The magnitude and ontogenetic patterns of intraspecific variation can provide important insights into the evolution and development of organisms. Understanding the intraspecific variation of organisms is also a key to correctly pursuing studies in major fields of palaeontology. However, intraspecific variation has been largely overlooked in ectocochleate cephalopods, particularly nautilids. Furthermore, little is known regarding the evolutionary pattern. Here, we present morphological data for the Cretaceous nautilid Eutrephoceras dekayi (Morton) and the modern nautilid Nautilus pompilius Linnaeus through ontogeny. The data are used to describe conch morphology and to elucidate the evolutionary patterns of intraspecific variation. We discovered a similar overall pattern of growth trajectories and the presence of morphological changes at hatching and maturity in both taxa. We also found that intraspecific variation is higher in earlier ontogeny than in later ontogeny in both taxa. The high variation in earlier ontogeny may imply increased flexibility in changing the timing of developmental events, which probably played an important role in nautilid evolution. We assume that the decrease in variation in later ontogeny reflects developmental constraints. Lastly, we compared the similarity/dissimilarity of ontogenetic patterns of variation between taxa. Results reveal that the similarity/dissimilarity of the ontogenetic pattern differs between E. dekayi and N. pompilius. We conclude that this shift in the ontogenetic pattern of variation may be rooted in changes in the developmental programme of nautilids through time. We propose that studying ontogenetic patterns of intraspecific variation can provide new insights into the evolution and development of organisms.


Excerpt] In recent years, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have made substantial headway in increasing country ownership of poverty reduction strategies and opening the policy dialogue between government and civil society. In the process, PRSPs have emerged as a key instrument for reducing the poverty of poor households. There is a wide consensus that disabled persons, being disproportionately poor, are among the population groups that should benefit from the poverty reduction programs of PRSPs. The issue, however, is whether they are de facto excluded from benefiting from current poverty reduction strategies. As argued by the ILO, PRSPs do not meet the needs of disabled persons because they are based on a limited social protection policy that conveys a wrong impression about the abilities and aspirations of the majority of disabled persons. Furthermore, they do not reflect the basic principles of the modern approach to disability adopted by the United Nations. This report is an attempt to assess the validity of the mentioned argument by reviewing the disability policy content of PRSPs. In doing so, the report focuses on whether the specific poverty dimensions of disabled persons are acknowledged and the critical interventions for improving the economic and social integration of disabled persons are included in PRSPs.


New file systems are critical to obtain good I/O performance on large multiprocessors. Several researchers have suggested the use of collective file-system operations, in which all processes in an application cooperate in each I/O request. Others have suggested that the traditional low-level interface (read, write, seek) be augmented with various higher-level requests (e.g., read matrix). Collective, high-level requests permit a technique called disk-directed I/O to significantly improve performance over traditional file systems and interfaces, at least on simple I/O benchmarks. In this paper we present the results of experiments with an "out-of-core" LU-decomposition program. Although its collective interface was awkward in some places, and forced additional synchronization, disk-directed I/O was able to obtain much better overall performance than the traditional system.


Massive expansion in educational programmes has been reported for Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries in recent years. Yet, the economic role of education in agriculture—the main source of livelihood for the majority of SSA population is still debatable. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on how formal education affects smallholder crop production systems in Africa. The analysis uses 1997/98 farm management survey data on 60 randomly selected rural households from Botswana. It is concluded from the results that education has a positive and significant effect on crop incomes of smallholder traditional farmers. Therefore, continuing investments in education among SSA countries are important and warrant supportive government action to improve the lives of millions of peasant farmers in SSA.


This work describes a process to make anodes for organic solar cells from copper-nickel nanowires with solution-phase processing. Copper nanowire films were coated from solution onto glass and made conductive by dipping them in acetic acid. Acetic acid removes the passivating oxide from the surface of copper nanowires, thereby reducing the contact resistance between nanowires to nearly the same extent as hydrogen annealing. Films of copper nanowires were made as oxidation resistant as silver nanowires under dry and humid conditions by dipping them in an electroless nickel plating solution. Organic solar cells utilizing these completely solution-processed copper-nickel nanowire films exhibited efficiencies of 4.9%.


There have always been students who do not meet the educational expectations of their time—students outside the mainstream mold who do not fit dominant notions of success. The differences between schools and these students can be thought of as a "mismatch" between the structure of schools and the social, cultural, or economic backgrounds of students identified as problems. In this essay we examine the history of these students who have not been able to do what educators wanted them to do. We look at how educators have labeled poor school performers in different periods and how these labels reflected both attitudes and institutional conditions. We then summarize four major historical explanations for why children fail in school—individual deficits or incompetence, families, inefficiency in schools, and cultural difference. Finally, we explore what implications this history has for students in the current standards-based reform movement, including implications for social promotion and the age-graded school. To avoid a mismatch in the standards movement, we argue that educators should focus on adapting the school better to the child, addressing social inequalities that extend beyond the classroom, and undertaking comprehensive changes that take no features of current schools for granted.


This research assesses damage to vegetation from accidental gaseous hydrogen fluoride leakage, through the analysis of spectral features of the damaged plants using digital aerial photographs and airborne hyperspectral imagery. The hyperspectral imagery was obtained 21 days after the leakage within visible and near-infrared wavelength range using CASI-1500 imager, and two aerial photographs composed of blue, green, red and near-infrared bands were also obtained in 2 October 2011 and 15 November 2012, respectively. The injuries on leaves and the outline of the leakage affected area were assessed by investigating vegetation index images calculated from the hyperspectral imagery and the aerial photograph obtained in 15 November 2012, with comparison to the index image calculated from the aerial photograph obtained in 12 October 2011. The affected areas were mainly distributed in the east of the leakage point, and this reflects predominant wind directions toward east during the leakage and within 24 hours after the leakage. In addition, the detailed changes in spectral reflectance curves of damaged vegetation were also investigated using the hyperspectral imagery. Paddy field and forest land were identified by cadastral map, and the reference areas for the comparison of the reflectance curve change were designated to each land cover type, by considering the most and least affected areas from the vegetation indices comparison results.


This dissertation focuses on two aspects of integrating near-infrared plasmonics with electronics with the intent of developing the platform for future photonics. The first aspect focuses on fabrication by introducing and developing a simple, single reflective optical element capable of high–throughput, large scale fabrication of micro- and nano-sized structure templates using holographic lithography. This reflective optical element is then utilized to show proof of concept in fabricating three dimensional structures in negative photoresists as well as tuning subwavelength features in two dimensional compound lattices for the fabrication of dimer and trimer antenna templates. The second aspect focuses on the study of aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), which belongs to recently popularized material class of transparent conducting oxides, capable of tunable plasmonic capabilities in the near-IR regime. Holographic lithography is used to pattern an AZO film with a square lattice array that are shown to form standing wave resonances at the interface of the AZO and the substrate. To demonstrate device level integration the final experiment utilizes AZO patterned gratings and measures the variation of diffraction efficiency as a negative bias is applied to change the AZO optical properties. Additionally efforts to understand the behavior of these structures through optical measurements is complemented with finite difference time domain simulations.


Journal of Medical Microbiology and Diagnosis commemorates its decade long service to the scientific community by consistently publishing peer-reviewed articles and tracking the progress and significant advancements in the field of Microbiology. Ever since its inception in the year 2012, in addition to regular issue releases on a quarterly basis, this transdisciplinary journal is also releasing special issues and conference proceedings from time to time, thus comprehensively covering a wide range of topics and emerging challenges in Bacteriology, Clinical and Medical Diagnostics, Parasitology, Bacterial Infections. The journal focuses on application oriented research on Bacteriology, Clinical and Medical Diagnostics, Parasitology, Bacterial Infections. In this issue some of the recent and impactful research articles that were published by the journal will be discussed.


Class probabilities predicted by most multiclass classifiers are uncalibrated, often tending towards over-confidence. With neural networks, calibration can be improved by temperature scaling, a method to learn a single corrective multiplicative factor for inputs to the last softmax layer. On non-neural models the existing methods apply binary calibration in a pairwise or one-vs-rest fashion. We propose a natively multiclass calibration method applicable to classifiers from any model class, derived from Dirichlet distributions and generalising the beta calibration method from binary classification. It is easily implemented with neural nets since it is equivalent to log-transforming the uncalibrated probabilities, followed by one linear layer and softmax. Experiments demonstrate improved probabilistic predictions according to multiple measures (confidence-ECE, classwise-ECE, log-loss, Brier score) across a wide range of datasets and classifiers. Parameters of the learned Dirichlet calibration map provide insights to the biases in the uncalibrated model.


Are you struggling to get good prints from your images? Are your digital photos hogging your hard drive instead of hanging out in snappy albums and archives? Looking for ways to improve your prints beyond simple snapshots? The popularity and convenience of digital photography has led to more pictures being taken, but fewer being turned into beautiful prints, framed, put in photo albums, and shared with others. The majority of users do nothing with their images for two reasons: the results are disappointing and the process of improving and preparing images for print is daunting. Written by popular photographer, columnist, and digital imaging expert Jon Canfield, this book shows you how to easily enhance and prepare your digital images for printing. Step-by-step instructions and tutorials coupled with full-color images and screenshots explain how to use Photoshop CS2 or Elements for color management and correction; editing images for printing, including properly sizing, sharpening, and converting to monochrome; to fix lighting; and more. You'll also learn how to take your printing to the next level by: using different print technologies, papers, and inks; selecting Raster Image Processors; framing and mounting their prints; self-publishing; and effectively working with print services for the best output possible.


The primary goal of this Article is to bring empirical evidence to bear on the heretofore largely theoretical law and economics debate about insider trading. The Article first summarizes various agency, market, and contractual (or "Coasian") theories of insider trading propounded over the course of this longstanding debate. The Article then proposes three testable hypotheses regarding the relationship between insider trading laws and several measures of stock market performance. Exploiting the natural variation of international data, the Article finds that more stringent insider trading laws are generally associated with more dispersed equity ownership, greater stock price accuracy and greater stock market liquidity, controlling for various economic, legal and institutional factors. These results cast doubt on pure "Coasian" theories of insider trading and suggest the appropriate locus of academic and policy inquiries about the efficiency implications of insider trading and its regulation. Further empirical research is necessary, however, in order conclusively to resolve the perennial insider trading debate.


In 2016, three pyrotechnicians working on humanitarian demining in Croatia died in action in three separate incidents. These incidents occurred 21 year after the end of the war and armed conflicts in Croatia. In all three incidents casualties were caused by deadly anti-personnel Yugoslavian mines PROM-1, which were 'seeded' during the war in period 1991-1995. These incidents prove that the only thing bad as war itself are remains of war: mines and unexploded ammunition. It is not hard to conclude that mine contamination is one of the main obstacles to economic recovery and other types of progress in mineaffected countries. Therefore, the primary goal of humanitarian demining operations (mine actions) is to clear all suspected minefields and restore them so as to make them available for their previous use. The financial shortfalls result in the need for priority-setting in the mine action process. This book describes and investigates a new approach to priority setting within mine action, with the introduction of a Decision Support System (DSS) for mine action management. The proposed DSS is focused on determining the objective priorities required to reduce the risks stemming from mine contamination. DSS is based on a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and a MultiCriteria Analysis (MCA) in order to enable efficacious mine action management, namely setting humanitarian demining priorities in order to optimally reduce the risk caused by mines. Furthermore, priority-setting based on scientific Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA), like the PROMETHEE method used in this research, can help overcome the differences in priorities between different stakeholders (local inhabitants, politicians, mine-action experts, donors, etc.). Scientific MCA procedure is a transparent process, thus creates confidence in the whole priority-setting procedure. The idea of having transparent process taking into account all relevant criteria and preferences of the stakeholders is the main idea of this research and it has been presented through three different Case Studies.


Tracking attendance is a necessity in a variety of contexts in the developing world, encompassing health programs, schools, government offices, and a litany of other milieux. While electronic attendance tracking systems exist and perform their core function well, they are expensive, monolithic and offer little customizability.
 In this paper we describe a fingerprint-based biometric attendance system implemented using off-the-shelf components: a netbook computer, a commodity fingerprint reader, and a low-cost mobile phone. The system identifies visitors based only on their fingerprint, and uploads attendance logs to a central location via SMS. Its functionality goes beyond that of existing market offerings while improving modularity, extensibility, and cost of ownership.
 We deployed this system in two health programs - supporting tuberculosis patients in New Delhi and sex workers in Bangalore -- and logged over 550 users and 4,500 visits over the course of several months. Our experience suggests that the system is usable in real-world contexts, though incentives are needed to sustain usage over time. We reflect on the sociocultural factors surrounding adoption and describe the potential to impact health outcomes in the future.


We analyze students' knowledge and risk perception of four technologies. The aim is to find out whether there is a relationship between area of study (self-selection) and progress of study (socialization) on the one hand and risk perception of technologies regarding health, environment and society on the other. The four technology fields under study are renewable energies, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICT). Key results are: Irrespective of study area, study progress and gender, genetic engineering has the highest perceived risk and renewable energies has the lowest. This holds for all the risks studied (environmental, health, societal risks). For most risk perception variables, advanced students perceive lower risks than beginners, and students in a technical study area perceive lower risks than students in a non-technical area. Factor analyses show that common dimensions of risk are the technological areas and not the type of risk. Regression analyses show that the variables influencing perceived risks vary between the technological fields.


Health disparities among sexual minority groups exist worldwide. Lesbian and bisexual women face barriers to healthcare access and provision. Disparities are even more striking in Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon. This paper assesses healthcare resources and practices pertaining to sexual minority women in Lebanon. We found a significant scarcity of research on lesbian or bisexual women coming out of Lebanon or the Middle East. We call for enriching the literature with such research to better understand the needs of women and recommend effective interventions.


No other photographer in modern times has recorded war and its aftermath as widely and unsparingly as Don McCullin. After a childhood in London during the Blitz, and after the hardships of evacuation, McCullin feels his life has indeed been shaped by war. From the building of the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War to El Salvador and Kurdistan, McCullin has covered the major conflicts of the last fifty years, with the notable exception of the Falklands, for which he was denied access. His pictures from the Citadel in Hue and in the ruins of Beirut are among the most unflinching records of modern war. The publication of many of his greatest stories in the Sunday Times magazine did much to raise the consciousness of a generation, even if he himself now fears that photographs cannot prevent history from repeating itself. The brutality of conflict returns over and over again. McCullin here voices his despair. McCullin recounts the course of his professional life in a series of devastating texts on war, the events and the power of photography. The conclusion of the book marks McCullin's retreat to the Somerset landscape surrounding his home, where the dark skies over England remind him yet again of images of war. Despite the sense of belonging and even contentment, for him there is no final escape.


The stacked polyphase bridges (SPB) converter consists of several submodules that all are connected in series to a voltage source. The total dc-link voltage should split in a balanced way among the submodules. This does not always occur inherently. This paper presents an analysis of the capacitor voltage stability for the SPB converter. From the analysis, criteria for stability are derived and three alternatives of a suitable balancing controller are designed. The proposed controller alternatives and their associated stability properties are verified on an experimental setup and by simulation.


Links between wellbeing and environmental factors are of growing interest in psychology, health, conservation, economics, and more widely. There is limited evidence that green or natural environments are positive for physical and mental health and wellbeing. We present a new and unique primary research study exploring the relationship between momentary subjective wellbeing (SWB) and individuals' immediate environment within the UK. We developed and applied an innovative data collection tool: a smartphone app that signals participants at random moments, presenting a brief questionnaire while using satellite positioning (GPS) to determine geographical coordinates. We used this to collect over one million responses from more than 20,000 participants. Associating GPS response locations with objective spatial data, we estimate a model relating land cover to SWB using only the within-individual variation, while controlling for weather, daylight, activity, companionship, location type, time, day, and any response trend. On average, study participants are significantly and substantially happier outdoors in all green or natural habitat types than they are in urban environments. These findings are robust to a number of alternative models and model specifications. This study provides a new line of evidence on links between nature and wellbeing, strengthening existing evidence of a positive relationship between SWB and exposure to green or natural environments in daily life. Our results have informed the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), and the novel geo-located experience sampling methodology we describe has great potential to provide new insights in a range of areas of interest to policymakers.


For this study, the most fitting method has seemed to be one that might, with Browning in mind, be called the Ring and the Book technique. Part I deals at some length with the central musical language of the 15th and 16th centuries, which was developed in France, Italy, and the Low Countries, while Part II deals primarily with the music of other lands. This distinction has nothing to do with the comparative intrinsic merit of the various bodies of music, but only with the separation of local dialects from the central language. Indeed, such local productions as the 16th-century music of Spain and England provide artistic expressions quite in a class with the best music of France, Italy, and the Low Countries. The method of first taking into account only the central language has the advantage of permitting the main technical developments of the centuries under consideration to be described, as it were, in a straight line. Thereafter, the entire period is traversed again for each country dealt with in Part II. As a result, the same musical forms and processes of composition are treated several times, but each discussion is entered from a different approach and with the admixture of something individual-that is, national. The method offers advantages not only to the one whose task it is to sort out a huge amount of varied material, but also to the one who studies it: the student has the main historical outline presented to him more than once, but each time with important changes in the details by which it is filled in.


Postnatal maternal depression is associated with negative developmental outcomes in infancy and childhood. In a longitudinal study, mothers (N=63) completed questionnaires about their own depressive symptoms and their child's behaviour at four time-points during the first year postpartum and again at 3 years postpartum. Maternal depressive symptoms and infant temperament measured in the first year of life by the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck et al., 1996) and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire – Revised, Very Short Form (Putnam et al., 2014), respectively, were related to child behaviour at 3 years of age as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Maternal depressive scores during infancy was associated with later child conduct problems, suggesting a long-term association between maternal mental health and the development of child behaviour. Temperament across the first year of life was also associated with behavioural outcomes at 3 years of age: whereas infant negative affect predicted child conduct problems, infant surgency was associated with hyperactivity, and, along with infant orienting/regulatory capacity, also with child prosocial behaviour. These findings highlight the need for identification of those mothers and infants who struggle in the first postnatal year and for early interventions that can support optimal child development.


Risks are inherently present In all construction projects. Quite often,
construction projects fail to achieve their time quality and budget goals. Risk
management is a subject, which has grown in popularity during the last decade. It is
a formal orderly process for systematically identifying, analysing and responding to
risks associated with construction projects so as to reduce the effects of these risks
to an acceptable level. Risk analysis is primarily concerned with evaluating
uncertainties. The purpose of risk analysis is to enable a decision-maker to take an
appropriate response in advance against a possible occurrence of a problem. In this
study, Monte Carlo simulation as a tool of risk analysis was used.
The merge event bias as one of the essential problems associated with
PERT is discussed, along with models and approaches developed by other researchers, namely, Probabilistic Network Evaluation Technique (PNET
algorithm), Modified PNET, Back-Forward Uncertainly Estimation procedure
(BFUE) and concept based on the robust reliability idea. These developed
approaches are more reliable in planning construction projects compared to PERT
because they attempt to handle the merge event bias problem.
In addition, this study demonstrates a number of benefits. the most
significant among them being that: (1) Formal risk management tec1miques are
rarely used in construction. Dealing with risk management in construction is now
essential for minimizing losses and to enhance profitability. (2) It is very dangerous
to rely only on PERT/CPM conventional techniques in scheduling projects. (3) To
use floats, as stated by traditional resource allocation method, is not practicable. (4)
For a project network, the likelihood completion date of a project is exactly equal
to the product of the probabilities of each path, separately, with respect to a project
completion date. Using simulation now validates this statement. (5) The
computation error of a project likelihood completion date is less than 10 percent if
a path of a float greater than twice the larger standard deviation of this mentioned
path and the critical path is dropped from the calculation, and (6) An effective risk
response framework is introduced to help contractors systematically manage the
risk in scheduling their projects.


The crisis management of disasters does not follow automatically from disaster planning. Research has shown that successful disaster management results primarily from the activities of emergency organizations. In particular, there are management problems with respect to the communication process, the exercise of authority, and the development of coordination. There are at least five different areas of difficulties in the communication process, namely in intra-organizational behaviors, between organizations, from organizations to the public, from the public to organizations, and with systems of organizations. Exercise of authority difficulties stem from losses of higher echelon personnel because of overwork, conflict regarding authority over new disaster tasks, clashes over organizational jurisdictional differences. Coordination difficulties come from lack of consensus among organizations working on common but new disaster related tasks, and difficulties in achieving overall coordination in any community disaster that is of any magnitude. Prior planning can limit these management difficulties but cannot completely eliminate all of them.


Objectives Systematic review of the performance and operational characteristics of point-of-care (POC) tests for the diagnosis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Methods We searched PubMed and Embase until August 2010 using variations of the terms: 'rapid test', 'Neisseria gonorrhoeae' and 'evaluation'. Results We identified 100 papers, 14 studies were included; nine evaluated leucocyte esterase (LE) dipsticks and three immunochromatographic strips, and two clinical audits of microscopy were identified. Of the field evaluations the gold standard was nucleic acid amplification technology in six studies and bacterial culture in the other six. In four studies, 50% or more of the patients were symptomatic. The median sensitivity of LE dipsticks was 71% (range 23–85%), median specificity was 70% (33–99%), median positive predictive value (PPV) was 19% (5–40%) and median negative predictive value (NPV) was 95% (56–99%). One LE study found a sensitivity of 23% overall, increasing to 75% in symptomatic women. LE dipsticks mostly involved three steps and took under 2 min. The median sensitivity of immunochromatographic tests (ICT) was 70% (60–94%), median specificity was 96% (89–97%), median PPV was 56% (55–97%) and median NPV was 93% (92–99%). Immunochromatic strips involved five to seven steps and took 15–30 min. Specificity of microscopy ranged from 38% to 89%. Conclusions ICT and LE tests had similar sensitivities, but sensitivity results may be overestimated as largely symptomatic patients were included in some studies. ICT had a higher specificity in women than LE tests. The findings highlight the need for improved POC tests for diagnosis of N gonorrhoeae and more standardised evaluations.


The Nemakit-Daldynian–Tommotian (ND-T) boundary marks the first appearance of metazoan reefs and calcite biomineralizers and is associated with the largest δ 13 C shift during the Phanerozoic Eon. Biological transitions in Earth history are often accompanied by excursions in the carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of the ocean, where δ 13 C variability is interpreted to reflect changes in the global carbon cycle. The duration and thus rate of these δ 13 C anomalies are rarely known, making it difficult to constrain their possible causes and their relationship, if any, to biologic transitions. We report sedimentological and δ 13 C data from a new 2.5-km-thick section that spans the early Cambrian evolutionary "explosion" in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas Mountains. Three new zircon 206 Pb- 238 U ages from tuffs within the stratigraphy constrain the timing of the ND-T boundary to 524.84 ± 0.09 Ma. Two of the tuffs exactly bracket the ND-T transition and constrain the duration of the −8‰ δ 13 C shift to 506 ± 126 k.y. With a simple box model, we explore a range of geochemical processes that could account for such a rapid ND-T δ 13 C shift, and conclude that metamorphic and/or volcanic fluxes of carbon may have been sustained at levels 4–16 times higher than today for millions of years.


Objective The identification of severe bacterial infection (SBI)in children with fever without source (FWS) remains a diagnostic problem. The authors previously developed in their Swiss population a risk index score, called the Lab-score, associating three independent predictors of SBI, namely C reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and urinary dipstick. The objective of this study was to validate the Lab-score in a population of children with FWS different from the derivation model. Methods A prospective study, conducted in Padova, on 408 children aged 7 days to 36 months with FWS was recently published. PCT, CRP, white blood cell count (WBC) and urinary dipstick were determined in all children. The Lab-score was applied to this population and the diagnostic characteristics for the detection of SBI were calculated for the Lab-score and for any single variable used in the Italian study. Results For the identification of SBI, the sensitivity of a score ≥3 was 86% (95% CI 77% to 92%) and the specificity 83% (95% CI 79% to 87%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the Lab-score (0.91) was significantly superior to that of any single variable: 0.71 for WBC, 0.86 for CRP and 0.84 for PCT. The Lab-score performed better than other laboratory markers, even when applied to children of different age groups (<3 months, 3–12 months and >12 months). The results obtained in this validation set population were comparable with those of the derivation set population. Conclusions This study validated the Lab-score as a valuable tool to identify SBI in children with FWS.


A collection of timely essays by the internationally acclaimed and bestselling essayist, philosopher, literary critic and author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery. Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which Umberto Eco has written and lectured over the last ten years, from the discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels - exploring lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world in the process - to a disquisition on the theme that runs through his most recent novel, The Prague Cemetery, that every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn't have one, must invent it. Eco's lively new collection examines topics as diverse as St Thomas Aquinas's notions about the soul of an unborn child, indignant reviews of James Joyce's Ulysses by fascist journalists of the 1920s and 1930s, censorship, violence and Wikileaks. These are essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsessions by one of the world's most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed, bestselling novelists.


Global priorities for research in neglected infectious diseases (NIDs) can be assessed in different ways, but it is important to realize that regional priorities may significantly differ one from another. The region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is - along with Africa and Asia - more affected by NIDs than other regions of the world. Some of the Latin American NIDs are common to other continents, while others are very specific or disproportionately affect the Latin American region [1]-[3] (Table 1). Because of its huge ecological diversity, ongoing environmental changes, and massive migrations, LAC is also a catalyst for the (re-)emergence and spreading of NIDs, both inside and outside the subcontinent. Following a colloquium on NIDs in LAC held in Lima, Peru, between 12 and 14 November 2009, a thematic workshop was organized with the support of the European Commission (EC). It involved 29 scientists (16 from the Americas, two from the Democratic Republic of Congo and India, respectively, and nine from Europe) working on different NIDs and representing several research areas from basic to applied. This report summarizes the consensus comments of the expert group after oral and written consultation. It is envisaged that this document should stimulate a debate within the scientific community and serve as a recommendation for future actions by international or regional funding agencies in the area of NIDs in LAC.


This research investigates the profitability of bioethanol production in Africa, taking Ethiopia as a case in point, and suggests an oil price threshold beyond which biofuels may be profitable. Specifically, the study analyzes the viability of producing bioethanol from molasses in the context of Ethiopia, using data from a biofuels investment survey by EEPFE/EDRI in 2010. We draw on investment theory as our underlying conceptual framework and we employ unit cost analysis for our empirical analysis. Findings reveal that bioethanol production (from molasses) in Africa/Ethiopia can be quite viable and the biofuels industry can be viewed as a way out of poverty. This is a case study involving a few observations because of the small size of the universe of producers studied; hence the need for further analysis as the sector expands.Key words: profitability; bioethanol; oil price threshold; Ethiopia; AfricaJEL Codes: Q56, Q42


We use cross-sectional household survey data in England between 2002–03 and 2010–11 to explore potential barriers to ownership of three common energy efficiency measures (loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and full double glazing) in residential properties. There is little compelling evidence that credit constraints, as proxied by income, education or means-tested benefit receipt, inhibit ownership. Failures in landlord–tenant relationships, though, are a key issue: private renters are significantly less likely to have the measures in their homes than other tenure groups. More broadly, it is the characteristics of the dwelling rather than of the occupants which are most strongly related to the presence of the measures. However, relatively few factors are consistently associated with lower ownership rates over time and efficiency measures, suggesting that policies to encourage increased take-up may need to be tailored to the specific measure.


From 2003 when LinkedIn was launched and 2004 when Facebook started, online Social Networking Services (SNSs) have emerged as a major means of communication for social and business communities. Users enter into an agreement with providers when they sign up to online SNSs. In exchange for access to the features and facilities offered by the SNS, users allow exploitation of their personal data by the service provider. This is not always clear to users at the time and there is a widely-held perception that users are not adequately protected. In the UK, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Communications Act 2003 provide regulatory frameworks for online services. This research sets out to test the hypothesis that law-based regulation alone does not provide adequate protection to users against the risks associated with use of SNSs. This research looks at the mechanisms by which a law-based regulatory framework has been put in place in the UK and compares this with other modes of regulation: self-regulation; regulation by design; and regulation by the way in which users behave. For instance, self-regulation occurs when SNS providers implement privacy policies. An example of design-based regulation occurs when SNSs have data encryption built into the development of their services to protect against unauthorised access to personal data. Users' behaviour regulates services by means of market pressure and by adopting safe practices such as opting out of general disclosure of personal data, for instance.

This research analyses the effectiveness of these four regulatory modes (Law, self-regulation, design and user behaviour) by assessing their impact on risk to users.

The research also examines attitudes of different stakeholders to the regulatory modes identified. The response of SNS providers and the extent to which they are influenced by legislation gives an alternative perspective on the effectiveness of legislation as a means of regulation.


This paper reports on a 2010 survey of law professors teaching consumer protection, and follows up on a similar 2008 survey, which appeared in Jeff Sovern, The Content of Consumer Law Classes, 12 J. CONSUMER & COMMERCIAL L. 48 (No. 1 2008), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1139894. The 2010 survey found more uniformity in topic selection than the 2008 survey. All thirteen professors who taught survey courses reported that they taught common law fraud, UDAP statutes, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, while all but one covered the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and payday lending. In contrast, in 2008 no topics were explored by all the survey professors and three were discussed by all but one. Nevertheless, as in the 2008 survey, the professors varied considerably in selecting other topics. Professors responding to the 2010 survey reported keeping their syllabi current; for example, more than half the professors teaching survey courses covered the Credit CARD Act, enacted only a year before the survey was conducted, while all but two addressed the subprime crisis.


This is a survey of the most common approaches to quasi-linear parabolic evolution equations, a discussion of their advantages and drawbacks, and a presentation of an entirely new approach based on maximal regularity. The general results here apply, above all, to parabolic initial-boundary value problems that are non-local in time. This is illustrated by indicating their relevance for quasi-linear parabolic equations with memory and, in particular, for time-regularized versions of the Perona-Malik equation of image processing.


Abstract Background: It is beneficial for gymnasts to train key lumbopelvic musculature to decrease or prevent low back injury. This study compares lumbopelvic exercises and yoga on lumbar muscle endurance, lumbopelvic stabilization, abdominal strength and balance in adolescent female gymnasts and the effect on low back pain. Material/Methods: 13 participants were randomly allocated to a lumbo-pelvic or yoga group intervention and performed specific exercises for 6 weeks. Biering-Sorensen Test, Lumbopelvic Control Test, Side Bridge Test, and Star Excursion Balance Test were conducted on the participants before and after the 6-week intervention and low back pain logbooks were completed. Results: The Biering-Sorensen Test was significantly greater results for the lumbopelvic group compared to the yoga group. Both groups had significant changes over time with the Lumbopelvic Control Test but no group difference. Both groups had significant improvement with the Side Bridge with the yoga group benefitting more on the left. Out of the six fully completed logbooks, the yoga group showed less occurrence of low back pain compared to the lumbopelvic group. Conclusions: Yoga and lumbopelvic stabilization exercises are equally effective in developing lumbar muscle endurance, lateral stability and front-on stability for young non-elite gymnasts. This is important as they are under-represented in research but overrepresented in participation. This study sets the basis for further research on the incidence of low back pain in young gymnasts and the effects of age-appropriate exercises as a preventative matter.


As a senior official in Mrs Thatcher's government, the author describes in detail and from the inside the process of planning and introducing 'executive agencies', a major change in one of the largest governments in the world. She emphasises the intense difficulty involved in getting agreement to change and to implement decisions, discussing the problems of conflicting objectives between politicians and officials in dealing with the practicalities of managing large public sector institutions. The UK experience of 'executive agencies' has been influential across the world and in many countries. This book describes how the UK system was devised and introduced.


A comparison of the electrochemical behavior of Ce(IV) and its complexes of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS), and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and rotating disc electrode (RDE) on Pt-electrode were carried out. All complexes had an anodic cathodic ratio greater than 1. The Ce(IV)-DTPA had the best properties: highest peak potential, better reversibility, and higher peak current. Potential usage of the Ce(IV)-DTPA in redox flow batteries (RFB) was confirmed by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results: lowest electrolyte and charge transfer resistance. The performance evaluation of RFB employing Ce(IV) and Ce(IV) complexes of DTPA and EDTA with constant current charge/discharge analysis proved that CE(IV)-DTPA complex has a potential as an anode in RFB. A maximum potential of 1 V and a minimum voltage of 2 V were achieved. Highest energy, voltage, and coulombic efficiencies of 85%, 93%, and 92% were obtained, respectively.


The origin and nature of intrinsic toroidal plasma rotation in the scrape-off-layer are theoretically investigated. We discuss and analytically estimate three mechanisms that give rise to SOL toroidal rotation: turbulent momentum transport associated with electrostatic instabilities, pressure gradients along the poloidal direction, and deviation of the plasma velocity at the sheath entrance with respect to the Bohm's value. The results of three-dimensional global fluid simulations of tokamak scrape-off-layer in a limiter configuration are shown and compared.


Pearl and Dechter (1996) claimed that the d-separation criterion for conditional independence in acyclic causal networks also applies to networks of discrete variables that have feedback cycles, provided that the variables of the system are uniquely determined by the random disturbances. I show by example that this is not true in general. Some condition stronger than uniqueness is needed, such as the existence of a causal dynamics guaranteed to lead to the unique solution.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Chronic idiopathic constipation (CC) is highly prevalent worldwide. A subset of patients with CC have reduced fecal (and by inference, intra-colonic) bile acids (BA). Elobixibat, a locally-acting ileal bile acid transporter (IBAT) inhibitor, leads to increased BA delivery to the colon and represents a new class of treatment for CC. BAs accelerate colonic transit and increase colonic secretion. Therefore, IBAT inhibitors have potential to treat patients with CC. Areas covered: Rationale for IBAT inhibitor in therapeutics, and preclinical and clinical pharmacology of elobixibat: In vitro, elobixibat is a highly potent, selective IBAT inhibitor. In humans, elobixibat accelerated colonic transit. In phase 2A, 2B and 3 studies in CC, elobixibat was efficacious, well tolerated and safe. An open-label, phase 3 trial (52 weeks) confirmed the safety of elobixibat. Elobixibat reduces LDL cholesterol, increases serum GLP-1, and has potential in metabolic syndrome. Expert commentary: Uniquely among current treatments of CC, elobixibat stimulates both motor and secretory functions in the colon. These dual effects suggest that, when approved, elobixibat may be a first-line choice for constipation associated with colonic BA deficiency and a second-line treatment for all patients with CC and constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Further studies are required to confirm efficacy for relief of CC. Once approved, elobixibat will likely become a second-line choice for treatment of CC.


Aim: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health concern which could adversely affect mothers as well as their babies and families. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of PPD and its risk factors. Ma- terial and Method: This descriptive study included 302 mothers with babies 0-12 months old who presented to the hospital for varying reasons in Kütahya, Turkey, between October and August 2015. Consenting mothers were given the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) and a form including items on postpartum risk factors, reproductive characteristics, and sociodemographic variables. Data were analyzed using Chi-square tests, lo- gistic regression, and ANOVA test analyses. Results: The prevalence of PPD was 32.1%. The rates were higher among those who live in rental homes, in crowded families, and who were not satisfied about where they have been living. PPD was more prevalent among mothers who smoked cigarettes, gained more weight during pregnancy, experienced prior depressive episodes, those with premature babies, and those who gave birth following unintended preg- nancy. There were no relationships between mothers' educational, working, or income status and prevalence rates. Mothers of one-month old babies had higher scores on the PPD scale compared to others and the average scores on the scale decreased as babies got older. Discussion: Dissatisfaction with where they live, living in a rented dwelling, an unintended pregnancy, a past experience of depression, smoking, and excessive weight gain during preg- nancy, giving birth to an underweight baby, and first months following birth are the risk factors that have a significant effect on PPD. The risk factors identified in this study can guide planning regional health services for specific risk groups.


This paper explores the European Union's (EU) security relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States (US) through the framework of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Skeptics have decried the rise of CSDP as a new security pillar, arguing that it is an attempt to balance against NATO and the US. I argue that this criticism is false. A comparison of two CSDP military operations, European Union Force Chad/CAR (EUFOR Tchad/RCA) and European Union Force Althea (EUFOR Althea), shows that operational success is heavily dependent on the EU's ability to use NATO assets through the Berlin Plus agreement. While EU security integration has progressed, it continues to suffer from a significant capabilities gap; without access to NATO capabilities, CSDP military operations face many challenges. I conclude that CSDP is not threatening the transatlantic relationship because the EU remains a limited hard power actor in promoting and securing international security. CSDP and NATO: Rethinking the Transatlantic Security Relationship


The world of Istaelite wisdom is traditionally placed in a second degree in respect to the historical books and to those prophetical, which play the part of the lion. In all truth, contemporary research is increasingly discovering the deep value of wisdom and the books that contain it, since, in its attentive and disenchanted contemplation of the real, it unveils mechanisms - objects of study and respect - because they are natural and anthropological mechanisms of existence. One could speak of the discovery of their "autonomy" and their exigency, which are treated with calm and equilibrium. The author verifies such a truth which the O.T. offers in the sapiential book of the Proverbs.


This article examines the Tumblr site Fedoras of OK Cupid which emerged in 2012 amidst a growing trend in feminists and other activists online that used shaming as an activist strategy. Fedoras of OK Cupid displays images and excerpts from men who wear fedora hats in their OK Cupid dating profile pictures, often highlighting worrying or even downright dangerous attitudes towards women revealed by their profiles. To understand this practice this articles draws on work identifying feminist discursive activism in online communities, to examine the Tumblr site in the context of reintegrative shaming in order to evaluate the practice of deploying shame for activist ends. While shame is often seen as having stigmatising effects, the author of the Fedoras of OK Cupid Tumblr illustrates how the process of reintegrative shaming may work in the context of online activism by offering earnest commentary on negative attitudes while also offering the possibility of social reintegration.


In this thought-provoking study, Ali Mirsepassi explores the concept of modernity, exposing the Eurocentric prejudices and hostility to non-Western culture that have characterized its development. Focusing on the Iranian experience of modernity, he charts its political and intellectual history and develops a new interpretation of Islamic Fundamentalism through the detailed analysis of the ideas of key Islamic intellectuals. The author argues that the Iranian Revolution was not a simple clash between modernity and tradition but an attempt to accommodate modernity within a sense of authentic Islamic identity, culture and historical experience. He concludes by assessing the future of secularism and democracy in the Middle East in general, and in Iran in particular. A significant contribution to the literature on modernity, social change and Islamic Studies, this book will be essential reading for scholars and students of social theory and change, Middle Eastern Studies, Cultural Studies and many related areas.


We investigate techniques for efficiently executing multiquery workloads from data and computation-intensive applications in parallel and/or distributed computing environments. In this context, we describe a database optimization framework that supports data and computation reuse, query scheduling, and active semantic caching to speed up the evaluation of multiquery workloads. Its most striking feature is the ability of optimizing the execution of queries in the presence of application-specific constructs by employing a customizable data and computation reuse model. Furthermore, we discuss how the proposed optimization model is flexible enough to work efficiently irrespective of the parallel/distributed environment underneath. In order to evaluate the proposed optimization techniques, we present experimental evidence using real data analysis applications. For this purpose, a common implementation for the queries under study was provided according to the database optimization framework and deployed on top of three distinct experimental configurations: a shared memory multiprocessor, a cluster of workstations, and a distributed computational Grid-like environment.


I argue that transnational democracy provides the basis for a solution to the problem of the "democratic circle"—that in order for democracy to promote justice, it must already be just—at the international level. Transnational democracy could be a means to global justice. First, I briefly recount my argument for the "democratic minimum." This minimum is freedom from domination, understood in a very specific sense. Employing Hannah Arendt's conception of freedom as "the capacity to begin," the form of nondomination sufficient for the democratic minimum is the capability to initiate deliberation and thus democratic decision-making processes. My point in developing this argument further concerns the political form of a transnational polity: its citizens enjoy the democratic minimum as members of various demoi. In the case of the European Union, this leads to a potential for democratic domination. I call this the demoi problem, a difficulty that holds for any multilevel polity, for bounded as well as transnational political communities. Second, I argue that such domination is overcome so long as the capacity to initiate deliberation is distributed among various units and various levels. The democratic minimum could fail to obtain not only because individuals or groups are dominated by nondemocratic means, but also because they are dominated democratically to the extent that the demos of one unit lacks the normative power to initiate deliberation and thus is subordinated to others.


Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a key factor in the development of cervical cancer. Out of the more than 100 known HPV types 13 are considered oncogenic. In addition to presence of the virus several other factors have been proposed to influence risk of cervical cancer. This thesis focuses on viral load and HLA class II alleles as risk factors for cervical cancer.To enable quantification of the most common oncogenic HPV types, a real-time PCR-based assay was developed and evaluated in terms of technical sensitivity and specificity.This assay was then employed on archival smears from 457 cases and 552 controls to assess associations between viral load and cervical carcinoma in situ (CIS). Whereas the data indicate a pronounced dose dependent effect of HPV 16 load on the risk of CIS, other HPV types only seem to increase CIS risk at higher viral loads. These effects were observed even when cytology indicated that cells were normal.We then investigated viral load as a risk factor for invasive cervical carcinoma (ICC) in a retrospective study comprising 139 cases and 550 controls. Viral load contributed similarly to the risk of ICC as to the risk of CIS.Finally, associations between HLA class II alleles, viral load and CIS were investigated. Carriers of the DRB1*1301 allele were less prone to infections and high viral loads of HPV 31 and -18/45. Moreover, DRB1*1301 had a protective effect against CIS among women infected by HPV 31 or -18/45. In contrast, carriers of DRB1*1501 and DQB1*0602 were more susceptible to infections and high viral loads of HPV 16.These results indicate that HPV load may have HPV-type specific effects on cervical cancer risk. Furthermore, HLA class II alleles may confer either susceptibility or protection against cervical cancer by acting on the HPV infections preceding tumor development.


Abstract In recent years there have been repeated calls for the establishment of so-called "safe areas" to protect civilians from the effects of hostilities in a number of contexts. The present article presents the international law framework relevant to the establishment and operation of such areas: the provisions of international humanitarian law on protected zones; the rules regulating resort to armed force, Security Council authorization and mandates for the establishment of such areas by multinational forces in the absence of agreement between belligerents; and the refugee and international human rights issues raised by such zones. Using the example of the "protection of civilians sites" in South Sudan, the article then highlights some of the operational challenges raised by safe areas. It concludes with some reflections on how to enhance the likelihood that belligerents will establish such protected zones in the future.


This paper investigates the application of the neural network in a run of mine ore stockpile in Choghart Iron Mine of Iran. While a significant amount of high grade stockpile at Choghart mine, near the open pit, is an environmental hazard, it is also potential source of high grade ores. For future exploitation, determination of stockpile resource tonnage and grade has become an important aspect of this study. In order to achieve this goal, Artificial Neural Networks was applied. Initially a Feed–forward Neural Network model was constructed to estimate the iron grade. In this model 52% of samples from stockpile were used for training, 25% for validation and the remaining as the test set. Finally optimal architecture for grade estimation was 3–19–1 and values of R and MSE were 0.8 and 2.36, respectively. The results showed that neural networks offer a valid alternate approach to the problem of stockpile grade estimation, while requiring considerably less knowledge and time.


Smart cards were born as a secure and powerfully built device. The main feature smart cards introduce is that they process data in a safe way because they support the implementation of cryptographic algorithms based on keys. A cryptographic key is a set of information that controls the operation of a cryptographic algorithm. In the context of the project a cryptographic key is used to verify if somebody has the authorisation to access a service or a system.
Nowadays there are two different methods of encrypting a message: the symmetric key
algorithms, which use the same key to encrypt and decrypt, and the asymmetric key algorithms, which use two cryptographic keys and allow anyone to encrypt using the public key while only the owner of the private key can decrypt the message.
In the opposite way as it was first thought, several attacks have appeared and have made
smart cards vulnerable. For this reason, manufacturers are investing a lot of money investigating and implementing countermeasures in order to improve the security of these devices. Countermeasures are used to protect these keys from potential threads.
One of the attacks used to break the security of smart cards is the Electromagnetic Analysis Attack, also called EMA. The EMA attack is a concrete attack of the family of Side-Channel Attacks which are based on extracting information without leaving signals in the card. This attack is based on capturing electromagnetic waves generated by the chip with an antenna while cryptographic processes are being performed. At this point, the data obtained are processed in such a way that the secret key of the cryptographic algorithm could be broken.
At this stage, the project is split into two main parts. In the first part, theoretical concepts will be introduced in order to understand how the attack works and give a brief concept about the state of art. On the other hand, in the second part of the thesis a real attack will be performed. The subject of the attack will be a smart card with cryptographic operations implemented. The objective is to extract the secret key.
This project has been developed in Applus, in the Chip department. Applus is a certificatory company. The Chip department staff are experts in smart card security and they are investigating new attack methods continuously.


This paper explores the concept of linguistic rhythm classes through a series of studies exploiting metrics designed to quantify speech rhythm. We compared the rhythm of 'syllable-timed' French and Spanish with that of 'stress-timed' Dutch and English, finding that rate-normalised metrics of vocalic interval variability (VarcoV and nPVI-V), together with a measure of the balance of vocalic and intervocalic intervals (%V), were the most discriminant between the two rhythm groups. The same metrics were also informative about the adaptation of speakers to rhythmically-similar (Dutch and English) or rhythmically-distinct (Spanish and English) second languages, and showed evidence of rhythmic gradience within accents of British English. Patterns of scores in all studies support the notion that rhythmic typology is not strictly categorical. A perceptual study found VarcoV to be the strongest predictor of the rating of a second language speaker's accent as native or non-native.


Evidence from a number of studies suggests that the mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor (TNF) kills transformed cells involves oxidative stress. NAD(P)H:(quinone acceptor) oxidoreductase (NQO1) is an antioxidant enzyme with particular relevance to cancer. The MCF-7 breast cancer cell line was stably transfected with rat NQO1 cDNA to determine whether increased NQO1 activity alters sensitivity to TNF-induced apoptosis. Five clones, with a range of NQO1 enzyme activities from 5- to 50-fold greater than the MCF-7 line, and two control transfectants were examined. Northern blot hybridization analyses and reverse transcription-PCR demonstrated that the increase in NQO1 activity in the transfectants was attributable to expression from the transfected rat sequence. Based on sulforhodamine B assays for the number of viable cells, the NQO1 clones showed increased sensitivity to EO9, an indoloquinone that undergoes bioactive reduction by NQO1. Viability studies also demonstrated that the NQO1 transfectants were significantly more sensitive to TNF than the control transfectants or MCF-7 parent. This increased sensitivity could not be explained by changes in superoxide dismutase or catalase activity or to increased sensitivity to oxidative stress in general, as assessed by response to hydrogen peroxide and paraquat treatment. Using dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate as a probe, we found that the NQO1 transfectants had no difference in baseline level of oxidative stress compared to the control cells but did exhibit greater intracellular oxidative stress after TNF treatment. We conclude that NQO1 can affect the TNF-mediated pathway to apoptosis.


The discovery of habitable exoplanets has long been a heated topic in astronomy. Traditional methods for exoplanet identification include the wobble method, direct imaging, gravitational microlensing, etc., which not only require a considerable investment of manpower, time, and money, but also are limited by the performance of astronomical telescopes. In this study, we proposed the idea of using machine learning methods to identify exoplanets. We used the Kepler dataset collected by NASA from the Kepler Space Observatory to conduct supervised learning, which predicts the existence of exoplanet candidates as a three-categorical classification task, using decision tree, random forest, naïve Bayes, and neural network; we used another NASA dataset consisted of the confirmed exoplanets data to conduct unsupervised learning, which divides the confirmed exoplanets into different clusters, using k-means clustering. As a result, our models achieved accuracies of 99.06%, 92.11%, 88.50%, and 99.79%, respectively, in the supervised learning task and successfully obtained reasonable clusters in the unsupervised learning task.


The fundamental purpose of a tort trial is to allocate responsibility. However, attributing fault is difficult, and decades of research in psychology have shown that human beings are prone to make systematic errors in performing this task. What can be done about this? The United States and countries in continental Europe adopt diametrically opposed strategies to reduce errors in the attribution of responsibility in the courtroom. American law delegates fact-finding to jurors and makes some type of evidence inadmissible in court to protect jurors from potentially biasing information, such as character evidence. European legal systems, instead, employ almost exclusively judges to perform fact-finding and allow character evidence at trial, under the assumption that judges are better than laypeople in weighing the probative value of this type of evidence. There is a longstanding debate among legal scholars on whether the American or the European approach reduces more trial errors, but the relative performance of the two legal systems remains largely untested. This article is the first to provide evidence on the relative performance of these two systems. Our results suggest that jurors fail to correctly apply European rules of character evidence. The American rules on the inadmissibility of character evidence seem therefore a more appropriate choice when fact-finding is performed by jurors. We find also that, contrary to jurors, judges apply European rules correctly and thus reduce the risk of errors in the attribution of responsibility. Overall, this result indicates that the American and the European evidence rules to improve fact-finding are well set up. Nonetheless, we also find that neither of the two systems is able to prevent factfinders' errors in the attribution responsibility when these mistakes are not due to the type of evidence presented at trial but to (unconscious) beliefs held by factfinders themselves. We thus propose a set of policies


Today's web search and big data analytics applications aim to address information needs~(typically given in the form of search queries) ad-hoc on large numbers of texts. In order to directly return relevant information instead of only returning potentially relevant texts, these applications have begun to employ text mining. The term text mining covers tasks that deal with the inference of structured high-quality information from collections and streams of unstructured input texts. Text mining requires task-specific text analysis processes that may consist of several interdependent steps. These processes are realized with sequences of algorithms from information extraction, text classification, and natural language processing. However, the use of such text analysis pipelines is still restricted to addressing a few predefined information needs. We argue that the reasons behind are three-fold: First, text analysis pipelines are usually made manually in respect of the given information need and input texts, because their design requires expert knowledge about the algorithms to be employed. When information needs have to be addressed that are unknown beforehand, text mining hence cannot be performed ad-hoc. Second, text analysis pipelines tend to be inefficient in terms of run-time, because their execution often includes analyzing texts with computationally expensive algorithms. When information needs have to be addressed ad-hoc, text mining hence cannot be performed in the large. And third, text analysis pipelines tend not to robustly achieve high effectiveness on all texts, because their results are often inferred by algorithms that rely on domain-dependent features of texts. Hence, text mining currently cannot guarantee to infer high-quality information. In this thesis, we contribute to the question of how to address information needs from text mining ad-hoc in an efficient and domain-robust manner. We observe that knowledge about a text analysis process and information obtained within the process help to improve the design, the execution, and the results of the pipeline that realizes the process. To this end, we apply different techniques from classical and statistical artificial intelligence. In particular, we first develop knowledge-based approaches for an ad-hoc pipeline construction and for an optimal execution of a pipeline on its input. Then, we show theoretically and practically how to optimize and adapt the schedule of the algorithms in a pipeline based on information in the analyzed input texts in order to maximize execution efficiency. Finally, we learn patterns in the argumentation structures of texts statistically that remain strongly invariant across domains and that, thereby, allow for more robust analysis results in a restricted set of tasks. We formally analyze all developed approaches and we implement them as open-source software applications. Based on these applications, we evaluate the approaches on established and on newly created collections of texts for scientifically and industrially important text analysis tasks, such as financial event extraction and fine-grained sentiment analysis. Our findings show that text analysis pipelines can be designed automatically, which process only portions of text that are relevant for the information need at hand. Through scheduling, the run-time efficiency of pipelines can be improved by up to more than one order of magnitude while maintaining effectiveness. Moreover, we provide evidence that a pipeline's domain robustness substantially benefits from focusing on argumentation structure in tasks like sentiment analysis. We conclude that our approaches denote essential building blocks of enabling ad-hoc large-scale text mining in web search and big data analytics applications.


Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) composed of polymer or polymer blend is a vital element in PEM fuel cell that allows proton transport and serves as a barrier between fuel and oxygen. Understanding the microscopic phase behavior in polymer blends is very crucial to design alternative cost-effective proton-conducting materials. In this study, the mesoscale morphologies of Nafion/poly(1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole) (Nafion-PVTri) and Nafion/poly(vinyl phosphonic acid) (Nafion-PVPA) blend membranes were studied by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation technique. Simulation results indicate that both blend membranes can form a phase-separated microstructure due to the different hydrophobic and hydrophilic character of different polymer chains and different segments in the same polymer chain. There is a strong, attractive interaction between the phosphonic acid and sulfonic acid groups and a very strong repulsive interaction between the fluorinated and phosphonic acid groups in the Nafion-PVPA blend membrane. By increasing the PVPA content in the blend membrane, the PVPA clusters' size gradually increases and forms a continuous phase. On the other hand, repulsive interaction between fluorinated and triazole units in the Nafion-PVTri blend is not very strong compared to the Nafion-PVPA blend, which results in different phase behavior in Nafion-PVTri blend membrane. This relatively lower repulsive interaction causes Nafion-PVTri blend membrane to have non-continuous phases regardless of the composition.


I want briefly to say something about the Covenant's origins in a practical sense, and then move on to its rationale and content. As most of us know, the proposal for an Anglican Covenant derives almost exclusively from the Windsor Report itself (see e.g. par. 118-120). The proposal came in the context of the Report's recommendations to enhance the unity of the Anglican Communion: ''This Commission recommends, therefore, and urges the primates to consider, the adoption by the churches of the Communion of a common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit and forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which govern the relationships between the churches of the Communion'' (118). Several things about such a covenant were noted in the Report, and the ''draft'' of a possible covenant was included in the Report as an appendix and, in a sense, a ''discussion-starter''.


My focus in this paper is on the treatment of the Crown by the courts, especially Canadian courts, in judicial review of administrative action. In three areas of administrative law, the Crown has been accorded a special status, distinct from that of statutory bodies: administrative powers, justiciability and remedies. In respect of administrative powers, the Crown qua Crown has inherent capacities that are not available to statutory bodies. In respect of prerogative powers, the grounds of judicial review are restricted. In respect of the remedies that courts may grant, these may be more limited when exercises of the prerogative are involved. In the cases, the special status of the Crown is asserted rather than justified: it is a legal fact is search of a normative justification. The absence of a convincing normative justification for the special status of the Crown in judicial review of administrative action is significant, because the outcome of a case could well turn on whether the power deployed to effect a change in an individual's legal position was exercised by the Crown or by a statutory decision-maker. My discussion of the three areas leads me to suggest that it should be possible to bring the treatment of the Crown into line with that of other administrative decision-makers without creating serious jurisprudential difficulties.


Disturbance events affect forest composition and structure across a range of spatial and temporal scales, and forest development may differ after natural, anthropogenic, or compound disturbances. Following large, natural disturbances, salvage logging is a common yet controversial management practice around the globe. While the short-term impacts of salvage logging have been studied in many systems, the long-term effects remain unclear. Further, while natural disturbances create many persistent and unique microsite conditions, little is known about the long-term influence of microsites on forest development. We capitalized on over eighty years of data on stand development following the 1938 hurricane in New England to provide the longest known evaluation of salvage logging impacts, as well as to highlight developmental trajectories for eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)-white pine (Pinus strobus) forests under a variety of disturbance histories. Eight decades following disturbance, there were no differences in current overstory composition between areas that were logged, hurricane disturbed, or hurricane disturbed and salvage logged, but white pine declined across most sites. In contrast, structural characteristics remain distinct between the three management histories. In the unsalvaged area, the diversity of microsites and the coverage of uprootings and pits influenced overstory tree composition, diversity, and structural characteristics. These findings underscore the long-term influence of salvage logging on forest development and the importance of natural disturbance-mediated microsite conditions on tree species growth and survival. Future salvage logging efforts should consider these impacts and provide a greater range of unsalvaged areas across the landscape to maintain these important structural legacies over the long term.


The Valdivian rainforest, one of the global hotspots of biodiversity, is a temperate rainforest originating as a Tertiary relic from the supercontinent Gondwana. In November 2014, a survey of Phytophthora diversity was performed in 13 natural forest stands and 20 forest streams and rivers in two protected areas near Valdivia and in a temperate montane forest in the Concepcion area. One planted stand each of the introduced tree species Castanea sativa and Fagus sylvatica were also included. Using baiting assays, eight described species and four previously unknown taxa of Phytophthora were isolated from 86% of the 50 rhizosphere soil samples from seven of the eight tree species sampled in 12 forest stands, and from 20 streams: P. chlamydospora, P. cinnamomi, P. kernoviae, P. lacustris, P. plurivora, P. pseudosyringae, P. ×cambivora, P. ×stagnum, P. valdiviana nom. prov. from Clade 2b, P. madida nom. prov. from Clade 8a, and P. chilensis nom. prov. and P. pseudokernoviae nom. prov. The latter two species are the closest relatives of P. kernoviae from Clade 10. Phytophthora pseudokernoviae nom. prov. was also isolated from necrotic leaves of Drimys winteri. From the Valdivia river, a swarm of three Clade 6 hybrids was recovered. Each hybrid isolate resulted from multiple reticulation events with P. thermophila as maternal and both P. amnicola and P. chlamydospora as paternal parents. In addition, three previously unknown and recently described Nothophytophthora species, N. caduca, N. chlamydospora and N. valdiviana, were isolated from several forest streams. Phytophthora cinnamomi, the most common and widespread species in soils of native forests, was associated with severe dieback of Valdivian rainforest trees, in particular D. winteri, Luma apiculata, Nothofagus dombeyi and the endangered Saxegothaea conspicua. A first pathogenicity test demonstrated high aggressiveness of P. cinnamomi to several native tree species, including N. dombeyi, Blepharocalyx cruckshanksii and Gevuina avellana.


Digital repositories are considered essential information tools for scholarly communication. Their acceptability and extensive use by communities and institutions, as well as the users' commitment in self-archiving, highlight the need for developing alternative channels of communication to expose scholarly productivity. Furthermore, the digital repositories community is interested into transforming them into viable, reliable and useful systems. This interest is primarily expressed by intense research activity, including - among the others - the evaluation and the usability of the technological solutions that support these services. On an institutional level, digital repositories are systems supported by physical organizations, such as libraries, which undertake many tasks in order to enable a variety of processes associated with these systems, such as submission, editing and access.
In this paper, we present a multifaceted evaluation initiative that aimed at the redesign of University of Patras' institutional repository, namely 'Nemertes'. 'Nemertes' is operating on a DSpace installation and the 'Theses and Dissertations' collection was placed at the center of evaluation as the most important collection accommodated in the service. Emphasis was given to key processes held inside the repository by conducting surveys and interviews with typical classes of users. In order to collect data from these sources three different studies were held. First the quality of Submission process inside the physical and the digital space was evaluated through a questionnaire survey, which was addressed to people who had earlier submitted in the 'Theses and Dissertation' collection. Secondly, the information retrieval processes and the interface were evaluated by Human-Computer Interaction savvy students using the usability heuristics principles. Finally, the Editing processes and the quality of the delivery of services were assessed through interviews with the librarians that support the service.
The findings of these studies point to areas that the system can be improved and help to eliminate the barriers that prohibit the service to be upgraded and host new collections. The areas identified concern both the way of delivering the service and the operation of the system. While the contextual parameters make the generalization of the findings about the service more ambiguous, the findings concerning the system performance and the interface intuitiveness validate the results of previous studies, such as the case of terminology, the affordances and the effectiveness of search interfaces. It is anticipated that the findings of the study can be further exploited by organizations with similar repository services and technological infrastructures.


After clearing pathogens from the host, most T cells die and leave a small band of memory cells to fight another day. What intrinsic and extrinsic factors determine the fate and the identity of memory precursors within the larger population of cells? Madakamutil et al. (see the Perspective by Kim and Flavell) describe a population of CD8+ T cells that transiently express a homotypic form of the CD8α coreceptor after stimulation with antigen. These CD8αα T cells distinguished themselves from their CD8αβ counterparts by a resistance to activation-induced cell death and an ability to persist after viral infection. T cells from animals lacking enhancer elements for the CD8α gene, which are unable to induce sufficient CD8α expression to form homodimers, generated deficient memory responses. CD8αα displays a particularly high affinity for the major histocompatibility complex class I-like thymic leukemia antigen, which suggests that memory precursors might be singled out by specific interaction with this ligand during an immune response. L. T. Madakamutil, U. Christen, C. J. Lena, Y. Wang-Zhu, A. Attinger, M. Sundarrajan, W. Ellmeier, M. G. von Herrath, P. Jensen, D. R. Littman, H. Cheroutre, CD8αα-mediated survival and differentiation of CD8 memory T cell precursors. Science 304, 590-593 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. V. Kim, R. A. Flavell, CD8αα and T cell memory. Science 304, 529-530 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Today's economic growth challenges will become greater in the future because of the world's aging population, fertility trends and current levels, and current entitlement policies. Those challenges could be overcome, however, with thoughtful public policies and a culture that fosters responsibility and appreciation. This book reconsiders what makes us "healthy, wealthy, and wise." It focuses on how we might reimagine health care, retirement, and education policies to usher in a new ERA (from Entitlement to Responsibility with Appreciation) of sustainable long-term economic growth.


This paper presents an analysis of the allocation of agenda-setting (or bargaining) power in organizations with overlapping generations of players. Such powers are typically institutionalized within an organization's structure, and, given the focus of this paper, we identify the former with the latter. Our analysis concerns organizations (such as the US Senate) in which the number of periods each player participates is endogenously determined by his or her past performance. We derive several results and insights concerning (i) optimal organizational structure and (ii) conditions under which the unique, dynamically optimal outcome can be sustained (in equilibrium) in organizations with suboptimal structures. For example, we show that under a broad set of conditions, the optimal organizational structure should involve a seniority system, in which most of the agenda-setting power is allocated to the oldest generation of players.


The research material proposes the use of decision support information-analytical technology in discharge military personnel employment, which, in contrast to the usual processing of survey results, makes it possible to obtain more information for decision-making. Adherence to such an approach in the development of public administration mechanisms increases the likelihood that in the case of their implementation in the country there will be positive changes, as they will indirectly take into account the availability of necessary resources. Information and analytical technology to support decisions in the field of labor economics substantiates the development of the example of discharged military personnel social welfare. According to the content, the developed decision support information-analytical technology in the field of labor economics provides for the following components: formation of social protection mechanisms; development of a questionnaire on the use of the appropriate mechanism; statistical analysis of survey results (generation of empirical distributions of answers to questions relative frequencies; comparison of answers medians; correspondences analysis; factor analysis; analysis of hierarchies); meaningful interpretation; decision making.


This question as to whether machines can, or could, be made to think, has become familiar in recent years since the renewed outburst of interest that has taken place in the development of Cybernetics. The notion of servo–mechanisms and the like has a history in remote antiquity but the form of its fundamental question has recently taken on a new and especially acute significance.


Basic issues regarding synchronized chaotic optical communications at high bit rates using semiconductor lasers are considered. Recent experimental results on broadband, high-frequency, phase-locked chaos synchronization, and message encoding-decoding at 2.5 Gb/s are presented. System performance at a bit rate of 10 Gb/s is numerically studied for the application of three encryption schemes, namely chaos shift keying, chaos masking, and additive chaos modulation, to three chaotic semiconductor laser systems, namely the optical injection system, the optical feedback system, and the optoelectronic feedback system. By causing synchronization error in the forms of synchronization deviation and desynchronization bursts, the channel noise and the laser noise both have significant effects on the system performance at high bit rates. Among the three laser systems, the optoelectronic feedback system has the best performance while the optical feedback system has the worst. Among the three encryption schemes, only the performance of additive chaos modulation with low-noise lasers is acceptable at high bit rates.


In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of optical manipulation techniques, such as optical tweezers, in biological research as the full potential of such applications are being realized. Biological research is developing towards the study of single entities to reveal new behaviors that cannot be discovered with more traditional ensemble techniques. To be able to study single cells we have developed a new method where a combination of micro-fluidics and optical tweezers was used. Micro-fluidic channels were fabricated using soft lithography. The channels consisted of a Y-shaped junction were two channels merged into one. By flowing different media in the two channels in laminar flow we were able to create a sharp concentration gradient at the junction. Single cells were trapped by the tweezers and the micro-fluidic system allowed fast environmental changes to be made for the cell in a reversible manner. The time required to change the surroundings of the cell was limited to how sharp mixing region the system could create, thus how far the cells had to be moved using the optical tweezers. With this new technique cellular response in single cells upon fast environmental changes could be investigated in real time. The cellular response was detected by monitoring variations in the cell by following the localization of fluorescently tagged proteins within the cell.


This paper surveys the recent literature on fiscal sustainability, with particular emphasis on emerging market countries. It discusses the main elements that differentiate emerging market countries from industrial countries and then discusses how probabilistic models can help to evaluate fiscal sustainability in an uncertain environment. Based on this discussion, the paper uses Ecuador to illustrate an application of the probabilistic model, and of the framework to evaluate the impact of shocks to current account financing on sustainability.


The introduction of participatory forestry management (PFM) in Kenya has led to the formation of community forest associations (CFAs). Data collected from 12 forests over a decade indicate that most associations are confederating to manage shared forests through the Forests Act of 2005. Emerging findings indicate that associations are responsible for diverse management activities in forest protection, monitoring, and management, yet access to decision-making, revenue streams, and overall resource control rights are vested in the Kenya Forestry Service. Still, this is an improvement as CFAs perform most governance functions autonomously, including the crafting of resource harvesting rules, the choice of leadership, and conflict resolution. In order to balance community incentives with the burdens and responsibilities they bear, rights to revenue streams generated from forest resources must be shared with communities to ensure continued commitment to the PFM process. Furthermore, the viability of CFAs is threatened by power struggles, leadership wrangles, and the splintering of groups. Negotiation support to moderate conflicting interests, and strengthen internal conflict resolution and governance is necessary.


Surgeons who participate in research studies frequently struggle with a number of challenges when determining authorship of the publications that arise from their research. Furthermore, new concerns relating to who receives credit and who takes responsibility have emerged with the increase in multicenter research collaborations. This paper provides a discussion of the importance of authorship and outlines a number of ethical issues that commonly arise when determining the author byline. We also present some strategies, such as publishing under group authorship, listing individual author contributions, and revising the mechanism for acknowledging nonauthor contributions, that have the potential to improve authorship and publication practices.


We review the literature on the impact assessment models currently used in the climate change debate. From among these we select some relevant models, highlight their important features and identify how climate change damages are treated. A common feature of the treatment of climate change damages within the existing models seems to be the significant degree of subjectivity involved in the choice of parameters, functional forms and the potential damages in case of temperature changes above the current predicted (low) levels. This is in part due to the small number of studies available from which we can estimate climate change damages, which forces researchers to extrapolate, from a small set of figures, damage for higher temperature changes and for regions of the world other than those where the original studies were undertaken. Thus, uncertainty surrounding damage functions is inevitably high.


Scenario Planning is a strategy tool with growing popularity in both academia and practical situations. Current practices in the teaching of scenario planning are largely based on existing literature which utilises scenario planning to develop strategies for the future, primarily considering the assessment of perceived macro-external environmental uncertainties. However there is a body of literature hitherto ignored by scenario planning researchers, which suggests that Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (PEU) influences micro-external or industrial environmental as well as the internal environment of the organisation. This paper provides a review of the most dominant theories on scenario planning process, demonstrates the need to consider PEU theory within scenario planning and presents how this can be done. The scope of this paper is to enhance the scenario planning process as a tool taught for Strategy Development. A case vignette is developed based on published scenarios to demonstrate the potential utilisation of the proposed process.


ABSTRACT Background: Little is known about what factors may contribute to the growth of a consultation service or how a practice may change or evolve across time. Methods: This study examines data collected from a busy ethics consultation service over a period of more than two decades. Results: We report a number of longitudinal findings that represent significant growth in the volume of ethics consultation requests from 19 in 1990 to 551 in 2013, as well as important changes in the patient population for which ethics help is requested. The findings include (1) a steady growth in requests from primary care providers (e.g., physicians and nurses), as well as increases in ancillary services (e.g., social workers); (2) a decrease in length of stay (days) before ethics help is requested; (3) an increase in the reasons that individuals ask for help from ethics; (4) an upsurge in consults requests from areas outside the intensive care unit (ICU); (5) a decrease in patients that died during hospitalization (e.g., live discharges); and (6) growth in the numbers of patients lacking decision-making capacity. Conclusions: We believe the increases in consult requests reflect appropriate and necessary growth because recent consultations have also been associated with consultations requiring (7) additional interventions and (8) reasonably high time intensity scores.


AIM
To identify the common, core elements of patient-centred care in the health policy, medical and nursing literature.

BACKGROUND
Healthcare reform is being driven by the rhetoric around patient-centred care yet no common definition exists and few integrated reviews undertaken.

DESIGN
Narrative review and synthesis.

DATA SOURCES
Key seminal texts and papers from patient organizations, policy documents, and medical and nursing studies which looked at patient-centred care in the acute care setting. Search sources included Medline, CINHAL, SCOPUS, and primary policy documents and texts covering the period from 1990-March 2010.

REVIEW METHODS
A narrative review and synthesis was undertaken including empirical, descriptive, and discursive papers. Initially, generic search terms were used to capture relevant literature; the selection process was narrowed to seminal texts (Stage 1 of the review) and papers from three key areas (in Stage 2).

RESULTS
In total, 60 papers were included in the review and synthesis. Seven were from health policy, 22 from medicine, and 31 from nursing literature. Few common definitions were found across the literature. Three core themes, however, were identified: patient participation and involvement, the relationship between the patient and the healthcare professional, and the context where care is delivered.

CONCLUSION
Three core themes describing patient-centred care have emerged from the health policy, medical, and nursing literature. This may indicate a common conceptual source. Different professional groups tend to focus on or emphasize different elements within the themes. This may affect the success of implementing patient-centred care in practice.


In 1999 lasting over 7 months, the largest ever earthquake swarm at a mid-ocean ridge was teleseismically registered worldwide. It featured 252 recorded events, including 11 events with a magnitude mb>5.0 and originated from around 85°E at the eastern Gakkel Ridge (full spreading rate 6-14 mm/yr). This makes it indicative for active spreading processes at ultraslow spreading ridges where heat loss by conductive cooling is thought to decrease magma supply and focus magmatism in widely spaced discrete volcanic centres. The relocalization was done with the routine NonLinLoc using a probabilistic approach. The new locations of the epicentres show a clustering of events within the central rift valley and the southern rift flank, the 68% error in ellipse semi-major axes of the new localization is in the order of 15 km for the best events. An analysis of the respective epicentral distance to the volcanic complex with advancing time showed high seismicity and diffuse activation around the volcanic complex within the rift valley before the 15th of April, to the NW migrating epicentres with additional activation of the valley walls and a marked drop in seismicity after April 15th. We postulate that the change in seismicity rate and the following change in source mechanism might mark the onset of volcanic activity and may be reflected by three events with highly correlating waveforms at the beginning of April.