Do you want to become more confident handling an oil brush? How about developing your skill in manipulating and mixing oil colors? This volume, filled with the experience and techniques of ten of today's finest oil painters, shows you how to discover and paint your own successful paintings, covering everything from the importance of brush selection to capturing the color nuances of a collapsing wave. Together these artists offer a treasury of instruction in oil technique: Charles Reid shows you how to handle an oil brush with dexterity and how to make handling and mixing color simple. Wendon Blake, George Cherepov, Paul Strisik, and Richard Schmid teach you how to capture the magnificence of a full landscape, and the more subtle characteristics of the countryside; Foster Caddell shows you how to overcome elementary errors in composition, balance of values and especially how to handle color in the landscape; E. John Robinson demonstrates how to capture the color and awesome power in the sea and shore; Ken Davies teaches you how to render sharp focus still lifes in oil; and John Howard Sanden, Charles Pfahl and Jane Corsellis show you how to paint the human portrait and figure, perhaps the most intriguing painting subject of all. The book is divided into seven sections: oil Brushwork, handling color, landscapes, color in landscapes, seascapes, sharp focus, and figures and portraits. Each section's full-color step-by-step demonstrations clearly illustrate how the artists achieve their striking results, and how you can too. Profusely illustrated and entirely in color, "Oil Painting Techniques" is required reading for the amateur or intermediate oil painter who wants to develop his skill in this medium.


In this paper we study the time delays affecting the diffusion of information in an underwater heterogeneous robot swarm, considering a time-sensitive environment. In many situations each member of the swarm must update its knowledge about the environment as soon as possible, thus every effort to expand the knowledge horizon is useful. Otherwise critical information may not reach nodes far from the source causing dangerous misbehaviour of the swarm. We consider two extreme situations. In the first scenario we have an unique probabilistic delay distribution. In the second scenario, each agent is subject to a different truncated gaussian distribution, meaning local conditions are significantly different from link to link. We study how several swarm topologies react to the two scenarios and how to allocate the more efficient transmission resources in order to expand the horizon. Results show that significant time savings under a gossip-like protocol are possible properly allocating the resources. Moreover, methods to determine the fastest swarm topologies and the most important nodes are suggested.


We describe the experience with courses that teach the Foundations of Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) and methods for ensuring the correctness of CPS designs. CPSs combine cyber effects (computation & communication) with physical effects (motion or other physical processes). CPS represent a paradigm shift that transcends the separation of computer science, which traditionally focuses on computation & communication isolated from the physical world, versus engineering and physics, which traditionally focus more on physical effects than on software intensive solutions. CPS are a unique challenge and unique opportunity for education. They challenge, because of their mathematical demand and interdisciplinary nature. CPS are an opportunity, because students learn important insights about the interface with other areas and develop a deeper understanding about the principles that make cyber and physical aspects work together. The course addresses the challenges of designing CPS that people can bet their lives on by emphasizing CPS contracts.


The importance of aviation security has increased dramatically in recent years. Frequently changing regulations and the need to adapt quickly to new and emerging threats are challenges that need to be addressed by airports, security companies and appropriate authorities across the world. Learning management systems (LMS) have been developed as effective tools for enhancing the management, integration and application of knowledge in organizations. In the aviation security domain, we need mechanisms to quickly adapt to new learning content, to different roles ranging from screeners to supervisors, to flexible training scenarios and solid job assessments. For that, a learning system has to be flexible and adaptive both in knowledge, organizational and in collaboration dimensions. Current LMS do not meet these requirements. In this paper we present a software architecture that is apt to support the adaptability and collaboration needs for such a system in aviation security. We discuss the requirements, roles, learning objects and course configuration in terms of adaptive and collaborative learning. We present a six-layer architecture and discuss some of its application scenarios. Our aim is to improve the quality and usefulness of LMS in aviation security by utilizing knowledge-based analysis for data analysis and integrating a process engine for collaborative learning. We briefly report on our prototype and the gained first feedback from the users.


A major shift toward passively managed index funds in recent years has led to the re-concentration of corporate ownership in the hands of just three large asset management firms, the Big Three: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street. We propose that this trend has re-structured ownership in capital markets. Adopting a contractual view to the corporate share, we re-define share holding and suggest that the New Mandate Owners in fact hold the essence of corporate power, as their aggregated positions capture the core element of the franchise of corporate voting.


Cerium (Ce)-doped nickel (Ni)-based catalysts supported on modified lignite with HCl were prepared by a co-impregnation method with different Ni/Ce ratios (xNi-Ce/AWSL, where x is 1, 10, 20, 50, and 100, and AWSL is acid-washed Shengli lignite). The promotion effect of Ce with different Ni/Ce weight ratios on structural properties and activity under different atmospheres was investigated in detail. All catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and N2 physisorption apparatus. The performance of catalysts was evaluated in a well-designed reactor system for biomass catalytic gasification (BCG). The results indicated that the active component of Ni was dispersed uniformly, and that a high and stable gas yield was obtained over Ce-doped catalysts. Due to the formation of a Ni–Ce alloy, the Ce-doped catalyst with a Ni/Ce weight ratio of 50 : 1 showed the most stable gas yield (69.1%). After carrying out BCG five times, the lowest carbon deposition (weight increase of 1.7%) was obtained under an Ar atmosphere. Spent 50Ni–Ce/AWSL catalyst showed the least carbon deposition, and had the lowest Ni crystallite size (17.3 nm) and smallest average pore size (2.86 nm). The maximum catalytic activity and highest stability for BCG was observed for the catalyst with a Ni/Ce ratio of 50, which showed the best inhibition of carbon deposition.


Urban brownfields are ecologically valuable ecosystems that have been and are under various anthropogenic influences. Because brownfields are subject to rapid development in urban areas, their biological communities, including soil mesofauna, are overlooked and seldom researched, even though they could provide valuable insight into the ecological functioning of these areas. This exploratory study describes the community characteristics of oribatid mite fauna of 12 brownfields in Tallinn, Estonia, and analyzes the potential of oribatid mites as bioindicators of brownfield successional stage. This study provides the first faunistic list of oribatid mites from the brownfields of Tallinn. No significant changes in species abundance or richness depending on the successional stage were discovered. While some changes in community structure were noted, due to low overall abundance, no clear indicators of brownfield successional stage were identified. For future research on urban brownfield oribatid fauna with the intention of finding potential bioindicators of brownfield properties, increasing the sampling size and inclusion of other groups of soil mesofauna is recommended.


Increased sedimentation from changes in land use in coastal areas is a potentially impor- tant impact of human urbanisation. The potential impact of sedimentation on benthic infauna was quantitatively investigated in the Okura estuary, which is at the northern fringes of urban develop- ment in Auckland, New Zealand. A structured mensurative sampling programme, measuring benthic infauna and various environmental variables, is described. Of the variance in macrofaunal assem- blages from 15 sites throughout the Okura estuary on 6 sampling occasions, 70% was explained by environmental variables. Proportions of ambient sediment grain-sizes, depositional categories from previous models, the amount and characteristics of trapped sediments, organic content, changes in bed height and distance from the mouth of the estuary were all useful in explaining variation in macro- faunal assemblages. Levels of sedimentation recorded in this study were sub-catastrophic (<3 cm of deposition d -1 ), corresponding to natural fluctuations in sedimentation. Bivalves generally had a neg- ative relationship with sedimentation, while certain burrowing crabs and polychaetes were more abundant in high-deposition environments. The total amount and the grain-size characteristics of trapped sediments explained a significant proportion of the variation in soft-sediment assemblages, over and above the variation explained by ambient sediment variables. Thus, sedimentation appears to be an important structuring force in these intertidal estuarine macrobenthic assemblages.


In January 2011 protesters in Tunisia forced out long-time dictator Ben Ali. Egypt's Mubarak was soon to follow. In this paper I outline the transitions of both states - looking specifically at elites, institutions, and civil society. I discuss democratization literature in the context of both states and their likely futures. I conclude that the most significant difference between Tunisia and Egypt are elites - and that such a difference is sufficient to present differing predictions. Tunisia has a better chance of democratization than Egypt because her elites have formed consensus around both democracy and secular governance, whereas Egypt's have yet to do so and show little promise of such consensus in the near future.


The aim of the current study was to evaluate an interaction between anxiety and depression in persons with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in relation to foci lateralization. Ninety-four patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were included in the study (25 cases with left-sided focus activity, 25 cases with right-sided focus activity, and 44 patients with bilateral foci activity). The Hopkins Symptoms Check List (SCL-90) scale was used for psychopathological assessment. Pearson product moment correlations between nine constructs of SCL-90 were calculated separately for left-sided, right-sided, and bilateral foci groups. On the final stage, forward stepwise regression analysis was used for left-sided, right-sided, and bilateral foci groups separately. As dependent variables, the SCL-90 constructs of depression and anxiety were used. The obtained findings have shown the existence of close correlation between constructs of depression and anxiety in the right-sided focus and bilateral foci TLE patients, whereas the correlation was less expressed in the left-sided focus group. Regression analysis revealed the dependence of depression on anxiety and vice versa dependence of anxiety on depression in the right-sided focus group, but not the left-sided focus group. Depression and anxiety seem to represent one more solid syndrome in TLE patients with right-sided focus activity and rather two independent syndromes in TLE patients with the left-sided focus activity.


Bitar MS, Al-Mulla F. A defect in Nrf2 signaling constitutes a mechanism for cellular stress hypersensitivity in a genetic rat model of type 2 diabetes. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 301: E1119–E1129, 2011. First published September 6, 2011; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00047.2011.— Nrf2 regulates the expression and coordinated induction of a battery of antioxidant phase 2 genes that protect cells against the cumulative damaging effects of oxidative stress (OS), a major contributor in the development of chronic diabetic complications. Using cultured dermal fibroblasts from rats with type 2 diabetes (DFs), we investigated the intracellular redox status and the adaptive response to OS, in which Nrf2 plays a central role. Our data confirmed that the generation of superoxide by NADPH oxidase and the mitochondria was enhanced in DFs compared with corresponding controls. This was associated with a decrease in the antioxidant capacity and an increase in the sensitivity of these DFs to hydrogen peroxide-induced necrotic cell death. Nrf2 levels in total cell extracts were diminished, and this abnormality appears to stem from a diabetes-related decrease in Nrf2 protein stability. Endogenous (oligomycin) and exogenous (tert-butylhydroquinone) induction of OS enhanced the nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and increased the mRNA expression of Nrf2-sensitive genes in control but not DFs. The activity of the GSK-3 /Fyn axis was increased markedly in DFs when compared with the corresponding controls. Chemical inhibition of GSK-3 mitigated the diabetesrelated suppression of the OS-induced nuclear accumulation of Nrf2 and the transcriptional activation of the genes downstream of Nrf2. Overall, these findings suggest that an augmentation in GSK-3 /Fyn signaling during diabetes contributes to a deficit in both the cellular redox state and the Nrf2-based adaptive response to OS. Moreover, they may also offer a new perspective in the understanding and treatment of nonhealing diabetic wounds.


The feminization of labor migration is a 21 century phenomenon. Though not often center stage of migration policy and debate, migrant women have become powerful agents of change as well key actors in influencing social and economic development in their countries of origin. This paper explores the complexities of a system in which labor migration is controlled, produced, and understood; its impacts on women and the society at large; and the sustainability of such change for future generations. Through a case study on female migrant women from Senegal, this article aims to demonstrate how the migration experience and subsequent return of women to their home countries leads to positive and sustainable social and economic changes at household, community, and national levels. However, in order for this occur, it argues that governments must play a key role in supporting and protecting women prior to, during, and after their migration experience while encouraging their return home.


Elderly athletes running the marathon offer a barometer of what is possible in physical aging. Gender, however, has a strong influence on one's chances in the marathon race, just as it has on the manner and pace with which one navigates the marathon of life. This article looks at the obstacles that women, especially older women, have had to overcome in order to compete in the marathon race. It explores the ways that gender has limited their real and perceived opportunities in pursuing strenuous sports and shows how male–female dichotomies have been used historically to perpetuate patriarchal views on the ways women could and should use their bodies. Finally, it illustrates how feminist inquiry and methods of analysis can help us understand why aging women in the past have more often been seen as "eternally wounded" than as special candidates for sporting excellence in later life.


This study illuminates how new markets emerge and how social movements can effect cultural change through market creation. We suggest that social movements can fuel solutions to three challenges in creating new market segments: entrepreneurial production, the creation of collective producer identities, and the establishment of regular exchange between producers and consumers. We use qualitative data on the grassroots coalition movement that has spurred a market for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States since the early 1990s. Our analysis shows that the movement's participants mobilized broad cultural codes and that these codes motivated producers to enter and persist in a nascent market, shaped their choices about production and exchange technologies, enabled a collective identity, and formed the basis of the products' exchange value.


People with Huntington's disease and people suffering from obsessive–compulsive disorder show severe deficits in recognizing facial expressions of disgust, whereas people with lesions restricted to the amygdala are especially impaired in recognizing facial expressions of fear. This double dissociation implies that recognition of certain basic emotions may be associated with distinct and non–overlapping neural substrates. Some authors, however, emphasize the general importance of the ventral parts of the frontal cortex in emotion recognition, regardless of the emotion being recognized. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to locate neural structures that are critical for recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions by investigating cerebral activation of six healthy adults performing a gender discrimination task on images of faces expressing disgust, fear and anger. Activation in response to these faces was compared with that for faces showing neutral expressions. Disgusted facial expressions activated the right putamen and the left insula cortex, whereas enhanced activity in the posterior part of the right gyrus cinguli and the medial temporal gyrus of the left hemisphere was observed during processing of angry faces. Fearful expressions activated the right fusiform gyrus and the left dorsolateral frontal cortex. For all three emotions investigated, we also found activation of the inferior part of the left frontal cortex (Brodmann area 47). These results support the hypotheses derived from neuropsychological findings, that (i) recognition of disgust, fear and anger is based on separate neural systems, and that (ii) the output of these systems converges on frontal regions for further information processing.


The 27 Al(n,d)26Mg and 5.6Fe(n,d)55Mn reactions have been studied at 22 Me V incident energy. The 6MV Van de Graafffacility at the National Accelerator Centre, Faure was used for the experimental aspects. An (n, charged particle) spectrometer was used to detect the energy and angle of the outgoing deuterons. The spectrometer allows for accumulation of particle discriminated data over an angular range of 800 . The intrinsic geometry of the spectrometer limits its' angular resolution to '" 50 (FWHM). The spectromet er has an energy resolution of'" 0.7MeV(FWHM). A detailed study of the experimental system has been conducted and the proportional counters in particular were extensively investigated. A review of the relevant nuclear models for the target and residual nuclei is presented, together with a theoretical outline of the reaction mechanism for the (n,d) reaction. The distorted waves method approach is used in the analysis of the reaction cross sections. Optical potentials are used to simulate the incoming and outgoing distorted waves and thus generate the theoretical cross sections for the (n,d) reactions. The shapes of the angular distributions of the reaction cross sections for different orbital angular momentum transfers are compared to obtain a fit. Comparison of experimental and theoretical cross sections produce the spectroscopic factors which reveal the occupancy or vacany of level states and hence the single particle nature of these states. It was concluded from the study that the shell model of the nuclei under investigation gives a very good description of the results obtained for the (n,d) reactions.


Summary form only given. Graph theoretic problems are representative of fundamental kernels in traditional and emerging computational sciences such as chemistry, biology, and medicine, as well as applications in national security. Yet they pose serious challenges for parallel machines due to non-contiguous, concurrent accesses to global data structures with low degrees of locality. Few parallel graph algorithms outperform their best sequential implementation due to long memory latencies and high synchronization costs. In this talk, we consider several graph theoretic kernels for connectivity and centrality and discuss how the features of petascale architectures will affect algorithm development, ease of programming, performance, and scalability.


Malaria continues to be a serious communicable disease whose impact on public health in Namibia is massive. Some improvement in reducing the number of malaria cases has been made in the country, but the sporadic availability of malaria diagnostic test kits (mRDT) continues to slow down government efforts to eliminate malaria in the country. Given the nature of current conditions, justification exists for a study to determine the factors associated with stock out of malaria rapid test kit (mRDT) in Namibia. Mixed method approach was employed, whereby in quantitative aspect, the study adopted a descriptive approach to acquire data from a period of five years retrospectively (2012-2016). To gain insight into qualitative aspects of the study, key informants at all levels of the supply chain in Oshana region were interviewed. Pharmaceutical knowledge of ordering mRDT is needed to prevent stock out of mRDT. It is a recommendation of this study that training is needed for staffs who are involved in ordering of pharmaceutical items.


The sizable run-up in U.S. external debt over the 1980s has prompted many to ask whether continued current account deficits of the magnitude witnessed can be sustained. In several recent papers, different authors have concluded that a given path of the dollar is unsustainable. The conclusion drawn in these earlier papers does not allow for the substantial uncertainty that surrounds this issue, however. There is uncertainty about the estimated model of the U.S. current account that is used to generate the net demand for foreign assets for a given path of the dollar, about the preferences of foreign investors for U.S. assets, and about the mechanics of exchange rate determination that yields a particular path for the dollar. ; In this paper, we develop a way to explicitly address these sources of uncertainty. We find that for any given assumption about foreign preferences or the willingness of foreigners to supply net capital, there is a range of sustainable exchange rates. Moreover, that range of sustainable exchange rates varies considerably with changes in the assumption about foreign preferences. Using our framework, we can recast the earlier studies in terms of the likelihood that particular levels of the dollar would be consistent with sustainability.


Type inference over partial contexts in dynamically typed languages is challenging. In this work, we present a graph neural network model that predicts types by probabilistically reasoning over a program's structure, names, and patterns. The network uses deep similarity learning to learn a TypeSpace — a continuous relaxation of the discrete space of types — and how to embed the type properties of a symbol (i.e. identifier) into it. Importantly, our model can employ one-shot learning to predict an open vocabulary of types, including rare and user-defined ones. We realise our approach in Typilus for Python that combines the TypeSpace with an optional type checker. We show that Typilus accurately predicts types. Typilus confidently predicts types for 70% of all annotatable symbols; when it predicts a type, that type optionally type checks 95% of the time. Typilus can also find incorrect type annotations; two important and popular open source libraries, fairseq and allennlp, accepted our pull requests that fixed the annotation errors Typilus discovered.


The geometry of room acoustics is such that the reverberant signal can be seen as the same waveform emitted from multiple locations. In analogy with the rake receiver from wireless communications, we propose several beamforming strategies that exploit, rather than suppress, this additional spatio-temporal diversity. Unlike earlier work in the frequency domain, time domain designs allow to shape the impulse response of the beamformer. In particular, we can control perceptually relevant parameters, such as the amount of early echoes or the length of the beamformer response. Relying on the knowledge of the image sources positions, we derive different optimal beamformers. Leveraging perceptual cues, we show how to improve interference and noise reduction without degrading the perceptual quality. The designs are validated through simulation. Using early echoes is shown to strictly improve the signal to interference and noise ratio. Code and speech samples are available online at http:// lcav.epfl.ch/Robin_Scheibler.


A facile and environmentally friendly synthesis approach for the production of vanadium doped titanium dioxide (VxTi1−xO2) nanostructures was demonstrated via hydrothermal decomposition of vanadium and titanium peroxo-complexes. The effect of vanadium addition on the structural and morphological properties of VxTi1−xO2 nanocrystals was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy techniques. XRD analysis showed that all VxTi1−xO2 samples presented only the TiO2 anatase crystalline phase and, despite the different amounts of vanadium ions, the single crystalline nature was preserved. Increasing V contents resulted in morphological evolution, from anisotropic to isotropic structures. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) have been employed for investigating the atomic composition and configuration of these nanostructures. XAS measurements at the K-edges (for V and Ti) revealed that V ions occupy the Ti4+-site, which confirms the doping effect. Furthermore, high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) imaging, combined with EELS mapping, indicated that the vanadium ions were homogeneously distributed in the structure without any kind of segregation. These morphological and compositional modifications upon vanadium addition led to evolution of the TiO2 optical properties.


International journal of engineering works aims to give its contribution in state-of-the art research studies & activities in advance innovation and engineering science areas, which cover topics in a wide range of science and technology with the latest outstanding research & developments but not limited to. The accepted papers will be supervised double peer review process method contacted under the editorial board reviewers. The journal system primarily aims to bring out the scientific research endowment from academia, engineers, practitioners, research scholars, bachelor, Master, PhD students of engineering and science.


A novel paired surface plasma wave biosensor (PSPWB) is described and setup. By integrating the features of a common-path optical heterodyne interferometer and the amplitude-ratio detection mode, the PSPWB not only produces a high detection sensitivity but also provides a large dynamic measurement range for effective refractive index (Deltan(eff)) based on amplitude-sensitive detection method. Thus, the performance of PSPWB becomes equivalent to shot-noise limited of a conventional SPR biosensor. To our knowledge, this novel PSPWB shows the highest detection sensitivity on (Deltan(eff)) when compared with conventional SPR biosensors using either a non-interferometric or interferometric technique. The experimental results correctly verify the properties of a PSPWB that the detection sensitivity is an order of 10(-7) refractive index unit (RIU) when measuring a 0.001% sucrose-water solution. This result confirms the detection sensitivity up to 10(-9) RIU of the IgG/anti-IgG interaction in real time successfully. Furthermore, a dynamic range of 10(5) using PSPWB was also obtained.


Despite global efforts made to address anaemia, the prevalence remains high in most Sub-Saharan African countries. In Ethiopia, anaemia poses a very strong public health concern. The purpose of the present study was to examine the key risk factors related to anaemia among children aged 6–24 months (younger age group) and 25–59 months (older age group). We used the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data, collected from 11 023 mothers with under five children. Ordered logistic regression modelling was used for assessing risk factors of childhood anaemia. The results suggest that the prevalence of anaemia was 72 % in the younger and 49 % in the older age groups. The risk factors for anaemia in the younger age group were morbidity (odds ratio (OR) 1⋅77; CI 1⋅21, 2⋅60), having no piped water source (OR 1⋅76; CI 1⋅07, 3⋅01) and no toilet facility (OR 1⋅60; CI 1⋅07, 2⋅38). The key risk factors for anaemia in the older age group were no micronutrient intake (OR 1⋅69; CI 1⋅23, 2⋅31), having a young mother (15–24 years old) (OR 1⋅35; CI 0⋅84, 1⋅91) and a non-working mother (OR 1⋅50; CI 1⋅15, 1⋅96). Anaemia also varied by region, place of residence and economic factors. Multiple factors contributed to the high prevalence of anaemia. Given the structural problem that the country has intervention strategies should consider the unique characteristics of regions and rural residences where the prevalence of anaemia is above the national average.


This project investigates what and how information should be delivered to staff in hospital operating rooms. I have designed a holistic platform for critical in-operation information. I have worked in operating rooms observing heart procedures, which are high-risk procedures. The team performing these operations depend on accessible and precise information, to ensure that the procedure is done adequately. This diploma aims to improve how information is delivered to the team and how they access it. As the team members have different needs for information, I have tailored the information delivery to meet their needs. Using technology like augmented reality and voice recognition, in addition to conventional interface design, I have tried to re-think how information is provided to the team.


The enigma of the Emergence of Natural Languages, coupled or not with the closely related problem of their Evolution is perceived today as one of the most important scientific problems.
The purpose of the present study is actually to outline such a solution to our problem which is epistemologically consonant with the Big Bang solution of the problem of the Emergence of the Universe}. Such an outline, however, becomes articulable, understandable, and workable only in a drastically extended epistemic and scientific oecumene, where known and habitual approaches to the problem, both theoretical and experimental, become distant, isolated, even if to some degree still hospitable conceptual and methodological islands.
The guiding light of our inquiry will be Eugene Paul Wigner's metaphor of ``the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in natural sciences'', i.e., the steadily evolving before our eyes, since at least XVIIth century,
``the miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics''. Kurt Goedel's incompleteness and undecidability theory will be our guardian discerner against logical fallacies of otherwise apparently plausible explanations.
John Bell's ``unspeakableness'' and the commonplace counterintuitive character of quantum phenomena will be our encouragers. And the radical novelty of the introduced here and adapted to our purposes Big Bang epistemological paradigm will be an appropriate, even if probably shocking response to our equally shocking discovery in the oldest among well preserved linguistic fossils of perfect mathematical structures outdoing the best artifactual Assemblers.


The Magadi tilapia (Alcolapia grahami, formerly Oreochromis alcalicus grahami) is a remarkable example of teleost life in an extreme environment. Typical conditions include water pH = 10, titration alkalinity > 300 mM, osmolality = 525 mOsm, temperatures ranging from 23° to 42°C, and O2 levels fluctuating diurnally between extreme hyperoxia and anoxia. A number of relatively small tilapia populations are present in various thermal spring lagoons around the margin of the lake separated by kilometers of solid trona crust (floating Na2CO3) underlain by anoxic water. Despite the apparent isolation of different populations, annual floods may provide opportunities for exchange of fish across the surface of the trona and subsequent gene flow. To assess the question of isolation among Lake Magadi populations, we analyzed the variable control region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from six lagoons. A total of seven mtDNA haplotypes, including three common haplotypes, were observed in all six populations. Several of the Lake Magadi populations showed haplotype frequencies indicative of differentiation, while others showed very little. However, differentiation among lagoon populations was discordant with their geographical distribution along the shoreline. All populations exhibited the unusual trait of 100% ureotelism but specialized morphological and physiological characteristics were observed among several of the lagoon systems. In addition, distinct differences were observed in the osmolality among the lagoons with levels as high as 1,400–1,700 mOsm kg−1, with corresponding differences in the natural levels of whole‐body urea. These levels of osmotic pressure proved fatal to fish from less alkaline systems but remarkably were also fatal to the fish that inhabited lagoons with this water chemistry. Upon more detailed inspection, specific adaptations to differential conditions in the lagoon habitat were identified that allowed survival of these cichlids. Additional evidence against potential for gene flow among lagoons despite the sharing of common mtDNA haplotypes was that the osmolality of floodwaters following a heavy rain showed lethal levels exceeding 1,700 mOsm kg−1. In isolation, different mtDNA haplotypes would be predicted to go to fixation in different populations due to rapid generation times and the small effective population sizes in a number of lagoons. We propose a model of balancing selection to maintain common mtDNA sequences through a common selection pressure among lagoons that is based on microhabitats utilized by the tilapia.


We investigate the effect of tweaking the quality (Q) factor of split ring resonators in a coupled state, giving rise to plasmonic induced transparency (PIT) which has two distinct, individually engineered resonance modes. The Q factor and the amplitude of each resonance are tuned by twisting them mutually in the unit cell consisting of a subradiant and a superradiant resonator. We experimentally observe that introducing a gradual twist in the three U-shape resonators has a dramatic impact on the PIT spectral response, leading to the disappearance of the transparency peak beyond a certain critical degree of twist. This mainly happens due to the change in the in-plane coupling between the resonators as well the variation in coupling of the twisted resonators with the incident electric field. Further investigation based on the Fano model provides good agreement with the experimental results. The scheme presented here for controlling the Q factor of each resonator in the coupled regime is a unique way to tune the PIT response in terahertz metamaterials and can be easily scaled across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.


The hot‐air method provides rapid measurement of a soil's unsaturated hydraulic diffusivity function. The original method consists of blowing hot air across one end of a soil column for a short period, and then quickly extruding, dissecting, and oven drying the soil to provide the soil water content profile, which is used to calculate the soil's unsaturated hydraulic diffusivity. This research presents a novel approach to measuring the soil water content profile during a hot‐air test. During the drying process, a soil column is suspended in a horizontal position by a load cell attached at each end. The measured change in force from the two load cells enables calculation of the soil water content profile, without soil extrusion, dissection, and oven drying. Because the test is nondestructive, it permits estimation of the water content profile and calculation of the unsaturated hydraulic diffusivity function at multiple times. Similarity of the diffusivity functions at various times during the drying process provides evidence of proper testing conditions, a utility not available with the destructive approach. We applied the method to a silt loam and a clay loam and both soils achieved a RMSE of 0.012 compared with the traditionally measured water content profile. We also modeled the performance of the new method on previously published hot‐air water content profiles and achieved similar results.


The dramatic and ongoing changes in the funding of science have stimulated interest in an economics of scientific knowledge (ESK), which would investigate the effects of these changes on the scientific enterprise. Hands (1994) has previously explored the lessons for such an ESK from the existing precedent of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). In particular, he examines the philosophical problems of SSK and those that any ESK in its image would face. This paper explores this argument further by contending that more recent literature in SSK exposes even deeper philosophical problems than those identified by Hands. Meaning finitism has emerged as the philosophical core of SSK. An examination of the profound problems with this position is used to show that an underlying extensionalism is the root of SSK's intractable philosophical difficulties, and to illustrate the entirely different approach of a critical philosophy that is advocated in its place. In this way, the project of an ESK is shown to depend upon a critical philosophy.


This study reports the textural evaluation of Chinese wet
noodles made from Australian Standard White (ASW) flour, using
the Instron Universal Food Tester (Model 1140). Procedures for
conducting the instrumental test were set up in the preliminary
part of the study. Maximum cutting stress (MCS), percentage of
residual force (RF) and tensile stress which denote the
internal firmness, elasticity and tensile strength of noodles
obtained using cutting blade, compression and tensile
attachments respectively, were reliable measures of the
textural properties of Chinese wet noodles. These variables
were highly correlated to sensory evaluation of firmness,chewiness and tensile strength of noodles (r = 0.93 - 0.99
P<0.0l - P<0.l).
The study on the function of various components and
conditions in noodle making showed that the texture of Chinese
wet noodles were affected by the types and amount of water in
the formulation, types and pH of the cooking water, levels of
sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium carbonate (Na2C03), potassium
carbonate and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in the
formulation and the level of protein in flours.
Results obtained from the cutting test alone demonstrated
that Chinese wet noodles with maximum internal firmness could
be made from ASW flour using a water absorption of 32 - 34% and
a dough pH of 10.0. Slightly hard water containing 36 ppm Ca2+
should be used in the formulation. Types and pH of cooking
water recommended were hard water (64 ppm Ca2+) and pH 9.0
10.0 respectively. The amount of NaOH needed is 0.40% based on
the weight of flour.
Based on the results obtained from the compress ion test ,
Chinese wet noodles with maximum elastic property could be
processed from ASW flour using 38% water absorption level and a
dough pH of 9.0. Distilled or soft water (0 ppm Ca2+) should
be used in the formulation and noodles should be cooked in
slightly hard water (36 ppm Ca2+) and pH of cooking water suggested was pH 6.0. The amount of Na2C03 or K2C03 needed is
0.25 - 0.50%, whereas if NaOH was used the amount recommended
is 0.20% based on the weight of flour.
Fortification of ASW flour using wheat gluten and blending
of Prime Hard (PH) to ASW flour increase the level of protein
in noodle doughs and hence, improved the textural
characteristics of Chinese wet noodles. A strong correlation
was observed between protein content of flours and MCS and RF
(%) with r=0. 99 (P<0.000l) and r=0.90 (P<0.0l) respectively.
No significant differences were seen between MCS of Chinese wet
noodles processed from ASW and PH flour blends in the ratio of
55:45, 60:40 and 65:35 (P<0.0l). Stability of dough obtained
from farinograph can be used to predict the internal firmness
of Chinese wet noodles.
This study suggested that to produce the required or
desirable textural characteristics of Chinese wet noodles
several interrelated factors have to be considered and
optimised.


Manual translation (also known as Human Translation or HT) is a service demanded worldwide on a large scale, but can be quite expensive. As a result, Machine Translation (MT) has boomed in the last decade, trying to provide an automatic, and faster solution. However, MT does not always generate a good quality output, and human intervention is necessary to correct it. This intervention is called Post-Editing (PE) , which consists in improving a machine-translated text grammatically and semantically by a human. In this abstract, we present the development of a PE environment and the incorporation of MT into an existing on-line video translation platform named Amara, which allows to translate subtitles for online videos. The integration of MT in Amara will allow faster translation of educational videos, and will thus contribute to education. Human Translation Experiments To measure the impact of PE for the translation of video subtitles, preliminary experiments were conducted. Users were asked to translate into English the subtitles of two videos, first manually, and then via PE. The translation times, including access to external resources such as online dictionaries, were recorded. Figure 1 shows the experimental setup. Figure 2 shows the differences in HT speed (blue) vs. PE speed (red) of the two users. The speeds are measured in function of the length of the translated video. For instance, a speed of 6x means that if a video lasts 1min, the translation process lasts 6 minutes. As can be seen, in the case of the first user, the time to PE is almost half of the time to HT. The difference in the case of the second user is lower (~37%) but still significant. Feasibility Survey We conducted a user study where we asked users to rank different features for their usefulness, research value and ease of implementation. Details about the selected&implemented features (user log feedback, time tracking, and external resources search), as well as the way they improve the current system, will be provided in the final article. Conclusion Manual translation of educational videos can be time consuming. In this abstract we presented experiments that show the usefulness of assisting the translation process with post-editing and other time-saving features. In the future, we plan to make such features available to the public through a collaboration with the Amara platform.


Nursing focuses on meeting physical, social and emotional health-care needs of individuals, families and society. In health care, nurses directly communicate with patients and try to empathize with them. Nurses give care under emotionally intense conditions where the individual undergoes pain and distress. Research is aimed at analysing the correlation of self-compassion and emotional intelligence of nursing students. The population of the research consisted of all the undergraduate students (571 students) of the 2010-2011 fall semester of the department of nursing. An information form, Self-compassion Scale and Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale were utilized to obtain data for the research. For the assessment of the findings of research, Statistical Package for Social Sciences 16.0 for Windows was utilized for statistical analysis. Results indicated that there is a correlation between self-compassion and emotional intelligence and that emotional intelligence, which includes the individual perceiving one's emotions and using the knowledge one gained from them to function while directing thoughts, actions and professional applications, has positive contributions to the features of nurses with developed self-compassion.


Nearly all of sociology's top graduate training programs require their students to complete one or two courses on sociological theory. The instructors for these courses have an extraordinary opportunity to affect the perspectives and practices of future generations of scholars. This study assesses the backgrounds, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those instructors regarding different approaches to theorizing, with particular attention paid to topics related to science and to theory construction. Sociologists who teach required theory courses in the discipline's top fifty graduate training programs were asked a series of questions pertaining to their own training and to the courses they were teaching: Attitudes toward different kinds of theorizing, perceptions of the role that theory plays in sociology and in science, and views on the nature of science. Results indicate a strong consensus on the most important classical theorists (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim). However, attitudes and practices varied widely in regard to other classical theorists, contemporary sociological theory, and the role of scientific standards in the development of sociological knowledge. The author explores some of the implications of these attitudes and practices.


The notion that large numbers of workers are independent contractors not entitled to unionize or to the protections of employment law is a product of twentieth-century legal categories that are a poor fit for twenty-first century companies and labor markets. But it is an error to assume that the free market cultural ethos of worker entrepreneurialism in the gig economy is at odds with the basic framework and assumptions of labor and employment law. It is both feasible and normatively desirable to extend to gig economy workers the protections of labor and employment law and, therefore, definitions of covered employees in these statutes should be read very broadly and exclusions for independent contractors should be narrow and cover only those workers who are really running their own business and working for multiple separate clients simultaneously. The experience of Hollywood writers described in this Article, which draws on legal history and in-depth interviews with thirty working TV writers today, shows that current law can easily accommodate bargaining by gig economy workers. Entrepreneurial, short-term workers, including many who might in other circumstances be deemed independent contractors or supervisors, have bargained collectively for 80 years to the significant benefit of themselves and the industry in which they work.


Based on hundreds of primary sources in a wide range of languages, this book offers a reevaluation of Romanian images of self and other, as well as of foreign images of the country and people. A nuanced and historically-grounded contribution to the lively debates over Balkanism, Orientalism and identities in Romania and in Europe as a whole.


This paper presents an evaluation of the effective stress concept in unsaturated, compacted silt at low degrees of saturation. A set of isothermal, consolidated‐drained triaxial tests was performed on silt specimens under different combinations of total suction and net normal stress. The total suction was controlled using an automated humidity system, and variables monitored during equilibration and shearing include anisotropic volume change, axial displacement, temperature, relative humidity at the top and bottom of the specimen, and the gas pressure difference across the specimen. The results from the triaxial tests were analyzed to examine the applicability of predicting the suction stress characteristic curve (SSCC) using parameters from soil water retention curve (SWRC) models fitted to experimental data obtained at low suction magnitudes. The SSCC predicted from the SWRC at low suctions was found to overpredict the suction stress values at high suctions obtained from back‐extrapolation of the failure envelope to define the tensile strength. However, small adjustments in the fitting of the SWRC were found to provide a better fit between the SSCC and experimental suction stress data. The suction stress defined using the adjusted SWRC was found to provide a good interpretation of the critical state line in terms of mean effective stress over both high and low suction ranges.


Contributory infringement arises when a party knowingly supplies a direct infringer with a product especially adapted for use in a patented invention. Canadian courts have regularly stated that there is no liability for contributory infringement in Canadian law, in the absence of inducement. This article shows that there are nonetheless few cases actually refusing to impose liability on a contributory infringer, and none at the appellate level. The article argues that the reasoning and results in almost all the leading cases support a rule that supply of a product especially adapted to infringe, and with no substantial non-infringing use, constitutes indirect infringement, even in the absence of active inducement. The current shape of the law is a result of a misreading of the early leading case of The Copeland-Chatterson Company Ltd v Hatton, in combination with the problematic decision in Slater Steel Industries Ltd v R. Payer Co, which is the only prominent case refusing to impose liability in such circumstances. Slater Steel has been confined to its facts in both subsequent Court of Appeal decisions to address it, and this article argues that Slater Steel was wrongly decided on its facts. The article concludes that it is open to the courts to recognize that liability for contributory infringement may be imposed in Canadian law.


We consider a dynamic server allocation problem over parallel queues with randomly varying connectivity and server switchover delay between the queues. At each time slot, the server decides either to stay with the current queue or switch to another queue based on the current connectivity and the queue length information. Switchover delay occurs in many telecommunications applications and is a new modeling component of this problem that has not been previously addressed. We show that the simultaneous presence of randomly varying connectivity and switchover delay changes the system stability region and the structure of optimal policies. In the first part of this paper, we consider a system of two parallel queues, and develop a novel approach to explicitly characterize the stability region of the system using state-action frequencies which are stationary solutions to a Markov decision process formulation. We then develop a frame-based dynamic control (FBDC) policy, based on the state-action frequencies, and show that it is throughput optimal asymptotically in the frame length. The FBDC policy is applicable to a broad class of network control systems and provides a new framework for developing throughput-optimal network control policies using state-action frequencies. Furthermore, we develop simple myopic policies that provably achieve more than 90% of the stability region. In the second part of this paper, we extend our results to systems with an arbitrary finite number of queues. In particular, we show that the stability region characterization in terms of state-action frequencies and the throughput optimality of the FBDC policy follows for the general case. Furthermore, we characterize an outer bound on the stability region and an upper bound on sum throughput and show that a simple myopic policy can achieve this sum-throughput upper bound in the corresponding saturated system. Finally, simulation results show that the myopic policies may achieve the full stability region and are more delay efficient than the FBDC policy in most cases.


: Forest trees are complex organisms which nowadays are facing threats under climate change, diseases, insects and pathogens. Their ability to adapt to changing environments depends on their genetic and epigenetic integrity and the relationship between them. The term epigenetics refers to the study of heritable changes in gene expression and function that cannot be explained by changes in DNA sequence. The study of epigenome, at the landscape level may add important acumen in order to identify genomic regions which are associated with adaptive variation. Although population genetic analysis revealed how genetic diversity, structure and linkage can be implemented the significance of variation in epigenetic processes at the population level reveals a composite challenge which remains undetermined. That difference is associated with the inability to associate epialleles with phenotypic variance, whereas for classic genetic analysis, genetic variation can explain a percentage of phenotypic variation. This complex issue has recently become a priority and studies which target genetic and epigenetic diversity were conducted in natural forest tree populations in order to identify the relationship between them and examine additional component of epigenetic diversity in phenotypic variance and plasticity. By estimating epigenetic diversity and especially DNA methylation, improvement of our understanding of the mechanisms underlying natural variation in ecologically important traits will be accomplished. A mini review will be presented in order to enhance our understanding for epigenetic mechanisms in forest tree populations.


Database federation, resource interoperability and digital identity, for management and exploitation of contemporary biological data. Gudmundur A. Thorisson Modern research into the genetic basis of human health and disease is increasingly dominated by high-throughput experimentation and routine generation of large volumes of complex genotype to phenotype (G2P) information. Efforts to effectively manage, integrate, analyse and interpret this wealth of data face substantial challenges. This thesis discusses informatics approaches to addressing some of these challenges, primarily in the context of disease genetics. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) is widely used in the field, but translation of findings into scientific knowledge is hampered by heterogeneous and incomplete reporting, restrictions on sharing of primary data, publication bias and other factors. The central focus of the work was design and implementation of a core informatics infrastructure for centralised gathering and presentation of GWAS results. The resulting open-access HGVbaseG2P genetic association database and web-based tools for search, retrieval and graphical genome viewing increase overall usefulness of published GWAS findings. HGVbaseG2P conceptual modelling activities were also merged into a collaborative standardisation effort with international partners. A key outcome of this joint work is a minimal model for phenotype data which, together with ontologies and other standards, lays the foundation for a federated network of semantically and syntactically interoperable, distributed G2P databases. Attempts to gather complete aggregate representations of primary GWAS data into HGVbaseG2P were largely unsuccessful, chiefly due to concerns over re-identification of study participants. This led to a separate line of inquiry which explored via in-depth field analysis, workshop organisation and other community outreach activities potential applications of federated identity technologies for unambiguously identifying researchers online. Results suggest two broad use cases for user-centric researcher identities i) practical, streamlined data access management and ii) tracking digital contributions for the purpose of attribution which are critical to facilitating and incentivising sharing of GWAS (and other) research data.


A tragedy of the commons appears when the users of a common resource have incentives to exploit it more than the socially efficient level. We analyze the situation when the tragedy of the commons is embedded in a network of users and sources. Users play a game of extractions, where they decide how much resource to draw from each source they are connected to. We show that if the value of the resource to the users is linear, then each resource exhibits an isolated problem. There exists a unique equilibrium. But when the users have concave values, the network structure matters. The exploitation at each source depends on the centrality of the links connecting the source to the users. The equilibrium is unique and we provide a formula which expresses the quantities at an equilibrium as a function of a network centrality measure. Next we characterize the efficient levels of extractions by users and outflows from sources. Again, the case of linear values can be broken down source by source. For the case of concave values, we provide a graph decomposition which divides the network into regions according to the availability of sources. Then the efficiency problem can be solved region by region.


This paper sets out to discuss aspects of my recently completed EdD (Open) research into junior aged children operating as "reflective practitioners". The study focused on the extent to which children are provided with sufficient opportunities to take responsibility for achieving "optimised design solutions", through reasoned decision making and how this position can be supported or hindered by related elements of teachers' classroom practice and inter group dynamics. In the context of this paper I shall focus on one of three key findings: that the encouragement of young children as reflective practitioners is related to an effective interplay between metacognitive questioning, clear task structuring (see also the notion of action patterns, below) and well organised collaborative endeavour, based on the establishment of sound ground rules. Whilst some evidence was found, during some twenty four classroom observation sessions of teacher-pupil interactions promoting effective reflective practice, such evidence was limited. Moreover, even when these key elements of effective classroom practice were appropriately employed to support children when working as a team, other factors seem to impact upon pupils' ability to reach a shared and suitably justified/agreed understanding of how to make proficient progress; in short, to "reason together". These factors, which tend to undermine a group's ability to work towards optimised solutions to the problem(s) they are faced with, were linked to the notion of "cognitive dissonance". This includes, for example: • Children's concerns about their personal levels of uncertainty. • Their perception of their place within the group: not least how they view their own and others designing and manufacturing skills. • Combined and overriding positions based on friendship rather than reasoned argument, in the most critically constructive sense. • The need for reward or a simple desire to be getting on with the "doing" rather than engaging in further "thinking".


Plasma flows measured by Voyager 2 show a clear rotation away from radially outward with increasing penetration into the inner heliosheath while the overall flow speed remains roughly constant. However, the direction of rotation is far more into the transverse, and less into the polar direction, than predicted. No current model reproduces the key observational results of (1) the direction of flow rotation or (2) constancy of the flow speed. Here we show that the direction is consistent with flow away from the region of maximum pressure in the inner heliosheath, ∼20° south of the upwind direction, as measured by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). Further, we show that the dominance of the suprathermal ion pressure in the inner heliosheath measured by IBEX can explain both the observed flow rotation and constancy of the flow speed. These results indicate the critical importance of suprathermal ions in the physics of the inner heliosheath and have significant implications for understanding this key region of the heliosphere's interstellar interaction and astrophysical plasmas more broadly.


This study investigated modulations of stimulus induced hemodynamic responses in the macaque monkey brain under anesthesia and hyperoxia. Hyperoxia is present in many anaesthesia protocols used in animal blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. However, little data exist on the influence of hyperoxia on the magnitude of stimulus-induced relative changes in BOLD fMRI signal (ΔBOLD%). No study to date has investigated these effects in a time-resolved manner, although cerebral vasoregulation offers sites for a time-dependent interaction of hyperoxia and ΔBOLD%. Here we investigated time-dependent effects of an inspiratory oxygen fraction of 90%. We tightly clamped end tidal CO2 and body temperature and recorded physiological parameters relevant to the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in (fentanyl/isoflurane) anaesthetized monkeys while using visual stimulation to elicit ΔBOLD%. The stimulus induced hemodynamic responses were assessed using a general linear model with the visual stimulation time course as a predictor. To clarify whether changes in ΔBOLD% arose from changes in baseline blood oxygenation or rather altered neuronal or vascular reactivity, we directly measured changes in regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV) using monocrystalline ion oxide nanoparticles (MION) as contrast agent. In visual cortex we found a biphasic modulation of stimulus-induced ΔBOLD% under hyperoxia: We observed first a significant decrease in ΔBOLD% by −24% for data averaged over the time interval of 0 to 180min post onset of hyperoxia followed by a subsequent recovery to baseline. rCBVresponse amplitudes were decreased by 21% in the same time interval (0 to 180 min). In the LGN, we neither found a significant modulation of ΔBOLD% nor of MION response amplitude. The cerebrovascular effects of hyperoxia may, therefore, be regionally specific and cannot be explained by a deoxyhemoglobin dilution model accounting for plasma oxygenation without assuming altered neuronal activity or altered neurovascular coupling. In addition we supply quantitative data on the significant influence of the following anesthesia parameters: body temperature, isofulorane/fentanyl doses and the time since administration of the initial anaesthetic methohexital. Complementing the above univariate and model driven analysis of stimulus induced hemodynamic responses we also analyzed our data in a model free multivariate way using independent component analysis (ICA). Results of ICA decompositions were clustered using a hierarchical clustering approach to pick out reliable components for further analysis. Model free data analysis techniques like ICA suffer from the difficulty to assign a physical/physiological meaning to the decomposed signals. To solve this problem, we propose a new analysis technique that exploits the within-cluster variance with respect to certain anaesthesia variables to assign a physiological meaning to a given cluster. We were able to demonstrate that results from the model driven analysis could be replicated when analysing the cluster of components that contained the stimulus driven hemodynamic responses. In addition, our analysis helped to assign a meaning to several other components typically observed in ICA decompositions of fMRI data.


Although the U.S. Surgeon General characterized homosexual sex as "normal" and "healthy," homosexuals and IV drug abusers have suffered disproportionately from the AIDS epidemic. Longevity is often utilized as a measure of health. How long did homosexuals live before the AIDS epidemic and how long do they live today? We examined 6,737 obituaries/death notices from eighteen U.S. homosexual journals over the past thirteen years and compared them to obituaries from two conventional newspapers. The obituaries from the non-homosexual newspapers were similar to U.S. averages for longevity: the median age of death of married men was seventy-five, 80 percent died old (65 or older); for unmarried men it was fifty-seven, 32 percent died old; for married women it was seventy-nine, 85 percent died old; for unmarried women it was seventy-one, 60 percent died old. For the 6,574 homosexual deaths, the median age of death if AIDS was the cause was thirty-nine irrespective of whether or not the individual had a Long Time Sexual Partner [LTSP], 1 percent died old. For those 829 who died of non-AIDS causes the median age of death was forty-two (41 for those 315 with a LTSP and 43 for those 514 without) and <9 percent died old. Homosexuals more frequently met a violent end from accidental death, traffic death, suicide, and murder than men in general. The 163 lesbians registered a median age of death of forty-four (20% died old) and exhibited high rates of violent death and cancer as compared to women in general. Old homosexuals appear to have been proportionately less numerous than their non-homosexual counterparts in the scientific literature from 1858 to 1993. The pattern of early death evident in the homosexual obituaries is consistent with the pattern exhibited in the published surveys of homosexuals and intravenous drug abusers. Homosexuals may have experienced a short lifespan for the last 140 years; AIDS has apparently reduced it about 10 percent. Such an abbreviated lifespan puts the healthfulness of homosexuality in question.


In this paper, we aim to provide further insights into the importance of real oil price as a determinant of real exchange rates for a pool of African countries. While this relationship has been explored substantially for many industrialised economies, African countries have received little attention. By means of cointegration techniques and nonlinear dynamics we find that, for some of these countries, shocks in the real price of oil are particularly important in determining the real exchange rates, even in the long run. These results would be of interest for policymakers in order to deal more effectively with exchange rate policy decisions, aiming at promoting economic growth in the area.


Shona culture, Church tradition, and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, are very patriarchal. Thus culture and Church have the capacity at once to include and exclude, liberate and oppress, empower and disengage. The corollary is that just as these structures demonstrate a history of patriarchy, so, in an agenda for an inclusive paradigm, they can be transformed. Since men in the Roman Catholic Church enjoy a monopoly on power, they are generally reluctant to liberate women from patriarchal marginalisation. In this article, the raising of consciousness regarding the dignity and vocation of women in the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe is explored. The discussion is based on an important tenet of liberation theology that states that women themselves, as proactive agents of their own history, have the capacity for intentional or conscious becoming. Thus, women, in their historical situatedness, must respond to the imperative of their creation and baptismal status of imago Dei/Christi and the baptismal vocation to participate in all areas of church life.


This paper traces the history and development of Catholic real estate ownership in Palestine/Israel, uses of the properties, and the impact on the physical and cultural landscapes and on identity formation of the local population. It takes a long-term perspective, beginning with the return, after a short absence, of the Franciscans to the Holy Land in the fourteenth century and ending with the present position of the Catholic Church and the properties of its various sects and orders. It examines the history of the Catholic Church in Palestine/Israel under the Ottoman, British, Jordanian, Egyptian and Israeli regimes. In contrast to the large body of existing scholarship on the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, this examination of the local history of the Catholic Church views it through the prism of land ownership and properties. The landholdings of the Catholics are compared and contrasted with findings of previous studies by authors on those of the Greek-Orthodox and Anglican churches. Special attention is paid to the differences in frameworks, functions and geographic dispersal of the church organs, such as monasteries and educational institutions as well as the property of the local Arab Greek-Catholics. The article also examines the effect of Arabization of the Catholic clergy in relation to the lands owned by the Catholic Church and finds that, unlike other churches in the Holy Land, the Catholic Church has not generally experienced ethnic-related dissent over property.


LSTMs promise much to financial time-series analysis, temporal and cross-sectional inference, but we find that they do not deliver in a real-world financial management task. We examine an alternative called Continual Learning (CL), a memory-augmented approach, which can provide transparent explanations, i.e. which memory did what and when. This work has implications for many financial applications including credit, time-varying fairness in decision making and more. We make three important new observations. Firstly, as well as being more explainable, time-series CL approaches outperform LSTMs as well as a simple sliding window learner using feed-forward neural networks (FFNN). Secondly, we show that CL based on a sliding window learner (FFNN) is more effective than CL based on a sequential learner (LSTM). Thirdly, we examine how real-world, time-series noise impacts several similarity approaches used in CL memory addressing. We provide these insights using an approach called Continual Learning Augmentation (CLA) tested on a complex real-world problem, emerging market equities investment decision making. CLA provides a test-bed as it can be based on different types of time-series learners, allowing testing of LSTM and FFNN learners side by side. CLA is also used to test several distance approaches used in a memory recall-gate: Euclidean distance (ED), dynamic time warping (DTW), auto-encoders (AE) and a novel hybrid approach, warp-AE. We find that ED under-performs DTW and AE but warp-AE shows the best overall performance in a real-world financial task.


Purpose: As wearable technologies and eTextile sectors mature they are being increasingly used in couture and high street fashion. However, much of the innovation in this space has been driven by technological and commercial imperatives. It is time to re-consider this technological landscape in the bigger picture of a sustainable human-centred world.

Approach: This paper reports on initial findings from 48 projects supported through the EU funded WEAR Sustain network to examine sustainable and ethical approaches to wearable technology design. Case studies of collaborations between artists and technologists in designing and realising sustainable and ethical wearable technologies are presented.

Findings: An initial set of themes emerging from detailed analysis of WEAR Sustain network project updates are outlined highlighting the importance of cross-disciplinary hubs, mentors, and networks. A survey of wearable and eTextile stakeholders highlights the challenges faced in ethical manufacturing and production of wearable and eTextile products which blur the boundaries between digital and physical.

Value: This paper offers the reader insight into challenges and opportunities in the emergent Creative Economy sector of wearables and eTextiles which have the potential to transform the fashion industry. By reporting on case studies of recent near-to-market projects this paper grounds concerns of ethics and sustainability in wearable and eTextile design and production in real-word experience.


This study uses automobile insurance loss costs as a proxy for tort system costs under contributory and comparative negligence standards. The principal finding is that insurance consumers in states that have adopted comparative negligence pay more for automobile liability insurance than do consumers in states that retain traditional contributory negligence. States that have adopted "pure comparative" negligence standards exhibit absolute higher costs than do states that have adopted "modified comparative" negligence standards, and both have higher costs than states that have retained contributory negligence. Moreover, when population density, accident fatalities, and no-fault insurance are allowed for, the average annual dollar loss cost increases are highest with pure comparative and lowest with contributory. To the extent that automobile insurance losses are an accurate proxy for the entire negligence and liability system, states with comparative negligence will have higher liability costs than will those with contributory negligence.


This paper discusses the advantage of using kanban, postponement, modularization, just-in-time, production sequencing, milk-run and cross-docking by companies that intend to increase their flexibility, agility and reliability in order to support web-based businesses. It presents the results of a survey carried out with more than 600 manufacturing companies in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and evaluates the changes that are taking place in operations, in order to make companies better suited to provide customized products, which are made to meet the individual requirements of each customer.


This book provides an up-to-date snapshot of recent research and developments in the use of corpora for language learning and teaching. It is divided into three parts. Part I focusses on innovative uses of corpora by language teachers and learners. These cover the world's first corpus-based TV program for the teaching of English conversation, as well as corpus-based approaches to the teaching of EAP, cultural studies and translation. Part II focuses on new corpus-based tools for LSP learning. Part III illustrates research findings from corpora consisting of language learner data and discusses their implications for language teaching and learning. It will appeal to scholars in both language teaching and learning and corpus and computational linguistics.


Abstract Global geophysical observations constrain all theories of terrestrial dynamics. We jointly interpret EGM2008 gravity, RET2014 topography and the Global Centroid Moment Tensor database from a structural point of view. We hypothesize that lateral variations of gravity and topography reflect the scale-dependent competence of rocks. We compare the spectral and spatial characteristics of the observed fields with structural predictions from the mechanics of differential grade-2 (DG-2) materials. The results indicate that these viscoelastic materials are a powerful tool for exploring dynamic processes in the Earth. We demonstrate that the known spectral range of Earth's gravity and topography can be explained by the folding, shear banding, faulting and differentiation of the crust, lithosphere and mantle. We show that the low-amplitude long-wavelength bias apparent in the disturbance field can be explained by perturbations to Earth's overall ellipsoidal shape, induced by internal slab loading of the mantle. We find by examining the directional isotropy of the data that the zonal energy in Earth's gravity disturbance is maximized about an axis coincident with the shape-perturbation minimum. The symmetry of tectonic features about this axis, extending from eastern Borneo to Brazil, and its coincidence with the equator suggest the coupling of current plate motions to true polar wander.


Spectral analysis of microvascular laser Doppler flowmetry time series is performed to resolve their complex dynamics. The method of analysis should be carefully chosen such that as much information as possible of the signal is obtained. Conventional Fourier transform and short-time Fourier transform are compared with wavelet analysis to resolve several oscillatory components on a wide frequency interval. Wavelet transform with the Morlet mother wavelet is shown to have an advantage of adjustable window length as it detects each frequency with a window of a corresponding length. In this way good localization in time and frequency is provided. Low and high frequencies can be resolved and their variations traced in time. This is of crucial importance in analysis of oscillations in LDF signals and studies of their physiological origin as well as their changes in health and disease.


This special issue represents a contribute to disseminate the results of novel applications of the electrical resistivity imaging. Recently, innovative algorithms for tomographic data inversion and modern technologies for the field surveying have rapidly transformed the electrical imaging in a noninvasive, cost-effective, and powerful tool for geohazard and environmental monitoring. To date, the scientific interest for the electrical imaging is constantly growing and the novel approaches based on 3D and time-lapse 4D tomographic methods are disclosing the way for new and interesting applications, as well as the time-continuousmapping andmonitoring of water content in a landslide body and the monitoring of weakly resistivity changes related to fluidmigration processes close to seismic faults. The papers published in this special issue mainly concern the study of hydrogeological problems typical of Mediterranean countries (i.e., landslide phenomena, saltwater intrusion) and the design of experiments for better evaluate the spatial and time-dependent changes of subsurface resistivity. Of course, these topics are not completely representative of all application fields of the electrical imaging. In the paper of the special issue titled "Geoelectrical tomography investigating and modeling of fractures network around Bittit spring (Middle Atlas, Morocco)," Qarqori and other coauthors describe the main results of a geoelectrical survey carried out for monitoring a strategic aquifer in the northern part of Morocco. The study gives a significant contribute for defining the water flow in karst environment and through subvertical fractures. The paper by T. Zhu et al., titled "Experimental studies on the changes in resistivity and its anisotropy using electrical resistivity tomography," deals with laboratory estimation on electrical anisotropy using electrical resistivity tomography on dry magnetite samples under uniaxial pressure. The paper by A. Satriani et al., "Geoelectrical surveys for characterisation of the coastal salt water intrusion in Metapontum Forest Reserve (Southern Italy)," presents the results of a case study using resistivity imaging integrated with water and soil analysis to investigate salt water intrusion in a coastal aquifer, identifying large areas affected by intensive soil salinization, and delineating the saltwater intrusion front. In the paper "Geoelectrical tomography as an operative tool for emergency management of landslide: an application in Basilicata Region, Italy," G. Colangelo and A. Perrone describe an electrical imaging survey, integrated with borehole data, to study a complex rototranslational slide, showing how the application of this indirect technique could be particularly useful for end users involved in the landslide risk management. Finally, the paper "A prototype system for time–lapse electrical resistivity tomographies" by Luongo et al. concerns the first experimental results obtained with a new system for time-lapse resistivity monitoring of a landslide. The system seems to be suitable for water content monitoring in shallow layers.


Aimed at those who have previously studied or worked in SET, this 10-week online course, Return to Science, Engineering & Technology offers the chance to develop new directions and to plan a route back into SET employment. The first part of the course is spent reflecting on precious achievements and developing the participant's CV using the Open University's electronic portfolio system. The next section explores the employment trends and opportunities within specific industry sectors, including accessing support from industry experts and mentors. During the final section an action plan is produced to help achieve your future goals. The course includes development of techniques and skills to help with networking, finding job opportunities and writing successful applications. The course is studied entirely online and many of the activities are carried out collaboratively with other participants in our unique virtual learning environment.


In order to fill gaps in Russian early-warning systems, sensors can be deployed cooperatively near the silos of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that would sense a launch and would transmit continuously the information that no launch has occurred. The extremely loud launch noise propagates to kilometers and can be detected passively in all weather conditions by the induced ground motion. Buried seismic sensors minimize the intrusion and disturbance above the ground. Considerations of the propagation and acoustic-seismic transfer, as well as potential other sources of strong sound or ground motion, lead to the recommendation that acceleration sensors should be deployed at 0.1–1 km from each silo. Arrays of three sensors allow to estimate the azimuth and elevation of the source, improving discrimination from, e.g., overflying jet aircraft. The time course of signal amplitude, its maximum, and spectral characteristics provide additional characteristics to recognize a launch and other source types. One station would cost below $50,000 so that all 800 ICBM silos of the USA and Russia can be covered at around $40 million. Deployment can start after a development and testing phase of one to two years. Extension to mobile ICBMs and other nuclear states is possible.


This study is motivated through the paradox on the well-being of self-employed that self-employment is associated with greater satisfaction across various domains despite the lower income levels of such entrepreneurs. Since not all self-employed gain higher returns to income, there is a need to question to what extent income contributes to well-being as well as the most critical factors such as education or the reason that the entrepreneur starts a new business could play a role in this relationship between income and well-being. Using GEM's data on entrepreneurs from a wide set of countries all over the world, the effect of income on entrepreneurial well-being is tested treating education as the moderator across necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs. While necessity entrepreneurs with relatively lower education levels gain higher returns to income, opportunity entrepreneurs gain higher returns to income when their education levels are higher. The results shed light on how the effect of income on entrepreneurial well-being changes adversely with the increasing education levels for different entrepreneurial motivations.


Evaluating inter-organizational relationships (IORs) is important in todays businesses for increasing competitiveness and business potential. Typically, IORs are measured by high-level key performance indicators (KPIs) such as trust, knowledge sharing, and others. However, these high-level KPIs are difficult to be measured quantitatively. It is therefore difficult to determine IORs and their outcomes since the evaluation of IORs results in a complex and ambiguous task. In this vision paper, we propose a set of research questions dealing with measuring and evaluating IORs. Based on these research questions, we define a conceptual framework including (i) the identification of KPIs from inter-organizational processes in combination with business information derived from EDIFACT messages and (ii) the alignment of KPIs to business goals by means of the Balanced Scorecard methodology and semantic technology. Having the approach at hand supports us in lifting operational information to the business level. The alignment between KPIs and business goals allows evaluating an organizations' IORs and results in two distinct advantages. First, the explicit connection between KPIs and business goals results in a justification of the relation between IORs and business achievements. Second, the evaluation of IORs against strategic goals can be achieved semi-automatically.


Natural gas hydrates (NGHs) production has aroused wide attention in recent years. Currently, the depressurization is regarded as the most effective method for hydrate production. However, there is still exist the insufficient driving force in depressurization anaphase. In this study, two modes of depressurization combined with water-gas flow was adopted to dissociated methane hydrate (MH). The results found that the depressurization can promote hydrate dissociation at first and optimized the water-gas flow environment by increasing permeability. And the water-gas flow will provide extra dissociation driving force by accelerating heat and mass transfer and increasing chemical potential difference. What's more, the mode of simultaneous implementation of depressurization and water-gas flow has a stronger promotion effect on hydrate production than the separate implementation of depressurization and water-gas flow.


The promotion of the historical tourist attractions is an important mission that should be accomplished to ensure that the tourists have admired ancient sites that are valuable, rare, Inimitable andnon – substitution. The tourists are thus enthusiastic to visit the ancient sites and willing to promote and encourage other tourists to visit these tourist attractions. By this reason, the objective of this research is to study the main factors affecting the added value of the tourist to the historical tourist attractions in Thailand. The factors include, Participation Management, Processes Management, Resource Management, Tourists Satisfaction, Tourist Attractions Differentiation and Added Value of Tourists.
In this study, the researcher has applied both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies using questionnaires and in-depth interview. The sample comprises visitors to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Meanwhile, the path analysis has been used to analyze the data. At the same time the researcher intends to propose the conceptual framework for this study with an aim to identify of the research question, there are any factors affecting to the added value of the visitors to the ancient sites. Moreover, the researcher has recommended 7 assumptions to find out the factors that have effects on the added value of the visitors to the ancient sites.
The result has shown that the Tourists satisfaction and the differentiation in tourist attractions have affected the visitors' added value with the significance level at 0.008. The result of this study can be used to set up the business operations policy of the Thai tourism business. The policy focuses on differentiation placing the development of tourist attractions as first priority followed by the environmental management, the promotion of tourist attractions and the renovation of ancient sites respectively.


Background: Human carboxylesterase 1, CES1, is a phase I drug metabolizing enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of about 20% of therapeutic agents. Factors, such as metabolic syndrome, ethnicity, gender and genetic polymorphism can influence the activity and/or the expression of drug metabolizing enzymes. Consequently, these factors can affect the pharmacokinetics of drugs leading to toxicity or therapeutic failure. Objective: The objective of our study is to investigate the possible influence of ethnicity, gender, age, genetic polymorphism, metabolic syndrome or fatty liver on CES1 gene expression and activity. Methods: Expression of CES1 hepatic mRNA was measured in 89 human livers using RT-PCR techniques. Enzymatic activity of CES1 was measured in S9 fractions and cytosols obtained from 40 and 96 human liver donors, respectively. The hydrolysis rates of two CES1 specific substrates clopidogrel and oseltamivir to their corresponding carboxylic acids were measured using LC-MS/MS methods. Statistical analyses were performed to compare between different groups. Results and Conclusions: Our data showed that diabetic subjects had less CES1 hydrolytic efficiency although our data is limited by the small sample size. In addition, African American group had significantly higher CES1 activity as compared to Caucasian group. This result provides potential explanation to the clinical observation that African Americans subjects exhibit higher resistance to the CES1 substrates clopidogrel.


A revised and updated edition of one of the most successful guides to writing ever published (one million copies sold).A Classic in its Field, On Writing Well is the Indispensable reference tool for anyone who writes, wants to learn to write, or needs to do some writing to get through the day -- as almost everybody does. Illustrated with examples of superb writing, the book covers a variety of subject areas, from travel, memoir, and science writing to business, sports, humor, and the arts. This expanded and updated edition features revised chapters, fresh examples of good writing, and two completely new chapters. One new chapter, "Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence", urges writers to live interesting lives and to trust their general intelligence. The other, "The Tyranny of the Final Product", counsels writers not to try to visualize the complete article, but to focus on earlier decisions of selection, construction, and voice that will eventually let them know what their piece is about. Written by a master writer, editor, and teacher, On Writing Well is the writing book people swear by and love to recommend."On Writing Well belongs on any shelf of serious reference works for writers -- along with, say, Fowler's Modern English Usage and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style". -- New York Times


The passive auxiliary feedwater system (PAFS) is one of the advanced safety features adopted in the Advanced Power Reactor Plus (APR+) and is designed to completely replace a conventional, active auxiliary feedwater system. With the aim of validating the cooling and operational performance of the PAFS, a separate effect test facility, the PAFS Condensing heat removal Assessment Loop (PASCAL), was constructed by simulating a single passive condensation heat exchanger (PCHX) tube submerged in the passive condensation cooling tank (PCCT) according to the volumetric scaling methodology. During heat removal of the PAFS, the pool water in the PCCT plays a role in the ultimate heat sink of a decay heat. In this study, the effect of the PCCT water level on the cooling performance of the PAFS was experimentally investigated with the PASCAL facility. Quasi-steady-state and PCCT level decrease test cases were sequentially performed by varying the steam generator heater power from 300 to 750 kW to investigate the thermal-hydraulic behavior during the decrease of the PCCT water level. From the experimental results, it was found that the decrease of the PCCT water level enhanced evaporative heat transfer at the outer wall of the PCHX tube by reducing the degree of subcooling around the PCHX. That induced an increase of the heat removal rate by the PCHX during the transient. Thus, it can be concluded that the current design of the PCHX in the PAFS has sufficient capacity to cool down the decay heat during the whole transient of the PCCT water level decrease.


Purine analogues were used in this study to dissect specific steps in the mechanism of action of nerve growth factor (NGF). Protein kinase N (PKN) is an NGF-activated serine protein kinase that is active in the presence of Mn++. The activity of PKN was inhibited in vitro by purine analogues, the most effective of which was 6-thioguanine (apparent Ki = 6 microM). Several different criteria indicated that 6-thioguanine is not a general inhibitor of protein kinases and that it is relatively specific for PKN. For instance, it did not affect protein kinases A or C and was without effect on the overall level and pattern of protein phosphorylation by either intact or broken PC12 cells. Since purine analogues rapidly and effectively enter cells, they were also assessed for their actions on both transcription-dependent and -independent responses of PC12 cells to NGF. NGF-promoted neurite regeneration was reversibly suppressed by the analogues and at concentrations very similar to those that inhibit PKN. Comparable concentrations of the analogues also blocked NGF-stimulated induction of ornithine decarboxylase activity. In contrast to its inhibition of neurite regeneration and ornithine decarboxylase induction, 6-thioguanine did not suppress NGF-dependent induction of c-fos mRNA expression. Thus, purine analogues such as 6-thioguanine appear capable of differentially suppressing some, but not other actions of NGF. These findings suggest the presence of multiple pathways in the NGF mechanism and that these can be dissected with purine analogues. Moreover, these data are compatible with a role for protein kinase N in certain of these pathways.


The U.S. 2009 Tobacco Control Act opened the door for new anti-smoking policies by giving the Food and Drug Administration broad regulatory authority over the tobacco industry. We develop a behavioral welfare economics approach to conduct cost-benefit analysis of FDA tobacco regulations. We use a simple two-period model to develop expressions for the impact of tobacco control policies on social welfare. Our model includes: nudge and paternalistic regulations; an excise tax on cigarettes; internalities created by period 1 versus period 2 consumption; and externalities from cigarette consumption. Our analytical expressions show that in the presence of uncorrected externalities and internalities, a tax or a nudge to reduce cigarette consumption improves social welfare. In sharp contrast, a paternalistic regulation might either improve or worsen social welfare. Another important result is that the social welfare gains from new policies do not only depend on the size of the internalities and externalities, but also depend on the extent to which current policies already correct the problems. We link our analytical expressions to the graphical approach used in most previous studies and discuss the information needed to complete cost-benefit analysis of tobacco regulations. Finally, we use our model as a framework to re-examine the evidence base regarding the size of the relevant internalities.


Objective : Obesity is related to anemia which is explained its mechanism as disorder in iron absorption but the more rational reason is anemia of inflammation or anemia of chronic disease. The aim of this study was to define the prevalence of obesity in patients with normochromic normocytic anemia. Materials and methods : We screened 406 patients who were referred to endocrine clinic. They were excluded from study if suffering from malignancy, hypo or hyperthyroidism, diabetes, growth hormone disorder, rheumatologic disorder or corticosteroid consumption. The complete blood count were checked in each participants. The patients with normochromic, normocytic anemia were diagnosed. Data was analyzed by SPSS17 software. Results : Among this population, 26 persons had normochromic, normocytic anemia and 11 (42.3%) patients had central obesity. In remainder of persons (Without normochromic, normocytic anemia), 58.4% had central obesity .Overall, 49 patients had anemia and central obesity together. About 53% of them had normochromic normocytic anemia. Conclusion : Central obesity is a common and complex phenomenon which is due to multiple etiologies. But based on our study, although the prevalence of central obesity was lower in patients with normochromic normocytic anemia, in 42.3% of them there was no source of inflammation except central obesity. Most patients with anemia and central obesity had normochromic normocytic anemia.


Stream Processing Engines (SPEs) must tolerate the dynamic nature of unbounded data streams and provide means to quickly adapt to fluctuations in the data rate. Many major SPEs however provide very little functionality to adjust the execution of a potentially infinite streaming query at runtime. Each modification requires a complete query restart, which involves an expensive redistribution of the state of a query and may require external systems in order to guarantee correct processing semantics. This results in significant downtime, which increase the operational cost of those SPEs. We present a modification protocol that enables modifying specific operators as well as the data flow of a running query while ensuring exactly-once processing semantics. We provide an implementation for Apache Flink, which enables stateful operator migration across machines, the introduction of new operators into a running query, and changes to a specific operator based on external triggers. Our results on two benchmarks show that migrating operators for queries with small state is as fast as using the savepoint mechanism of Flink. Migrating operators in the presence of large state even outperforms the savepoint mechanism by a factor of more than 2.3. Introducing and replacing operators at runtime is performed in less than 10 s. Our modification protocol demonstrates the general feasibility of runtime modifications and opens the door for many other modification use cases, such as online algorithm tweaking and upor downscaling operator instances.