., climate change and invasive species. Based on a time series of megabenthic invertebrates and bentho-demersal fishes over 2007–2019, a complex multivariate analysis (STATICO) was used to identify the trends in the relationship between taxa and the environment. We showed the main environmental changes in the fjord were the freshening of the water, the increase of the seabed current, and the decrease of the maximum sea ice extent. A strong along-fjord gradient was visible for both benthic and fish assemblages. Species richness and Shannon diversity of fishes significantly increased into the fjord, due to the arrival of warm-water species over time that overlapped with cold-water species that have seen their biomass significantly reduced. No significant decrease in the biomass of the cold-water benthic species was visible, which could indicate an efficient refugee effect of the inner fjord. Yet, this refugee effect could be unbalanced by the red king crab invasion as it is a predator of several arctic species. In the Porsangerfjord, fish species thus respond to climate change while megabenthic assemblages are more threatened by invasive species.


While intelligent environments are often cited as a reason for doing work on visual person-tracking, really making an intelligent environment exposes many real-world problems in visual tracking that must be solved to make the technology practical. In the context of our EasyLiving project in intelligent environments, we created a practical person-tracking system that solves most of the real-world problems. It uses two sets of color stereo cameras for tracking multiple people during live demonstrations in a living room. The stereo images are used for locating people, and the color images are used for maintaining their identities. The system runs quickly enough to make the room feel responsive, and it tracks multiple people standing, walking, sitting, occluding, and entering and leaving the space.


Volcanic processes on Mars were investigated using topographic profiles derived with the help of IDL software from data collected by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the Mars Global Surveyor Mission (MGS) in 1997-2001 and images obtained by the MGS Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and by the earlier Viking mission. Thickness and slope values for lava flows at both Elysium Mons and Alba Patera made it possible to compute flow emplacement times and effusion rates using the flow growth model proposed by C. R. J. Kilburn and R. M. C Lopes in 1990. Geological mapping of the Elysium volcanic region showed that Elysium Mons was emplaced as a result of a single shift in vent position on top of an older volcanic edifice, here termed the Ancient Volcanic Edifice (AVE). This implies that there have been substantial variations in both position and time for the magma supply. Calculations suggest that the flows at Alba Patera were emplaced more quickly than those at Elysium Mons, possibly owing to differences in fissure width and lava composition. There is evidence for both aa and pahoehoe on the summit areas of Elysium Mons and Alba Patera. The presence of aa is consistent with the view that long lava flows on Mars are emplaced quickly. Pahoehoe flows imply slow emplacement, and their inferred presence on Mars provides support for the theory that long terrestrial lavas are often emplaced as sheets of inflated pahoehoe. MOC image analysis indicated that late-stage explosive activity has occurred at several Martian volcanoes where it was previously undetected, contrary to the prevalent view that Martian volcanism evolves from explosive to effusive activity. To resolve the many ambiguities inherent in morphological data and imagery the need remains for ground truthing by experienced observers and detailed geochemical analyses in situ or by means of a sample return mission.


Objective: To evaluate the resection plane after root-end resection during apical surgery using endoscopy. Methods: Following apicectomy of 69 roots, the cut root faces were inspected with a rigid endoscope for the presence of unfilled areas of the root canal space, gaps between the obturated root canal and dentinal wall, isthmi, 'opaque' dentine and cracks. Endoscopic pictures were captured and assessed using a 12-sectorn transparent grid for determination of location of the studied elements. Furthermore, the removed apices were examined histologically (n=47). The surfaces of the removed apices opposite the cut root faces were histologically analysed for the same outcome measures. Results: Endoscopy revealed the following findings: opaque dentine in 84.1%, unfilled parts of the root canal system in 59.4%, gaps between the existing root canal filling and dentinal walls in 49.3%, and cracks in 10.1% of cases. With regard to isthmi, histology of the removed apices demonstrated an isthmus in two-thirds of those seen with endoscopy at the root end. Ramifications were histologically observed only in 6 root apices. Conclusion: The studied elements may cause failure of the root canal treatment, and conventional root canal retreatment or apical surgery may be indicated. The clinical significance of opaque dentine with regard to tooth prognosis after apical surgery remains unclear and warrants further research.


This study was conducted to determine the morphological characters of some important honeybee (A. mellifera L.) races and ecotypes in Turkey. Experimental samples were collected from 6 different regions such as Central Anatolia Region (Beypazary), North Eastern Anatolia Region (Posof), Marmara Region (Gokceada); Thrace Region (Saray), Aegean Region (Fethiye) and Mediterranean Region (Erdemli). In this study total of 41 morphological characters were measured: Twenty morphological characters including length of fore wing (longitudinal), width of fore wing (transversal), cubital vein distance a, cubital vein distance b, angles of wing venation A4, B4, D7, E9, G12, J10, J16, K19, N23 and O26, pigmentation of tergite 2, 3, 4 and scutellum were evaluated here. It was found that there were not any variation between genotypes regarding forewing weight, wing venations B4, E9, J10 and N23. However, there were significant variations between genotypes as for 16 characters. It was seen that some genotypes have differentiation characters regarding their morphological structure.


The probative value of forensic science evidence (such as a shoeprint) varies widely depending on how the evidence and hypothesis of interest is characterized. This paper uses a likelihood ratio (LR) approach to identify the probative value of forensic science evidence. It argues that the "evidence" component should be characterized as a "reported match," and that the hypothesis component should be characterized as "the matching person or object is the source of the crime scene sample." This characterization of the LR forces examiners to incorporate risks from sample mix-ups and examiner error into their match statistics. But will legal decision makers be sensitive to the extent to which examiners' statistical testimony accounts for various potential sources of risk and error? A controlled experiment with 315 jury-eligible jurors who received a shoeprint match statistic in a hypothetical burglary case finds that, contrary to normative theory, people are more persuaded by statistical testimony that ignores various error risks than by testimony that is objectively stronger by virtue of taking those risks into account. The experiment also finds that jurors are relatively unresponsive to exposure of those risks by a defense attorney on cross-examination. These results support and extend previous research that finds many people are confused about how to evaluate the risk of error associated with expert forensic testimony.


Results of an experimental investigation of pattern production by a West African (Asante) master drummer are reported. He performed bimanual tapping, with the Kete time-line pattern in one hand and either a regular 3-pulse or a regular 4-pulse in the other hand. Experimental variables manipulated were pulse-stream size (three or four), pulse hand allocation (left or right), and recording protocol, which was either synchronous (played in relation to a computer-generated tone) or spontaneous (no tone). Structural equation modeling was used to systematically examine the comparative fit of two mental models: an asymmetric timeline- ground (TLG) model, which represents a computational elaboration of traditional African understanding, and a pulse-ground (PG) model, which is based on Western ideas of regular meter. The African-based TLG model with at most minor adjustment provided an excellent fit for seven of eight experimental conditions; one condition achieved a good fit only after more substantial modification of the model. The African TLG model achieved superiority over the Western PG model only under certain specific conditions, suggesting that the use of the African cognitive model is subtle, context-dependent, and linked to specific training regimes.


In this paper we study the polysemy that the verbs pegar ('hit/stick'), apegar ('stick') and empegar ('stick') possess today in the Catalan language. First of all, we perform a thorough description of the meanings that each of these verbs have acquired not only in the standard but also in the colloquial language. Each of the meanings has been differentiated from the others by analysing the most prominent dictionaries currently available and a corpus of written texts. Additionally, a number of surveys on the spoken language have also been taken into account. Our research has shown that in the different Catalan dialects they do not always have the same meanings or the same verb forms. To be able to interpret how this polysemy has come about, we have taken cognitive linguistics as our theoretical framework. We have been able to show that the notion of image schema of path, combined with prototypicality effects and with the Invited Inference Theory of Semantic Change, in which the mechanism of metonymy plays a fundamental role, can provide a satisfactory explanation for the semasiological complexity of the verbs under study.


An Exploration of the Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning in Nursing Education by Yvette M. Jackson MSN, University of South Alabama, 1995 BSN, University of South Alabama, 1990 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University July 2016 Abstract Critical-thinking is an essential skill that graduate nurses need to make sound clinical decisions. While traditional lecturing is the method most commonly used in nursing education, incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) into nursing curricula has been suggested as a better option for students' learning of theory and practice. The purpose ofCritical-thinking is an essential skill that graduate nurses need to make sound clinical decisions. While traditional lecturing is the method most commonly used in nursing education, incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) into nursing curricula has been suggested as a better option for students' learning of theory and practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the difference in critical-thinking and problem-solving skills between nursing students taught using PBL versus those taught with traditional classroom lectures. A quasi-experimental approach, with cognitive learning theory as the foundation, was used to compare the results of an Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) Comprehensive Predictor posttest in the control group, taught using the traditional learning method, and the experimental group, taught using PBL. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the effect of 2 independent variables: archived ATI Fundamentals Nurse exam proxy pretest scores, divided into low and high groups, and control or experimental group assignment, on the posttest scores of 192 nursing students at the study site. The results of the study showed that the main effect of the treatment, PBL vs. non-PBL, was significant, F(1, 191) = 116.77, p < .001, and the main effect for pretest groups was significant, F(1, 191) = 121.79, p < .001. The interaction effect was also significant, F(1, 191) = 8.04, p = .005, indicating that the effect of PBL was greater for nursing students in the low pretest group. The results of this study provide the premise for recommendations for nurse educators regarding the use of alternative teaching methods. The study may promote social change by providing preliminary research results to the local site that may contribute to improving the quality of nurse education. An Exploration of the Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning in Nursing Education by Yvette M. Jackson MSN, University of South Alabama, 1995 BSN, University of South Alabama, 1990 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of


A novel polyoxometalate-based metal–organic framework (POMOF), [PMo8VMo4VIO37(OH)3Zn4][TPT]5·2TPT·2H2O (NNU-11, TPT = tris-(4-pyridyl)triazine), was synthesized. Zn-e-Keggin fragments were directly connected with TPT ligands generating 2D layers and further interdigitated with each other by π–π stacking interactions to pack into a 3D array. The compound exhibited excellent stability in air and different organic solvents and even in different pH (pH 1–11) aqueous solutions. It can be utilized as an anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to the combination of the multi-electron redox property of POM units and the functionalization of MOFs. NNU-11 exhibited a highly reversible capacity of 750 mA h g−1 at a current density of 50 mA g−1 after 200 cycles along with excellent cycle stability and rate performance. More importantly, for the first time, we designed and synthesized a POMOF crystalline structure model supported by π–π stacking interactions to demonstrate that intermolecular π–π stacking interactions are beneficial to promote the performance of LIBs.


ABSTRACT One method that has been touted to help end mass incarceration is using intermediate sanctions. While intermediate sanctions often present as attractive options, there is evidence that as practiced, these sanctions often result in net widening. One of the most common forms of intermediate sanctions are drug courts, which are often viewed as progressive alternatives to locking up people with substance abuse problems. However, along with the dangers of net widening, scholars have shown that many people admitted to drug courts do not seem to have substance abuse problems and could benefit from lesser criminal justice interventions. In the current study, we analyzed intake data from a drug court to determine: (1) what charge(s) drug participants had and (2) how they became involved with the criminal justice system. Among important findings were that a large number of drug court participants were arrested for the possession of one drug only (often marijuana) and that more than half of participants came to the attention of the criminal justice system through a traffic stop rather than through repeated encounters with the criminal justice system.


These two moving studies by the eminent Orthodox theologian and sophiologist Father Sergei Bulgakov are remarkable in many ways. The first is a unique consideration - from the point of view of Eastern Christianity - of the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood and water as it flowed from Jesus' side when it was pierced on the Cross by the spear of Longinus. This moment is described in "John" 19:34. Bulgakov's essay is a 'dogmatic exegesis' of this passage in which, with astounding passion and precision, he reveals that the Earth itself and hence the human universe is the Grail wherein Christ lives forever. The second essay is also unique: the most important contribution to eucharistic theology by an Orthodox theologian. In the West, the meaning of the Communion bread and wine as the Christ's Body and Blood has been interpreted largely in philosophical terms deriving from Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Bulgakov insists on a christological and Gospel-based interpretation, one with tremendous significance for our understanding of the supernatural and sophianic nature of a world interpenetrated by the divine. Thus, this little book is a priceless gift, enriching our understanding of the Christian mystery and two of its deepest aspects, the Grail and the Eucharist.


Canadians have become accustomed to a relatively high level of national income, largely sustained by Canada's trade with the rest of the world. The foundations for that economic activity were laid during and after the Second World War, when memories of the Great Depression and its dire consequences for the Canadian economy were still vivid. Exports in wartime and after were seen as vital to Canada's recovery, to its contribution to victory, and to its plans for the postwar world. Scholarly attention has tended to focus on the options in commercial policy.(f.1) And there is no doubt that bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and commitments framed the choices and influenced the results. Perhaps understandably, less heed has been paid to the extraordinary financial aid advanced by the Canadian government in wartime and after, which underwrote the shipment overseas of Canadian goods. Yet, especially in the vital period of war and reconstruction, funding for Canadian exports, whether war goods or peacetime products, had a much more immediate and comprehensive impact on Canada's international trade. The prospects for access to overseas markets after the war also became increasingly important in reckoning the assistance Canada would provide to its allies and how it would be distributed. Enlightened self-interest shaped the unprecedented programme of postwar lending, initiated in wartime, whereby Canada underwrote its exports in a time of economic instability and uncertainty. In the calculations of Canadian largesse, the critical and often problematic destination for Canadian production was the principal recipient of Canadian aid, the United Kingdom.The Second World War stimulated an economic boom in Canada. In response to British and other allied demands for munitions, food, raw materials, and other supplies, Canada's economy expanded dramatically; its gross national product more than doubled in six years. As a direct consequence of its war production, Canada became the fourth industrial power of the wartime alliance and the second largest exporting nation. But the question of payment complicated the picture. Though Canada went to war, as Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King put it, 'at the side of Britain,'(f.2) it was a dollar Dominion in a sterling Empire and Commonwealth. Little more than a year after war began, Britain's reserves of hard currency had been spent. Thus, Canadian output for the common cause depended on Ottawa's willingness and ability to finance British requirements in Canada. That assistance took various forms -- repatriation of British holdings of Canadian securities in the early months, loans and grants later, and finally Mutual Aid -- and amounted to considerably more than $5,000 million for British needs in wartime.Although Canada eventually became an 'arsenal for the British Empire' as envisaged at the 1937 Imperial Conference,(f.3) the beginnings were inauspicious. When Canada declared war on 10 September 1939, only one factory was producing munitions for the United Kingdom and no arrangements had been made to pay for British orders in Canada. However insufficient its preparations and tentative its prewar commitments, the Canadian government was determined to support Britain against Germany, when war became unavoidable. In late August 1939, cabinet considered 'the extent of participation,' not the fact. Ernest Lapointe, the justice minister, asserted that Canada would assist its European allies to 'the limit of our resources.' The definition of that 'limit' would come to preoccupy Canadian authorities. Moreover, Lapointe cautiously added that 'we should say and do nothing that would divide the country.' National unity was likewise an obsession of the prime minister.(f.4)In the first nine months of war, politics and economy were challenged only occasionally by military events. With uncertainty about the implications of the conflict and the part Canada was expected to play in it, 'limited liability' became a watchword in Ottawa. …


Abstract Abundant silicified polyplacophorans from numerous localities in the Ordovician in Kentucky and other localities in Virginia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are described systematically. New species are: Spicuchelodes cressmani, Calceochiton floweri, Preacanthochiton baueri, Orthriochiton recavus, Helminthochiton blacki, H. marginatus, and Alastega martini; new genera and species are: Listrochiton weiri, Litochiton crebatus, and Amblytochiton incomptus; and new families are Litochitonidae and Alastegiidae. Hemithecella expansa Ulrich and Bridge in Butts, 1941 and Chelodes cf. C. mirabilis (Butts, 1926), from the Chepultepec Formation in Virginia are also described. Comparisons are made with Chelodes whitehousei Runnegar, Pojeta, Taylor, and Collins, 1979 from Australia and Calceochiton hachitae Flower, 1968 from New Mexico. Listings of the fauna associated with the chitons are given for the Kentucky occurrences; taphonomic discussions of these are included.


The ongoing recovery from the Great Recession has been accompanied by changes in the types of risks that financial institutions face and the ways in which they manage them. Even as improving labor markets and modest economic growth have strengthened balance sheets and stabilized most businesses, financial services firms remain under considerable pressure. In this context, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and DePaul University hosted their eighth annual risk conference on March 31–April 1, 2015.


Industry investment and research interest in edge computing, in which computing and storage nodes are placed at the Internet's edge in close proximity to mobile devices or sensors, have grown dramatically in recent years. This emerging technology promises to deliver highly responsive cloud services for mobile computing, scalability and privacy-policy enforcement for the Internet of Things, and the ability to mask transient cloud outages. The web extra at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmrZVvFtthdP3fwHPy_4d61oDvQY_RBgS includes a five-video playlist demonstrating proof-of-concept implementations for three tasks: assembling 2D Lego models, freehand sketching, and playing Ping-Pong.


Drought is one of the major threats to common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.), affecting its growth and productivity and, thus, contributing to considerable losses in yield in many regions worldwide. The development of varieties tolerant of drought stress has, therefore, become one of the primary goals in many common bean breeding programs. Plants have developed various mechanisms of their adaptation, to a greater or lesser extent, to drought. These are expressed, on the molecular level, by changes of gene expression and of protein content, together with responses at physiological and morphological levels. The response of common bean to drought is still not sufficiently well characterized due to its genetic complexity and its diverse, often ambiguous, phenotypic effects. Understanding these mechanisms is thus of fundamental importance for developing varieties that are better adapted to such stress conditions. In this chapter, we present research that provides an insight into the morpho-physiological adaptation and its underlying molecular changes in common bean plants exposed to drought. We include our contribution to establishing the basis for breeding of common bean with greater tolerance to this abiotic stress that uses molecular markers and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs).


The availability of integrated circuits (ICs) capable of 500 or 600° C operation can be extremely beneficial for many important applications, such as transportation and energy sector industry. It can in fact enable the realization of improved sensing and control of turbine engine combustion leading to better fuel efficiency and reduced pollution. In addition, the possibility of placing integrated circuits in engine hot-sections can significantly reduce the weight and improve the reliability of automobiles and aircrafts, eliminating extra wires and cooling systems.In order to develop such electronics semiconductors with superior high temperature characteristics compared to Si are required. Thanks to its wide bandgap, almost three times that of Si, Silicon carbide (SiC) has been suggested for this purpose. Its low intrinsic carrier concentration, orders of magnitude lower than that of Si, makes SiC devices capable of operating at much higher temperatures than Si devices.In this thesis solutions for 600° C SiC bipolar ICs have been investigated in depth at device physics, circuit and process integration level. Successful operation of devices and circuits has been proven from -40 up to 600° C.The developed technology features NPN and lateral PNP transistors, two levels of interconnects and one extra metal level acting as over-layer metallization for device contacts. The improved SiC etching and passivation procedures have provided NPN transistors with high current gain of approximately 200. Furthermore, non-monotonous current gain temperature dependences have been observed for NPN and PNP transistors. The current gain of NPN transistors increases with temperature at high enough temperatures above 300° C depending on the base doping concentration. The current gain of lateral PNP transistors has, instead, shown a maximum of approximately 37 around 0° C.Finally, high-temperature operation of 2-input ECL-based OR-NOR gates and 3- and 11-stage ring oscillators has been demonstrated. For the OR-NOR gates stable noise margins of approximately 1 or 1.5 V, depending on the gate design, have been observed up to 600° C with a delay-power consumption product of approximately 100 nJ in the range -40 to 500° C. Ring oscillators with different designs, including more than 100 devices, have been successfully tested in the range 27 to 300° C. Non-monotonous and almost constant temperature dependences have been observed for the oscillation frequency of 3- and 11-stage ring oscillator, respectively. In addition, room temperature propagation delays of a single inverter stage have been estimated to be approximately 100 and 40 ns for 3- and 11-stage ring oscillators, respectively.


This discussion paper is based on my experiences with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) on a 12 day placement as part of the Research Development Initiative 4 (RDI4) program. Claims and counter claims are made about the appropriateness of a systematic review methodology in social work. These debates pivot around understandings of knowledge creation, function and ownership in social work and what constitutes evidence. This paper considers the contribution systematic review methodology can make to social work research. The SCIE systematic review is considered within the context of broader review types such as literature and narrative reviews. The review methodology developed by SCIE is promoted because of its explicit inclusion of service user and carer evidence. Systematic review methodology also offers social work researchers the opportunity to scrutinise their searching technique and process. A detailed examination of some obstacles in searching highlights the potential for error and bias. Frequently these are introduced unintentionally through a less than rigorous search of literature. It is hoped that an awareness of the pitfalls of literature searching will lead to greater transparency about claims made based on 'available knowledge'. Social work has a specific contribution to make to the systematic review methodology as we pioneer ways of including service users and carer experience and knowledge. Systematic reviews are an appropriate methodology for social work and present an opportunity for the profession to raise the profile of alternative but reliable sources of evidence.


This thesis focuses on the applications of molecular dynamics simulation techniques in the fields of solution chemistry and atmospheric chemistry. The work behind the thesis takes account of the fast development of computer hardware, which has made computationally intensive simulations become more and more popular in disciplines like pharmacy, biology and materials science. In molecular dynamics simulations using classical force fields, the atoms are represented by mass points with partial charges and the inter-atomic interactions are modeled by approximate potential functions that produce satisfactory results at an economical computational cost. The three-dimensional trajectory of a many-body system is generated by integrating Newton's equations of motion, and subsequent statistical analysis on the trajectories provides microscopic insight into the physical properties of the system. The applications in this thesis of molecular dynamics simulations in solution chemistry comprise four aspects: the 113Cd nuclear magnetic resonance shielding constant of aqua Cd(II) ions, paramagnetic 19F nuclear magnetic resonance shift in fluorinated cysteine, solvation free energies and structures of metal ions, and protein adsorption onto TiO2. In the studies of nuclear magnetic resonance parameters, the relativistic effect of the 113Cd nucleus and the paramagnetic shift of 19F induced by triplet O2 are well reproduced by a combined molecular dynamics and density functional theory approach. The simulation of the aqua Cd(II) ion is also extended to several other monovalent, divalent and trivalent metal ions, where careful parameterization of the metal ions ensures the reproduction of experimental solvation structures and free energies. Molecular dynamics simulations also provided insight into the mechanism of protein adsorption onto the TiO2 surface by suggesting that the interfacial water molecules play an important role of mediating the adsorption and that the hydroxylated TiO2 surface has a large affinity to the proteins. The applications of molecular dynamics simulations in atmospheric chemistry are mainly focused on two types of organic components in aerosol droplets: humic-like compounds and amino acids. The humic-like substances, including cis-pinonic acid, pinic acid and pinonaldehyde, are surface-active organic compounds that are able to depress the surface tension of water droplets, as revealed by both experimental measurements and theoretical computations. These compounds either concentrate on the droplet surface or aggregate inside the droplet. Their effects on the surface tension can be modeled by the Langmuir-Szyszkowski equation. The amino acids are not strong surfactants and their influence on the surface tension is much smaller. Simulations show that the zwitterionic forms of serine, glycine and alanine have hydrophilic characteristics, while those of valine, methionine and phenylalanine are hydrophobic. The curvature dependence of the surface tension is also analyzed, and a slight improvement in the Kohler equation is obtained by introducing surface tension corrections for droplets containing glycine and serine. Through several examples it is shown that molecular dynamics simulations serve as a promising tool in the study of aqueous systems. Both solute-solvent interactions and interfaces can be treated properly by choosing suitable potential functions and parameters. Specifically, molecular dynamics simulations provide a microscopic picture that evolves with time, making it possible to follow the dynamic processes such as protein adsorption or atmospheric droplet formation. Moreover, molecular dynamics simulations treat a large number of molecules and give a statistical description of the system; therefore it is convenient to compare the simulated results with experimentally measured data. The simulations can provide hints for better design of experiments, while experimental data can be fed into the refinement of the simulation model. As an important complementary to experiments, molecular dynamics simulations will continue to play significant roles in the research fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, biology and medicine.


Predicting the dynamics of neural network parameters during training is one of the key challenges in building a theoretical foundation for deep learning. A central obstacle is that the motion of a network in high-dimensional parameter space undergoes discrete finite steps along complex stochastic gradients derived from real-world datasets. We circumvent this obstacle through a unifying theoretical framework based on intrinsic symmetries embedded in a network's architecture that are present for any dataset. We show that any such symmetry imposes stringent geometric constraints on gradients and Hessians, leading to an associated conservation law in the continuous-time limit of stochastic gradient descent (SGD), akin to Noether's theorem in physics. We further show that finite learning rates used in practice can actually break these symmetry induced conservation laws. We apply tools from finite difference methods to derive modified gradient flow, a differential equation that better approximates the numerical trajectory taken by SGD at finite learning rates. We combine modified gradient flow with our framework of symmetries to derive exact integral expressions for the dynamics of certain parameter combinations. We empirically validate our analytic predictions for learning dynamics on VGG-16 trained on Tiny ImageNet. Overall, by exploiting symmetry, our work demonstrates that we can analytically describe the learning dynamics of various parameter combinations at finite learning rates and batch sizes for state of the art architectures trained on any dataset.


The Land Use and Cover Area frame Statistical survey (LUCAS) database on topsoil properties in Europe was used to map aeolian deposits. The points which satisfy the grain‐size criteria of coversands, loess and transitional facies were extracted from the rasters of predicted soil texture established by kriging of the LUCAS data by Ballabio et al. ( ). A comparison with already available maps, derived from a conventional field approach, shows a good fit in most of the tested areas. The new map, however, suggests a greater extension of loess, which seems related to the inclusion of thin loess covers, usually omitted by conventional mapping, and the presence of previously unmapped areas due to lack of survey or misinterpretation. The main source of aeolian particles corresponds to glacio‐fluvial sediments at the margin of the Scandinavian and Alpine ice sheets. Coversands and loess form a broad band across northern Europe, and in the Rhône, Rhine and Danube valleys. Large areas on the outskirts of these deposits also received a significant loess contribution, which has been reworked in slope deposits. Conversely, southern Europe is characterized by much less loess accumulation. The Atlantic coast has transgressive dune fields that penetrate inland to varying degrees.


The use of environment maps is one of the main requirements for almost all tasks in mobile robotics. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to have this element, either by the inaccessibility of the environment or simply because there is no usable description of it. The solution to this problem is known as Integrated Exploration or SPLAM (Simultaneous Planning, Localization and Mapping). Considering this problem, we present some strategies based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF), when the mobile robot incrementally builds a map of its environment, while simultaneously using this map for computing the absolute robot localization. At the same time, local decisions on where to move next are performed using the probabilistic strategy-SRT, in order to minimize the error of the estimation of the robot's pose and the configuration locations. Although the classic strategies have shown good results, there are some inherent problems that prevent achieving the optimal results. For this reason, the paper has focused on creating a SPLAM strategy when the simultaneous localization and mapping is performed using a radical topological approach based on B-spline curves and when the planning of the exploration is conducted using a probabilistic strategy based on graphs.


Background A recently published, large prospective study showed unexpectedly high prevalence of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) among patients hospitalized for syncope. In such a case, a high incidence of recurrent pulmonary embolism is expected among patients who were discharged without APE workup. Objectives To determine the incidence of symptomatic APE among patients hospitalized for a first episode of syncope and discharged without APE workup or anticoagulation. Methods This retrospective cohort study included patients hospitalized at Rambam Health Care Campus between January 2006 and February 2017 with a primary admission diagnosis of syncope, who were not investigated for APE and were not taking anticoagulants. The patients were followed up for up to three years after discharge. The occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) during the follow-up period was documented. Results The median follow-up duration was 33 months. 1,126 subjects completed a three-year follow-up. During this period, 38 patients (3.38%) developed VTE, 17 (1.51%) of them had APE. The cumulative incidence of VTE and APE was 1.9% (95% CI 1.3%-2.5%) and 0.9% (95% CI 0.4%-1.3%) respectively. Only seven subjects developed APE during the first year of follow-up. The median times from the event of syncope to the development of APE and VTE were 18 and 19 months respectively. Conclusions The cumulative incidence of VTE during a three-year follow-up period after an episode of syncope is low. In the absence of clinical suspicion, a routine diagnostic workup for APE in patients with syncope cannot be recommended.


The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the magnitude of adaptation to integrated ballistic training is influenced by initial strength level. Such information is needed to inform resistance training guidelines for both higher‐ and lower‐level athlete populations. To this end, two groups of distinctly different strength levels (stronger: one‐repetition‐maximum (1RM) squat = 2.01 ± 0.15 kg·BM−1; weaker: 1.20 ± 0.20 kg·BM−1) completed 10 weeks of resistance training incorporating weightlifting derivatives, plyometric actions, and ballistic exercises. Testing occurred at pre‐, mid‐, and post‐training. Measures included variables derived from the incremental‐load jump squat and the 1RM squat, alongside muscle activity (electromyography), and jump mechanics (force‐time comparisons throughout the entire movement). The primary outcome variable was peak velocity derived from the unloaded jump squat. It was revealed that the stronger group displayed a greater (P = .05) change in peak velocity at mid‐test (baseline: 2.65 ± 0.10 m/s, mid‐test: 2.80 ± 0.17 m/s) but not post‐test (2.85 ± 0.18 m/s) when compared to the weaker participants (baseline 2.43 ± 0.09, mid‐test. 2.47 ± 0.11, post‐test: 2.61 ± 0.10 m/s). Different changes occurred between groups in the force‐velocity relationship (P = .001‐.04) and jump mechanics (P ≤ .05), while only the stronger group displayed increases in muscle activation (P = .05). In conclusion, the magnitude of improvement in peak velocity was significantly influenced by pre‐existing strength level in the early stage of training. Changes in the mechanisms underpinning performance were less distinct.


Background: Migraine pain is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent headaches that are moderate to severe.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of noninvasive pulsed radio frequency (pulsed RF) in Migraine.
Methods: In a prospective study of the intervention performed in adult population with Migraine (Diagnosed by specialists) carried on (30) patients undergone pulsed RF for greater and lesser occipital nerves to control recurrent migraine not responding to conventional treatment (resistant) in a period from Jan. 2017 to Jan 2019 in Al Safeer Hospital for surgical specialties and Alkafeel Hospital for surgical specialties both in Karbala / Iraq. The patients got in prone position under local anesthesia with goal positions with the target sites obvious out using anatomical breakthroughs and the position of greatest ache. Pulsed RF by RF needle to the affected side to reach greater and lesser occipital nerves then got 3 sessions (each for 3 minutes, temperature 42 C, voltage 42 V, resistance with 100 Ohms, Current with 230 mA) Patients monitored post-operatively for 2 hours then discharged. Follow up at intervals of 30 days, 6 months and 1 year by phone call or direct interview to assess the post procedure pain scale.
Result: Significant pain relieve by means of no or little pain medication and actual life pattern change and performance in 1-year post procedure.
Conclusion: A single trial of pulsed RF is effective for pain reliever.


The high temperature-tolerant oomycete Phytophthora parsiana was considered to be limited to woody plants. In the preliminary study, the host range of the pathogen on annual herbaceous plant species using six isolates of P. parsiana including type strains from different sources was examined under greenhouse conditions. Among herbaceous species including cucurbits, pepper, pulse and oil crops, two isolates were pathogenic to pepper. Then three cultivars of pepper were used to discriminate pepper cultivars to sixteen isolates of P. parsiana. Results showed P. parsiana were pathogenic to red pepper ('Anheim' and 'Casabel'cultivars) but not bell pepper. This is the first report of an herbaceous host of P. parsiana (sensu lato). Phylogenetic relationships of the pathogenic isolates of P. parsiana from pistachio to pepper and two isolates of the species from pistachio from Rafsanjan and Yazd were not pathogenic to pepper were examined. Based on sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal RNA, isolates pathogenic to pepper and one from Rafsanjan were in a group of P. parsiana belonging to clade 10 but the Yazd isolate had no genetic similarity to P. parsiana, being placed in clade 6 of the ITS tree, closely matching that of Phytophthora taxon Walnut (99-100 nucleotide identity). This is the first report of Phytophthora taxon Walnut from pistachio in Iran.


This article is a sequel to Civilians in Cyberwarfare: Conscripts, to be published by the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Conscripts addresses the essential role of civilians as participants in cyberwarfare. Here, we explore the potential losses cyberwarfare might cause to civilian entities, including multi-national corporations, utilities, universities and local governments. We explain why cyberwarfare presents unique risks and requires unique executive responses. We also analyze how civilians should manage specific legal liability, political and reputational risks. Finally, we consider whether civilians can expect compensation if the federal government imposes new regulations, appropriates intellectual property, or even conscripts entire businesses in connection with cyberwarfare.


Fill your iPad with cool apps with help from this full-color directory!The popularity of the iPad is growing at an unstoppable rate and users are looking for help sorting through the tens of thousands of apps available in the App Store. Packed with helpful reviews and valuable tips on how to make the most of each app, this book walks you through the vast selection of apps and helps you narrow down the most essential and entertaining apps for your needs and interests. Mac guru Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus helps you uncover the best of the best apps in business, education, entertainment, finance, health, fitness, games, news, music, sports, weather, and more.Helps you sort through the tens of thousands of apps available for the iPad so you can find the apps that are right for youShows you a variety of the most useful apps in the fields of music, entertainment, sports, business, games, news, social networking, health and fitness, and moreHelps you uncover what apps are worth the price and what's fabulous for freeProvides expert insights and light-hearted reviews of each featured iPad app from longtime For Dummies author and Mac enthusiast Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitusWith Incredible iPad Apps For Dummies, you'll discover how to have fun, get more done, and make the most of your iPad.