We propose a deductive extension of the spreadsheet paradigm as the basis for an automated assistant for the daily reasoning and decision-making needs of computer users, in the same way as a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel assists them every day with calculations simple and complex. Users without formal training in Logic or even Computer Science can interactively define logical rules in the same simple way as they define formulas in Excel. These rules are immediately evaluated thereby returning lists of values that satisfy them, again just like with numerical formulas. The deductive component is seamlessly integrated into the traditional spreadsheet so that a user not only still has access to the usual functionalities, but is able to mix deductive reasoning and numerical calculation.


In recent years, the increasing revenue from the MICE industry has had a significant role in helping to boost the Thai economy. Statistics compiled by the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018a) show that, from 2014 to 2017, the revenue from the MICE industry had fluctuated. However, it peaked at 86,188 million Baht (approximately 1,998 million GBP) in 2017. Because of the size of income generated, Thailand strives to promote the MICE sector in order to increase revenues and establish Thailand as Asia's business events hub. Therefore, Thailand should be able to attract and retain both current and potential MICE customers. The aim of this research is to ascertain destination images of Thailand for meetings/conferences purposes from current MICE customers based in Thailand and to explore the perceptions of potential MICE customers based in the United Kingdom. In terms of data collection, a mixed methods approach has been adopted. For the first stage of the research qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured interviews were used to obtain grounded knowledge of experiences and attitudes of current host organisers in relation to for example, reasons for selecting Thailand for meetings/conferences, attitude and views after organising meetings/conferences in Thailand. Next, quantitative data was collected through questionnaires in order to measure the perceptions of potential MICE organisers from international companies whose offices are located in the North West of England. They have never used Thailand for MICE purposes. Three main findings from the research are as follows: 1. The destination image components of Thailand are divided into general destination image characteristics and MICE-specific destination image characteristics, 2. The perceptions of potential international companies includes two sub-sections: Thailand's destination attractiveness attributes and Thailand's MICE industry attributes, and 3. The similarities and differences between the images of Thailand held internally to the country and the perceptions held overseas of the MICE in Thailand. As such, the findings are expected to contribute to theoretical and practical knowledge. In particular this study fills an identified gap regarding destination images, perceptions and the MICE industry in Thailand. It is therefore expected to be able to inform policy making, marketing and the funding of product and facilities development in Thailand.


Using the light-cone from the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation horizon-AGN, we produced a photometric catalogue over 0 < z < 4 with apparent magnitudes in COSMOS, Dark Energy Survey, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)-like, and Euclid-like filters at depths comparable to these surveys. The virtual photometry accounts for the complex star formation history (SFH) and metal enrichment of horizon-AGN galaxies, and consistently includes magnitude errors, dust attenuation, and absorption by intergalactic medium. The COSMOS-like photometry is fitted in the same configuration as the COSMOS2015 catalogue. We then quantify random and systematic errors of photometric redshifts, stellar masses, and star formation rates (SFR). Photometric redshifts and redshift errors capture the same dependencies on magnitude and redshift as found in COSMOS2015, excluding the impact of source extraction. COSMOS-like stellar masses are well recovered with a dispersion typically lower than 0.1 dex. The simple SFHs and metallicities of the templates induce a systematic underestimation of stellar masses at z < 1.5 by at most 0.12 dex. SFR estimates exhibit a dust-induced bimodality combined with a larger scatter (typically between 0.2 and 0.6 dex). We also use our mock catalogue to predict photometric redshifts and stellar masses in future imaging surveys. We stress that adding Euclid near-infrared photometry to the LSST-like baseline improves redshift accuracy especially at the faint end and decreases the outlier fraction by a factor ∼2. It also considerably improves stellar masses, reducing the scatter up to a factor 3. It would therefore be mutually beneficial for LSST and Euclid to work in synergy.


A financial institution such as a bank is ultimately exposed to macroeconomic fluctuations in the countries to which it has exposure, the most acute example being commercial lending to companies whose fortunes fluctuate with aggregate demand. It was this risk management need for financial institutions which motivated us to build a compact global macroeconometric model capable of generating (point as well as density) forecasts for a core set of macroeconomic factors for a set of regions and countries which explicitly allows for interconnections and dependencies that exist between national and international factors in a coherent and consistent manner. This paper provides such a global modeling framework by making use of recent advances in the analysis of cointegrating systems. In an unrestricted VAR model covering N countries/regions, the number of unknown parameters will be unfeasibly large (around p(4N-1)+1, where p is the order of the VAR), requiring a more parsimonious solution. We first estimate individual country (or region) specific vector error correcting models, where the domestic macroeconomic variables are related to corresponding foreign variables constructed exclusively to match the international trade pattern of the country under consideration. The individual country models are then combined in a consistent and cohesive manner to generate forecasts for all the variables in the world economy simultaneously. We estimate the model using quarterly data from 1979Q1 to 1999Q1 and perform contagion analysis by investigating the transmission of shocks of one variable to the rest of the world.


We present a process for the production of isoprene via the fermentation of glucose. Based on our current specifications, we conclude that the use of recombinant E.coli for the fermentation of glucose is a novel yet unprofitable venture. Our current design entails the continuous production of isoprene using 3 pre-seed, 3 seed, and 5 production fermenters each with a production fermentation time of 72 hours. Our scheduling of the fermenters allowed us to produce isoprene continuously at a steady rate, and the liquid by-products of the fermentation were removed and sterilized at the end of each batch. Isoprene was mainly present in the vapor phase during the fermentation and was purified using a combination of an absorption using ISOPAR v, stripping with steam, and separation using a flash vessel. It was desired that the fermentation was operated near the minimum oxygen concentration (MOC) as such conditions allowed for the highest production rate of isoprene based on the preliminary studies done by Chotani in their patent. The fermentation was operated at 34 °C and 1.7 bar with glucose and oxygen as the reactants producing isoprene, carbon dioxide, and water as the products. The results of our design suggest that the price of isoprene is too low when compared to the costs of raw materials, making this process economically unfeasible under present market conditions. We project that $4.08 worth of glucose will be need for each pound of isoprene which currently goes for $0.79/lb. Additionally, the metabolic pathway of isoprene is highly exothermic, requiring large utility requirements in terms of chilled water to remove heat from the fermenters. We are unsure of impacts of rapidly changing the temperature of E.Coli on production as there is no data regarding the robustness of the strain. Overall, the fixed capitals costs incurred make this process even more unappealing for further consideration. Disciplines Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Chemical Engineering | Engineering This working paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cbe_sdr/79


In this article, I argue that we can construct a new kind of account of constitutional doctrine, in which courts implement a handful of abstract norms — for example: "states may not undermine the constitutional structure" — with different doctrinal devices depending on the practical problems of implementation in different contexts. The central insight is that if we look carefully, we can find patterns in the forests of convoluted constitutional doctrine. These patterns suggest deep and long-lived consensuses on certain fundamental constitutional requirements; and we can explain a great deal of constitutional doctrine with these basic consensus norms and jettison standard justifications that make many of these doctrines controversial. This is surprising, and runs against the conventional picture of constitutional theory and practice as dominated by battles between incommensurable theories of value or constitutional interpretation. This account is preferable to conventional views on criteria for selecting among competing theories developed in the philosophy of science: It is consistent with our best general theory of law, legal positivism; it can advance constitutional theory beyond the interpretive debates in which the research program often seems mired; and it is simpler, more capacious, and more fruitful for future research than conventional accounts. At a time when it seems that we are fundamentally divided on nearly every constitutional question, this approach can begin dispelling this appearance by providing an alternative to constitutional theory's traditional focus on interpretive and value controversies and by countering the increasing politicization of constitutional questions with evidence that we actually agree on important constitutional matters.


The purpose of this paper is to examine patterns of nutrition within a village community in Hungary during the interwar years (1919-1945). At that time Hungary acquired its present-day borders and came to be ruled by an inflexible government reluctant to carry out badly needed reform. Hungarians experienced a wide range of problems, one of which was rural poverty. One index of poverty is food deprivation which can be assessed from contemporary documents as well as the testimony of those who experienced it. Peasants during these years suffered grave food shortages and became the most discontented segment of society. Had the regime listened to their complaints, the post-World War II communist regime would have had less reason and fewer allies to apply the amount of force it did for the reorganization of rural society.


The author examines the emerging impact of the works of the "New Aesthetic," along with other works that have their genesis in the rapid technological changes of the last fifty-plus years. Consideration is given to the history of digital audio/visual works that will eventually be held by repositories of cultural heritage and how this history has, or has not, been documented. These creations have developed out of an environment of networked, shared, re-usable and re-purposed data. The article briefly examines how these works are utilized while looking at the future impact of the growing creation and use of complex, compound multimedia digital research and cultural collections as evidenced by augmented and virtual reality environments such as smartphone apps and Second Life.


Tree-based scan path architectures have recently been suggested for reducing test application time or test data volume in today's high-density very large scale integrated circuits. However, these techniques strongly rely on the existence of a large number of compatible sets of flip-flops under the given test set and therefore may not be suitable for a highly compact test set generated by an efficient automatic test pattern generator tool. Tree-based architectures also suffer from loss of fault coverage while achieving a significant reduction ratio for test time or data. In this paper, to circumvent this problem, a new two-pass hybrid method is proposed to design an efficient scan tree architecture based on approximate compatibility. The method is particularly suitable for a highly compact test set having fewer don't cares and low compatibility. Finally, to reduce the volume of scan-out data, test responses shifted out from the leaf nodes of the scan tree are compacted by a space compactor, which is designed specially for the proposed scan tree architecture. The compactor uses an XOR tree, and its overhead is low. The design thus offers a solution to both test data and response compaction. Experimental results on various benchmark circuits demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the earlier methods in reducing test application time significantly without degrading fault coverage.


There is no such thing as an accurate record of the labors of the 112 (so far) Justices of the Supreme Court. And that makes the development and presentation of accurate "Supreme Court Sluggers" statistics a never-ending adventure. Which is not to say that the official records of the Court's work – the reports of its decisions and opinions (in the U.S. Reports), and the minutes of its proceedings (in the Court's Journal) – are dangerously unreliable; indeed, for recent years they seem to be very nearly perfect. Rather, it is to say that imperfections do exist and, roughly speaking, the farther back in time you go, the more incomplete and uneven you will find those records to be. It is a tendency that also holds for records of the Justices' work in chambers, on circuit, and in the lower federal courts, and for records of their work as members of inferior courts before their elevation to the Court. Unofficial reports and other sources, though occasionally useful for filling gaps, are sometimes faulty and often incomplete.As the Green Bag digs into ever-older records to produce trading cards of past members of the Court, this problem will get worse. Consider two sets of 19th-century examples (fleshed out below), dealing with two basic questions we must answer about each case included in the "Sluggers" statistics: (1) when was it decided – that is, to which term of Court should statistics about that case be assigned – and (2) who participated – that is, to which Justices should credit of some sort be given for this piece of the Court's work? In a distressingly large and uncertain number of cases, a just-look-it-up-online researcher will find the wrong answer, and even a look-it-up-in-the-U.S.-Reports researcher will get it wrong some of the time.


Abstract The need for adequate systems to guarantee the quality of food products has become more and more obvious in recent years. As a consequence, not only in Germany but throughout the world, the number of certification schemes has been increasing for nearly a decade. Due to the implementation of these standards in various countries, a considerable number of contingency factors exist that may influence the effectiveness and efficiency of such schemes. These factors include the diverse political, economic and social conditions in the different countries. Numerous studies attribute a decisive role in the successful implementation of management instruments to cultural influences. Cultural conditions may differ considerably from region to region around the world. Against the background of this multiplicity of cultures, this study analyses the impact of cultural context on the way certification schemes are implemented and work in different parts of the world. Based on theories concerning the influence of culture on the implementation of certification schemes, an empirical study was devised and conducted in 2008. Ninety-six respondents answered the extensive questionnaire, which helped identify how cultural differences are perceived by auditors and how these differences influence the implementation, effectiveness and efficiency of certification schemes. Based on the results, the authors formulate recommendations for standard setters and auditors, as well as the companies that implement these standards.


Scientists and policymakers alike frequently call for the elimination of rhetoric from discussions of climate science. These calls betray some fundamental misunderstandings about the 2500‐year‐old art of rhetoric. Once these are dispelled, it becomes apparent that what we need for effective climate‐science debate is not less rhetoric but more: that is, more sensitivity to the political frame within which every debate takes place and how that frame shapes deliberation; more awareness of the unstated values and assumptions supporting statements made on all sides; more ways to link climate to stakeholders' daily lives, values, and decisions. This article briefly introduces readers to the history and theory of rhetoric for two purposes: (1) explaining the various and sometimes contradictory ways in which this ancient discipline shapes the communication of climate science and (2) providing readers with a few simple but powerful tools for coping with climate debates. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e452. doi: 10.1002/wcc.452


Endodontic therapy consists in the management of several tissues such as pulp tissue, periodontal tissue, periapical bone and dentine. These tissues are often contaminated by blood, periapical exudates and biological fluids. An ideal orthograde or retrograde filling material should be non toxic, noncarcinogenic, nongenotoxic, biocompatible with the host tissues, insoluble in tissue fluids, and dimensionally stable.
Calcium-silicate MTA based cements own many of these ideal characteristics, but the long setting time, the non-easy handling and the lack of mechanical properties at early times are few drawbacks which may complicate the clinical application.
The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical, physical and biological properties of calcium-silicate MTA cements in order to improve the mechanical properties and the handling keeping the biological characteristics unchanged.
Chemical and physical properties such as setting time, solubility, water-uptake, ion release, sealing ability were investigated according the ISO and ADA specifications. The bioactivity (ability to produce apatite nano-sferulities) of MTA cements were evaluated using ESEM/EDX, micro-Raman and ATR/FTIR spettroscopy.


Objective: The objective of this study was to examine patterns of douching practices and their association to vaginal infection among Hausa-Fulani pregnant women in Zaria, Northwest Nigeria.
Study design: This health facility-based study was a descriptive cross-sectional investigation, with laboratory analysis for bacterial vaginosis and other vaginal flora.
Results: Of 220 participants, 85.5% consented to regular douching practices. Commonly identified methods of douching were using hand to insert plain water (80.0%), insertion of toilet soap (55.0%), using warm water plus disinfectant/salt/ black soap (18.6%) and using a jet or stream of water (8.6%). Frequent douching was associated with douching during bathing (69.5%), after passing urine (34.1%), after sexual intercourse (16.4%), before sexual intercourse (5.9%) and at any other times (6.8%). Pregnant women who douche using fingers to insert plain water were over 1½ times more likely to have bacterial vaginosis (χ²=1.30, P-value=0.25, OR=1.67, 95% CI: 0.69, 4.09) and those who douche after sexual intercourse were about 3½ times more likely to develop Bacterial vaginosis (χ²=8.88, P-value=0.003, OR=3.42, 95% CI: 1.47, 7.93). Douching during bathing and after sexual intercourse were more prevalent among subjects aged Bacterial vaginosis positive women aged 30-34 years (100.0%) and those aged 35-39 years (75.0%) respectively.
Conclusions: The practice of douching was common among the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group in Nigeria. Further studies are desirable to confirm douching practices and various vaginal pathology for effective control, education, and management of female genital tract.


The assumption that a cell's differentiation and maturation could not be reversed was first upended by work showing that a nucleus from a mature, specialized cell could be made to restart development as if it were young and later by other work showing that adding a few genes to mature cells in a laboratory dish could prompt them to behave like cells in early embryos. The two results netted John Gurdon of the University of Cambridge and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and the University of California, San Francisco, this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. The pair's work "revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop," the Nobel committee wrote in its award announcement.


This study presents the "overview of TCP performance on satellite communication networks", aimed at satellite characteristics, their effects on throughput selected link control protocols and various method proposed for enhancing TCP throughput on satellite networks. Literature reviews on satellite link characteristics and their effects on TCP operation in satellite communication networks. Different improve strategies that have been proposed to enhance TCP data throughput on satellite links. The choice of frame size (n in bits) and window size (W in number of frames) used to improve data throughput on satellite links were considered in this study. Also, the role of sliding window flow control protocol was considered. However, the sliding window method ensures that traffic congestion on the networks is minimized and also, increases the TCP throughput in satellite communication networks.


This paper recasts the dichotomous view of gradualist vs. abrupt creolization as a continuum. It is suggested that the rapidity of creolization would ultimately depend, not on linguistic factors, but rather on the social conditions of the contact situation (Thomason and Kaufman 1988: 35). In such a continuum model, the cognitive processes (e.g. perceptual salience and frequency effects) play an important role. Within this model, two recent changes in Daman Creole Portuguese (DCP) are examined: the development of sә naw 'if not, otherwise' as a coordinate conjunction 'and' that only conjoins sentences, and the emergence of dә 'of, from' as a multi-functional preposition with the meanings 'from, of, in, on, to'. It is argued that both changes can be accounted for by appealing to perceptual salience and frequency effects within the social context of the youngest speakers of DCP.


In this study, we propose a research model to assess the effect of a mobile health (mHealth) app on exercise motivation and physical activity of individuals based on the design and self-determination theory. The research model is formulated from the perspective of motivation affordance and gamification. We will discuss how the use of specific gamified features of the mHealth app can trigger/afford corresponding users' exercise motivations, which further enhance users' participation in physical activity. We propose two hypotheses to test the research model using a field experiment. We adopt a 3-phase longitudinal approach to collect data in three different time zones, in consistence with approach commonly adopted in psychology and physical activity research, so as to reduce the common method bias in testing the two hypotheses.


ABSTRACT Streptomyces leeuwenhoekii, isolated from the hyperarid Atacama Desert, produces the new ansamycin-like compounds chaxamycins A to D, which possess potent antibacterial activity and moderate antiproliferative activity. We report the development of genetic tools to manipulate S. leeuwenhoekii and the identification and partial characterization of the 80.2-kb chaxamycin biosynthesis gene cluster, which was achieved by both mutational analysis in the natural producer and heterologous expression in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) strain M1152. Restoration of chaxamycin production in a nonproducing ΔcxmK mutant (cxmK encodes 3-amino-5-hydroxybenzoic acid [AHBA] synthase) was achieved by supplementing the growth medium with AHBA, suggesting that mutasynthesis may be a viable approach for the generation of novel chaxamycin derivatives.


Previously, compiler transformations have primarily focussed on minimizing program execution time. This thesis explores some examples of applying compiler technology outside of its original scope. Specifically, we apply compiler analysis to the field of software maintenance and evolution by examining the use of global data throughout the lifetimes of many open source projects. Also, we investigate the effects of compiler optimizations on the power consumption of small battery powered devices. Finally, in an area closer to traditional compiler research we examine automatic program parallelization in the form of thread-level speculation.


Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was one of the most popular British book illustrators of the Victorian era. A contemporary of Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, she attracted a wide audience in the United States and England, and many of her books were even translated into German and French. One of Greenaway's early successes was "Mother Goose", or the "Old Nursery Rhymes", first published in 1881, featuring such favorite poems as "Little Jack Horner," "Little Bo Peep," and "Jack and Jill" paired with whimsical illustrations of children playing in an idyllic countryside. Her enchanting watercolors evoked the urban Victorian reader's nostalgia for the rural life of earlier times and echoed Greenaway's own longing to retreat to a more tranquil setting than her native London. This new edition of Kate Greenaway's "Mother Goose" reproduces illustrations from the rare 1881 edition in the Huntington Library's collections. The Huntington owns an extensive collection of books illustrated by Greenaway, several of her manuscripts, and nearly one hundred of her original drawings.


The relative contribution of viral lysis to overall mortality in aquatic bacterial populations is often estimated as twice the frequency of infected cells (FIC). The 'factor-of-two rule' upon which this estimate is based assumes ( l ) steady-state conditions, (2) that latent period is equivalent to generation time, and (3) that infected cells are not grazed. FIC values for this calculation are themselves derived from measurements of the frequency of vlsibly infected cells (FVIC) by the use of a slmple conversion factor. A steady-state model was developed to more ngorously define the relationships between FIC, FVIC, and the fraction of mortality from viral lysis (FMVL). This model shows that even under the restrictive assumptions listed above, the factor-of-two rule systematically overestimates FMVL for typically reported values of FVIC. The model also shows that although grazing on infected cells further reduces FMVL for a given estimate of FIC, at the same time such grazing increases FIC for a given measurement of FVIC. In combination, these 2 effects mnimize the influence of grazing on the calculation of FMVL from FVIC. Overall, the relationship between FMVL and FVIC is well approxin~ated as follows: FMVL S FVIC/[y ln(2) (1 E FVIC)], where y = the ratio between the latent period and generation time, and E = the fraction of the latent period during which viral particles are not yet visible. Using typically observed values of FVIC, and assuming that y = 1 (per assumption 2, above) and E = 0 186 (per literature estimates), the model suggests that, on average, viral lysis accounts for approximately 22% (range: 4.5 to 45'::) of total bacterial mortality in a range of aquatic environments, corresponding to a mean overestimate of 24 % (range: 4 to 44'%) by the factor-of-two rule. Perhaps most importantly, the model shows that calculations of FMVL from FIC or FVIC are very sensitive to changes in the relative length of the latent period (y) and in the assumed proportion of the latent period during which viral particles are not recognizable ( E ) . Constraining these 2 factors would greatly improve the reliability of FMVL calculations.


Genetic risk factors for intracranial aneurysm (IA) are not yet fully understood. Genomewide association studies have been successful at identifying common variants; however, the role of rare variation in IA susceptibility has not been fully explored. In this study, we report the use of whole exome sequencing (WES) in seven densely-affected families (45 individuals) recruited as part of the Familial Intracranial Aneurysm study. WES variants were prioritized by functional prediction, frequency, predicted pathogenicity, and segregation within families. Using these criteria, 68 variants in 68 genes were prioritized across the seven families. Of the genes that were expressed in IA tissue, one gene (TMEM132B) was differentially expressed in aneurysmal samples (n=44) as compared to control samples (n=16) (false discovery rate adjusted p-value=0.023). We demonstrate that sequencing of densely affected families permits exploration of the role of rare variants in a relatively common disease such as IA, although there are important study design considerations for applying sequencing to complex disorders. In this study, we explore methods of WES variant prioritization, including the incorporation of unaffected individuals, multipoint linkage analysis, biological pathway information, and transcriptome profiling. Further studies are needed to validate and characterize the set of variants and genes identified in this study.


From Exodus to the American Dream, from Terra Nullius to the Yellow Peril to multicultural harmony, migration has provided a rich source of myth throughout human history. It engenders dreams, fears and memories in both migrant and resident populations; giving rise to hope for a new start and a bright future, feelings of exile and alienation, nostalgia for lost homelands, dreams of belonging and entitlement, fears of invasion, dispossession and cultural extinction. It has inspired artists and writers from the time of the Ancient Testament to the contemporary age of globalisation and mass migration and it has exercised the minds of politicians from Greek and Roman times to our era of detention centres and temporary visas. This reading of Asian-Australian picture books will focus on immigrants' perception of the 'new worlds' of America and Australia. The Peasant Prince, a picture-book version of Li Cunxin's best-selling autobiography Mao's Last Dancer, sets up tensions between individual ambition and belonging, illustrated by contrasts between the Chinese story 'The Frog in the Well' and the Western fairy-tale of Cinderella, to which Li Cunxin's own trajectory from poor peasant boy in a Chinese village to international ballet star is explicitly related. Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing and The Arrival trace the journey from alienation to belonging by means of fantasy worlds encompassing both utopic and dystopic visions. By way of a conclusion, the paper considers the nature of myth as evoked and dramatised in these texts, contrasting the idea of myth as eternal truth with Roland Barthes' insistence that myth is a mechanism which transforms history into nature.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between market power, governance and patenting activity in a sample of 25 OECD countries from 1988-2007. Controlling for a wide range of innovation predictors, we report that governance quality is related positively with patenting activity in the full sample and in samples of countries with higher-than-average per-capita GDP, governance scores and economic openness. Secondly, the relationship between market power and innovation has a U-shape in the full sample, but inverted-U shape in split samples. Third, when interacted with governance, market power tends to have an offsetting effect that weakens the positive relationship between governance and innovation. These findings are robust to a range of control variables such as per-capita GDP, income inequality, depth of equity markets, labour share in national income, economic globalization and military expenditures. Our findings indicate that governance is a significant factor that explain innovation and that blanket statements about the relationship between competition and innovation as well as the kind of reforms necessary to foster innovation can be misleading.


Homosexuality is anathema to Islam - or so the majority of both believers and non-believers suppose. Throughout the Muslim world, it is met with hostility, where state punishments range from hefty fines to the death penalty. Likewise, numerous scholars and commentators maintain that the Qur'an and Hadith rule unambiguously against same-sex relations. This pioneering study argues that there is far more nuance to the matter than most believe. In its narrative of Lot, the Qur'an could be interpreted as condemning lust rather homosexuality. While some Hadith are fiercely critical of homosexuality, some are far more equivocal. This is the first book length treatment to offer a detailed analysis of how Islamic scripture, jurisprudence, and Hadith, can not only accommodate a sexually sensitive Islam, but actively endorse it.


During the past decade, MADS-box genes have become known as key regulators in both reproductive and vegetative plant development. Traditional genetics and functional genomics tools are now available to elucidate the expression and function of this complex gene family on a much larger scale. Moreover, comparative analysis of the MADS-box genes in diverse flowering and nonflowering plants, boosted by bioinformatics, contributes to our understanding of how this important gene family has expanded during the evolution of land plants. Therefore, the recent advances in comparative and functional genomics should enable researchers to identify the full range of MADS-box gene functions, which should help us significantly in developing a better understanding of plant development and evolution.


Academic literacies among high school students and university students have been a highly discussed topic for several years in Sweden as well as other countries. Results of PISA show that high school students' reading skills deteriorate and university teachers have given alarming reports on students' decreasing abilities on the critical assessment of sources and academic writing. In Sweden the new curriculum for high schools sharpens the demands on students to develop a critical and scientific approach and a main learning outcome is that high school students shall 'have the ability to critically examine and assess what they see, hear and read' and that they 'can use books, library resources and modern technology as a tool in the search for knowledge, communication, creativity and learning' (Curriculum for the Upper Secondary School 2011, p. 8f). The new curriculum is also a concern for Higher Education (HE) since it is of great importance that high school students are well prepared for University studies. The fact that more heterogenous groups of students coming from different linguistic and socio-cultural contexts get access to HE, has meant that teachers need to design new pedagogical approaches that take socially situated circumstances into account. In this paper we will present two projects conducted at Sodertorn University where the University Library has been involved in focusing both on students' academic literacies and the connection between academic and professional practice. One project is an Introduction to academic writing and concerns new students. The other one concerns teacher candidates and aims to prepare them for their future professions as high school teachers. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the University Library can collaborate with other institutions to support students to develop academic literacies that are useful for both their studies and for their future professional practice.


Fractional-pel accurate motion is widely used in video coding. For subband coding, fractional-pel accuracy is challenging since it is difficult to handle the complex motion field with temporal transforms. In our previous work, we designed integer accurate motion-adaptive transforms (MAT) which can transform integer accurate motion-connected coefficients. In this paper, we extend the integer MAT to fractional-pel accuracy. The integer MAT allows only one reference coefficient to be the lowband coefficient. In this paper, we design the transform such that it permits multiple references and generates multiple lowband coefficients. In addition, our fractional-pel MAT can incorporate a general interpolation filter into the basis vector, such that the highband coefficient produced by the transform is the same as the prediction error from the interpolation filter. The fractional-pel MAT is always orthonormal. Thus, the energy is preserved by the transform. We compare the proposed fractional-pel MAT, the integer MAT, and the half-pel motion-compensated orthogonal transform (MCOT), while HEVC intra coding is used to encode the temporal subbands. The experimental results show that the proposed fractional-pel MAT outperforms the integer MAT and the half-pel MCOT. The gain achieved by the proposed MAT over the integer MAT can reach up to 1 dB in PSNR.


A radical work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche and Marx, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. Even in the present day, despite Darwin's discoveries, nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. John Gray argues that this humanist belief in human difference is an illusion and explores how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned.


Abstract. In light of the ongoing urban sprawl reported in recent studies, accurate urban mapping is essential for assessing current status and evolve new policies, to overcome various social, environmental, and economic consequence. Imagery and LiDAR data integration densifies remotely sensed data with radiometric and geometric characteristics, respectively, for a precise segregation of different urban features. This study integrated aerial and LiDAR images using point primitives, which were obtained from running the Phase Congruency model as an image filter to detect edges and corner. The main objective is to study the effect of applying the filter at different spatial resolutions on the registration accuracy and processing time. The detected edge/corner points that are mutual in both datasets, were identified as candidate points. The Shape Context Descriptor method paired-up candidate points as final points based on a minimum correlation of 95%. Affine, second and third order polynomials, in addition to the Direct Linear Transformation models were applied for the image registration process using the two sets of final points. The models were solved using Least Squares adjustments, and validated by a set of 55 checkpoints. It was observed that with the decrease in spatial resolution, on one hand, the registration accuracy did not significantly vary. However, the consistency of the model development and model validation accuracies were enhanced, especially with the third order polynomial model. On the other hand, the number of candidate points decreased; consequently, the processing time significantly declined. The 3D LiDAR points were visualised based on the Red, Green, and Blue radiometric values that were inherited from the aerial photo. The qualitative inspection was very satisfactory, especially when examining the scene's tiny details. In spite of the interactivity in determining the candidate points, the proposed procedure overcomes the dissimilarity between datasets in terms of acquisition technique and time, and widens the tolerance of accepting points as candidates by including points that are not traditionally considered (i.e. road intersections).


In order to provide a cost effective and scalable solution for a large-scale VoD system, a number of system topologies and transmission protocols have been proposed in the literature in the past decade, such as proxy caching, content delivery network (CDN), peer-to-peer (P2P), multicast and periodic broadcast. However, these approaches have their own problems for video delivery. To compensate their disadvantages, in this paper, we develop a hybrid VoD system model that uses a P2P paradigm coupled with video broadcasting and CDN-like approach for video delivery. In the proposed architecture, the video is first partitioned into two parts. The first part of the video is transmitted among customers, watching the video, in P2P manner while the second part of the video is broadcasted periodically by the central server. This content delivery strategy allows the workload of the system disperse over the network while customers can still guarantee to obtain the service without collapsing by the dynamic nature of P2P framework. In addition, it also takes a benefit from video broadcasting. Analytical model is developed to allow system designers better understanding of system dynamics and provide guidelines for the management of design resources and realization of VoD services based on this architecture.


Orthorhombic-TaS3 is a quasi-1D material that undergoes a Peierls' transition to become a charge density wave conductor at low temperatures. Electrical transport measurements of individual single-crystalline TaS3 nanoribbons prepared by a novel bottom-up method from elemental precursors indicate a depression of the Peierls' ordering temperature to 205 K, broadening of the electric-field-induced depinning of the charge density wave below the Peierls' transition temperature, and a greatly increased threshold voltage for nucleation of charge density wave dislocations posited to be a result of surface confinement and finite size effects. Single-nanoribbon measurements of broad-band noise indicate discrete phase slip events near the depinning threshold. Three distinct regimes are identified with the normalized noise spectrum showing a distinctive maxima near the threshold voltage for depinning of the charge density wave, corresponding to sampling of different metastable states that balance ordered and sliding charge density waves.


The number of available mobile applications is steadily increasing. People have rapidly adopted application stores as means to customize their devices with various functionalities that go beyond communication. Understanding the principles of mobile application usage is crucial for supporting users within this new ecosystem. In this paper, we investigate how people organize applications they have installed on their devices. We asked more than 130 participants for their habits for icon arrangement and collected more than 1,400 screenshots of their devices' menus to further ground our findings. Based on this data we can distinguish five different concepts for arranging icons on smartphone menus, e.g. based on application usage frequency and applications' functional relatedness. Additionally, we investigated how these concepts emerge in relation to frequency of application installations, removals and icon rearrangements, as well as users' experience levels. Finally we discuss implications for the design of smartphone launchers, and highlight differences to icon arrangement on stationary computers.


Abstract. We developed a battery-powered carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement system for monitoring at the summit of Mt. Fuji (3776 m a.s.l.), which experiences very low temperatures (below −20 °C) and severe environmental conditions without access to gridded electricity for 10 months (from September to June). Our measurement system used 100 batteries to run the measurement unit during these months. These batteries were charged during the 2-month summer season when gridded electricity was available, using a specially designed automatic battery-charging system. We installed this system in summer 2009 at the Mt. Fuji weather station; observations of atmospheric CO2 concentration were taken through December 2015. Measurements were never interrupted by a lack of battery power except for two cases in which lightning damaged a control board. Thus we obtained CO2 data during about 94 % of the 6-year period. Analytical performances (stability and accuracy) were better than 0.1 ppm, as tested by checking working standards and comparisons with flask sampling. Observational results showed that CO2 mole fractions at Mt. Fuji demonstrated clear seasonal variation. The trend and the variability of the CO2 growth rate observed at Mt. Fuji were very similar to those of the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO). Seasonally, the concentration at Mt. Fuji was 2–10 ppm lower in summer and 2–12 ppm higher in winter than those at MLO. The lower concentrations at Mt. Fuji in summer are mainly attributed to episodes of air mass transport from Siberia or China, where CO2 is taken up by the terrestrial biosphere. On the other hand, the relatively higher concentrations in winter seem to reflect the high percentage of air masses originating from China or Southeast Asia during this period, which carry increased anthropogenic carbon dioxide. These results show that Mt. Fuji is not very influenced by local sources but rather by the sources and sinks over a very large region. Thus we conclude that, as this system could provide stable measurement data with relatively easy operation for 6 years at Mt. Fuji, it could be a useful monitoring technique for remote background sites elsewhere.


Two central concerns for policy makers are the manageability of the rate of migration and the qualities of incoming migrants. This paper addresses these issues by proposing a theory that links risk aversion, the size of expatriate networks, migrant characteristics and the timing of migration. As the size of networks increases over time, finding employment becomes less uncertain, inducing more risk-averse individuals to migrate. Given that recent research suggests a negative relationship between risk aversion, entrepreneurial potential and cognitive ability, the model predicts a decrease in the quality of these 'unobservable' characteristics as networks grow larger. In addition, the dynamic relationship between network size and uncertainty leads to the following hypotheses: when migrants are more reliant on networks for finding work, more individuals will migrate, they will migrate sooner and at a faster rate. I use German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) data to provide empirical support for the predictions of the theoretical model.


Stoichiometric and gallium-rich wurtzite Cu–Ga–S ternary nanocrystals were synthesized via a facile solution-based hot injection method using 1-dodecanethiol as a sulfur source. The use of 1-dodecanethiol was found to be essential not only as a sulfur source but also as a structure-directing reagent to form a metastable wurtzite structure. In addition, the substitution of zinc in the wurtzite gallium-rich Cu–Ga–S nanocrystals was also investigated. The obtained nanocrystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence (PL), and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Electronic structures of pristine and the Zn-substituted Cu–Ga–S system were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) with HSE06 exchange-correlation functional. The calculated bandgaps accurately reflect the measured ones. The allowed electronic transitions occur upon the photon absorption from the (Cu + S) band towards the (Ga + S) one. The Zn substitution was found not to contribute to the band edge structure and hence altered the bandgaps only slightly, the direct transition nature remaining unchanged with the Zn substitution. The photocatalytic activities of H2 evolution from an aqueous Na2S/Na2SO3 solution under visible-light illumination on the synthesized nanocrystals were investigated. While the stoichiometric CuGaS2 exhibited negligible activity, the gallium-rich Cu–Ga–S ternary nanocrystals displayed reasonable activity. The optimum Zn substitution in the gallium-rich Cu–Ga–S ternary nanocrystals enhanced the H2 evolution rate, achieving an apparent quantum efficiency of >6% at 400 nm.


Taking the Universities Australia report, National best practice framework for Indigenous cultural competency in Australian universities (2011) as the starting point for its discussion, this paper examines the applicability of cultural competence in the design and delivery of Australian Indigenous Studies. It argues that both the conceptual underpinnings and the operationalisation of cultural competence necessitate an over-reliance on essentialised notions of Indigeneity, cast in radical opposition to non-Indigeneity, which negate multiple and diverse expressions of Indigenous identity and lived experience. Thus, this approach perpetuates the very colonialist logics Indigenous Studies should endeavour to overcome. Secondly, it argues that cultural competency's emphasis on non-Indigenous self-reflexivity, broadly consistent as it is with both scholarship and praxis in Indigenous Studies, is represented in some of the literature as uncritical deference to an always-unified Indigeneity, thereby exacerbating the original essentialising impulse evident in the cultural competence paradigm. Therefore, this paper proposes that Indigenous Studies should explore the limits of self-reflexivity, with a view to establishing a genuinely anti-colonial/decolonising praxis that incorporates the capacity to negotiate Indigenous intracultural diversity along with other markers for identity.


ABSTRACT The emerging area of management and distribution of global energy resources presents new challenges to businesses, industries, and researchers. This paper describes a prototype used to evaluate the situation and to facilitate rapid decision-making for alternative natural gas supply sources given an unprecedented scenario. It provides a step-by-step approach to determining the best alternative based on cost and risk reduction. It incorporates data about the top exporters and importers of natural gas, their rank order, and the relationship between the importers and exporters of natural gas, as well as the factors guiding such relationships. Results of these relationships are incorporated into a database and examples are chosen to analyze for alternative selection. The solution obtained demonstrates the feasibility of developing an integrated system and its useful implementation for determining alternative sources of natural gas supplies given critical scenarios in the value chain. INTRODUCTION Despite its rapid growth in recent years, Liquefied natural gas (LNG) remains a relatively small contributor to world gas demand (under 7% of the total world gas demand in 2005) and even to total internationally traded gas, (about 22% of gas trade) according to the National Petroleum Council (2007). Pipeline gas still dominates international trade most notably supply to Western Europe from Russia, North Africa and Norway and supply to the US from Canada. With regards to regional LNG trade, the Pacific Basin and Asian markets almost double the size of the Atlantic Basin and Mediterranean markets. By end of 2010, LNG trade is expected to be more than 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf) annually from the recent 6.5 tcf, with the United States expecting most demand followed by Northern Europe, Japan, South Korea, China and India (BP, 2005). Although trade movement is lower in the Pacific, countries in this region supplied 59% of the global LNG market. In 2006 and 2007 LNG shipment rose by 11.8% and 7.3% respectively; which is in line with historical average considering increased shipments from Qatar and Nigeria (Riihl 2007 & BP 2008). Asia, recorded an incremental average of 10% in LNG imports with Japan and South Korea being the major importing nations (PRLog, 2007), while European imports rose by 20%. In 1995, there were eight LNG exporting countries and nine importing countries (Ogj, 2007). By 2007 the number has increased to 15 exporting countries and 17 importing countries. World trade in LNG reached a total of 211.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2006, an increase of 11.7% on figures for the previous year, according to Cedigaz (2008). In 2002 only 23% of world gas consumption was imported and 26% ofthat was in the form of LNG (Jensen et al., 2004). Between 2000 and 2020 world demand is forecasted to grow by 1727bcm (IEA, 2002). In the same light the US energy information administration also predicts a similar growth of 54tcf between 2005 and 2030 (EIA, 2008). With the exception of Russia and other countries of Eurasia, natural gas production is expected to represent a significant portion for exports in the Mideast (Qatar) and Africa (Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Libya). Statement of the Problem The evolution of natural gas trade between Eurasia and its western neighbors cannot be cited without upheavals. In the past, gas importing countries feared an interruption in important gas supplies for a variety of reasons such as contract disputes between Algeria and its customers (Hayes, 2006), political unrest in Indonesia (von der Mehden & Lewis, 2006) and transit country risk such as in Ukraine and Belarus for Russian exports (Victor & Victor, 2006). In March 2008 disputes between Russia and Ukraine accompanied a reduction of Russian supply for 3 days, and Turkmenistan cut supplies to Iran citing technical issues with the pipeline and a breach of pricing contract (EIA, 2008). …


The first in a series for a CEPS-EPIN project entitled "The British Question and the Search for a Fresh European Narrative" this paper is pegged on an ambitious ongoing exercise by the British government to review all the competences of the European Union. The intention is that this should provide a basis for informed debate before the referendum on the UK remaining in the EU or not, which is scheduled for 2017. This paper summarises the first six reviews, each of which runs to around 80 pages, covering foreign policy, development policy, taxation, the single market, food safety, and public health. The present authors then add their own assessments of these materials. While understandably giving due place to British interests, they are of general European relevance. The substantive conclusions of this first set of reviews are that the competences of the EU are judged by respondents to be 'about right' on the whole, which came as a surprise to eurosceptic MPs and the tabloid media. Our own view is that the reviews are objective and impressively researched, and these populist complaints are illustrating the huge gap between the views of informed stakeholders and general public opinion, and therefore also the hazard of subjecting the 'in or out' choice for decision by referendum. If the referendum is to endorse the UK's continuing membership there will have to emerge some fresh popular narratives about the EU. The paper therefore concludes with some thoughts along these lines, both for the UK and the EU as a whole.


An unprecedented booming has been witnessed in the research area of artistic style transfer ever since Gatys et al. introduced the neural method. One of the remaining challenges is to balance a trade-off among three critical aspects—speed, flexibility, and quality: (i) the vanilla optimization-based algorithm produces impressive results for arbitrary styles, but is unsatisfyingly slow due to its iterative nature, (ii) the fast approximation methods based on feed-forward neural networks generate satisfactory artistic effects but bound to only a limited number of styles, and (iii) feature-matching methods like AdaIN achieve arbitrary style transfer in a real-time manner but at a cost of the compromised quality. We find it considerably difficult to balance the trade-off well merely using a single feed-forward step and ask, instead, whether there exists an algorithm that could adapt quickly to any style, while the adapted model maintains high efficiency and good image quality. Motivated by this idea, we propose a novel method, coined MetaStyle, which formulates the neural style transfer as a bilevel optimization problem and combines learning with only a few post-processing update steps to adapt to a fast approximation model with satisfying artistic effects, comparable to the optimization-based methods for an arbitrary style. The qualitative and quantitative analysis in the experiments demonstrates that the proposed approach achieves high-quality arbitrary artistic style transfer effectively, with a good trade-off among speed, flexibility, and quality.


Kenya, like all other developing countries in the world, is faced with the task of working strategically towards the achievement of the Sustained Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. These goals whose due date of accomplishment coincides with those of the national development blueprint, namely, the Kenya Vision 2030, have become a major focus of attention in the country. Conferences, workshops, and seminars are organized throughout the country on regular bases by joint multiplicity of organizations to address modalities of ensuring a timely achievement of SDGs in the country. Universities either individually or jointly are working towards this same target. More specifically, there are great areas of concern or priority areas that the country is focusing on as a strategic focus towards the achievement of the Kenya Vision 2030 and SDGs 2030. These strategic areas of focus have been isolated and declared by the President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, as the country's "big four priority areas", namely, affordable housing, affordable health care, food security, and manufacturing as a grandiose effort towards achievement of the SDGs, Kenya Vision 2030 as well as job and wealth creation. Similarly, Mount Kenya University's top management established the Graduate Enterprise Academy (GEA) in 2013 under the direct Patronage of the university's Founder with the primary aim of assisting graduates to be job and wealth creators rather than being job seekers. So far, over twenty start-ups are running throughout the country under Graduate Enterprise Academy (GEA). Incidentally, although the Graduate Enterprise Academy's diverse areas of focus extend beyond the President of Kenya's "Big Four" to include ICT and creative arts, among others, there are justifiable cases to indicate that GEA's activities are also in support of the national "Big Four" agenda. This paper gives an exposition of different start-ups under MKU's Graduate Enterprise Academy and are show-cased as evidence of MKU's support towards the achievement of the national "Big Four" agenda. The paper covers a part of an ongoing program through desk-top analyses of reports, with an objective of show-casing MKU's contribution to the national agenda through the Graduate Enterprise Academy for possible scale - up. Published In: Bode, Freitag (Eds.): Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa - Conference Proceedings 2018. Sankt Augustin, Germany, 13-14 September 2018


V .S. Naipaul's detached and often disdainful attitude to emergent societies has made him many enemies in the Third World . and his portrayal of the black man is particularly problematic since it involves a level of aloofness and scorn not to be found even in his comments on the 'wounded civilization' of India and the 'overcrowded barracoon' of Mauritius. Black West Indians are largely missing from Naipaul's early fiction and when they do appear, in the form of characters like the black M.L.C. whose monocle falls in his soup at the Governor's dinner in The Mystic Masseur (1957) or Miss Blackie, the Tulsis' faithful retainer in A House for Mr Biswas (1961), they are usually caricatured. In his more recent novels black characters figure more prominently, but are generally held at arm's length. This journal article is available in Kunapipi: http://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol3/iss2/5


This paper introduces a management model applied to rescue a failed digital documenting services contract involving a large multinational vendor, referred to as Vendor A (VA), a large university in the United States, referred to as X University (XU). The author's objective is to tests the theory, in a case study setting, that a failed contract could be measurably salvaged through the real-time observed application of a rescue effort which emphasizes a Subordinate-Expert Empowerment (SEE) model in project rescue from its post-failure status. As a part of the literature review, an overview of project failure and varying rescue methodologies is given with an assessment of backgrounds, environments and strengths and weaknesses. Results of the study indicate the model's ability to address the difficult issues of complex contracts by placing subordinate expertise at the forefront of dilemmas to grapple with the intricacies involved in escalated scenarios. Support of the model's effectiveness was verified with a component listing of the resurrected project elements coupled with the survey results of all key individuals of the rescue process.


This book contains assessment of the progress, or the lack of it, in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through review of the assessments and of case studies, readers can draw lessons from the actions that could work to positively address the goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is designed to catalyze action in critical areas of importance to humanity and the planet. The effort to implement the SDGs, however, demands a sense of urgency in the face of environmental degradation, climate change, emerging conflicts, and growing inequality, among a number of other socio-economic problems. Five years after the launch of the 2030 Agenda, this book takes stock of how far the world has come and how we can position ourselves to achieve the global targets. The book is one of the first to assess how the implementation is impeded by the onset of COVID-19. It contains a special chapter on COVID-19 and the SDGs, while many thematic chapters on different SDGs also assess how COVID-19 adversely affects implementation, and what measures could be taken to minimize the adverse effects. This publication thus provides a fresh look at implementation of the SDGs highlighting impactful and creative actions that go beyond the business-as-usual development efforts. The volume reinforces this analysis with expert recommendations on how to support implementation efforts and achieve the SDGs through international and national strategies and the involvement of both the public and private sectors. The result is an indispensable textual tool for policy makers, academia, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the public, as we march toward the 2030 deadline. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Narinder Kakar, Vesselin Popovski, and Nicholas A. Robinson. All rights reserved.


This paper examines a number of alternative PCE price inflation measures including overall PCE inflation, PCE inflation excluding food and energy, trimmed mean PCE inflation, component-smoothed inflation, variance-weighted inflation, inflation with weights based on disaggregated regressions, and survey measures of inflation expectations. When averaging across a handful of specifications based on the primary uses of a core inflation measure three conclusions arise: 1. Inflation rates for nearly all the measures best track ex-post trend inflation or predict future overall inflation when they are averaged over a considerable number of months. Overall PCE price inflation should be averaged over 18 months or longer. A shorter averaging period is appropriate for core measures, often on the order of 12 months. 2. Even after appropriately averaging each index, core inflation indexes generally perform better than overall inflation. 3. Exclusion indexes, such as PCE excluding food and energy, perform slightly worse than many other possible core inflation measures; trimmed mean PCE, or a variance-weighted index, may be better choice for a summary inflation measure.


Transformative, innovative practices and sustainable professional development are not achieved just by attending workshops, seminars and specific designed teacher education courses, though these programmes may often include action research methodologies (Fullan, 2007; Vieira, Moreira & Peralta, 2014). Therefore, other ways for in-service teacher education should be sought, namely more flexible ways, suitable to specific educative contexts, which really address teachers' concerns and needs, enabling self-directed professional development (PD) processes and simultaneously empowering teachers and strengthening their professional knowledge (PK). To meet all these requirements we believe that besides the committed and collaborative participation of teachers, PD processes should include leadership and supervision. This paper looks at the particular case of teaching Portuguese as heritage language (PHL) in Switzerland. It analyses the PD strategy designed by the pedagogical coordinator (PC), which was based on the conclusions of a previous study on PD (Gonçalves, 2011) and followed a job embedded approach in trying a direct connection between teacher's work in the classroom and the PD teachers were provided, as argued by DiPaola and Hoy (2014). The study analyses the PD offers provided to the teachers from 2014 to 2016 in different perspectives – contents, structure, preparation, implementation, evaluation and outcomes. The data analysis indicates that the chosen PD strategy started by gathering the available knowledge, followed by putting it into circulation among the teachers, and finally tried to improve it, shaping its improvement with the active contribution of the teachers towards a joint planning of PD, which could be considered a step into co-designing teacher PD, towards its sustainability.


Studying the complex phenomenon of pattern formation created by the gene expression is a big challenge in the field of developmental biology. This spatial self-organisation autonomously emerges from the morphogenetic processes and the hierarchical organisation of biological systems seems to play a crucial role. Being able to reproduce the systems dynamics at different levels of such a hierarchy might be very useful. In this paper we propose the adoption of the agent-based model as an approach capable of capture multi-level dynamics. Each cell is modelled as an agent that absorbs and releases substances, divides, moves and autonomously regulates its gene expression. As a case study we present an agent-based model of Drosophila melanogaster morphogenesis. We then propose a formalisation of the model which clearly describe its main components. We finally show simulation results demonstrating the capability of the model of reproducing the expression pattern of the embryo.


A s they seek to find a place in and/or confront the contemporary populist zeitgeist, feminists supporting intersectional justice-claims face very real, destabilising and contradictory challenges. Intersectional feminists recognise race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and legal status as interlocking systems of oppression, and pay attention to the ways in which these particular intersections generate agency and solidarity for different kinds of women. Populism, on the other hand, is a political strategy that seeks to articulate popular grievances in a way that can unify a 'sovereign people' against corrupt and self-serving political, economic and cultural elites. It is less interested in recognising difference within its construction of the people.


One of the most promising ways to improve biometric person recognition is indisputably via information fusion, that is, to combine different sources of information. This paper proposes a novel fusion paradigm that combines heterogeneous sources of information such as user-specific, cohort and quality information. Two formulations of this problem are proposed, differing in the assumption on the independence of the information sources. Unlike the more common multimodal/multi-algorithmic fusion, the novel paradigm has to deal with information that is not necessarily discriminative but still it is relevant. The methodology can be applied to any biometric system. Furthermore, extensive experiments based on 30 face and fingerprint experiments indicate that the performance gain with respect to the baseline system is about 30%. In contrast, solving this problem using conventional fusion paradigm leads to degraded results.


HIV infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Kenya is at 18%, and has been attributed to risky injecting practices. The risk environment enabling these practices has not been explored. This paper reports findings from Access to Care, a qualitative study in Kenya. Using in-depth interviews with PWID, we explore how the introduction of needle and syringe programmes (NSP) has impacted on needle and syringe sharing. PWID report significant reductions in sharing injecting equipment following NSP, although sharing continues, linked to challenges in supply and amongst PWID living with HIV, linked to hopelessness for the future. We conclude that NSP should expand across Kenya, linked to efforts to overcome delivery challenges and efforts to support people living with HIV. Keywords: People who inject drugs, HIV, needle and syringe programme, Kenya, people living with HIV


We study the impact of loss-aversion and the threat of critical damages from insufficient pollutant abatement, which we jointly call threshold concerns, on the outcome of international environmental agreements. We aim to understand whether concerns for a critical level of damages induce cooperation among countries faced with the well-known free-riding problem, and yield sufficient emission reductions to avoid exceeding the threshold. Specifically, we focus on loss-averse countries negotiating under the threat of either high or low environmental damages. Under symmetry, when countries display identical degrees of threshold concern, we show that such beliefs have a positive effect on reducing the emission levels of both signatories to the treaty and non-signatories, leading to weakly larger coalitions of signatories than in the absence of reference dependence. We then introduce asymmetry, by allowing countries to differ in the degree of concern about the damages. We show that stable coalitions are mostly formed by the countries with higher threshold concerns. When enough countries exhibit standard preferences, the coalition size may diminish, regardless of the degree of concern by the others.


Caching content over CDNs or at the network edge has been solidified as a means to improve network cost and offer better streaming experience to users. Furthermore, nudging the users towards low-cost content has recently gained momentum as a strategy to boost network performance. We focus on the problem of optimal policy design for Network Friendly Recommendations (NFR). We depart from recent modeling attempts, and propose a Markov Decision Process (MDP) formulation. MDPs offer a unified framework that can model a user with random session length. As it turns out, many state-of-the-art approaches can be cast as subcases of our MDP formulation. Moreover, the approach offers flexibility to model users who are reactive to the quality of the received recommendations. In terms of performance, for users consuming an arbitrary number of contents in sequence, we show theoretically and using extensive validation over real traces that the MDP approach outperforms myopic algorithms both in session cost as well as in offered recommendation quality. Finally, even compared to optimal state-of-art algorithms targeting specific subcases, our MDP framework is significantly more efficient, speeding the execution time by a factor of 10, and enjoying better scaling with the content catalog and recommendation batch sizes.


Abstract Drawing on Tilly's notion of "repertoire of action," this article shows how the evolution of the global jihadist movement's communicative action repertoire has increased the potential resonance of its discourse. It foresees the construction of the global jihadist movement's discourse of mobilization as the result of the evolution of its network of actors, the context in which its communications are undertaken, and its adaptation to new communication technologies. Accordingly, it argues that the decentralization of the global jihadist movement has led to a widening of its communicative action repertoire and a diversification of its discourse offering.


This work reports the synthesis of shape selective copper nanoparticles (NPs) using a microwave irradiation method, using diverse ratios of an ethylene glycol (EG)/water system. The solvent ratio of EG/water plays a pivotal role in the selective formation of CuO NPs. The alteration of the counter ion of the copper precursor leading to the selective synthesis of copper (CuO, Cu2O, Cu(OH)2) NPs has been observed. The synthesized copper NPs are well characterized using FEG-SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, NH3-TPD and BET surface area. The prepared CuO NPs show high activity towards the synthesis of β-enaminones and β-enamino esters from 1,3 diketones and amines.


Stars form by the gravitational collapse of interstellar gas. The thermodynamic response of the gas can be characterized by an effective equation of state. It determines how gas heats up or cools as it gets compressed, and hence plays a key role in regulating the process of stellar birth on virtually all scales, ranging from individual star clusters up to the galaxy as a whole. We present a systematic study of the impact of thermodynamics on gravitational collapse in the context of high-redshift star formation, but argue that our findings are also relevant for present-day star formation in molecular clouds. We consider a polytropic equation of state, P = kρΓ, with both sub-isothermal exponents Γ < 1 and super-isothermal exponents Γ > 1. We find significant differences between these two cases. For Γ > 1, pressure gradients slow down the contraction and lead to the formation of a virialized, turbulent core. Weak magnetic fields are strongly tangled and efficiently amplified via the small-scale turbulent dynamo on timescales corresponding to the eddy-turnover time at the viscous scale. For Γ < 1, on the other hand, pressure support is not sufficient for the formation of such a core. Gravitational contraction proceeds much more rapidly and the flow develops very strong shocks, creating a network of intersecting sheets and extended filaments. The resulting magnetic field lines are very coherent and exhibit a considerable degree of order. Nevertheless, even under these conditions we still find exponential growth of the magnetic energy density in the kinematic regime.


Shotgun metagenomic analysis of the human associated microbiome provides a rich set of microbial features for prediction and biomarker discovery in the context of human diseases and health conditions. However, the use of such high-resolution microbial features presents new challenges, and validated computational tools for learning tasks are lacking. Moreover, classification rules have scarcely been validated in independent studies, posing questions about the generality and generalization of disease-predictive models across cohorts. In this paper, we comprehensively assess approaches to metagenomics-based prediction tasks and for quantitative assessment of the strength of potential microbiome-phenotype associations. We develop a computational framework for prediction tasks using quantitative microbiome profiles, including species-level relative abundances and presence of strain-specific markers. A comprehensive meta-analysis, with particular emphasis on generalization across cohorts, was performed in a collection of 2424 publicly available metagenomic samples from eight large-scale studies. Cross-validation revealed good disease-prediction capabilities, which were in general improved by feature selection and use of strain-specific markers instead of species-level taxonomic abundance. In cross-study analysis, models transferred between studies were in some cases less accurate than models tested by within-study cross-validation. Interestingly, the addition of healthy (control) samples from other studies to training sets improved disease prediction capabilities. Some microbial species (most notably Streptococcus anginosus) seem to characterize general dysbiotic states of the microbiome rather than connections with a specific disease. Our results in modelling features of the "healthy" microbiome can be considered a first step toward defining general microbial dysbiosis. The software framework, microbiome profiles, and metadata for thousands of samples are publicly available at http://segatalab.cibio.unitn.it/tools/metaml.


Privacy is defined as the freedom from unauthorized intrusion. The availability of personal information through online databases, such as government records, medical records, and voters lists, pose a threat to personal privacy. The concern over individual privacy has led to the development of legal codes for safeguarding privacy in several countries [56]. However, the ignorance of individuals as well as loopholes in the systems, have led to information breaches even in the presence of such rules and regulations. Protection against data privacy requires modification of the data itself. The term data obfuscation is used to refer to the class of algorithms that modify the values of the data items without distorting the usefulness of the data. The main goal of this thesis is the development of a data obfuscation technique that provides robust privacy protection with minimal loss in usability of the data. Although medical and financial services are two of the major areas where information privacy is a concern, privacy breaches are not restricted to these domains.
One of the areas where the concern over data privacy is of growing interest is collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering systems are being widely used in E-commerce applications to provide recommendations to users regarding products that might be of interest to them. The prediction accuracy of these systems is dependent on the size and accuracy of the data provided by users. However, the lack of sufficient guidelines governing the use and distribution of user data raises concerns over individual privacy. Users often provide the minimal information that is required for accessing these E-commerce services. The lack of rules governing the use and distribution of data disallows sharing of data among different communities for collaborative filtering. The goals of this thesis are (a) the definition of a standard for classifying DO techniques, (b) the development of a robust cluster preserving data obfuscation algorithm, and (c) the design and implementation of a privacy-preserving shared collaborative filtering framework using the data obfuscation algorithm.


This thesis brings together two broad subdisciplines of psychology--cognition and motivation--in order to explore how motivational processes interact on-line with cognitive mechanisms in directing human behaviour and performance. A series of five experiments were conducted in which the Rogers and Monsell (1995) task switching paradigm was combined with motivational manipulations involving earned point incentives (Derryberry, 1993) to investigate the effects of prior and current motivation on task execution, attention switching, and inhibition. Using a left/right button press, participants alternated every second trial between vowel/consonant (letter task) and even/odd (digit task) judgments in response to target-foil stimulus pairs (e.g., A3, G#, ?6) presented on a computer monitor. Participants responded to the letter or digit target while inhibiting the competing (letter or digit) or neutral (symbol) foil. Task motivation was manipulated by assigning participants equal or differential incentives for letter and digit task performance during an initial training phase or during the switch task itself. Motivational incentives were found to have a large and selective influence on attention switching, evidenced by faster switching to the high-valued than low-valued task, but had no effect on either simple task execution processes or the inhibition of task-set cuing by a competing foil. In addition, prior motivational experience with differential task incentives during training had a greater and more reliable impact on attention switching than did current differential incentives applied during the switch task itself. These results reveal that motivation does not simply have a global facilitating influence on performance, but rather operates through highly specific mechanisms to bias goal-directed behaviour. Results are interpreted in terms of the apparent differential sensitivity to motivational input exhibited by attention control mechanisms versus automatic, stimulus-triggered processes. A further distinction is made between implicit motivational modulation of executive control mechanisms versus the engagement of an optional, incentive-based performance strategy. Also discussed are speculations regarding underlying neural mechanisms mediating these motivational influences on attention and the potential implications of these results for skill development and performance.


A model of policy analysis, Arms Transfers under Nixon provides a lucid and lively demonstration of how the Nixon administration combined skillful diplomacy and the adroit use of arms transfers to bring about a remarkable series of American foreign policy achievements. The Middle East provides the most dramatic example. Here the Arab-Israeli military balance was stabilized, Egypt was persuaded and enabled to forsake its heavy dependence upon the Soviet Union, conditions favorable to peace negotiations were arranged, and important interim agreements were brokered by the United States. In the Persian Gulf, the promotion of Iran and Saudi Arabia as effective guarantors of regional stability in the wake of British withdrawal, and maintaining the pro-Western orientation of these governments, are shown to have been essential to crucial United States and Western interests. The dramatic reversal with the collapse of the Shah's government is assessed, as are the causes of that post-Nixon debacle. The battles that accompanied the administration's initiatives -- battles with hostile nations, with allies, with the Congress, and even within the administration -- and the diplomatic and political moves by which opposition was overcome provide the stuff of an exciting and instructive narrative.


We study the topology and combinatorics of an arrangement of hyperplanes in ${\bf C}^n$ that generalizes the classical braid arrangement. The arrangement plays in important role in the work of Schechtman and Varchenko on Lie algebra homology, where it appears in a generic fiber of a projection of the braid arrangement. The study of the intersection lattice of the arrangement leads to the definition of lattices of colored partitions. A detailed combinatorial analysis then provides algebro-geometric and topological properties of the complement of the arrangement. Using results on the character of $S_n$ on the cohomology of these arrangements we are able to deduce the rational cohomology of certain spaces of polynomials in the complement of the standard discriminant that have no root in the first $s$ integers.


Hyperlipidemia is a major factor that can promote atherosclerosis and atherosclerosis-related conditions. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the epidemic of modern civilization in which hyperlipidemia contributes significantly to its pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the antihyperlipidemic property of Antigonon leptopus leaves using the methanolic crude extract (ALME) in Triton-X-100 induced hyperlipidemic male Sprague-Dawley rats during seven-day treatment period. The efficacy of ALME 100, 200, 400mg/kg was compared to the standard simvastatin (10 mg/kg, p.o.) in Triton X-100-induced hyperlipidemic rats. Effect of ALME on serum lipid profile like Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (LDL-C), Very Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (VLDL-C) and High-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol (HDL) were estimated. The results demonstrated that the ALME has an antihyperlipidemic potential. Different doses of ALME significantly reduced the TC, TG, LDL-C, and VLDL-C in Triton X-100-induced hyperlipidemic rats (pvalue <0.05). The histopathological evaluation also revealed the positive effect of the plant extract, with ALME 100 mg/kg showing promising tissue-specific antihyperlipidemic effect.


This paper compares the history of tax incentives in seven Latin American countries. It is an attempt to understand why countries enact tax incentive legislation; how countries measure the costs and benefits of such legislation; how such costs and benefits are viewed by the public; and what considerations have led to the repeal of such incentives. The information set forth below is the result of extensive interviews and correspondence with noted private and public sector tax experts in the countries reviewed. The information was collected over a two and one-half year period ending in September 2001.


INTRODUCTION: Central venous catheters (CVC) devices are of fundamental importance and are the most used worldwide in the treatment of critically ill patients in Intensive Care Units. These invasive devices represent a potential source of local or systemic infectious complications. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the microorganisms found in cultures from CVC analyzed in the Laboratory of Unimed-Belem, from January 2007 to January 2008. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the results of 50 cultures of CVC was performed by semi-quantitative method of Maki and automated antibiogram [MiniApi (BioMerieux)], according to the criteria recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory standards Institute. RESULTS: Of the 50 samples of CVC, 36 (72%) were positive for Staphylococcus aureus (27.8%) which was the microorganism most frequently observed, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22.2%) and coagulase negative Staphylococcus (22.2%). The isolates of P. aeruginosa showed a greater sensitivity to colistin (100%), ticarcillin/clavulanate (100%), piperacillin/tazobactam (100%) and meropenem (80%), and a 50% resistance to other antimicrobials. Oxacillin-resistant strains were all sensitive to vancomycin and fusidic acid, including S. aureus (80%) and CNS (12.5%) with resistance to penicillin G. Isolates of S. aureus and CNS were sensitive to over 75% of the tested antibiotics, including teicoplanin, minocycline and quinupristindalfopristin, and were highly resistant to erythromycin, tetracycline and norfloxacin. CONCLUSIONS: The most frequent microorganisms were S. aureus in agreement with other studies carried out in hospitals in Belem. With regard to antibiotics, our results indicate an increase in multidrug-resistant strains, a fact that worries local hospital managers. Keyword: Catheters; Catheter-Related Infections; Retrospective Studies; Bacterial Infections. Marques PB,et al. Bacteriano de cultura de ponta de cateter venoso central Rev Pan-Amaz Saude 2011; 2(1):53-58 57 Perfil bacteriano de cultivo de punta de catéter venoso central


The Covid-19 Pandemic has led to changes in consumer expenditure patterns that can introduce significant bias in the measurement of inflation. I use data collected from credit and debit transactions in the US to update the official basket weights and estimate the impact on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). I find that the Covid inflation rate is higher than the official CPI in the US, for both headline and core indices. I also find similar results with Covid baskets in 10 out of 16 additional countries. The difference is significant and growing over time, as social-distancing rules and behaviors are making consumers spend relatively more on food and other categories with rising inflation, and relatively less on transportation and other categories experiencing significant deflation.


Abstract

Objective: Functional decline in daily life is a common difficulty among patients with dementia. Nevertheless, little is known about the neural correlates of functional decline. We hypothesized that functional impairment is associated with metabolic abnormalities in distinct regions in cases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Methods: After 49 patients with AD, 13 patients with FTD, and 21 normal participants underwent a [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography scan, we evaluated the relations between functional decline measured using Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) and regional cerebral glucose metabolism from voxel-based analyses.

Results: In patients with AD, we found significant negative correlation between FAST scores and [18F] FDG uptake in the parietal cortex, temporal cortex, cingulate cortex and precuneus. By contrast, for patients with FTD, we found significant negative correlation in the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and claustrum.

Conclusions: This study identified relations between the functional decline and regional brain hypometabolism, respectively, in patients with AD and FTD.


The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been used to observe threefold symmetric electron scattering from point defects on a graphite surface. These theoretically predicted electronic perturbations could not be observed with a bare metal tip but could only be imaged when a fullerene (C60) molecule was adsorbed onto the tunneling region (apex) of an STM tip. Functionalizing an STM tip with an appropriate molecular adsorbate alters the density of states near the Fermi level of the tip and changes its imaging characteristics.