The history of jazz in Britain has been scrutinised in notable publications including Parsonage (2005) The Evolution of Jazz in Britain, 1880-1935 (Ashgate), McKay (2005) Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain (Duke University Press), Simons (2006) Black British Swing (Northway) and Moore (forthcoming 2007) Inside British Jazz (Ashgate). This body of literature provides a useful basis for specific consideration of the role of women in British jazz. This area is almost completely unresearched with a few notable exceptions which include Jen Wilson's work (in her dissertation entitled Syncopated Ladies: British Jazzwomen 1880-1995 and their influence on Popular Culture) and George McKay's chapter 'From "Male Music" to Feminist Improvising' in Circular Breathing. Therefore, this chapter will provide a necessarily selective overview of British women in jazz, and offer some limited exploration of the critical issues raised. It is hoped that this will provide a stimulus for more detailed research in the future.

Any consideration of this topic must necessarily foreground Ivy Benson, who played a fundamental role in encouraging and inspiring female jazz musicians in Britain through her various 'all-girl' bands between 1939 and 1982. The circumstances of World War Two meant that Benson's group gained prominence through extensive touring for the Entertainments National Servicemen's Association and as a result of being contracted to the British Broadcasting Company.

However, Benson's band was by no means the first all-female band in Britain, and the roots of the concept can be traced back through early jazz to the Ladies Orchestras popular in the late Victorian period. Likewise, the inclusion of music in the traditional education of 'accomplished' young women provided them with technique which enabled them to perform in popular styles. There was significant female participation in the pre-jazz banjo craze of the late nineteenth century, and the British pianist Natalie Spencer performed with Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra who visited Britain in the 1920s. Winifred Atwell came to Britain to study at the Royal Academy of Music, but secured success playing ragtime and boogie woogie piano in clubs and on television. Marian McPartland left the Guildhall School of Music to perform in vaudeville, and subsequently has enjoyed a long and successful career in the USA.

Many Benson alumni instrumentalists 'graduated' and formed their own all-female groups, including Deirdre Cartwright (guitar; Jam Today and the Guest Stars), Chrissy Lee (drums; Beat Chicks), and Annie Whitehead (trombone). Later, these musicians formed big bands including the Sisterhood of Spit and Lydia D'Ustebyn's Ladies Swing Orchestra. Together with Maggie Nichols's Feminist Improvising Group, these all-female groups have provided opportunities for the explicit or implicit expression of feminist ideologies. Women have also worked successfully within the traditional male dominated jazz scene in Britain. Most notable in this regard is Kathy Stobart, whose extremely successful career has included performing with Humphrey Lyttleton in addition to bandleading and teaching. British female musicians have led mixed gender bands, including Barbara Thompson's Paraphenelia and Gail Thompson's Gail Force.

As in many countries, vocal performance has provided the most accessible route into jazz for women in Britain, and the country has produced and nurtured internationally known singers including Cleo Laine, Tina May, Claire Martin, Claire Teal and Norma Winstone. Female vocalists have often made important contributions to regional jazz scenes, including Beryl Bryden in East Anglia and Cambridge, and more recently Carole Clegg in the North East and Fionna Duncan in Glasgow.

Jazz education is well-established in Britain, and has contributed to the subsequent successful careers of musicians including Nikki Iles (Leeds College of Music) and Andrea Vicari (Guildhall School of Music and Drama). Female role models in jazz are becoming more frequent in educational institutions. Those in significant positions include Issie Barratt (composer and Jazz Fellow at Trinity Laban College), Kathy Dyson (guitarist and Senior Lecturer at Leeds College of Music), Paula Gardiner (bass player and Head of Jazz at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Louise Gibbs (vocalist and Senior Lecturer at Leeds College of Music) and Catherine Parsonage (musicologist and Head of the Centre for Jazz Studies UK at Leeds College of Music).

Women are also taking significant roles within the jazz industry. These include Janine Irons MBE, Managing Director and CEO of Dune Records and Christine Allen, Head of Basho Records. Ivy Benson alumni Shelia Tracy has been broadcasting on the BBC for several decades and Val Wilmer, who trained as a photographer, has contributed to all the major jazz publications and authored several books.

All of the aforementioned contributions must be considered against the backdrop of the changing position of women in British society in the twentieth century. To this end, the factors that both encouraged and prohibited the participation of women in jazz, not only as musicians but also in other roles within the music industry and within society more generally, will also be considered.


The thylacine looms large in Tasmanian culture. The animal's image is everywhere, present on everything from
beer labels to licence plates. The documentary footage of the last thylacine in Hobart Zoo has come to
exemplify, among other things, the tragedy of species loss and humanity's violence against the nonhuman.
This footage features at the beginning of both The Hunter and Dying Breed – two of the very small number of
films that constitute a notional Tasmanian cinema. In contrast to the meanings suggested by the documentary
images of the last thylacine however, the fictional Tasmanian tiger in these films becomes a repository for
those aspects of humanity that need to be expunged. In The Hunter, the thylacine's dead body is potential raw
material for weapons production by a biotech company. In Dying Breed, the thylacine is aligned with a
cannibalistic community – implicitly descendent from cannibal convict Alexander Pearce – who rape female
tourists in order to perpetuate their kind. In these two texts the thylacine therefore symbolically embodies
humanity's inhumanity, degeneracy, and monstrosity – qualities that The Hunter gestures towards wiping out
through the eponymous hero's enactment of the thylacine's 'final' extinction. The narratives of The Hunter and
Dying Breed assert man's right to violently determine survival and reproduction. These politics resonate with
the thylacine's history both in terms of the significance of the hunt in her extinction and the confinement of
the last thylacine in a zoo – an environment where reproduction is fully governed by humans.


Human trafficking is a rapidly growing problem in the United States. This multibillion dollar criminal industry denies freedom to approximately 21 to 27 million people around the world. Through coercion or withholding of an individual's legal documents, vulnerable people are forced to perform labor or sexual acts for the benefit or personal gain of others. Over 80% of victims seek medical help during their captivity, but go unnoticed due to healthcare professional's lack of knowledge and training on the population. This study consisted of a two-step approach. The first involved a literary review of sexual trafficking. Next, a pilot study was conducted where registered nurses in the emergency department were given an educational intervention with a pre and postsurvey to monitor knowledge gained. Results showed significant knowledge gain following the educational intervention. This suggests that sexual trafficking educational interventions for registered nurses may aide in the identification and subsequent assistance for sexual trafficking victims.


In clinical practice, cognitive impairment is often observed after stroke. The efficacy of rehabilitative interventions is routinely assessed by means of a neuropsychological test battery. Nowadays, more evidences indicate that the neuroplasticity which occurs after stroke can be better understood by investigating changes in brain networks. In this study we applied advanced methodologies for effective connectivity estimation in combination with graph theory approach, to define EEG derived descriptors of brain networks underlying memory tasks. In particular, we proposed such descriptors to identify substrates of efficacy of a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) controlled neurofeedback intervention to improve cognitive function after stroke. Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected from two stroke patients before and after a neurofeedback-based training for memory deficits. We show that the estimated brain connectivity indices were sensitive to different training intervention outcomes, thus suggesting an effective support to the neuropsychological assessment in the evaluation of the changes induced by the BCI-based cognitive rehabilitative intervention.


The paper concerns the equilibrium state of ultra small semiconductor devices. Due to the quantum drift diffusion model, electrons and holes behave as a mixture of charged quantum fluids. Typically the involved scaled Planck's constants of holes, \xi , is significantly smaller than the scaled Planck's constant of electrons. By setting formally \xi = 0 a well-posed differentialalgebraic system arises. Existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium solution is proved. A rigorous asymptotic analysis shows that this equilibrium solution is the limit (in a rather strong sense) of quantum systems as \xi \rightarrow 0. In particular the ground state energies of the quantum systems converge to the ground state energy of the differential-algebraic system as \xi \rightarrow 0.


In order to address the health risks and climate impacts associated with pollution from cooking on biomass fires, researchers have focused on designing new cookstoves that improve cooking performance and reduce harmful emissions, specifically particulate matter (PM). One method for improving cooking performance and reducing emissions is using air injection to increase turbulence of unburned gases in the combustion zone. Although air injection reduces total PM mass emissions, the effect on PM size distribution and number concentration has not been thoroughly investigated. Using two new wood-burning cookstove designs from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, this research explores the effect of air injection on cooking performance, PM and gaseous emissions, and PM size distribution and number concentration. Both cookstoves were created using the Berkeley-Darfur Stove as the base platform to isolate the effects of air injection. The thermal performance, gaseous emissions, PM mass emissions, and particle concentrations (ranging from 5 nm to 10 μm in diameter) of the cookstoves were measured during multiple high-power cooking tests. The results indicate that air injection improves cookstove performance and reduces total PM mass but increases total ultrafine (less than 100 nm in diameter) PM concentration over the course of high-power cooking.


In this general equilibrium model, firms engage in oligopolistic competition and choose increasing returns technologies to maximize profits. Capital and labor are the two factors of production. The existence of efficiency wages leads to unemployment. The model is able to explain some interesting observations of the labor market. First, even though there is neither long-term labor contract nor costs of wage adjustment, wage rigidity is an equilibrium phenomenoniaan increase in the exogenous job separation rate,the size of the population, the cost of exerting effort, and the probability that shirking is detected will not change the equilibrium wage rate. Second, the equilibrium wage rate increases with the level of capital stock. Third, a higher level of capital stock does not necessarily reduce the unemployment rate. That is, there is no monotonic relationship between capital accumulation and the unemployment rate.


This research constituted to the symptom phenomenon draws from a life style infecting the mens urban. The mens told as a metrosexual. Its the definition is young man having dandy appereance, hardly bothering about its appearance, love to pamper it self and becomes cynosure, hardly interesting with fashion and dare to present his feminine side (simpsons). That thing also influenced by presence of magazine Esquire Indonesia as special print media of men, who many presenting information in around life style. Creator construction the magazine of message and image in every rubric as ideological project having latent meaning, smoothly can influence, points, dribbles, changes way of approach and motivates patterned thinking and behavior of someone to something, what brings real impact and can be felt in life. Rubric text in magazine is seen as a sign system submitting hiding message and image ?meaning is returned by meaning?. This research focussed at rubric 25 choice style mens esquire which there is in magazine esquire September edition of 2008. Where in the rubric not only offers inspiration of cloth out of 25 young executive mens, but also offers loaded information with behavior of life style metroseksual. Hence from that is researcher interests to study how representation of mens life style metrosexual in rubric 25 choice style mans esquire which there is in magazine esquire edition September 2008. Representation is processing social from representing, namely a process dedicates again returns which is representative or reflection from an object (Juliastuti). There is two representation process phases, that is representation of mental is conceptioning about something in individual it self which still be in the form of abstraction and language having important role in process of construction of meaning. Relation between something with conceptual map with language or symbol is heart produce of meaning and named by representation process (Hall). Life style means individual characteristic which can be observed, what marks value system and position to the ownself and area. So life style is totality from procedures, habit, supporter objects cum all, which its execution based on by certain value system or trust (Pilliang). In globalization era of information and capitalism, visual style or surface vision becomes very important. Visual style standing in forming life style one of them is mode trend and fashion considered to be awareness former of present man. Mode and fashion has become ambition channel every mens and at the same time discourse about consumption and life style. Pass research method of semiotics with technique sign signification of two analysis phases Roland Barthes, can pare construction of meaning signing not only at denotation meaning as meaning that is direct visible at message and text image at rubric, but also to connotation meaning (myth and ideology) which hidden returned by message and text image at the rubric. Result of research indicates that rubric 25 choice style mens esquire at magazine esquire September edition 2008 life style representations the metrosexual life styles what makes outward appearance and influence of physical of and matter and hobby in it self of the mens is having the character of consumptiveness laid open through via fesyen, as purpose of main in life. This consumptive life style also becoming root of metrosexual life style initial from the hedonism from liberal economy system or capitalist. Metrosexual life style is marked with its life style magazine, fashion and accessoris addressed for the men. Life style like that exploited the industrial perpetrators of life style and media as channel to wash raw-gold advantage of big matter. Ideology, consumerism and hedonism is construction and hidden returned by art and picture design creativity and also article which there is in rubric, and corporate identity image from magazine esquire propagandized by brain and man soul, addressed to become confidence and life style which towards to myth and understanding follower philosophy metrosexual is coming from occidental state and grows to the world. Keyword : Representasi; Gaya Hidup; Pria Metroseksual. Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/336/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-mohanggits-16792-01+PENDA-N.pdf


Integrin and small immunoglobulin superfamily (sIGSF) adhesion complexes function physiologically in human immunological synapses (IS) wherein sIGSF complexes form a corolla of microdomains around an integrin ring and secretory core. The corolla recruits and retains the major costimulatory and checkpoint complexes that regulate the response to T cell receptor (TCR) engagement, making forces that govern corolla formation of particular interest. We developed a phenomenological agent-based model in order to test different hypotheses concerning the mechanisms underlying molecular reorganization during IS formation. The model showed that sIGSF complexes are passively excluded to the distal aspect of the IS as long as their interaction with the ramified F-actin transport network is absent or weaker than that of integrins. An attractive force between sIGSF adhesion and costimulatory/checkpoint complexes relocates the latter from the centre of the IS to the corolla. The simulations suggest that size based sorting interactions with large glycocalyx components as well as a short-range self-attraction between sIGSF complexes explain the corolla "petals". These molecular and mechanistic features establish a general model that can recapitulate complex pattern formation processes observed in cell-bilayer and cell-cell interfaces. One Sentence Summary Computer simulations of immunological synapses reveal the localization mechanisms of immunoglobulin superfamily adhesion and costimulatory/checkpoint complexes.


How do former combatants understand and make themselves into a citizen category? Through exploring the life narratives of former combatants from three different wars (Namibia, Colombia, and United States–Vietnam), this article locates similarities in the claims for recognition. The achievements or the grievances associated with the war and their homecoming made them deserving of special recognition from the state, the country, or other veterans. These claims situate these veterans in a political landscape, where they are called upon to mend and affirm the relation with the state, achieve recognition from society, and defend their fellows, which inform their citizenship practices, as it shaped their political mobilization and perceived political status. Through seeking recognition, they affirm their role as citizens.


Electricity Market Coupling is spreading all around the world; however, its potential benefits and drawbacks are still open to debate, and regions like the European Union advance quite slowly towards integration. There is no agreement in terms of what are the right policies to implement in order to acquire the benefits of integration without putting reliability at risk, and most countries continue to implement national policies without taking the interconnectors into account. In order to contribute to the discussion, we develop a System Dynamics model that allows us to simulate the integration of two countries and test different policies. Two dissimilar cases, one in Latin America and one in Europe, are analyzed, and we obtain some insights into the aspects that deserve special attention when designing policies for interconnected countries. Results of the simulation show that, in the long-term, the amount of investment in generation capacity, as well as the technology mix of new investments, is influenced by the degree of interconnection. Furthermore, the effect of a capacity payment mechanism depends not only on the degree of interconnection, but also on the characteristics of the integrated countries, such as the complementarities, currently installed capacity, resources, load curves, etc.


The study aimed at examining the impacts of ISO 9001 quality management system implementation on employee performance of pension funds in Tanzania, for the case of
National Social security Fund (NSSF). The study was necessitated by the lack of ample literature linking of ISO 9001 to employees' performance. The explanatory research designs with the case study strategy were adopted in the study. The study focused on NSSF – Temeke Regional Office being the largest region of NSSF in Tanzania in terms of revenue collection and it is the first region to be ISO certified where by effective assessment of the
impacts was explored. The study involved a total of fifty seven targeted respondents who supplied with structured self administered questionnaires. Purposive and simple random sampling methodologies were applied to select respondents. The findings of the study revealed that management commitment has a positive impact on the employees' performance in the pension fund at NSSF. On the other hand internal communication, workplace physical environment and capacity enhancement found to have a positive impact on employees' performance. These findings are in line with the existing literature of quality
management system implementation. The study recommends the adoption of QMS practices in all pension funds in Tanzania and all districts of NSSF. Also the Management of pension funds should be committed to ensure the availability of mechanism of internal communication which will result to the employees' performance. Finally regular capacity
building program like on job training should be adopted as well as allocation of resources towards establishment of conductive environment which will ensure higher productivity of the employees to the pension funds in Tanzania. Key word


Market leading text, NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MICRSOFT OFFICE ACCESS 2007 now comes with video! The tutorial videos focus on the most important or difficult concepts and skills, helping you better engage in and retain information. With the text's critical thinking, case-based approach you understand why you're learning what you're learning, and are prepared to easily transfer skills to new situations.


In this chapter we discuss the role of Individuation on semantic role interpretation in the adpositional domain. Taking the findings of Aristar (1996, 1997) for the case domain as our starting point we examine whether similar observations can be made for the adpositional domain. On the basis of a corpus study in Dutch we determine whether adpositions show restrictions on the animacy and semantic roles of their complements and whether there is a correlation between the two. Our results suggest that only low-frequency adpositions show typing restrictions whereas we observe much variation with high-frequency ones.


Sporomorphs (pollen and spores) provide valuable information about vegetation history over a range of temporal and spatial scales. However, sporomorphs can be morphologically invariant among species within genera, and among genera within certain families. In some cases, the parent plant of a sporomorph is unknown. These factors blur the relationship between sporomorph assemblages and the source vegetation, and reduce the taxonomic precision of vegetation reconstructions based on sporomorphs. This study investigates the taxonomic precision with which sporomorphs record vegetation across the Triassic–Jurassic transition (Tr–J) at Astartekløft, East Greenland. Results indicate that reconstructions of Tr–J vegetation at Astartekløft based on sporomorphs are hampered by considerable taxonomic imprecision. Something is known of the botanical affinity of almost all sporomorphs at Astartekløft at the class level, but just 50% of sporomorph taxa have a known botanical affinity at the family level. Additionally, ~23% of all sporomorph taxa at Astartekløft have affinities to more than one parent plant class, and ~36% of sporomorph taxa have affinities to more than one parent plant family. This taxonomic imprecision should be accounted for when interpreting percentage diagrams of sporomorph taxa across the Tr–J.


Variational autoencoders (VAEs) are a popular framework for modeling complex data distributions; they can be efficiently trained via variational inference by maximizing the evidence lower bound (ELBO), at the expense of a gap to the exact (log-)marginal likelihood. While VAEs are commonly used for representation learning, it is unclear why ELBO maximization would yield useful representations, since unregularized maximum likelihood estimation cannot invert the data-generating process. Yet, VAEs often succeed at this task. We seek to elucidate this apparent paradox by studying nonlinear VAEs in the limit of near-deterministic decoders. We first prove that, in this regime, the optimal encoder approximately inverts the decoder -- a commonly used but unproven conjecture -- which we refer to as {\em self-consistency}. Leveraging self-consistency, we show that the ELBO converges to a regularized log-likelihood. This allows VAEs to perform what has recently been termed independent mechanism analysis (IMA): it adds an inductive bias towards decoders with column-orthogonal Jacobians, which helps recovering the true latent factors. The gap between ELBO and log-likelihood is therefore welcome, since it bears unanticipated benefits for nonlinear representation learning. In experiments on synthetic and image data, we show that VAEs uncover the true latent factors when the data generating process satisfies the IMA assumption.


Hox genes are evolutionarily conserved transcription factors that play important roles in establishing the basic body plan of animals. Mammals have 39 Hox genes clustered into four chromosomal complexes. This gene family regulates the regional character and patterning of diverse structures along the anterior–posterior (A/P) axis of the embryo. Nested patterns of Hox gene expression generate a Hox combinatorial protein code that orchestrates the morphogenesis of structures in the nervous system, axial skeleton, limbs, intestine and many other tissues. In light of their key role in regulating morphogenesis across animal species, modulation of Hox expression or function over the course of evolution is believed to have been important in generating diversity.

Key concepts:

Axial patterning is the process that generates different regional characteristics during the development of a tissue, such as the nervous system or skeleton.

Hox genes encode a family of transcription factors that regulate the identity of structures along the anterior–posterior axis of embryos.

Colinearity is the correlation between the order of Hox genes along a chromosome and their expression along the axis of an embryo.

The collection of Hox proteins expressed in a region provides a combinatorial code for specifying diversity.

Posterior prevalence is a model for explaining why some Hox proteins dominate over others when they are coexpressed.

Selector genes control the identity of a tissue.

Homeotic transformation is the conversion of one structure into another due to loss or gain of selector gene activity.

Segmentation subdivides a developing tissue, such as the hindbrain or skeleton, into repeating units that ultimately generate different structures along an axis.

Subfunctionalization is the partitioning of function and regulation between duplicated genes compared with the ancestral gene.

Changes in Hox expression or function may be important for generating differences in structures during evolution of vertebrates.

Cooption refers to the redeployment or coupling of a common molecular pathway to multiple patterning processes.

Keywords:

homeobox;
axial patterning;
gene regulation;
transcription factors;
embryogenesis


HYDROGEOCHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF ARSENIC ALONG GROUNDWATER FLOW PATHS: LINKING AQUEOUS AND SOLID PHASE ARSENIC SPECIATION Publication No. ______ Shama Emy Haque, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2007 Supervising Professor: Karen H. Johannesson, Ph.D. The central hypothesis of this Doctoral research work is that changes occurring along groundwater flow paths that accompany chemical weathering and oxidationreduction reactions catalyze both arsenic (As) mobilization from, and capture by, minerals via adsorption/desorption and/or mineral dissolution/precipitation reactions. This central hypothesis is addressed by (i) quantifying concentrations and speciation of As, and ancillary geochemical parameters, including a number of redox sensitive parameters in groundwater samples collected along flow paths, and (ii) determining solid phase speciation of As in aquifer sediment samples, with specific emphasis on the vi labile (i.e., surface exchangeable) and non-labile As fractions (e.g., precipitated with Fe oxides). In order to accomplish these objectives, a series of groundwater samples were collected along flow paths in three well characterized, drinking water aquifers: Carrizo Sand (Texas), Upper Floridan (Florida), and Aquia (Maryland). Results of the groundwater studies demonstrate that the Carrizo and the Upper Floridan aquifers exhibit low dissolved As concentrations (<1.4 ppb or ~19 nmol kg), whereas the Aquia aquifer has As concentrations in many wells that exceed the current US Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for As in drinking waters of 10 ppb (133 nmol kg). The results further indicate that the type of As [As(III) vs. As(V)] released in solution is largely dependent on respiratory microbial consortia present within the aquifer [i.e., Fe(III) reducing bacteria, dissimilatory As(V) reducing prokaryotes (DARPs), and Fe(III) reducing DARPs]. In the final aspect of the project, to address the source and lability of As in sediment, samples were collected from within the Aquia and Carrizo Sand aquifers. These sediment samples were examined petrographically and by X-Ray diffraction, and subsequently subjected to a sequential extraction scheme. By combining the results of Aquia groundwater and sediment studies, it was established that dissilimilatory Fe(III) reduction driven by suboxic, non-sulfidogenic Aquia groundwaters release a significant amount of As from the non-labile fraction of As, which is associated with amorphous and/or well crystallized Fe(III) oxide/oxyhydroxides that form coatings on aquifer mineral surfaces. Results of sequential extraction for the Carrizo Sand aquifer are presented in the Appendix for future consideration.


Businesses now have the ability to select specific applications from a wide range of communication and collaboration tools to deploy them for business-related tasks. To understand the ever-increasing number of offerings, companies are starting to leave the choice of communication and collaboration tools used to their own employees. The extent to which this freedom affects the decision-making of employees, however, has hardly been explored. Classical adoption models of business informatics so far consider the selection process solely from a 1:1 point of view, within which the evaluation process between the individual and the application is considered. In this consideration, however, the existence of alternative applications is neglected. This work therefore investigates so-called "multidimensional" evaluation processes, within which the user is aware of the presence of alternative applications. Based on the "technological-personal-environmental framework" of Jiang, Chen and Lai (2010), this multi-dimensional process is considered from a total of three perspectives within this cumulative dissertation. The results indicate that the existence of alternative applications has an impact on perception of currently used systems. Moreover, the results show that new applications are not evaluated in isolation, but in the context of already existing systems.


Future arms treaties will require verifying the number and types of nuclear warheads in storage. However, no nuclear power would permit verification tests that reveal secret warhead designs. Efforts to address this challenge have focused on crafting "information barriers": electronic sensors and software that digest a claimed warhead's secret specs but spit out only an unclassified "yes"—the real deal—or a "no." But these methods are prone to tampering. Now, there may be a solution to this conundrum. Researchers have devised a new approach to verifying a nuclear warhead's identity without laying eyes on it. Known as a zero-knowledge protocol, a name adopted from a technique used in cryptography, their proposal, outlined in this week's issue of Nature , is setting the arms control community abuzz.


The interrupter technique for measuring airway resistance is non-invasive and convenient, and therefore ideally suited for the assessment of induced changes in airway calibre in preschool children. The aim of this study was to evaluate a commercially available interrupter device (based on Microlab 4000), which calculates the interrupter resistance (Rint) from pressure and flow following a brief interruption of expiration during quiet breathing. The repeatability of Rint was assessed, and its response to methacholine challenge and the bronchodilator salbutamol were compared with an indirect technique, the fall in transcutaneous oxygen tension (Ptc,O2), using the sensitivity index (SI, i.e. the change after challenge expressed in multiples of the baseline standard deviation) in 12 wheezy children (aged 3 yrs +/- 2 months). The mean (SD) baseline value of Rint was 0.91 (0.20) kPa.L-1.s. Short-term repeatability and baseline variability were satisfactory for Rint (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.6; mean intrasubject coefficient of variation = 13%). Although 10 of the 12 subjects obtained a significant response using Rint at maximal bronchoconstriction (i.e. SI > 2), overall, Rint was five times less sensitive than Ptc,O2 (geometric mean SI: Rint 3 vs Ptc,O2 16; p < 0.0001). Reversal of obstruction with administration of a bronchodilator was clearly demonstrated in almost all subjects: Rint after challenge (mean +/- SD) 1.25 (0.22) kPa.L-1.s; after salbutamol 0.78 (0.19) kPa.L-1.s; p < 0.001. In conclusion, the convenient interrupter resistance method appears more promising for detecting bronchodilator responses than induced bronchoconstriction in wheezy preschool children; however, measurement of transcutaneous oxygen tension provides a reliable indirect means of detecting induced airway obstruction in this age-group.


ABSTRACT Solar geoengineering (SG) may be a helpful tool to reduce harms from climate change, yet further research into its potential benefits and risks must occur prior to any implementation. So far, however, organized research on SG has been absent from the U.S. national policy agenda. We apply the Multiple Streams Approach analytical framework to explain why a U.S. federal SG research program has failed to materialize up to now, and to consider how one might emerge in the future. We argue that establishing a federal program will require the formation of an advocacy coalition within the political arena that is prepared to support such a policy objective. A coalition favoring federal research on SG does not presently exist, yet the potential nucleus of a future political grouping is evident in the handful of 'pragmatist' environmental organizations that have expressed conditional support for expanded research.


From the Publisher:

HyperTransport™ (HT) technology promises to revolutionize connectivity for computers, servers, embedded systems, and networking and tele-communications equipment. It is a high-speed, low latency, point-to-point, packetized link that enables chips to transfer data at peak rates of up to 12.8 Gigabytes per second, far greater than existing bus technologies. Furthermore, HyperTransport improves reliability and reduces board design complexity. It is scalable and compatible with legacy PC buses, SNA, and PCI.

HyperTransport™ System Architecture provides a comprehensive, technical guide to HyperTransport technology. It opens with an overview of HT systems, highlighting the technology's fundamental principles, basic architecture, and its many advantages. The book goes on to detail all facets of HyperTransport systems, including the protocol, I/O, routing, configuration, and more. It also features important performance considerations and addresses critical compatibility issues.

Essential topics covered include:

Signal groups
Packet protocol, covering control and data packets
HT flow control, and how it differs from PCI flow control
I/O ordering rules, including upstream, downstream, and host ordering requirements
Interrupts, error detection, and error handling
HT system management
Routing packets, covering point-to-point topology and HT's fairness algorithm
Device configuration
The electrical environment, including power requirements and signaling characteristics
HyperTransport bridges
Double-hosted chains
Anticipated networking extensions
PCI, PCI-X, AGP, and X86 compatibility issues

A chapter is dedicated to transaction examples illustrating the practical application of HyperTransport technology.

A MindShare PC System Architecture Series book, HyperTransport™ System Architecture provides complete, authoritative, and detailed information necessary for developers, networking professionals, and anyone interested in implementing and deploying HT systems.

MindShare's PC System Architecture Series is a crisply written and comprehensive set of guides to the most important PC hardwarestandards.Books in the series are intended for use by hardware and software designers, programmers, and support personnel. Each title explains the architecture, features, and operations of systems built using one particular type of chip or hardware specification.

0321168453B02032003


Over the past two decades, the Fundamentals of Operative Dentistry has become one of the most trusted textbooks on clinical restorative dentistry. By integrating time-tested methods with recent scientific innovation, the authors promote sound concepts for predictable conservative techniques. Now in its fourth edition, this classic text has been completely updated with full-color illustrations throughout and substantial revisions in every chapter to incorporate the latest scientific developments and current research findings. In addition, new chapters on color study and shade matching address new areas of focus in the preclinical curriculum. A valuable resource for understanding the scientific basis for current treatment options in dentistry.


This paper demonstrates how problematic convergences between Internet technology, the demands of a burgeoning e-market and trademark laws have created myriad issues in international governance of domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that governs internet's infrastructure, recently approved a new policy that would allow it to accept applications for additional generic top-level domains (gTLDs). What ICANN contemplates is a uniform system to approve generic top level domains that is expected to have profound implications. Under this new plan anyone can apply for a new gTLD at any time and it could be literally dot anything. However, the new gTLD policy imports certain concepts and doctrines from trademark law that will result in long-term problems both for domain name policy and for trademark law jurisprudence. A major problem with this policy is that it equates domain names with trademarks as legally protectable properties. But they are not equivalent. While ambitiously trying to resolve some of the most problematic information ownership issues in e-commerce, ICANN has not carefully considered the appropriateness of importing trademark law concepts into domain name policy.


A total of 242 zooplankton samples from the upper 100 m of the water column was collected discontinuously from March 1997 to January 1999 off the Orange River mouth on the west coast of southern Africa. Six species of hydromedusae were recovered at generally low abundance, of which Euphysa aurata, Leuckartia octona and Proboscidactyla menoni were dominant. E. aurata and L. octona showed evidence of seasonality in abundance. The low diversity of the fauna was remarkable and it is hypothesized that this might be attributable in part to sedimentation from the Orange River, and in part to locally weak circulation and the wide extent of the continental shelf.


The H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometers (HAMSTRAD) program aims to develop two ground-based microwave radiometers to sound tropospheric and stratospheric water vapor (H2O) above Dome C (Concordia Station), Antarctica (75°06' S, 123°21'E, 3233 m asml), an extremely cold and dry environment, over decades. By using state-of-the-art technology, the HAMSTRAD-Tropo radiometer uses spectral information in the domains 51-59 GHz (oxygen line) and 169-197 GHz (water vapor line) to derive accurate tropospheric profiles of temperature (with accuracy ranging from 1 to 2 K) and low absolute humidity (with accuracy ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 g · m-3), together with integrated water vapor (with accuracy of about 0.008 kg · m-2) and liquid water path. Prior to its installation at Dome C in January 2009, the fully automated radiometer has been deployed at the Pic du Midi (PdM, 42°56'N, 0°08'E, 2877 m asml, France) in February 2008 and was in operation for five months. Preliminary comparisons with radio soundings particularly launched in the vicinity of PdM in February 2008 and the outputs from the mesoscale MESO-NH model show a great consistency to within 0.2-0.3 g · m-3 between all absolute humidity data sets whatever the atmosphere considered (extremely dry or wet).


Since Xi Jinping took power in late 2012, analysts have puzzled over how best to define his political trajectory. Is he consolidating power and building a personality cult around himself, or is he strengthening the Party as an organisation? I tackle this issue by focusing on the transformation of personnel policies under Xi. I highlight an increasing concentration of power in the hands of Party leaders at all echelons. At the institutional level, the Party increasingly controls the management and disciplining of officials. At the level of the individual cadres themselves, promotion processes are increasingly managed behind closed doors and less importance is being given to objective criteria for cadre advancement. The age-based rules which structured the promotion of officials and ensured a high level of personnel turnover within the party state are also de-emphasised. I argue that these changes are paving the way for a more clientelist and aging party state.


This book presents the things that should be done in an empirical human-computer interaction (HCI) study in a sequential way. Each step is presented in relation to other steps in the process. The book can help scholars interested in empirical HCI studies in their scientific research. Although the work is quite powerful with respect to the research process, it has limitations in providing theoretical field knowledge. The conversational writing style of the author adds to the comprehensibility of the book. Experiments and discussions are visualized using charts, tables or figures, and therefore, the narrative was materialized to increase retention.


A used stump grinding excavator was imported from Bathurst, Australia, into New Zealand via the Ports of Auckland. The excavator was subject to water blasting to remove soil contamination. Prior to cleaning, soil was taken from one of the tracks (26 g) and grinding head (a subsample of 2140 g), to determine nematode and seed numbers, and diversity. The predominant nematode group for both samples was bacterial feeders, although-plant associated nematodes were present, with the track sample having a more diverse nematode community and greater number of nematodes (85/g soil) than the grinding head (4/g soil). There were 56 seeds of nine different species recovered, with just two species, Eleusine tristachya (Poaceae) and Juncus bufonius (Juncaceae), accounting for 84% of the seed found. Soil from the track was found to contain 1.2 seeds/g while that from the head contained 0.01 seeds/g of soil. There were five broadleaf species but only seven seeds in total. One of the broadleaf species, Monopsis lutea var. depressa, was new to New Zealand, and one of the grasses, Eragrostis mexicana, had only been found once before – more than 100 years ago. All the other species, except one, are widespread throughout New Zealand.


We found that the columns at the neck region of a magnetic recording inductive head slider composed of FeTaN and NiFe are tilted from the surface normal when the pole materials are sputtered at a low substrate bias power. The electron diffraction patterns show that [110] texture has not strongly developed in the FeTaN film. We have not observed noticeable voids throughout the film on the slider, which suggests the absence of microshape anisotropy. This observation is consistent with our previous study of FeTaN blanket films. We confirmed lattice distortion in the FeTaN due to Ta and N incorporation into a Fe matrix. No significant difference in microstructure between the film on the head slider and the blanket film is found. Based on all the information we have gathered, such as X-ray spectra, pole figures, and high-resolution electron micrographs, we established the crystallographic relationship between [110] orientation, columnar direction, and incident atomic flux in the case of oblique-incident deposition of FeTaN films.


The lumen of endosomal organelles becomes increasingly acidic when going from the cell surface to lysosomes. Luminal pH thereby regulates important processes such as the release of internalized ligands from their receptor or the activation of lysosomal enzymes. The main player in endosomal acidification is the vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase), a multi-subunit transmembrane complex that pumps protons from the cytoplasm to the lumen of organelles, or to the outside of the cell. The active V-ATPase is composed of two multi-subunit domains, the transmembrane V0 and the cytoplasmic V1. Here we found that the ratio of membrane associated V1/Vo varies along the endocytic pathway, the relative abundance of V1 being higher on late endosomes than on early endosomes, providing an explanation for the higher acidity of late endosomes. We also found that all membrane-bound V-ATPase subunits were associated with detergent resistant membranes (DRM) isolated from late endosomes, raising the possibility that association with lipid-raft like domains also plays a role in regulating the activity of the proton pump. In support of this, we found that treatment of cells with U18666A, a drug that leads to the accumulation of cholesterol in late endosomes, affected acidification of late endosome. Altogether our findings indicate that the activity of the vATPase in the endocytic pathway is regulated both by reversible association/dissociation and the interaction with specific lipid environments.


We consider negotiations among the claimants of a bankrupt firm in which claimants have private information about various operational restructuring alternatives, and can communicate prior to a proposal. Our setup differs from typical bargaining games with incomplete information in two ways. First, the proposals can be made using securities. Second, the negotiations are over two interdependent issues: what to do with the firm and who gets what. In line with Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings we first analyze the case in which both issues are negotiated simultaneously. We show that simultaneous negotiation leads to efficient operational restructuring. Moreover, any efficient equilibrium requires that the original senior claimants receive senior securities of the reorganized firm. Next, we analyze the cases in which the two issues are negotiated sequentially. If the first issue is what to do with the firm, then efficient operational restructuring is not possible. In contrast, if the first issue is who gets what, then sequential negotiation is efficient. In comparison to simultaneous negotiation, efficient sequential negotiation may result in junior claimant capturing a larger surplus.


Statically typed languages verify programs at compile-time. As a result many programming mistakes are detected at an early stage of development. A programmer does not have to specify types for every single term manually, however. Many programming languages can reconstruct a term's type using type inference algorithms. While helpful, programmers often find it hard to comprehend the choice of typing decisions that led to the derived type for a term. A particularly serious consequence is that the reporting of type errors yields cryptic messages and misleading program locations. In this thesis we propose a novel approach to explaining type checking decisions by exploring fragments of type derivation trees. Our approach applies to programming languages that use local type inference: typing decisions are made locally and the type information is only propagated between the adjacent AST nodes. We design an algorithm that backtracks through the nodes of type derivation trees in order to discover the typing decisions that introduce the types for the first time during the type inference process. Our algorithm has two properties: - it is type-driven, meaning that we only visit the nodes and their respective typing decisions if they participated in the inference of a type. - it is autonomous, meaning that it does not require any user-input in its operation. These properties allow us to identify the complete and precise set of locations defining the source of a type; previous work mostly focussed on heuristics or used approximations for locating the cause of an error. Our algorithm is not tied to a particular implementation of a type checker: our type derivation trees can be reconstructed from a pre-existing type checker without modifying its internal logic or affecting its regular compilation times. It therefore readily applies to existing programs: we can not only provide improved feedback for them, we also expose limitations of local type inference algorithms and their implementations, without artificially limiting the language features. We implement our type debugging algorithm on top of Scala's type checker. Our analysis applies to a range of erroneous scenarios. It provides better error locations than the standard type error reporter of the Scala compiler. This type debugging analysis is just a starting point from which many interesting and useful applications around type debugging can be built: - we implement an interactive type debugger that guides the users through the decisions of local type inference for erroneous and error-free programs alike. - with precise and minimal source code locations we can also offer surgical-level code modifications that fix for example the limitations of local type inference. - we open the door for programmatically defined, application-specific error feedback or corrections. To the best of our knowledge this thesis is the first to address the problem of type errors for programming languages that use local type inference. Current trends suggest that this scheme is gaining in popularity with mainstream languages other than Scala.


Valuing ecosystem services with microeconomic underpinnings presents challenges because these services typically constitute nonmarket values and contribute to human welfare indirectly through a series of ecological pathways that are dynamic, nonlinear, and difficult to quantify and link to appropriate economic spatial and temporal scales. This paper develops and demonstrates a method to value a portion of ecosystem services when a commercial fishery is dependent on the quality of estuarine habitat. Using a lumped-parameter, dynamic open access bioeconomic model that is spatially explicit and includes predator-prey interactions, this paper quantifies part of the value of improved ecosystem function in the Neuse River Estuary when nutrient pollution is reduced. Specifically, it traces the effects of nitrogen loading on the North Carolina commercial blue crab fishery by modeling the response of primary production and the subsequent impact on hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen). Hypoxia, in turn, affects blue crabs and their preferred prey. The discounted present value fishery rent increase from a 30% reduction in nitrogen loadings in the Neuse is $2.56 million, though this welfare estimate is fairly sensitive to some parameter values. Surprisingly, this number is not sensitive to initial conditions.


Introduction: The pain associated with the birth of baby is perceived as severe, unpleasant, and traumatizing by women. It is an individualized phenomenon with both sensory and emotional elements. Labor pain arises from distension of the lower uterine segment and cervical dilatation. Anxiety and pain are closely interrelated. Providing comfort to women in labor is still a challenge for the nurse midwives. The present study intends to assess the effect of music therapy on labor pain and anxiety among women in first stage of labor in a tertiary care hospital in Kochi. Materials and methods: Quasi-experimental pretest– posttest control group design was used for the study. The sample consisted of 40 women in active stage of labor, with cervical dilatation of 4 to 7 cm. The first 20 women were allotted to control group and the next 20 to experimental group in order to avoid contamination. Background information was collected using semi-structured interview and record review. Visual analog scale was used to measure pain and anxiety. After the pretest measurement of pain and anxiety the women in the experimental group were given music therapy for 30 minutes using headset. The posttest was done at the 30th and 60th minute after the pretest. Results: The mean posttest pain score of the experimental group (7.9) was significantly lower than the posttest score of the control group at the 30th minute (5.75 ± 0.44 vs 8.55 ± 0.51, p < 0.001) and 60th minute (7.9 ± 0.45 vs 8.7 ± 0.47, p < 0.001). No difference was observed in uterine contraction between the groups. The mean anxiety score of the experimental group was lower than the control group (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The result of the present study concludes that music therapy is effective in reducing pain and anxiety of women in labor without affecting uterine contractions. So music can be used as a nonpharmacological pain management measure for providing comfort during labor.


Western-led discussions of sexual health have foregrounded warnings of the dangers of sex. Yet, pleasure is one important reason why people have sex. Sexual health work must open up discussion of how pleasure can be experienced with less risk. There are challenges in addressing pleasure in work on safer sex. Power structures such as gender, age, class and race, as well as the globalised media, influence how people experience pleasure. Safer sex and HIV prevention work thus need to take account of how pleasure is constructed, as well as the diversity in what people find pleasurable. Giving examples from the numerous safer sex trainings and community initiatives they themselves have facilitated, the authors show that such discussions of pleasure are possible in practice and indeed welcomed by many.


Abstract Objectives The COVID-19 outbreak has worsened the ongoing economic crisis in Puerto Rico by creating "parallel pandemics" that exacerbate socioeconomic and health inequalities experienced by its most vulnerable residents. Unfortunately, conditions on the island have been largely overlooked by national media outlets and the mainland U.S. population. Thus, this research report aims to draw attention to the disparate burden multiple and compounding disasters have on older island-dwelling Puerto Rican adults' health and well-being. Methods We characterize the lived experiences of the older population in Puerto Rico by incorporating data from multiple sources and contextualizing the effects of compounding disasters, the fiscal pandemic, and health care challenges to provide a more nuanced portrait of existing compounding factors that negatively affect the health and well-being of older adults in the era of COVID-19. Results We highlight 2 main factors that exacerbate pre-pandemic inequities experienced by the older adult population amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico: (a) the impact of multiple and compounding disasters; and (b) health care challenges. Discussion The human suffering of the Puerto Rican population is compounded by the consequences of fiscal austerity, increasing levels of income and wealth inequality, the debt crisis, significant emigration, and a dysfunctional health care system. Future governmental actions are required to lessen the burden of parallel pandemics on older adults in Puerto Rico.


SUMMARY
The purchasing function is receiving increased attention as a key contributor to the strategic success of the firm. This study seeks to identify the strategic role of the purchasing function and the contributions that purchasing can make in an organization. A mail survey was conducted among The CEOs based in Singapore to examine the relationship between corporate competitive strategy and purchasing objectives, as well as how purchasing affects business performance through its integration with other functions, its partnership with suppliers, and its involvement in team decisions. The data collected were factor analysed and the results suggest that purchasing objectives are affected by the firm's corporate competitive strategy. More important, purchasing can yield better business performance through greater integration with other functions, closer partnership with suppliers, and greater involvement in team decisionmaking.


The preparation of hydrogen by photocatalytic principle is an important subject in the future energy direction. This article intends to design the catalytic structure of a crystalline (amorphous) TiO2/two-dimensional MoS2 sandwich structure supporting a single-atom, and explore the effect of this special structure on the photocatalytic reaction.Calculating the effective mass, electrostatic potential, light absorption spectrum and other related properties by DFT method, the analysis shows that the sandwich structure catalyst has good carrier transfer ability and electron-hole separation ability. Except for the Pt@Amorphousr-TiO2/MoS2 sandwich structure single-atom catalyst, which only has an excellent effect on the oxygen evolution of water, the rest of the interlayer catalysts have the two characteristics of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution.The new catalyst designed in this paper has innovative design ideas and high-efficiency research and development value.


We explore the impact of investors' beliefs on cryptocurrency demand and prices using three new individual-level surveys. We find that younger individuals with lower income and education are more optimistic about the future value of cryptocurrencies, as are late investors. We then estimate the cryptocurrency demand functions using a structural model with rich heterogeneity in investors' beliefs and preferences. To identify the model, we combine observable beliefs with an instrumental variable strategy that exploits variation in the amount of energy required for the production of the different cryptocurrencies. We find that beliefs explain a large fraction of the cross-sectional variance of returns. A counterfactual exercise shows that banning entry of late investors leads to a decrease in the price of Bitcoin by about $3,500, or approximately 30% of the price during the boom in January 2018. Late investors' optimism alone can explain about a third of the decline.


This guide gives best practices, tips, and tricks that will help increase readership and improve usability of your web pages.


Abstract Most surgeons are routinely involved in the management of patients with advanced malignancy. While the aim of surgical intervention is often cure, palliation of symptoms and improving patient's quality of life are equally important goals. Effective palliation requires recognition on the surgeon's part of the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of the patient. In addition, effective palliation requires that the surgeon is aware of the latest minimally invasive techniques to treat patients with advance gastrointestinal malignancies. With the application of these minimal invasive techniques, the surgeon can better achieve the goal of surgical palliation – relief of symptoms and improved quality of life with minimization of the surgical burden. Recently, minimally invasive strategies, including laparoscopy, endoscopy, as well as catheter-based interventional radiology techniques have allowed for effective palliation while reducing risks associated with more extensive open surgical procedures. In this review, we highlight three specific gastrointestinal malignancies (i.e. pancreatic, colon, and neuroendocrine cancer) and how the application of minimally invasive techniques has benefitted patients. By highlighting these examples, we emphasize the role of surgery in palliative care, as well as demonstrate how the successful application of minimally invasive techniques has improved the quality of life of patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancies.


The following paper discusses artifact-sha r i n g w i t h a n e m p h a s i s o n t e m p o r a l , social and cognitive influences in multi-user collaborative task environments. The need to understand the temporal and social attributes of tasks has intensified as information management responsibilities grow. The proliferation of information technology in traditionally low-tech environments has created an opportunity to understand the needs of collaborative users and user interfaces that are temporally distributed. Inquiries into the cognitive and social artifacts of collaborative workflow and subsequent fluctuations or exceptions caused by the task environment are essential to successfully modeling task requirements. Focusing on a key element of collaboration, artifact sharing, we discuss the temporal qualities that reduce error and increase productivity in collaborative task environments.


Price-responsive load (PRL) programs vary significantly in overall design, the complexity of relationships between program administrators, load aggregators, and customers, and the availability of enabling technologies . Enabling technologies include such features as web-based power system and price monitoring, control and dispatch of curtailable loads, communications and information systems links to program participants, availability of interval metering data to customers in near real time, and building/facility/end-use automation and management capabilities. Two state agencies - NYSERDA in New York and the CEC in California - have been conspicuous leaders in the demonstration of demand response (DR) programs utilizing enabling technologies. In partnership with key stakeholders in these two states (e.g., grid operator, state energy agencies, and program administrators), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) surveyed 56 customers who worked with five contractors participating in CEC or NYSERDA-sponsored DR programs. We combined market research and actual load curtailment data when available (i.e., New York) or customer load reduction targets in order to explore the relative importance of contractor's program design features, sophistication of control strategies, and reliance on enabling technologies in predicting customer's ability to deliver load reductions in DR programs targeted to large commercial/industrial customers. We found preliminary evidence that DR enabling technology has a positive effect on load curtailment potential. Many customers indicated that web-based energy information tools were useful for facilitating demand response (e.g., assessing actual performance compared to load reduction contract commitments), that multiple notification channels facilitated timely response, and that support for and use of backup generation allowed customers to achieve significant and ! predictable load curtailments. We also found that 60-70 percent of the customers relied on manual approaches to implementing load reductions/curtailments, rather than automated load control response. The long-term sustainability of customer load curtailments would be significantly enhanced by automated load response capabilities, such as optimizing EMCS systems to respond to day-ahead energy market prices or load curtailments in response to system emergencies.


This study explores the rise of marginal workers in Britain and Hong Kong after the Second World War and argues that marginal workers are not minor, unimportant, powerless and transient elements of capitalist development. Marginal workers, however, are important and indispensable to the development of capitalism in both regions. The work and life histories of marginal workers in Britain and Hong Kong show that gender and ethnic inequalities are articulated through and intensified by class inequality. The overlapping of these inequalities creates different subgroups of marginal workers.

The marginalisation of labour is the process of the identification and separation of marginal groups from mainstream society. With assistance from the state, capital has been able to increase its exploitation of and control over labour through intensified gender, ethnic, occupational and international divisions of labour.

This thesis argues that marginal is critical. A marginal class location induces a marginal class consciousness, which is a counter, non-conforming and cynical attitude towards oppression and exploitation. Nonetheless, while the consciousness of British marginal workers is more aggressive, radical and well shaped, that of marginal workers in Hong Kong is more self-defensive, conservative and amorphous. This thesis suggests that these different patterns of marginal consciousness are a product of their distinctive class formation process: marginal workers in Britain have undergone a 'sedimentary' class formation, their counterparts in Hong Kong have undergone a 'disrupted' class formation.

The 'sedimentary class formation' of marginal workers in Britain is structured by its marginal trap of downward mobility and low geographical mobility at the macro level, alongside active shop-floor struggle and strong trade unionism at the macro level. The 'disrupted class formation' of marginal workers in Hong Kong is caused by its permeable class structure and covert class struggle, alongside the lack of shop-floor trade union organisers and experience of struggle.


The aim of this paper is to discuss co-productive and collaborative processes in rural housing construction in Sweden. The 'wicked problem' addressed here is why it is so difficult to build new homes in Swedish rural areas. Our analysis shows that horizontally organised competences may be used in order to form innovative and creative spaces for dialogues around the realisation of house building. These spaces for dialogues are transformed into collaborative and co-productive social events for reconfiguring thoughts and actions in relation to 'wicked problems'. Using Fagered, Sweden, as a case study, our results show that timing, as well as understanding the motivation of local groups and acknowledging the slowness of planning processes, are crucial for making change.


A research project undertaken in Tonga in 2016 showed that Tonga's computer systems are susceptible and can be easily exploited by cybercriminals. This paper builds on that research by identifying areas of vulnerability and then recommending how these vulnerabilities can be addressed. Areas discussed include penetration testing, a data recovery plan, budget considerations, cyber insurance, the employment of cyber security experts, information security policies, data encryption, the backing up of data, two factor authentication, the integrity of passwords, and database considerations. By detailing and discussing these issues it is hoped that an awareness can be raised by organisations and government departments of Tonga and that the people of Tonga can best prepare themselves for the increase in cybercrime and cyberattacks that is likely to occur in the Pacific.


An advanced kinetic simulation method has been developed and implemented in the HIDENEK code to study large space-scale, low-frequency electromagnetic phenomena occurring in inhomogeneous plasmas. The present method is specially designed for high magnetic field (Wcm ? Wpm ), inhomogeneous plasma simulations. The guiding-center approximation with magnetic drifts is adopted to the perpendicular motion of the electrons, whereas the inertia effect is retained in their parallel motion. Also, a slightly backward time-decentered scheme is introduced to the equations of motion and the Maxwell equations. These equations are combined to yield the full-implicit, coupled field-particle equations which allow us to determine the future electromagnetic field in a large time step compared to the electron time scales with the diamagnetic drift and magnetization currents being included. As a demonstration of the present simulation method, three physics applications are shown for the electromagnetic beam-plasma instability, the temperature anisotropy-driven Alfven-ion-cyclotron instability, and the external kink instability of the peaked-density current beam. A remarkable pitch-angle scattering of the ions is observed in the first two applications in association with the plasma instabilities. In the third application to an inhomogeneous, finite-beta plasma of the three dimensions, a helical deformation is shown to take place to the initially straight beam and magnetic axis in an ideal magnetohydrodynamic time scale.


Background The Institute of Oncology in Ljubljana is the leading institution for cancer care in the country and has a busy pharmacy department. The prescription and preparation of cytostatic drugs must be closely monitored, since they are highly toxic and pose a serious health hazard if errors occur in prescriptions for medicines. Pharmacists with knowledge of chemotherapy protocols are thus a key factor in improving the standard of patient care, as they can spot specific errors on chemotherapy prescriptions. Purpose To analyse the number of pharmacists' interventions over a one year period and evaluate their impact on safety and effectiveness of patient care. Material and methods A review of all pharmacists' interventions from August 2013 to July 2014 has been carried out. All errors detected were then evaluated by the team of pharmacists and sorted according to their potential to cause harm. Measures to eliminate such mistakes in the future have also been proposed. The interventions were communicated by phone to ensure that the right treatment had been selected and the correct medicines validated in the computer program Cypro. Results The total number of prescriptions was 22,120 and the pharmacy dispensed 48,442 cytostatic preparations. The errors causing most concern were: wrong treatment protocol selected, different patient selected (two patients with the same or similar name), omitted validation for 1 or more drugs from the treatment protocol and erroneous dose orders due to a variety of input mistakes (wrong weight or height, body surface area and random bias). Conclusion Medicines errors should not occur when using approved protocols from the computer program (Cypro). Nevertheless, pharmacist supervision is still needed, since medicines prescription errors happen despite the existence of inputted schemes, as was shown in our study. Only experienced pharmacists with expertise in chemotherapy drugs and pharmacology of cytostatic drugs can identify errors, communicate with physicians and validate the correct treatment orders. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


The success of organic wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production can be severely inhibited by weed and disease pressures. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of wheat intercrop mixtures in suppressing weeds and diseases and increasing grain yield and net return. Field experiments were conducted on organically managed land in 2004 and 2005 and three representative intercrop systems were tested: wheat with other cereals [oats (Avena sativa L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and spring rye (Secale cereale L.)]; wheat and noncereal seed crops (flax [Linum usitatissimum L.], field pea [Pisum sativum L.], oriental mustard [Brassicajuncea L.]); and wheat and cover crops (red clover [Trifolium pratense L.], hairy vetch [Vicia villosa L.], annual ryegrass [Lolium multiflorum Lam.]). The cereal intercrop systems provided no consistent yield benefit over wheat monocultures. Results from noncereal-wheat intercrops were variable. Wheat-flax reduced the wheat crop to unacceptable levels but was capable of reducing wheat flag leaf disease levels. Wheat-field pea resulted in the lowest disease levels, yet had inconsistent yields, and more weeds than wheat monoculture. Wheat-mustard did not reduce weeds or diseases, but it was capable of high grain yields and net returns, though usually hampered by flea beetle (Phyllotreta cruciferae) attack. The effect of cover crops on wheat was affected by environment. Wheat-red clover and wheat-hairy vetch did demonstrate the ability to maintain high wheat grain yield in certain site-years. In conclusion, wheat intercrop mixtures provided little short-term benefit over monoculture wheat in this study.


The Heston model stands out from the class of stochastic volatility (SV) models mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the process for the volatility is non-negative and mean-reverting, which is what we observe in the markets. Secondly, there exists a fast and easily implemented semi-analytical solution for European options. In this article we adapt the original work of Heston (1993) to a foreign exchange (FX) setting. We discuss the computational aspects of using the semi-analytical formulas, performing Monte Carlo simulations, checking the Feller condition, and option pricing with FFT. In an empirical study we show that the smile of vanilla options can be reproduced by suitably calibrating three out of five model parameters.


The objective of this research was to develop and evaluate high drug-loading ligand-modified nanomicelles to deliver a steroidal compound to the brain. YC1 (5α-cholestane-24-methylene-3β, 5α, 6β, 19-tetraol), with poor solubility and limited access to the brain, for the first time, has been proved to be an effective neuroprotective steroid by our previous studies. Based on the principle of 'like dissolves like', cholesterol, which shares the same steroidal parent nucleus with YC1, was selected to react with sodium alginate, producing amphiphilic sodium alginate– cholesterol derivatives (SACDs). To increase the grafting ratio and drug loading, cholesterol was converted to cholesteryl chloroformate, for the first time, before reacting with sodium alginate. Further, lactoferrin was conjugated on SACDs to provide lactoferrin-SACDs (Lf-SACD), which was established by immune electron microscopy (IEM) and self-assembled into brain-targeting nanomicelles. These nanomicelles were negatively charged and spherical in nature, with an average size of <200 nm. The YC1 drug loading was increased due to the cholesteryl inner cores of the nanomicelles, and the higher the grafting ratio was, the lower the critical micelle concentration (CMC) value of SACD, and the higher drug loading. The in vitro drug release, studied by bulk-equilibrium dialysis in 20 mL of 6% hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin solution at 37°C, indicated a prolonged release profile. The YC1 concentration in mouse brain delivered by lactoferrin-modified nanomicelles was higher than in those delivered by non-modified nanomicelles and YC1 solution. The unique brain-targeting nanomicelle system may provide a promising carrier to deliver hydrophobic drugs across the blood–brain barrier for the treatment of brain diseases.


Activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) may promote dysfunctional adipose tissue in patients with type 2 diabetes, where increased pericellular fibrosis has emerged as a major contributor. The knowledge of the association between the MR, fibrosis and the effects of an MR antagonist (MRA) in human adipocytes remains very limited. The present sub-study including 30 participants was prespecified as part of the Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist in type 2 Diabetes (MIRAD) trial, randomizing patients to either high dose eplerenone or placebo for 26 weeks. In adipose tissue biopsies, changes in fibrosis were evaluated by immunohistological examinations and by the expression of mRNA and protein markers of fibrosis. Treatment with an MRA reduced pericellular fibrosis, synthesis of the major subunits of collagen type I and VI, and the profibrotic factor α-smooth muscle actin, as compared to placebo in subcutaneous adipose tissue. Furthermore, we found decreased expression of the MR and downstream molecules neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, galectin-3, and lipocalin-like prostaglandin D2 synthase with an MRA. In conclusions, we present original data demonstrating reduced fibrosis in adipose tissue with inhibition of the MR, which could be a potential therapeutic approach to prevent the extracellular matrix remodeling of adipose tissue in type 2 diabetes.


The FASB and the IASB recently released a joint Discussion Paper "Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation" (International Accounting Standards Board 2008), which contains a major proposal requiring companies to report operating cash flows using the direct method and it also requires that the indirect method of calculating operating cash flows be disclosed in the notes. This is a departure from current rules and has generated considerable debate among respondents' comment letters on the Discussion Paper. This paper adds to this debate by providing some evidence as to the size of the gap users confront when using the indirect method to estimate the major operating cash flow elements, such as cash collected from customers and cash paid to suppliers. Using a sample of Australian companies which reported operating cash flows using the direct method, and presented the indirect method in the notes, we find significant differences between reported and estimated figures for both cash collected from customers and cash paid to suppliers. These findings support the discussion paper's proposal that companies be required to report cash flows using both the direct and indirect methods. JEL Classification: G34, G39


Reinforcement learning (RL) and multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) are disciplines concerned with defining automatically the behaviour of an agent, or a set of interacting agents, by means of reward mechanisms coming from the environment. An important research issue in the context of RL and MARL is the definition of approaches to combine the knowledge of multiple learning agents to improve the overall performance of the multi-agent system (MAS). This paper illustrates how to improve RL and MARL algorithms by utilizing results from multi-linear algebra such as tensors and tensor factorizations. In particular, the focus is on showing how to modify existing algorithms from literature to include a tensor factorization step applied to the Q-Tables learned by the individual agents to generalize the knowledge about the actions performed in the environment. The modified algorithms are then evaluated in three RL and MARL scenarios against their unmodified version to show the benefits of the tensor factorization step.


In the present research paper the aim is to outline a theoretical framework for the empirical study of the effects of information technology upon creativity. Deriving from research, it is assumed that creativity plays a crucial role in the early phases of new service development. This counts for information technology as well. Thus, investigating the effects of information technology upon creativity will contribute to the early phases of new service development. More specifically, the present investigation considers the problem of providing tools for groups and individuals dealing with creative work, the seed of innovation, using information technology to communicate ideas. With the development of information technology it is assumed that the development processes of services, as well as for prod-ucts, could be made more efficient. Using an experimental design two studies were conducted comparing computer-mediated communication with face-to-face communication. The results indicates that there is a positive relationship between the amount of social context cues a certain media allow being transmitted and group performance. In the end managerial implications for distributed group work are discussed


Seismic refraction and reflection data were acquired in 2000 and 2003 to study the morphology and sedimentary fill of the remote El'gygytgyn crater (Chukotka, northeastern Siberia; diameter 18 km). These data allow a first insight into the deeper structure of this unique impact crater. Wide-angle data from sonobuoys reveal a five-layer model: a water layer, two lacustrine sedimentary units that fill a bowl-shaped apparent crater morphology consisting of an upper layer of fallback breccia with P-wave velocities of ∼3000 m/s, and a lower layer of brecciated bedrock (velocities >3600 m/s). The lowermost layer shows a distinct anticline structure that, by analogy with other terrestrial and lunar craters of similar size, can be interpreted as a central ring structure. The El'gygytgyn crater exhibits a well-expressed morphology that is typical of craters formed in crystalline target rocks.


The purposes of the European Constitution are to make the European Union more democratic and more accessible to its citizens and to enable it to function more effectively. Yet the document, hailed by politicians as ""historic,"" is needlessly complicated and virtually incomprehensible to ordinary people. This is one of the main reasons why the constitution has been rejected by citizens of France and the Netherlands and why other countries have subsequently put their ratification processes on hold. The difficulties plaguing the new constitution have renewed the debate over a united Europe. This book makes it easier to understand both the constitution and the EU in general. Using accessible language, it guides the reader through the complicated subject matter step by step. Concise tables explain the genesis of the constitution, its structure, and the changes that it will bring about. This book will be an indispensable guide for understanding how decisions in the EU are made in the years to come.


We propose a most economical design of the Optical Shared MemOry Supercomputer Interconnect System (OSMOSIS) all-optical, wavelength-space crossbar switch fabric. It is shown, by analysis and simulation, that the total number of on-off gates required for the proposed N × N switch fabric can scale asymptotically as N ln N if the number of input/output ports N can be factored into a product of small primes. This is of the same order of magnitude as Shannon's lower bound for switch complexity, according to which the minimum number of two-state switches required for the construction of a N × N permutation switch is log2 (N!).


In "Oil, Islam, and Women," Michael Ross (2008a) develops a gendered Dutch Disease theory, which points to oil wealth as a potential explanation for the slow progress towards gender equality in the Middle East. He then presents empirical analysis in support of this theory and concludes that "women in the Middle East are underrepresented in the workforce and in government because of oil — not Islam" (p. 107). This brief comment re-examines Ross's data and finds that they do not justify his conclusion: upon closer examination, his data do not provide evidence that oil rents causally affect female labor force participation rates via the gendered Dutch Disease. We argue that, in fact, his data are as or more consistent with Islam playing an important role in explaining the lagging female labor force participation rates than they are with oil playing an important role.


How to solve security issues and problems arising in distributed systems. Security is one of the leading concerns in developing dependable distributed systems of today, since the integration of different components in a distributed manner creates new security problems and issues. Service oriented architectures, the Web, grid computing and virtualization form the backbone of todays distributed systems. A lens to security issues in distributed systems is best provided via deeper exploration of security concerns and solutions in these technologies. Distributed Systems Security provides a holistic insight into current security issues, processes, and solutions, and maps out future directions in the context of todays distributed systems. This insight is elucidated by modeling of modern day distributed systems using a four-tier logical model host layer, infrastructure layer, application layer, and service layer (bottom to top). The authors provide an in-depth coverage of security threats and issues across these tiers. Additionally the authors describe the approaches required for efficient security engineering, alongside exploring how existing solutions can be leveraged or enhanced to proactively meet the dynamic needs of security for the next-generation distributed systems. The practical issues thereof are reinforced via practical case studies. Distributed Systems Security: Presents an overview of distributed systems security issues, including threats, trends, standards and solutions. Discusses threats and vulnerabilities in different layers namely the host, infrastructure, application, and service layer to provide a holistic and practical, contemporary view of enterprise architectures. Provides practical insights into developing current-day distributed systems security using realistic case studies. This book will be of invaluable interest to software engineers, developers, network professionals and technical/enterprise architects working in the field of distributed systems security. Managers and CIOs, researchers and advanced students will also find this book insightful.


Research institutes created within universities with the explicit mission of engaging in the socio-economic development of their territories can help universities to overcome the challenges they face when attempting to produce socially relevant knowledge. Through their more open and flexible governance, such institutes can develop research processes with other territorial actors to address local or regional challenges and produce new knowledge relevant in academia. While the literature has addressed how such research processes develop, highlighting the role played by dialogue, considerably less attention is paid to how the research outputs of dialogical research processes are disseminated.
This dissertation addresses the gap in the literature on the dialogical dissemination of research outputs. To that end, it builds an analytical framework on Responsible Research Communication (RRC) in two steps. The first step identifies the main features of responsible research communication through a literature review on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Communication for Development and Social Change (CDSC). The second step tests the analytical framework in practice using action research as a method. The action research process consists of helping two researchers to communicate a research output (a book) reflecting on the features of the analytical framework on RRC. The lessons learnt from testing the theoretical features in practice are incorporated, transforming the analytical frameworks into an actionable analytical framework. The robustness of the actionable analytical framework on RRC is then tested using case studies as a method. The case studies included a diversity of researchers and communication professionals working in a research institute with the explicit mission of engaging in the socio-economic development of its host territory.
One of the main findings of the dissertation is that there is a strong link between how knowledge is produced and how knowledge is communicated. That is the philosophical underpinnings that explain the different approaches to how knowledge is produced also explain the different approaches to how knowledge is communicated.
The dissertation concludes that RRC is a shared responsibility that involves academia, research institutes, researchers, communication professionals, funders and territorial actors. In this context it suggests that (i) research communication should be considered part of the research cycle and different from corporate communication; (ii) researchers should enjoy basic funding and space to experiment and innovate in their research communication; (iii) communication professionals need to become facilitators; (iv) territorial actors need to become active participants in research dissemination processes.
The dissertation includes suggestions for future research.


ABSTRACT We have reported previously the identification of novel proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the immunoscreening of an expression library of M. tuberculosis genomic DNA with sera obtained from M. tuberculosis-infected rabbits at 5 weeks postinfection. In this study, we report the further characterization of one of these antigens, LipC (Rv0220). LipC is annotated as a member of the Lip family based on the presence of the consensus motif "GXSXG" characteristic of esterases. Although predicted to be a cytoplasmic enzyme, we provide evidence that LipC is a cell surface protein that is present in both the cell wall and the capsule of M. tuberculosis. Consistent with this localization, LipC elicits strong humoral immune responses in both HIV-negative (HIV−) and HIV-positive (HIV+) tuberculosis (TB) patients. The absence of anti-LipC antibodies in sera from purified protein derivative-positive (PPD+) healthy subjects confirms its expression only during active M. tuberculosis infection. Epitope mapping of LipC identified 6 immunodominant epitopes, 5 of which map to the exposed surface of the modeled LipC protein. The recombinant LipC (rLipC) protein also elicits proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine responses from macrophages and pulmonary epithelial cells. rLipC can hydrolyze short-chain esters with the carbon chain containing 2 to 10 carbon atoms. Together, these studies demonstrate that LipC is a novel cell surface-associated esterase of M. tuberculosis that is highly immunogenic and elicits both antibodies and cytokines/chemokines.


In this study, the performance of an indoor Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) which is installed by using traditional methods and cellular design of a WLAN that is to be installed are tested. To implement the test and design, artificial intelligence methods are used. For the WLAN test, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used. Access Points (APs) and receiver coordinates are determined as ANN input parameters and optimum Receive Signal Strength (RSS) have been sought. For WLAN design, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) method is used. Wall structures and AP properties are taken into account to obtain optimum Receive Signal Strengths (RSSs). For the analytic solution of the optimum RSS, the indoor setting is divided into cellular areas. Thus, the most suitable locations for APs and the number of APs are determined. As a result, we have tested the performance of a WLAN, which is installed by means of traditional methods. According the experimental results, the indoor WLAN designed with the GA method has provided better performance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.20.6.7290


An analysis was made to determine the proportions of fins made of aluminum, copper, magnesium, and steel necessary to dissipate maximum quantities of heat for different fin widths, fin weights, and air-flow conditions. The analysis also concerns the determination of the optimum fin proportions when specified limits are placed on the fin dimensions. The calculation of the heat flow in the fins is based on experimentally verified, theoretical equations. The surface heat-transfer coefficients used with this equation were taken from previously reported experiments. In addition to the presentation of fin-design information, this investigation shows that optimum fin dimensions are inappreciably affected by the differences in air flow that are obtained with different air-flow arrangements or by small changes in the length of the air-flow path.


HIV-1 subtype C (C-HIV) is responsible for most HIV-1 cases worldwide. Although the pathogenesis of C-HIV is thought to predominantly involve CCR5-restricted (R5) strains, we do not have a firm understanding of how frequently CXCR4-using (X4 and R5X4) variants emerge in subjects with progressive C-HIV infection. Nor do we completely understand the molecular determinants of coreceptor switching by C-HIV variants. Here, we characterized a panel of HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins (Envs) (n = 300) cloned sequentially from plasma of 21 antiretroviral therapy (ART)-nai¨ve subjects who experienced progression from chronic to advanced stages of C-HIV infection, and show that CXCR4-using C-HIV variants emerged in only one individual. Mutagenesis studies and structural models suggest that the evolution of R5 to X4 variants in this subject principally involved acquisition of an ''Ile-Gly'' insertion in the gp120 V3 loop and replacement of the V3 ''Gly-Pro-Gly'' crown with a ''Gly-Arg-Gly'' motif, but that the accumulation of additional gp120 ''scaffold'' mutations was required for these V3 loop changes to confer functional effects. In this context, either of the V3 loop changes could confer possible transitional R5X4 phenotypes, but when present together they completely abolished CCR5 usage and conferred the X4 phenotype. Our results show that the emergence of CXCR4-using strains is rare in this cohort of untreated individuals with advanced C-HIV infection. In the subject where X4 variants did emerge, alterations in the gp120 V3 loop were necessary but not sufficient to confer CXCR4 usage.


Gastric cancer is the most common cancer in Asia and most developing countries. Despite the use of multimodality therapeutics, it remains the second leading cause of cancer death in the world. To identify the molecular underpinnings of gastric cancer in the Asian population, we applied an RNA-sequencing approach to gastric tumor and noncancerous specimens, generating 680 million informative short reads to quantitatively characterize the entire transcriptome of gastric cancer (including mRNAs and miRNAs). A multilayer analysis was then developed to identify multiple types of transcriptional aberrations associated with different stages of gastric cancer, including differentially expressed mRNAs, recurrent somatic mutations, and key differentially expressed miRNAs. Through this approach, we identified the central metabolic regulator AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)α as a potential functional target in Asian gastric cancer. Furthermore, we experimentally showed the translational relevance of this gene as a potential therapeutic target for early-stage gastric cancer in Asian patients. Together, our findings not only provide a valuable information resource for identifying and elucidating the molecular mechanisms of Asian gastric cancer, but also represent a general integrative framework to develop more effective therapeutic targets.


We consider the problem of reliably connecting an arbitrarily large set of computers (nodes) with communication channels. Reliability means here the ability, for any two nodes, to remain connected (i.e., their ability to communicate) with probability at least mu, despite the very fact that every other node or channel has an independent probability lambda of failing. A simple solution to the problem consists in connecting every pair of nodes with several channels. This solution however does not scale: the number of connections per node (degree) would not be bounded by a constant. We address the following question: is it possible to reliably connect an arbitrarily large number n of nodes with a bounded degree? This problem is non-trivial, as the level of redundancy implied by reliability is apparently incompatible with a bounded degree. In this paper, we show that, may be surprisingly, the answer to this problem is positive. We show how to build a graph to reliably connect n nodes while preserving a bounded degree. We first address a weak version of the problem, where we allow to add intermediary nodes (that are not necessarily reliably connected to the others), provided that their number is linear in the total number of nodes reliably connected. To solve the weaker problem, we define a fractal graph that ensures constant reliability at any distance, and combine it with a tree-like graph to reliably connect an arbitrary set of nodes. Then, to solve the strong version of the problem (without intermediary nodes), we split the n nodes to connect into several subsets, and reliably connect each pair of subsets with an instance of the previous graph containing at most n nodes. The final graph is obtained by merging all these instances together. The linearity property of the weak problem ensures that the number of graphs we merge is bounded by a constant, which guarantees a bounded degree. Interestingly, the resulting graph has an optimal diameter: it is logarithmic in n. Whilst we focus on crash-stop failures for presentation simplicity, we also show how our solution can be generalized to tolerate Byzantine (malicious) failures, by increasing the level of redundancy and performing majority votes at several levels of the graph.