Objective: Little national data exist regarding service use patterns for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of varying severity. This study aimed to assess the relationship between parent-reported severity and use of educational and health care services. Methods: Data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services were used to examine a nationally representative sample of 1420 US children aged 6 to 17 years with ASD, with or without developmental delay and intellectual disability. Weighted multivariable logistic regression assessed associations of parent-reported ASD severity and child sociodemographic characteristics with school-based therapy, non-school-based therapy, behavioral interventions, and specialty provider visits. Results: Higher parent-reported ASD severity was associated with increased likelihood of current use of school-based therapy (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.08, 95% confidence interval =1.85–8.98), non-school-based therapy (AOR = 3.60 [1.95–6.66]), and behavioral interventions (AOR = 2.30 [1.22–4.34]), as well as regular specialty provider visits (AOR = 2.99 [1.38–6.46]). Although rates of service use were generally highest among children with severe ASD, non-school-based therapy and behavioral interventions were only used by about half of children with severe ASD, and about 1 in 4 children with mild ASD were using none of the therapies asked about. Conclusion: Parent-reported severity is associated with increased therapy and specialty provider service use among children with ASD. However, substantial variability exists in service use across levels of severity.


This study investigates prevailing discourses on music in the field of creative arts in Swedish teacher education for primary school and preschool, following the programme based on the 1999 teacher education reform. The data were collected from 19 focus group interviews with teacher educators and student teachers from ten higher education institutions that offer such teacher education programmes. Theories related to language as action and the consequences of linguistic actions were taken as central to the study. To identify and discuss the discursive formations, analytical tools inspired by discourse psychology and discourse theory were used in the analysis. The analysis demonstrated that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection, and textual production has pushed aside skills-based practice. A second discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis-a-vis the concept of quality, was also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse was articulated and legitimized based on the idea that student teachers should be emotionally balanced. The constructions may be regarded as strategies that legitimize the creative arts, which no longer have a clear identity in this teacher education context. The discourse on technical skills in music, which previously occupied a hegemonic position in the discursive field, has fallen apart, allowing other discourses to take root.


In this paper, an iterative and computationally efficient data detection algorithm is proposed based on the space alternating generalized expectation maximization (SAGE) technique for orthogonal division multiplexing (OFDM) systems under fast fading channels. The proposed detector includes the original detector presented in [1] as one of its special cases. With a proper choice of its parameters, simulations show that the new detector has negligible performance loss than original one in [1] with smaller number of iterations.


In humans, the coronary arteries course not only subepicardially but also intramyocardially. The intramyocardial course of the coronary artery is reported to lead to acute ischemic heart disease and, as well, it may be symptomless. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term ischemic effects of bridged arteries on the myocardium, and was carried out on 8 autopsy hearts with myocardial bridges and 2 hearts without myocardial bridges. The samples from the myocardium were examined with light microscopy. In the myocardium supplied by the bridged arteries, it was observed that there was an increase in the intercellular connective tissue, which was rich in collagen bundles, lymphocytes, fibroblasts and macrophages. Compression of the coronary artery by myocardial bridges may cause chronic degenerative changes, which may remain silent for a long time.


This thesis is part of a program initiated by Riehl and Verity to study the category theory of (infinity,1)-categories in a model-independent way. They showed that most models of (infinity,1)-categories form an infinity-cosmos K, which is essentially a category enriched in quasi-categories with some additional structure reminiscent of a category of fibrant objects. Riehl and Verity showed that it is possible to formulate the category theory of (infinity,1)-categories directly with infinity-cosmos axioms. This should also help organize the category theory of (infinity,1)-categories with structure. Given a category K enriched in quasi-categories, we build via a nerve construction a stratified simplicial set N_Mnd(K) whose objects are homotopy coherent monads in K. If two infinity-cosmoi are weakly equivalent, their respective stratified simplicial sets of homotopy coherent monads are also equivalent. We also provide an (infinity,2)-category Adj_r(K) whose objects are homotopy coherent adjunctions in K, that we use to classify the 1-simplices of N_Mnd(K) up to homotopy.


Poor performance has pervaded the last forty years of software development, evident across industry sectors, project size, budget, geographic location, system quality and functionality, and exacerbated by increased criticality of IT in organizational mission and strategy. A significant body of research has investigated the potential of emerging development methodologies to address these shortcomings but the effectiveness of these methods is largely supported by anecdotal evidence. At the same time, metrics and measurement are known to affect ISD performance but the existing literature on ISD metrics is misaligned with practitioners' needs, leading to a lack of clarity about ISD metrics in practice. This paper presents an interdisciplinary literature review on ISD metrics to identify the underlying reasons for this misalignment and evaluate the extent to which existing literature can be used to better understand the impact of emerging software development methodologies on ISD performance.


We propose a method of modeling panel time series data with both inter- and intra-individual correlation, and of fitting an autoregressive model to such data. Estimates are obtained by a conditional likelihood argument. If there are few observations in each series, the estimates can be dramatically improved by Burg-type estimates taking edge effects into account. The consequences of ignoring the intercorrelation term are analysed. Partial lack of consistency is demonstrated in this situation. Moreover, a break-even point is found for the strength of the intercorrelation, beyond which a conventional estimate, ignoring correlation, will become increasingly inferior. Asymptotic normality of estimators is established, and our results are illustrated on a real data example, where it is seen that choosing the right type of estimate is of crucial importance.


Uncovering the precise effect of the conjugated polymer chain length on the semiconducting properties in thin-film devices is confounded by the step-growth polymerization techniques typically used. Here, we use preparatory size exclusion chromatography to isolate fractions of two diketopyrrolopyrrole-thiophene based co-polymers with low molar-mass dispersity, ĐM, and number average molecular weights up to 180 kDa. We find that the charge carrier mobility can vary over three orders of magnitude in the range from 9 to 70 kDa, while a factor of 3–4 increase in photovoltaic performance was noted over the same range. The effect of ĐM was found to be most drastic when the largest chains were mixed with the shortest. The study of the thin-film morphology and crystallinity by GIWAXS give further insights into the origin of these effects. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016


We propose high-quality generation of uniform multiple fluorescence spots (MFS) with a spatial light modulator (SLM) and demonstrate uniform laser scanning in multifocal multiphoton microscopy (MMM). The MFS excitation method iteratively updates a computer-generated hologram (CGH) using correction coefficients to improve the fluorescence intensity distribution in a dye solution whose consistency is uniform. This simple correction method can be applied for calibration of the MMM before observation of living tissue. We experimentally demonstrate an improvement of the uniformity of a 10 × 10 grid of MFS by using a dye solution. After the calibration, we performed laser scanning with two-photon excitation to observe fluorescent polystyrene beads, as well as the gastric gland of a guinea pig specimen.


Time-dependent inhibition (TDI) of CYP refers to a change in potency during an in vitro incubation or dosing period in vivo. Potential mechanisms include the formation of inhibitory metabolites and mechanism-based inhibition (MBI). In vitro experiments are configured to assess TDI and MBI is inferred, at least initially. MBI is more profound after multiple-dosing and the recovery period is independent of continued drug exposure. Advances in in vitro–in vivo extrapolations for competitive inhibition and the potential relationship between MBI and reactive metabolite-mediated toxicity, have redirected emphasis to CYP TDI. In contrast, with reversible inhibition, strategies for projecting the risks from TDI are less developed and the traditional I/Ki model often yields a dramatic underprediction. This review explores the contribution of TDI to drug–drug interactions and idiosyncratic drug toxicity.


The goal of this lecture has been to provide an overview of approaches, in the communications receiver context. Which method is the best in practice? This depends much on the purpose of solving : what error rate can be tolerated, what is the ultimate measure of performance (e.g., frame-error-rate, worst-case complexity, or average complexity), and what computational platform is used. Additionally, the bits in s may be part of a larger code word and different s vectors in that code word may either see the same H (slow fading) or many different realizations of H (fast fading). This complicates the picture, because notions that are important in slow fading (such as spatial diversity) are less important in fast fading, where diversity is provided anyway by time variations. Detection for MIMO has been an active field for more than ten years, and this research will probably continue for some time.


About the Book:
Developing Writing Skills in German, is a unique course designed to improve the reading and writing skills of intermediate students of German. Presenting a wide range of authentic written materials, the book aims to develop reading strategies and the ability to write texts of various types - essays, articles and reviews - while imparting an understanding of important aspects of German society.

From the environment to consumerism, each chapter focuses on a different theme and concentrates on the advancement of particular skills; all the chapters conclude with a task appropriate to the skills focus of the section.

Summary writing, note-taking, the use of mind-maps to collect ideas, and other strategies for successful writing in German are presented here. This course is suitable both for classroom use and independent study, with feedback and answer key supplied at the back of the book.


For a debt-burdened, developing country that is weathering a global recession, investment in areas that provide a significantly positive social and/or economic return is particularly critical. Increased investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is currently being proposed as a means of improving developing economies, which brings the topic of ICT investment to greater significance to local and regional interests. Globally, there has already been significant research on the effect of investments in ICT in developed economies. However, there is still limited analysis regarding the effect on developing economies, such as those within the Caribbean. Furthermore, the existing research focuses on measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and leaves room for the evaluation of the effect on other measures. The purpose of this study is to use regression analysis to determine the economic effect, if any, within the Caribbean region of prior investment in ICT and discuss any characteristics of these economies that may dampen or amplify its impact.


One of the main environmental impacts of forced systems in horticulture — such as plastic covered and soilless culture — is the generation of organic plant residues and substrate waste. Many people are keen on research and development of ecologically friendly substrates. Thus, leaching experiments have been carried out with distilled water to determine whether compost — from horticultural greenhouse crop waste — can be used as growing media in vegetable crop production. The compost was examined and compared to other substrate alternatives like coconut coir waste. Two experiments were conducted in order to compare the two composts with coconut coir waste in terms of yield and fruit quality of melon crops (Cucumis melo). Electrical conductivity decreased sharply with leaching and eventually reached acceptable levels despite the high initial value of this parameter in the composts. This drop in electrical conductivity was parallel to that experienced in the contents of soluble mineral elements, with mainly high levels in SO42−, K+, Cl−, Mg2+, Ca2+ and Na+- concentrations. Most of the soluble mineral elements in compost were removed applying six times the amount of water. The comparison between two environmentally sound substrates, show that compost seems to be an acceptable ecological growing medium and similar to commercial coconut coir in soilless culture, it does not affect yield and quality of melon crops.


Lactation persistency is defined as the ability of a cow to maintain production at a higher level after peak yield. Hypothetically, more persistent cows are less susceptible to health and reproductive disorders. The objective of this research was to investigate the phenotypic relationships of common health disorders in dairy cows to lactation persistency. The relationships with peak yield and days in milk (DIM) at peak yield were also studied. Two separate investigations (Study 1 and Study 2) were performed. Study 1 used treatment incidence data and daily milk weights of 991 lactations from experimental dairy herds at Virginia Tech and Pennsylvania State University. Milk yield persistency (PM) was estimated for individual lactations using daily milk weights. In Study 2, producer recorded health data of 87555 lactations from 398 commercial herds were used. PM, fat (PF), and protein (PP) persistencies were estimated from TD yields. Mastitis only in the first 100 days, only after 100 DIM, and at any stage of lactation, and reproductive disorders including metritis, retained placenta, cystic ovaries, metabolic diseases including ketosis, milk fever and displaced abomasums, and lameness were considered in both studies. Mastitis both before and after 100 DIM was considered only in Study 1. Each disease was defined as a binary trait distinguishing between lactations with at least one incidence (1) and lactations with no incidences (0). Standardized measures of the persistencies, uncorrelated with yield, were calculated as a function of yield deviations from standard curves and DIM deviations around reference dates. Peak milk yield and DIM at peak of individual lactations were computed using Wood's function. Effects of persistency (PM, PF, and PP) on probability of the diseases in current and next lactations were examined through odds ratios from a logistic regression model. Conversely, the effects of diseases on persistencies, peak milk yield, and DIM at peak milk yield were also examined. Increasing PM, PF, and PP tend to reduce the incidence of mastitis, specifically in late stages of current and next lactation. PM and PP appear to have greater impact on mastitis than PF. No other likelihood of a disease was affected by the increasing persistencies. Post partum reproductive and metabolic diseases often had substantially positive effect on persistencies of both primiparous and multiparous cows (p<0.001 in Study 1 and p<0.001 in Study 2). Mastitis in early lactation appeared to increase persistency more often in multiparous cows (p<0.05 in Study 1 and p<0.005 in Study 2). Mastitis in late lactation had considerable but negative impact on persistency in both primiparous and multiparous cows (p<0.05 in Study 1 and p<0.005 in Study 2). Cows, which developed mastitis in both early and late lactations tended to have lower PM (p<0.05 in Study 1). Irrespective to the time of occurrence, effect of mastitis on milk, fat and protein yield persistencies was negative. Most of the diseases significantly affected DIM at peak milk yield in multiparous cows (p<0.05 in Study 1). Reproductive and metabolic disorders tended to delay DIM at peak milk yield while Mastitis in late lactation was associated with early DIM at peak milk yield. Lameness had no phenotypic relationships with shape of the lactation curve. Overall, diseases tend to affect milk, fat, and protein persistencies more strongly than the impact of persistency on likelihood of disease.


A former editor (A. S. McGowan) of The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, currently the editor of the Journal of Counseling & Development, and the current editor (M. B. Scholl) present strategies and guidelines for prospective authors to enhance the chance of successful publication in this and other American Counseling Association--refereed journals. This article is an updated version of one that was written by A. S. McGowan and that appeared in 1997 in the Journal of Humanistic Education and Development. ********** Getting published is a great joy that generally is preceded by hard work and frustration for both the neophyte author and the established scholar. Although the process of becoming published can be harrowing and exasperating, it is also a rewarding one, from the development of an idea to its appearance in print. The goal of seeing a work published is achievable if the author possesses most, if not all, of the following characteristics, abilities, and attitudes: writing competency; self-discipline regarding a writing regime; strong scholarly and theoretical foundations underlying the research of the professional ideas being proposed or advanced; ability to create and present practical counseling strategies that work in the field; willingness to accept constructive criticism from peer reviewers and editors; and stamina, strength, and patience to persevere in the face of criticism. Thompson (1995) offered the following perspective on successful publishing efforts: The most productive scholars are (sometimes) distinguished by extraordinary intellect, but some are primarily distinguished by willingness to be systematic and persistent. Success in publishing requires a willingness to tolerate rejection and a willingness to learn from it. Success also will sometimes occur primarily by luck. (p. 342) Although we agree that luck can play a part in getting published, we believe that luck happens only when it meets with preparation and competency. The determined author who has at least the vestiges of a viable manuscript that contributes to the scholarly base of the profession can get it published. As published researchers and authors, we know what it is like to have hopes temporarily dashed by a suggestion to "rewrite and resubmit" of to be rejected after having spent months and weeks on a particular research project or article. We know how disappointing it can be to wait expectantly and hopefully for 2 or 3 months for a response and then receive one of those messages. In truth, when that happened to us, we felt like an autopsy had been performed on the body and soul of manuscripts that we had been certain were of sterling quality. In such instances, we put our manuscripts aside and postponed deciding whether to continue with the project or to move on to another area of research interest. Often, we had to admit that the reviewers' critiques, as painful as they were, allowed us to be more objective and critical of our own work. We found that by accepting and acting on most, if not all, of the critical suggestions, we improved the manuscripts; in all instances, the manuscripts were eventually published. As one of us has noted before (McGowan, 1996), one study was rejected by four journals before it was finally accepted. Because the study was not itself fatally flawed, I (McGowan) was able to improve the manuscript until, finally, it was publishable. In retrospect, I understand and accept that I had to go through that excruciatingly painful process because it resulted in a final product that was finely crafted and well received by the profession. I can now look back on that study with pride. In addition, those rejections made me realize that prior planning is necessary before beginning a study or article if it is to be published. It is extremely important for prospective authors to be willing to accept constructive criticisms. The editor guards the identity of each author, and the reviews are masked ones. …


SOFL is a formal language and method for system specification and design. It was developed by integrating Petri Nets, Data Flow Diagrams, and VDM-SL. As the major feature of the original SOFL method is to use structured techniques for analysis and specification, and object-oriented techniques for design and implementation, SOFL has its own implementation language that is similar to C++. However during our recent work of applying SOFL to software systems, the transformation of structured specifications to object-oriented implementations creates some difficulties, simply because of paradigms mismatch. In this paper we extend SOFL to a formal object-oriented language and method while keeping its structured features. This will allow powerful object-oriented reuse mechanisms, such as class inheritance and object composition, to be utilized in the early phases, and transformation from SOFL specifications to commercial object-oriented programming languages to be readily achieved.


The global downturn is now strongly affecting EU labour markets. In light of the downward revision to the growth projections and the uncertainty created by the financial meltdown, the outlook for employment has deteriorated considerably. This would also be consistent with the experience from previous downturns, where the full labour market impact only materialised after 2-3 quarters. On current policies, the Commission projects employment growth to turn negative during the next two years, accompanied by a steep rise in unemployment, which would be around 11.5% in 2010 in the euro area.
However, labour market outcomes depend crucially on policy responses. The good news here is that our assessment shows that measures undertaken so far within the framework of the European Economic Recovery Plan are promising. The in-built capacities of the social safety nets are fully playing their role and a number of new innovative policies are also keeping people in employment. However, given the spillovers that many of these policies create on other Member States labour market measures could be more effective if co-ordination at the European level was strengthened. A stronger more co-ordinated response would also help to soften the impact of much higher unemployment levels on Europe's potential rate of growth in the future.


ABSTRACT Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is an independent predictor of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and is correlated with insulin resistance. Insulin stimulates nitric oxide (NO) production through the IRS-1/PI3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway (where IRS-1 is insulin receptor substrate 1, PI3-kinase is phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and eNOS is endothelial NO synthase). We asked if IL-6 affects insulin vasodilator action both in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and in the aortas of C57BL/6J mice and whether this inhibitory effect was caused by increased Ser phosphorylation of IRS-1. We observed that IL-6 increased IRS-1 phosphorylation at Ser312 and Ser616; these effects were paralleled by increased Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation and reversed by JNK and ERK1/2 inhibition. In addition, IL-6 treatment resulted in impaired IRS-1 phosphorylation at Tyr612, a site essential for engaging PI3-kinase. Furthermore, IL-6 treatment reduced insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of eNOS at the stimulatory Ser1177 site and impaired insulin-stimulated eNOS dephosphorylation at the inhibitory Thr495 site. Insulin-stimulated eNOS activation and NO production were also inhibited by IL-6; these effects were reversed by inhibition of JNK and ERK1/2. Treatment of C57BL/6J mice with IL-6 resulted in impaired insulin-dependent activation of the Akt/eNOS pathway in the aorta as a result of JNK and ERK1/2 activation. Our data suggest that IL-6 impairs the vasodilator effects of insulin that are mediated by the IRS-1/PI3-kinase/Akt/eNOS pathway through activation of JNK and ERK1/2.


Perhaps the most difficult task facing volcanologists today is that of distinguishing between low-level volcanic restlessness and activity that presages a full-scale eruption. We illustrate these difficulties by reexamining the sequence of events that led to the 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, activity that is often presented as a classic example of early phreatic explosions leading to a magmatic eruption. This interpretation is problematic, however, given the known ascent of juvenile magma to within ∼250 m of the surface prior to the climactic event. Reexamination of ash samples from several precursory events shows that small amounts of juvenile material were erupted as early as 28 March 1980, just two weeks after the first seismic signals of reawakening, and that the juvenile content of the ash had probably increased by early May. The magmatic component of these eruptions was not recognized at the time because of the high crystallinity of the juvenile material—a signature of extensive degassing-induced crystallization during magma ascent. Identification of juvenile material in the precursory ash from Mount St. Helens has important implications for initiation of eruptive activity.


Josh's House is a "living laboratory" research and demonstration project in the Perth suburb of Hilton, Western Australia. The scope of Josh's House included the design and construction of two energy efficient family homes that achieved the highest level, 10-stars (estimated thermal load: 4 MJ/m2 /year) [Australian Government Department of Environment, Star rating scale overview, 2015 (Online), http://www.nathers.gov.au/owners-and-builders/star-rating-scale-overview, accessed on: 2017/17/07], under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme. The project partners include the Co-operative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living and Curtin University. In mid-2015, a further research component was added to Josh's House involving the installation and ongoing monitoring of a battery storage system. This system is a domestic example of a distributed energy storage system (DESS) and is here referred to "Josh's Battery" or "the DESS". The aim of the project is, in the first instance, to make domestic DESS data publicly available. Broader project objectives are to trial the technology, test assumptions on performance, document and communicate lessons and outcomes, and to inform further research and development. This paper provides an analysis of the monitoring data produced during the energy storage system's first year of operation. Particular areas of interest include: interaction with the electricity grid before and after installation of the storage system; correlation of system performance to specifications and modelled predictions; anomalies and unexpected results; and lessons learned from the installation and operation of the system. Implications and influences. The significance of this research is that it is built around the first monitored, grid connected domestic energy storage system in the Perth metropolitan area. It provides unprecedented data on how these systems can be expected to operate when embedded into a large-scale electricity network. The project also gives the opportunity to test some fundamental assumptions about these systems and feed into policy and business case development for the distributed energy storage sector, more broadly.


Bidirectional transformations between different data representations occur frequently in modern software systems. They appear as serializers and deserializers, as parsers and pretty printers, as database views and view updaters, and as a multitude of different kinds of ad hoc data converters. Manually building bidirectional transformations---by writing two separate functions that are intended to be inverses---is tedious and error prone. A better approach is to use a domain-specific language in which both directions can be written as a single expression. However, these domain-specific languages can be difficult to program in, requiring programmers to manage fiddly details while working in a complex type system. We present an alternative approach. Instead of coding transformations manually, we synthesize them from declarative format descriptions and examples. Specifically, we present Optician, a tool for type-directed synthesis of bijective string transformers. The inputs to Optician are a pair of ordinary regular expressions representing two data formats and a few concrete examples for disambiguation. The output is a well-typed program in Boomerang (a bidirectional language based on the theory of lenses). The main technical challenge involves navigating the vast program search space efficiently. In particular, and unlike most prior work on type-directed synthesis, our system operates in the context of a language with a rich equivalence relation on types (the theory of regular expressions). Consequently, program synthesis requires search in two dimensions: First, our synthesis algorithm must find a pair of "syntactically compatible types," and second, using the structure of those types, it must find a type- and example-compliant term. Our key insight is that it is possible to reduce the size of this search space without losing any computational power by defining a new language of lenses designed specifically for synthesis. The new language is free from arbitrary function composition and operates only over types and terms in a new disjunctive normal form. We prove (1) our new language is just as powerful as a more natural, compositional, and declarative language and (2) our synthesis algorithm is sound and complete with respect to the new language. We also demonstrate empirically that our new language changes the synthesis problem from one that admits intractable solutions to one that admits highly efficient solutions, able to synthesize intricate lenses between complex file formats in seconds. We evaluate Optician on a benchmark suite of 39 examples that includes both microbenchmarks and realistic examples derived from other data management systems including Flash Fill, a tool for synthesizing string transformations in spreadsheets, and Augeas, a tool for bidirectional processing of Linux system configuration files.


Since its first appearance in 1854 and through many revisions this dictionary has remained constant in its appeal to scholars. "This new and revised Latin Dictionary is among the best of its kind, being reliable, compact and adequate for the needs of all save the specialist. He has produced what is in effect a new book, typographically easy to consult and combining elegance with utility." -The Times Literary Supplement This edition Incorporates modern English idiom and current Latin spelling. * Includes general classical information where appropriate. Shows long and short vowels where not immediately apparent. * Indicates irregular plural forms. * Cites and quotes ancient classical authors. * Suggests paraphrases to express modern English in classical Latin form.


OF DISSERTATION A MODEL MODALITY: ASSESSING THE EDUCATIONAL INTEGRITY OF THE BLENDED BASIC COURSE The creation of a hybrid/blended basic course aligns with university goals and may increase viable curricular options for student success. If universities offer hybrid courses, they ought to do so based on data-driven evidence confirming that face-to-face (F2F) and hybrid courses are comparable. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the learning outcome achievement of students enrolled in a blended (hybrid) version of the basic course. More specifically, a comparative analysis of student affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcome achievement in face-to-face sections and hybrid sections was conducted. This study also examined affect for course delivery format for students enrolled in traditional F2F compared to hybrid sections. Ultimately, two important conclusions were drawn from this analysis. First, hybrid courses are a viable instructional modality for delivering the basic communication course. Second, students are satisfied with aspects of both F2F and blended course modalities. More specifically, each course delivery format has strengths and weaknesses and instructors, students, and university administrators share responsibility for course and student success.


Midwifery care in Germany is a legal right for every woman (SGB V). Midwives work employed or freelance in hospitals or in community services, providing maternal care from pregnancy until the end of breastfeeding (Sayn-Wittgenstein 2007). Increasingly, a shortage of midwifery care has been observed, forcing hospitals to understaff or to close their birth units, leaving women and their families without care (Sander et al. 2018). At the same time, birth rates are rising, thus leading to an increasing demand of midwifery care (Destatis 2019). As off today there is no central register for midwives across Germany's 16 states. Therefor the exact number of registered midwives as well as the scope of services provided by midwives are not known (Niedersächsisches Landesgesundheitsamt 2019). Given the present situation, it seems to be imperative to establish effective midwifery workforce planning.
 The aim of this poster is to identify already existing health workforce planning approaches and to determine the extent to which those can be transferred to the German system of midwifery care.

 Health workforce planning approaches, already being used on a national and international level, have been analysed, focusing their applicability to midwifery services in Germany.

 Particular elements of the workforce planning approaches already being used in Germany for registered physicians seem to be adoptable. However, they need to be adjusted and enhanced to ensure the characteristics of midwifery in the German public health services. Internationally used approaches are not readily transferable due to systemic differences in health care systems.

 The development of new specific workforce and service planning approaches for midwifery care in Germany is crucial to meet present and future needs of women and their families during the childbirth period.

 It seems sensible to consider the peculiarities of a healthcare system in midwifery workforce planning. Establishing workforce research still represents an important task for midwifery in Germany.


An ssu72 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was identified as an enhancer of a TFIIB defect (sua7-1) that confers both a cold-sensitive growth defect and a downstream shift in transcription start site selection. The ssu72-1 allele did not affect cold sensitivity but, in combination with sua7-1, created a heat-sensitive phenotype. Moreover, start site selection at the ADH1 gene was dramatically shifted further downstream of the normal sites. Both of these effects could be rescued by either SUA7 or SSU72, thereby defining a functional relationship between the two genes. SSU72 is a single-copy, essential gene encoding a novel protein of 206 amino acids. The ssu72-1 allele is the result of a 30-bp duplication creating a sequence encoding a Cys-X2-Cys-X6-Cys-X2-Cys zinc binding motif near the N terminus of Ssu72p. Mutational analysis demonstrated that the N terminus of Ssu72p is essential for function and that cysteine residues in both the normal and mutant proteins are critical. We discuss the possibility that the potential zinc binding motif of Ssu72 facilitates assembly of the transcription preinitiation complex and that this effect is important for accurate start site selection in vivo.


Density has been suggested to affect variation in extra-pair paternity (EPP) in avian mating systems, because increasing density promotes encounter rates and thus mating opportunities. However, the significance of density affecting EPP variation in intra- and interspecific comparisons has remained controversial, with more support from intraspecific comparisons. Neither experimental nor empirical studies have consistently provided support for the density hypothesis. Testing the density hypothesis is challenging because density measures may not necessarily reflect extra-pair mating opportunities, mate guarding efforts may covary with density, populations studied may differ in migratory behavior and/or climatic conditions, and variation in density may be insufficient. Accounting for these potentially confounding factors, we tested whether EPP rates within and among subpopulations of the reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) were related to density. Our analyses were based on data from 13 subpopulations studied over 4 years. Overall, 56.4% of totally 181 broods contained at least one extra-pair young (EPY) and 37.1% of totally 669 young were of extra-pair origin. Roughly 90% of the extra-pair fathers were from the adjacent territory or from the territory after the next one. Within subpopulations, the proportion of EPY in broods was positively related to local breeding density. Similarly, among subpopulations, proportion of EPY was positively associated with population density. EPP was absent in subpopulations consisting of single breeding pairs, that is, without extra-pair mating opportunities. Our study confirms that density is an important biological factor, which significantly influences the amount of EPP within and among subpopulations, but also suggests that other mechanisms influence EPP beyond the variation explained by density.


In the absence of domain knowledge, clustering is usually an under-specified task. For any clustering application, one can choose among a variety of different clustering algorithms, along with different preprocessing techniques, that are likely to result in dramatically different answers. Any of these solutions, however, can be acceptable depending on the application, and therefore, it is critical to incorporate prior knowledge about the data and the intended semantics of clustering into the process of clustering model selection. One scenario that we study is when the user (i.e., the domain expert) provides a clustering of a (relatively small) random subset of the data set. The clustering algorithm then uses this kind of "advice" to come up with a data representation under which an application of a fixed clustering algorithm (e.g., k-means) results in a partition of the full data set that is aligned with the user's knowledge. We provide "advice complexity" of learning a representation in this paradigm. Another form of "advice" can be obtained by allowing the clustering algorithm to interact with a domain expert by asking same-cluster queries: "Do these two instances belong to the same cluster?". The goal of the clustering algorithm will then be finding a partition of the data set that is consistent with the domain expert's knowledge (yet using only a small number of queries). Aside from studying the "advice complexity" (i.e., query complexity) of learning in this model, we investigate the trade-offs between computational and advice complexities of learning, showing that using a little bit of advice can turn an otherwise computationally hard clustering problem into a tractable one. In the second part of this dissertation we study the problem of learning mixture models, where we are given an i.i.d. sample generated from an unknown target from a family of mixture distributions, and want to output a distribution that is close to the target in total variation distance. In particular, given a sample-efficient learner for a base class of distributions (e.g., Gaussians), we show how one can come up with a sample-efficient method for learning mixtures of the base class (e.g., mixtures of k Gaussians). As a byproduct of this analysis, we are able to prove tighter sample complexity bounds for learning various mixture models. We also investigate how having access to the same-cluster queries (i.e., whether two instances were generated from the same mixture component) can help reducing the computational burden of learning within this model. Finally, we take a further step and introduce a novel method for distribution learning via a form of compression. In particular, we ask whether one can compress a large-enough sample set generated from a target distribution (by picking only a few instances from it) in a way that allows recovery of (an approximation to) the target distribution. We prove that if this is the case for all members of a class of distributions, then there is a sample-efficient way of distribution learning with respect to this class. As an application of this novel notion, we settle the sample complexity of learning mixtures of k axis-aligned Gaussian distributions (within logarithmic factors).


Academic literature identifies job satisfaction as an important determinant of effective organisational performance, though the contemporary attention of theorists and practitioners for job satisfaction of individuals working in Lithuanian civil service is still fragmented. The article discusses the concept of job satisfaction, examines the significance of various motivational factors for civil servants' job satisfaction and analyses the determinants of job satisfaction in the Civil Service Department of Lithuania. The empirical analysis is based on the results of quantitative research conducted in 2017. The research results revealed that job satisfaction of individuals working in the above mentioned institution is more determined by intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivational factors. Higher levels of job satisfaction are associated with sense of achievement arising from work, interesting, exciting job content and adequate promotional opportunities. The research finding also proposed the challenging trend indicating the negative correlation between job satisfaction and possibilities for to grow personal skills. This paradox is possibly explained by Simon's bounded rationality theory, as well as by methodological specificity, and eventually opens wide platform for further research in public sector.


Trust and participation in social networks are inherently interrelated. We make use of India's demonetization policy, an unexpected and unforeseeable exogenous variation, to causally identify the effect of social networks in determining trust. We use first-hand quantitative and qualitative data from rural South India and control for individual characteristics (personality traits, cognitive ability) that could influence network formation and trust, finding that social interactions have a significant effect on trust among men, as well as across castes. Among lower castes, who live in homogeneous neighborhoods and relied on neighbors and employers to cope, extending one's network lowers trust in neighbors. Among middle castes, who live in more heterogeneous neighborhoods and relied predominantly on other caste members, a larger network size leads to greater trust placed in kin among employees but lesser in neighbors. This paper thus shows that social interactions can foster trust and highlights the importance of clearly defining in- and out-groups in trust measures within highly segregated societies.


The politicization process within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has reached a critical stage where factions within the military have recognized their capacity to intervene in politics and society. After the fall of Marcos, the soldiery has become politicized. Younger generations of officers are radically different from their predecessors. Two phenomena, the 14 years of dictatorship and the February Revolution, were said to have caused such politicization. The Philippine Military Academy formed the Reform AFP Movement (RAM) to initiate changes within the military and to restore the traditions lost from Marcos's preferential treatment of Fabian Ver's clique. RAM has become an essential threat to the regime and Marcos was pressured to neutralize the group.


Classical bond graphs are in principal restricted to the modelling of continuous physical systems only. In previous work we have extended classical bond graphs to systems involving abrupt changes as well. This extension is centered around the introduction of an ideal primitive switch concept. In this paper we continue this work and extend it in a number of important directions. We present the multiport generalization of the previously introduced primitive one-port switch. We elaborate on the mathematical semantics of individual switch elements as well as complete switched bond graphs, i.e. bond graphs involving one or more switch elements. We discuss the systematic composition of computational models for switched bond graphs and for this purpose we introduce a constructive composition operator. Finally, we also discuss some ideas to deal with model complexity and 'non-physical' modes. Here, the multiport switch plays an important role. For the representation of the composed computational models of switched bond graphs we introduce a mathematical structure related with state au-tomata. This structure is referred to as mode transition systems. For the mathematical characterization of individual switch elements a simpliied version of this structure, referred to as switch transition systems, is introduced.


The use of simulation to train heavy vehicle operators has much potential. However, realising the potential efficiencies associated with simulation-based training can be a challenge for training providers. While some guidance exists on simulator selection, information is lacking about how best to incorporate simulation into a broader training program, including which skills to target and how much simulation to provide relative to other forms of practical training (i.e., range-based, and on-road). This paper presents the key outcomes of a literature review, which sought broadly to explore the effectiveness of simulation in training heavy vehicle operators. The review focussed on the research evidence pointing to a role for simulation-based training in critical technical (i.e., vehicle control) and non-technical (e.g., hazard perception) skill areas at the entry level, and in the principles of eco-driving at the post-licensing level. Regarding technical and non-technical skills, it was found that evidence of effectiveness has typically come from evaluations drawing on global performance measures (e.g., licence test scores) rather than on specific measures. Also, despite evidence of learning, there appears to be scant evidence on transfer of training to the real-world and on long-term skill retention. In the case of eco-driving, the review showed that there exists evidence of learning in the simulated environment, positive transfer of training to the real-world, and skill retention. However, any flow-on benefits of reduced fuel consumption to safety have yet to be explored objectively. The implications of these outcomes are discussed in terms of opportunities for the future.


This paper proposes an adaptive neural predictive controller to guide a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot during continuous and non-continuous gradients trajectory tracking. The structure of the controller consists of two models that describe the kinematics and dynamics of the mobile robot system and a feedforward neural controller. The models are modified Elman neural network and feedforward multi-layer perceptron respectively. The trained Elman neural model acts as the position and orientation identifier. The feedforward neural controller is trained off-line and adaptive weights are adapted on-line to find the reference torques, which controls the steady-state outputs of the mobile robot system. The feedback neural controller is based on the posture neural identifier and quadratic performance index optimisation algorithm to find the optimal torque action in the transient state for N-step-ahead prediction. General back propagation algorithm is used to learn the feedforward neural controller and the posture neural identifier. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive neural predictive control algorithm; this is demonstrated by the minimised tracking error and the smoothness of the torque control signal obtained with bounded external disturbances.


Category learning is thought to be mediated—in at least some category structures—by hypothesis-testing processes. Verbal labels for the stimuli and stimulus individuation have been shown to facilitate the formation, testing, and application of rules of category membership (Fotiadis & Protopapas, 2014). We sought to replicate the phenomenon of facilitation due to verbal names for the stimuli by training participants for two consecutive days to either learn new names for abstract shapes, or learn shape-ideogram pairings; a third group was unexposed to the shapes. After training, participants were given a Type II categorization task—thought to be mediated by verbal processes of rule discovery—utilizing the trained shapes. We hypothesized that verbal labels for the shapes and shape individuation would provide facilitative effects in learning to categorize. Results revealed no effect of training on categorization performance. This study suggests that caution should be taken when generalizing findings across perceptual modalities or different experimental paradigms.


The process conditions and fractionation efficiency of two hydrocyclone designs, a novel and a conventional conical design, were evaluated. The novel design comprised a modified inlet section, where the pulp suspension had to pass a narrow ring-shaped opening, and a very compact fractionation zone. The influence of feed concentration and fine fraction mass ratio was studied. The trials were performed with never-dried, unrefined bleached chemical softwood pulp. Fractionation efficiency was evaluated in terms of change of surface roughness of handsheets made out of the fractions and the feed pulp respectively. The fractionation efficiency increased considerably with decreasing fine fraction mass ratio, especially at higher feed concentrations. This finding prompted a hypothesis on the existence of a radial gradient in the composition of the suspension inside the novel hydrocyclone. Using the novel hydrocyclone in a feed-forward fractionation system would therefore prove to be more favourable as a larger total fine fraction of better properties can be obtained. A three-stage feed-forward fractionation system was evaluated in laboratory scale. Here, it was indeed possible to extract fine fractions with improved surface properties in each of the three consecutive stages. All three fine fractions had about the same surface roughness. The fractionation performance of the novel design was benchmarked against that of a conventional, best available technology (BAT) design. In terms of fractionation efficiency, the BAT design performed better. However, the fractions produced with the novel hydrocyclone had a much smaller difference in concentration, implying a much less pronounced enrichment of fines in the fine fraction. It is unclear, to what extent the lower share of latewood fibres and the increased fines content, respectively, contributed to the improved surface roughness of the fine fractions. However, it is clear that the lower enrichment of fines in the novel hydrocyclone makes it easier to install it in industrial applications without a need for auxiliary equipment to redistribute large water flows.


Abstract. Atmospheric fluxes of iron (Fe) over the past 200 kyr are reported for the coastal Antarctic Talos Dome ice core, based on acid leachable Fe concentrations. Fluxes of Fe to Talos Dome were consistently greater than those at Dome C, with the greatest difference observed during interglacial climates. We observe different Fe flux trends at Dome C and Talos Dome during the deglaciation and early Holocene, attributed to a combination of deglacial activation of dust sources local to Talos Dome and the reorganisation of atmospheric transport pathways with the retreat of the Ross Sea ice shelf. This supports similar findings based on dust particle sizes and fluxes and Rare Earth Element fluxes. We show that Ca and Fe should not be used as quantitative proxies for mineral dust, as they all demonstrate different deglacial trends at Talos Dome and Dome C. Considering that a 20 ppmv decrease in atmospheric CO2 at the coldest part of the last glacial maximum occurs contemporaneously with the period of greatest Fe and dust flux to Antarctica, we confirm that the maximum contribution of aeolian dust deposition to Southern Ocean sequestration of atmospheric CO2 is approximately 20 ppmv.


ABSTRACT Advertisers who perceived high similarity between themselves and those within their advertising agency rated their agency as superior to those who felt they had less in common with agency contacts. Outcome measures examined included communication, performance, intention to remain with the agency, and defection following the departure of agency personnel. Differences based on the organizational level of the respondent emerged. Lifestyle factors of similarity were found to play an important role in perceived agency performance, lending support for deeper exploration of client traits and personality prior to the agency's assignment of personnel to a client account.


We measured salt concentration and speciation in the top horizons of moraine sediments from the Transantarctic Mountains (Antarctica) and compared the salt data to cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages on the same moraine. Because the salts are primarily of atmospheric origin, and their delivery to the sediment is constant over relevant time scales, a linear rate of accumulation is expected. When salts are measured in a consistent grain-size fraction and at a consistent position within the soil column, a linear correlation between salt concentration and exposure age is evident. This correlation is strongest for boron-containing salts (R2 > 0.99), but is also strong (R2 ≈ 0.9) for most other water-extracted salt species. The relative mobility of salts in the soil column does not correspond to species solubility (borate is highly soluble). Instead, the highly consistent behavior of boron within the soil column is best explained by the extremely low vapor pressure of boric acid at cold temperatures. The environment is sufficiently dry that mobility of salt species within the soil column is controlled by vapor phase effects. In other cold desert settings, topsoil salts, specifically boron, may be employed as a proxy for relative sediment exposure age.


We address the problem of continuous stochastic optimal control in the presence of hard obstacles. Due to the non-smooth character of the obstacles, the traditional approach using dynamic programming in combination with function approximation tends to fail. We consider a recently introduced special class of control problems for which the optimal control computation is reformulated in terms of a path integral. The path integral is typically intractable, but amenable to techniques developed for approximate inference. We argue that the variational approach fails in this case due to the non-smooth cost function. Sampling techniques are simple to implement and converge to the exact results given enough samples. However, the infinite cost associated with hard obstacles renders the sampling procedures inefficient in practice. We suggest Expectation Propagation (EP) as a suitable approximation method, and compare the quality and efficiency of the resulting control with an MC sampler on a car steering task and a ball throwing task. We conclude that EP can solve these challenging problems much better than a sampling approach.


Energy consumption in buildings has significantly increased over the last two decades in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Moreover, most of the existing buildings in the region were built without any consideration for energy efficiency. To control this trend, the UAE government adopted green building rating systems for new buildings such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), which were not suitable for countries in a hot dry climate. However, the use of Estidama Pearl Rating System (PRS), developed for Abu-Dhabi emirate, was not adopted by the other emirates. In addition, the retrofitting of existing buildings to green building status has not received adequate attention. Thus, the aim of this study is to reduce environmental impacts that have evolved from the high energy consumption of existing buildings. The study involves an assessment of a case study building located at Ajman University of Science and Technology to simulate retrofitting of the building to become environmental friendly using Estidama PRS points that incorporates cool building strategies, daylighting, and water use reduction, which are appropriate in hot dry climate. The building was assessed using a computer simulation software called Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES-VE), to compare the actual situation of the building against a new suggested situation. The results show that daylighting retrofitting efforts involving changing of the glass type and adding light shelves failed to achieve any score. However, the retrofitting succeeded in achieving a reasonable rating score in the cool building strategies category by installing aluminium cladding on the external walls. In terms of water usage, new toilet fixtures reduced the amount of internal water usage by almost one-third. Based on these results, major changes to daylighting, and minor changes to cool building strategies and water use reduction are needed to help retrofit buildings to become more environmental friendly.


AIM: Although various theories have been proposed to explain the outstanding endemism of plants in the Cerrado, four hypotheses about the mechanisms of diversification and distribution are most supported: (a) plateau/valley, (b) stable/unstable climate, (c) core/peripheral distribution, and (d) soil fertility. The first argues that plateaus harbour more ancient lineages than valleys and therefore present higher endemism. The second theory suggests that climatically stable environments maintained more palaeoendemic species. The third scenario attributes the distribution of endemism to gradients of conditions available to locally adapted species and predicts higher endemism in nuclear than in marginal areas. The last theory suggests that soils with lower fertility account for higher endemism owing to the habitat specialization of their species. We compared endemism patterns with the predictions of each theory to discuss their importance. LOCATION: Brazil. TIME PERIOD: Quaternary. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Angiosperms. METHODS: We mapped the endemism using records of 311 plant species of the Cerrado and applied spatial analysis and distribution models to summarize the importance of each predictor of endemism. RESULTS: We identified 28 areas in which the higher endemism of Cerrado plants were concentrated and presented a map of their distribution. We found correlations among endemism, climate stability, elevation and marginality, which supported the plateau/valley, core/peripheral and stable/unstable hypotheses. No association between soil fertility and endemism was detected. We propose that plateaus are more stable climatic environments, and this characteristic along with their elevation and centrality are predictive of endemism. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that most of the endemism is concentrated in overlapping areas of stability of species, which are concentrated in higher elevation central regions. Soil fertility was not linked to endemism. We recommend that central plateaus in the Cerrado require special attention in conservation to optimize the protection of endemic species in the biome.


'I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass' - Marlon Brando. 'I should have been dead ten times over. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around' - Dennis Hopper. 'The best time to get married is noon. That way, if things don't work out, you haven't blown the whole day' - Warren Beatty. 'You only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police' - Jack Nicholson.They're the baddest bad asses Hollywood has ever seen: Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. These are men for whom rules did not apply, men for whom normal standards of behaviour were simply too wearisome to worry about. These are men who brawled, boozed, snorted and shagged their way into legend-hood - but along the way they changed acting and the way movies were made forever. "Bad Boy Drive" is a whistle-stop tour of jaw-dropping sexual activity, misbehaviour of an Olympic standard, all-out excess and genuine madness. It's a wonder Hollywood survived.


Temporal difference, TD(λ), learning is a foundation of reinforcement learning and also of interest in its own right for the tasks of prediction. Recently, true online TD(λ) has been shown to closely approximate the "forward view" at every step, while conventional TD(λ) does this only at the end of an episode. We re-examine least-squares temporal difference, LSTD(λ), which has been derived from conventional TD(λ). We design Uncorrected LSTD(λ) in such a way that, when λ = 1, Uncorrected LSTD(1) is equivalent to the least-squares method for the linear regression of Monte Carlo (MC) return at every step, while conventional LSTD(1) has this equivalence only at the end of an episode, since the MC return is corrected to be unbiased. We prove that Uncorrected LSTD(λ) can have smaller variance than conventional LSTD(λ), and this allows Uncorrected LSTD(λ) to sometimes outperform conventional LSTD(λ) in practice. When λ = 0, however, Uncorrected LSTD(0) is not equivalent to LSTD. We thus also propose Mixed LSTD(λ), which % mixes the two LSTD(λ)s in a way that it matches conventional LSTD(λ) at λ = 0 and Uncorrected LSTD(λ) at λ = 1. In numerical experiments, we study how the three LSTD(λ)s behave under limited training data.


Background and Purpose— Mexican Americans (MAs) have worse neurological, functional, and cognitive outcomes after stroke. Stroke rehabilitation is important for good outcome. In a population-based study, we sought to determine whether allocation of stroke rehabilitation services differed by ethnicity. Methods— Patients with stroke were identified as part of the Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) project, TX, USA. Cases were validated by physicians using source documentation. Patients were followed prospectively for 3 months after stroke to determine rehabilitation services and transitions. Descriptive statistics were used to depict the study population. Continuous baseline variables were compared using 2 sample t tests or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests by ethnicity. Categorical baseline variables were compared using &khgr;2 tests. Ethnic comparisons of rehabilitation services were compared using &khgr;2 tests, Fisher's exact tests, and logistic regression. Results— Seventy-two subjects (50 MA and 22 non-Hispanic white [NHW]) were followed. Mean age, NHW-69 (SD 13), MA-66 (SD 11) years, sex (NHW 55% male, MA 50% male) and median presenting National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale did not differ significantly. There were no ethnic differences among the proportion of patients who were sent home without any rehabilitation services (P=0.9). Among those who received rehabilitation, NHWs were more likely to get inpatient rehabilitation (73%) compared with MAs (30%), P=0.016. MAs (51%) were much more likely to receive home rehabilitation services compared with NHWs (0%) (P=0.0017). Conclusions— In this population-based study, MAs were more likely to receive home-based rehabilitation, whereas NHWs were more likely to get inpatient rehabilitation. This disparity may, in part, explain the worse stroke outcome in MAs.


Mysid swarms at benthic coral reef sites disperse into the water column in the evening and reform at the exact same location the following morning, possibly reflecting homing behavior of individual mysids. To facilitate tracking of individual mysids, we radiolabeled part of a swarm of Mysidium gracile with the gamma‐emitting radioisotope 65Zn and released the labeled animals back to the focal swarm on a reef in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. We collected the focal swarm and surrounding swarms the next morning to determine the location of the labeled individuals following nighttime dispersal. Seventy‐seven percent of the radiolabeled mysids returned to the same site the next day, and 13% of the labeled individuals were recovered from other nearby swarms. This recovery rate cannot be attributed to random reaggregation and suggests that mysids use a homing behavior to facilitate swarm reformation. This is the first unequivocal evidence of homing behavior in demersal zooplankton.


The increased efficiency and quality constraints imposed on electrical energy systems have inspired a renewed research interest in the study of formal approaches to the analysis and control of power electronics converters. Switched systems represent a useful framework for modeling these converters and the peculiarities of their operating conditions and control goals justify the specific classification of switched electronic systems. Indeed, idealized switched models of power converters introduce problems not commonly encountered when analyzing generic switched models or non-switched electrical networks. In that sense the analysis of switched electronic systems represents a source for new ideas and benchmarks for switched and hybrid systems generally. Dynamics and Control of Switched Electronic Systems draws on the expertise of an international group of expert contributors to give an overview of recent advances in the modeling, simulation and control of switched electronic systems. The reader is provided with a well-organized source of references and a mathematically-based report of the state of the art in analysis and design techniques for switched power converters. Intuitive language, realistic illustrative examples and numerical simulations help the reader to come to grips with the rigorous presentation of many promising directions of research such as: converter topologies and modulation techniques; continuous-time, discrete-time and hybrid models; modern control strategies for power converters; and challenges in numerical simulation. The guidance and information imparted in this text will be appreciated by engineers, and applied mathematicians working on system and circuit theory, control systems development, and electronic and energy conversion systems design.


In this paper we look at the effects of bargaining power on the types of entrepreneurial projects chosen by venture capitalists and show that a wealth-constrained venture capitalist prefers to provide equity financing to a two-stage rather than to a similar single-stage project. While the venture capitalist does not have bargaining power over the entrepreneur of a single-stage project and is thus unable to extract any surplus, the venture capitalist does have this advantage in a two-stage project and, provided the project is good, can demand a portion of the surplus as a pre-condition for providing follow-on capital. This suggests that venture capitalists should stage their capital investments in order to improve their bargaining power, allowing them to earn greater profits from successful entrepreneurial projects.


Design and Technology education is potentially a rich environment for successful learning, if the management of the whole design process is emphasised, and students' design thinking is promoted. The aim of the present study was to unfold the collaborative design process of one team of elementary students, in order to understand their multimodal ways of design thinking. The videotaped design episodes of the team constitute the data source of the study. CORDTRA diagrams were used for opening up the design process, providing means to analyse the complex and iterative process in a structured manner. The results indicate that the students' design thinking was collaborative, materially mediated, and embodied in nature. Engaging in various concrete and material, as well as epistemic and conceptual activities provided the students with opportunities to learn the foundational design skills. Further, the multifaceted design process integrated skills needed for learning also something other than design.


Float dust deposits in coal mine return airways pose a risk in the event of a methane ignition. Controlling airborne dust prior to deposition in the return would make current rock dusting practices more effective and reduce the risk of coal-dust-fueled explosions. The goal of this U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study is to determine the potential of open-air water sprays to reduce concentrations of airborne float coal dust, smaller than 75 µm in diameter, in longwall face airstreams. This study evaluated unconfined water sprays in a featureless tunnel ventilated at a typical longwall face velocity of 3.6 m/s (700 fpm). Experiments were conducted for two nozzle orientations and two water pressures for hollow cone, full cone, flat fan, air atomizing and hydraulic atomizing spray nozzles. Gravimetric samples show that airborne float dust removal efficiencies averaged 19.6 percent for all sprays under all conditions. The results indicate that the preferred spray nozzle should be operated at high fluid pressures to produce smaller droplets and move more air. These findings agree with past respirable dust control research, providing guidance on spray selection and spray array design in ongoing efforts to control airborne float dust over the entire longwall ventilated opening.


In Baleni v Minister of Mineral Resources 2019 2 SA 453 (GP) the court, duly following the judicial guidance provided in Maledu v Itereleng Bakgatla Mineral Resources 2019 2 SA 1 (CC), made an important pronouncement on the rights of people who hold informal land tenure. The question in the Baleni judgment concerned the level of consent required to obtain a mining right over property held by a community with informal or customary land tenure. The court specifically considered provisions of the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act 31 of 1996 (IPILRA) and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (MPRDA), and concluded that the provisions of these Acts should be read together when determining the level of consent required. The court found that a community's consent, as required by IPILRA, and not merely consultation with a community, as required by the MPRDA, is necessary before a mining right can be obtained over a community's property. The Baleni and the Maledu judgments set an important judicial precedent protecting informal land owners against the potentially harmful effects of mining activities, and establish a higher standard for obtaining a mining right over such property. However, despite the success of the judgment, many questions remain regarding the longevity of IPILRA, in particular, and a long-term solution to informal land tenure and land security in general. This case note argues that final legislation should be enacted to provide protection for people who hold informal land rights, and consequently to formalise indigenous communities' land rights to ensure that these judgments act as the precursor for fundamental change in the current debate regarding informal land rights.


This article examines how courts in the UK, the USA and South Africa apply and interpret article 13(b) of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Courts in the UK have always adopted a very narrow interpretation and application of this defence. Even domestic violence victims who flee with their children to escape domestic violence have had difficulty invoking this defence successfully. This very narrow interpretation is due to the fact that English courts are primarily concerned with protecting and adhering to the principles of the Convention and they usually only consider the best interests of children in general. Additionally, English courts assume that imposing undertakings will sufficiently protect children from exposure to grave risk of harm. In the USA courts have moved away from the very strict application of this defence and have very fittingly applied and interpreted this defence much more widely, because courts consider the safety of the individual child to be paramount. This new direction seems to be in accordance with the modern challenges of increased domestic abuse that are faced worldwide. It seems that South African courts are similarly following a wider approach to the defence due to the fact that the best interests of a child will be of paramount importance. This approach is firmly entrenched in the South African Constitution, the Children's Act as well as the Convention.
It is submitted that courts hearing a matter under the Convention should give consideration to the circumstances of each case concerning each individual child and a mechanical approach towards parental child abduction matters should be avoided, especially in instances where domestic violence is raised as the basis of the article 13(b) defence. Additionally, in certain circumstances undertakings will not sufficiently protect victims of domestic violence against harm and article 13(b) as defence should succeed in those instances.


The validity of existing empirical tests of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) is constantly under scrutiny due to two shortcomings. First, the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and measurement error in environmental regulation are typically ignored due to the lack of a credible, traditional instrumental variable. Second, while the recent literature has emphasized the importance of geographic spillovers in determining the location choice of foreign investment, such spatial eeects have yet to be adequately incorporated into empirical tests of the PHH. As a result, the impact of environmental regulations on trade patterns and the location decisions of multinational enterprises remains unclear. In this paper, we circumvent the lack of a traditional instrument within a model incorporating geographic spillovers utilizing three novel identiication strategies. Using state-level panel data on inbound U.S. FDI, relative abatement costs, and other determinants of FDI, we consistently nd (i) evidence of environmental regulation being endogenous, (ii) a negative impact of own environmental regulation on inbound FDI in pollution-intensive sectors, particularly when measured by employment, and (iii) larger eeects of environmental regulation once endogeneity is addressed. Neighboring environmental regulation is not found to be an important determinant of FDI.


Recent Herschel observations have confirmed that filaments are ubiquitous in molecular clouds and suggest, that irrespective of the column density, there is a characteristic width of about 0.1 pc whose physical origin remains unclear. We develop an analytical model that can be applied to self-gravitating accreting filaments. It is based on the one hand on the virial equilibrium of the central part of the filament and on the other hand on the energy balance between the turbulence driven by accretion onto the filament and dissipation. We consider two dissipation mechanisms, the turbulent cascade and the ion-neutral friction. Our model predicts that the width of the inner part of the filament is almost independent of the column density and leads to values comparable to what is inferred observationally if dissipation is due to ion-neutral friction. On the contrary, turbulent dissipation leads to a structure that is bigger and depends significantly on the column density. Our model provides a reasonable physical explanation which could explain the observed filament width when they are self-gravitating. It predicts the correct order or magnitude though hampered by some uncertainties.


The problem of robust extraction of ego-motion from a sequence of images for an eye-in-hand camera configuration is addressed. A novel approach toward solving planar template based tracking is proposed which performs a non-linear image alignment and a planar similarity optimization to recover camera transformations from planar regions of a scene. The planar region tracking problem as a motion optimization problem is solved by maximizing the similarity among the planar regions of a scene. The optimization process employs an evolutionary metaheuristic approach in order to address the problem within a large non-linear search space. The proposed method is validated on image sequences with real as well as synthetic image datasets and found to be successful in recovering the ego-motion. A comparative analysis of the proposed method with various other state-of-art methods reveals that the algorithm succeeds in tracking the planar regions robustly and is comparable to the state-of-the art methods. Such an application of evolutionary metaheuristic in solving complex visual navigation problems can provide different perspective and could help in improving already available methods.


Learning a low-rank matrix from missing and corrupted observations is a fundamental problem in many machine learning applications. However, the role of side information in low-rank matrix learning has received little attention, and most current approaches are either ad-hoc or only applicable in certain restrictive cases. In this paper, we propose a general model that exploits side information to better learn low-rank matrices from missing and corrupted observations, and show that the proposed model can be further applied to several popular scenarios such as matrix completion and robust PCA. Furthermore, we study the effect of side information on sample complexity and show that by using our model, the efficiency for learning can be improved given sufficiently informative side information. This result thus provides theoretical insight into the usefulness of side information in our model. Finally, we conduct comprehensive experiments in three real-world applications— relationship prediction, semi-supervised clustering and noisy image classification, showing that our proposed model is able to properly exploit side information for more effective learning both in theory and practice.


A much repeated strand of analysis in the banking crisis has been the issue of financial engineering gone wrong. Problems are attributed to innovative financial products so complex that risk and even ownership became untrackable. Characterising the financial products and transactions that led to the crisis primarily as financial engineering, however, tends to gloss over the other innovative skills and creative participants involved in their construction. This paper demonstrates that the significant practices behind the banking crisis involved not just financial engineering but legal engineering, legal engineering designed to systematically thwart regulation and bypass regulatory control. The paper, first, analyses the role of legal engineering in the banking crisis, showing it to have been a conscious strategy in which regulatory circumvention, complexity and opacity were integral parts. It then sets out some specific implications for future practice in business, government, regulation and the professions, and argues the need not just for new law and regulation, but more fundamentally for a new respect for the rule of law, for a new legal integrity, in both business and the professions.


To stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity, there is an urgent need to distinguish between effective and ineffective approaches for protecting species habitats. Using Google Earth Engine and 30 years of Landsat images, we quantify habitat change for 24 vertebrates on the U.S. Endangered Species List (ESA) and IUCN Red List across different categories of land ownership (e.g., federal, state, and private) that are subject to different conservation-focused legal restrictions. These estimates exclude changes due to agricultural conversion and burned areas. Imperiled species evaluated lost the least habitat (3.6%) on federal lands, while losses on private lands without conservation easements were more than twice as great (8.1%). Differences in annual percent loss before and after species were placed on the Endangered Species List, and between ESA and Red List species suggest that the ESA limited habitat loss and was most effective on federal lands. These results emphasize the importance of federal lands for protecting habitat for imperiled species and highlight the need to improve habitat protection on private lands for long-term conservation.


In the present study an attempt was made to explore the level of GST literacy among the tax professionals to gauge the preparedness of the tax professionals, to identify the reasons of non-implementation of GST in India in the opinion of the tax professionals in India and to evaluate the implications of the GST on Indian Economy. The study revealed that there is adequate GST literacy amongst the tax professionals. The result of the study showed that GST is a better indirect taxation system and most of the business houses want GST to be implemented as soon as possible. The respondents have opined strongly that GST implementation will have multiple benefits to our economy by positively affecting the economic growth, share market. But in most of the occasions the respondents felt that implementation of GST is difficult in India due to the political unwillingness, bureaucratic delay and the failure of the past and present Government to take the opposition in to confidence.


• The exit consent technique refers to an offer by a bond issuer to all the bondholders to exchange the existing bonds for new bonds or other types of securities, on the condition that the tendering bondholders must consent to a resolution which will amend the terms of the existing bonds so as to make the bonds less attractive.
• In Marblegate and Caesars, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the relevant exit consent in each case violated Section 316(b) of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 (US) on the basis that Section 316(b) prohibits not only impairment of a dissenting bondholder's formal right to payment, but also 'practical impairment' of such right. This article argues that there is no sufficient justification for giving Section 316(b) a broader interpretation than its plain language suggests. Such an interpretation is inconsistent with the legislative history of Section 316(b) and how the term 'impairment of a right' is used in other contexts. In January 2017, in a 2:1 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the district court's ruling in Marblegate, holding that Section 316(b) only prohibits non-consensual amendments to an indenture's core payment terms.
• In Assenagon, the UK High Court held that the exit consent arrangement in that case was unlawful because it breached the abuse principle under English law. This article argues that the application of the abuse principle in exit consent cases should be considered in light of the factual context and the parties' presumed intention. It is difficult to see how a consenting bondholder abuses its power when it is simply making a rational choice. Furthermore, it cannot possibly be the parties' presumed intention that, when the issuer has made an exchange offer coupled with an exit consent, the consenting bondholder is required to prioritise the interests of the dissenting bondholders over its own interest.


There is no doubt that IT (Information Technology) has created new horizons and empowered tourism production globally. On the antipode, the extent of IT use defers from region to region. The nature of tourist product is based on information. Since IT gives to firms and destinations the opportunity of global coverage it becomes an increasingly important mean for products' and services' promotion and distribution. Through the consumers' interaction, the tourist offices can attract the interest and the participation of the customers, gather information according their preferences, and use them in order to produce specialised programs of communication and services. On the other hand, the use of IT has led to the increase of tourist offices' antagonism, since the opportunity on products' and services' improvement has given in all firms. Furthermore, there was a creation of a new dynamic focusing on the cost decrease of the provided products, and the better service of customers.

The aim of this study is to investigate the Greek tourist offices' IT use on Business to Business (B2B) relations, their employees' IT training and education, and the opportunities and technical hitches created by IT use. Moreover it examines the differentiations of the expressed perceptions between the tourist offices situated in the capital of the country (Athens), and in the metropolitan city (Heraklion) of the most famous destination in Greece (island of Crete). It also analyses all the expressed perspectives toward three socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents: age, level of education, and work experience in the attempt to derive enhanced knowledge and relevancies.

The study was conducted in Heraklion and Athens from June till August 2010. The respondents were the owners / managers of the examined tourist offices. In order to develop the questionnaire, the research questions from the literature review were used. The questionnaire contained 21 close ended statements using a five degree Likert Scale (1: Strongly Agree, 5: Strongly Disagree). The statements focused on the effects of I.T. in Business to Business (B2B) (six statements), on the employees' I.T. training and education (eight statements) and on the threats and opportunities created by I.T. use (seven statements). There were also three socio-demographic questions focused on age, level of education and work time experience in the managerial post the respondents had during the period the research was conducted.

The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (S.P.S.S., 16.0). In order to identify statistically significant relationships there was an analysis using T-test, and One-Way ANOVA. Furthermore, when independent variables were ordinal, Spearman's ρ correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength and the direction of the relationship. The null hypothesis for all tests was based of statistical significance at the level of 0.05.

Internationally, many destinations and their tourism enterprises have to face the over-centralised administrative systems that mainly produced by the public sector. Hence the paper's suggestions can be implemented in international level. The research indicates that the companies do not actually seem to fully take advantage of the IT beneficial impacts, and the degree of enterprising focus on traditional operative patterns. They also provide a clear understanding on the IT necessity in over-centralised states and countries, and the prospects they create in modern peripheral business. Furthermore, they highlight the necessity of IT in tourism enterprising and the dependence of tourism industry in modern operative techniques. Additionally, they give evidence on the influence of the sample's socio-demographic characteristics' change concerning the acceptance, the adaptation, the use and the enterprising evolution on IT and tourism. Conclusively, methodologies are suggested ways that IT in tourism can be more acceptable from the industry's enterprises and strengthens the overall tourism production.


The Germanic languages allow floating negated quantifiers (The children have not all not eaten) while the Romance languages do not. The Germanic languages also allow negation to take inverse scope over a universal quantifier (All the children have not eaten) whereas the Romance languages are very restrictive in their handling of ∀¬ word order. Based mainly on the theory of negation in Zeijlstra (2004), the Stranding Analysis of floating quantifiers of Sportiche (1988) and Giusti (1990), and the Neg Stranding Hypothesis of Cirillo (2009), it will be argued that these two differences between Germanic and Romance are attributable to one sole difference: Negation is a functional category in Romance but not in Germanic.


In the spring of 1964, the Nankai Hawks of Japan's Pacific League sent nineteen-year-old Masanori Murakami to the Class A Fresno Giants to improve his skills. To nearly everyone's surprise, Murakami, known as Mashi, dominated the American hitters. With the San Francisco Giants caught in a close pennant race and desperate for a left-handed reliever, Masanori was called up to join the big league club, becoming the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues. Featuring pinpoint control, a devastating curveball, and a friendly smile, Mashi became the Giants' top lefty reliever and one of the team's most popular players-as well as a national hero in Japan. Not surprisingly, the Giants offered him a contract for the 1965 season. Murakami signed, announcing that he would be thrilled to stay in San Francisco. There was just one problem: the Nankai Hawks still owned his contract. The dispute over Murakami's contract would ignite an international incident that ultimately prevented other Japanese players from joining the Majors for thirty years. Mashi is the story of an unlikely hero who gets caught up in an American and Japanese baseball dispute and is forced to choose between his dreams in the United States or his duty in Japan.


Albinism is a genetic defect characterized by a loss of pigmentation. The neurosensory retina, which is not pigmented, exhibits pathologic changes secondary to the loss of pigmentation in the retina pigment epithelium (RPE). How the loss of pigmentation in the RPE causes developmental defects in the adjacent neurosensory retina has not been determined, but offers a unique opportunity to investigate the interactions between these two important tissues. One of the genes that causes albinism encodes for an orphan GPCR (OA1) expressed only in pigmented cells, including the RPE. We investigated the function and signaling of OA1 in RPE and transfected cell lines. Our results indicate that OA1 is a selective L-DOPA receptor, with no measurable second messenger activity from two closely related compounds, tyrosine and dopamine. Radiolabeled ligand binding confirmed that OA1 exhibited a single, saturable binding site for L-DOPA. Dopamine competed with L-DOPA for the single OA1 binding site, suggesting it could function as an OA1 antagonist. OA1 response to L-DOPA was defined by several common measures of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) activation, including influx of intracellular calcium and recruitment of β-arrestin. Further, inhibition of tyrosinase, the enzyme that makes L-DOPA, resulted in decreased PEDF secretion by RPE. Further, stimulation of OA1 in RPE with L-DOPA resulted in increased PEDF secretion. Taken together, our results illustrate an autocrine loop between OA1 and tyrosinase linked through L-DOPA, and this loop includes the secretion of at least one very potent retinal neurotrophic factor. OA1 is a selective L-DOPA receptor whose downstream effects govern spatial patterning of the developing retina. Our results suggest that the retinal consequences of albinism caused by changes in melanin synthetic machinery may be treated by L-DOPA supplementation.


Sounds American: National Identity and the Music Cultures of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1800-1860. By Ann Ostendorf. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. Pp. 272. Cloth, $69.95; paper, $24.95.)Reviewed by Robyn Lily DavisDiversity is a hallmark of the American experience, but so too is the disquietude that comes from living among others. During the early republic and antebellum eras, this was nowhere more evident than in the lower Mississippi River Valley. In the sixty years spanning purchase to secession, the area from St. Louis to New Orleans was awash in diverse newcomers as slave-holding Americans bent on expansion, creoles fleeing unrest in the Caribbean, displaced Natives, and a motley mix of Europeans seeking asylum and opportunity poured in. These migrants only added to the region's entrenched ethnic, racial, and cultural melange, encompassing as it did Native Atakapas, Caddos, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Natchez, Opelousas, and Quapaws; the Acadians; French and Spanish colonials with their bondsmen and women; a smattering of native-born Americans; and assorted Europeans. At a time when an American identity was still being defined and articulated, when national unity remained a sought-after if elusive goal, this region's extreme heterogeneity was particularly significant. In Ann Ostendorf's Sounds American: National Identity and the Music Cultures of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1800-1860, the territory and its people serve as a microcosm of the nation itself and a case study for the ways in which Americans made, consumed, and defined music to alleviate the anxieties of being, and being among, the Other.By the early republic, writes Ostendorf, Americans were an apprehensive people. Riddled with insecurities and foreboding, troubled by the lack of a unique, agreed-upon, and visible national culture, and worried that without one, the nation would fail, geographic expansion and increasing diversity heightened a perceived need for national unity. That need was pressing indeed, since unity was deemed a prerequisite to a national culture. The lack of a national culture was itself profoundly threatening, since real independence could not exist without it. Ostendorf turns to an array of theoretical models to describe how Americans responded to repeated calls for a national culture to serve as handmaiden to the new nation in its ongoing and seemingly urgent process of selfidentification. Borrowing explanatory methodologies from race theory, theater history, literary criticism, postcolonial studies, and sociology, Ostendorf argues in part that ethnicity and race are American inventions, emerging from a process of characterization that was ongoing in the nineteenth century, as labels were applied to various groups upon arrival. By drawing such exclusionary boundaries, people and groups could define themselves by that which they were not. This work of characterizing difference itself became an integrative, nationalizing experience, and the creation of a uniquely American identity and culture emerged from the labeling of things considered to be not American.Neither an ethnographic investigation into actual music cultures, nor an explanation of musical adaptation and transmission, Sounds American instead is a study of how Americans perceived differences. Exquisitely careful to explain that race and ethnicity can neither be used interchangeably nor defined with precision, Ostendorf nonetheless argues that for Americans of all stripes in the nineteenth century, music ways were seen as intimately connected to amorphous and fluid concepts of race and ethnicity. Labeling music ways as ethnic or racial permitted residents in a young America to identify themselves and to distinguish others. And just as the distinctions of ethnicity and race were American productions, so too were the ethnic music genres that developed over the course of the century, emerging from the discursive practices that Americans employed to make meaning through, and give meaning to, music. …


Single-atom catalysts (SAs) with the maximum atom utilization and breakthrough activities toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) have attracted considerable research interests. Uncovering the nature of single-atom metal centers under operating electrochemical condition is highly significant for improving their catalytic performance, yet is poorly understood in most studies. Herein, Pt single atoms anchoring on the nitrogen-carbon substrate (PtSA /N-C) as a model system are utilized to investigate the dynamic structure of Pt single-atom centers during the HER process. Via in situ/operando synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, an intriguing structural reconstruction at atomic level is identified in the PtSA /N-C when it is subjected to the repetitive linear sweep voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry scanning. It demonstrates that the PtN bonding tends to be weakened under cathodic potentials, which induces some Pt single atoms to dynamically aggregate into forming small clusters during the HER reaction. More importantly, experimental evidence and/or indicator is offered to correlate the observed Tafel slope with the dynamic structure of Pt catalysts. This work provides an evident understanding of SAs under electrocatalytic process and offers informative insights into constructing efficient catalysts at atomic level for electrochemical water-splitting system.