Context. Aims. We examine the role of rotation on the evolution and chemical yields of very metal-poor stars. Methods. The models include the same physics, which was applied successfully at the solar  Z and for the SMC, in particular, shear diffusion, meridional circulation, horizontal turbulence, and rotationally enhanced mass loss. Results. Models of very low  Z experience a much stronger internal mixing in all phases than at solar  Z . Also, rotating models at very low  Z , contrary to the usual considerations, show a large mass loss, which mainly results from the efficient mixing of the products of the 3 α  reaction into the H-burning shell. This mixing allows convective dredge-up to enrich the stellar surface in heavy elements during the red supergiant phase, which in turn favours a large loss of mass by stellar winds, especially as rotation also increases the duration of this phase. On the whole, the low Z  stars may lose about half of their mass. Massive stars initially rotating at half of their critical velocity are likely to avoid the pair-instability supernova. The chemical composition of the rotationally enhanced winds of very low  Z stars show large CNO enhancements by factors of 10 3 to 10 7 , together with large excesses of  13 C and  17 O and moderate amounts of Na and Al. The excesses of primary N are particularly striking. When these ejecta from the rotationally enhanced winds are diluted with the supernova ejecta from the corresponding CO cores, we find [C/Fe], [N/Fe], [O/Fe] abundance ratios that are very similar to those observed in the C-rich, extremely metal-poor stars (CEMP). We show that rotating AGB stars and rotating massive stars have about the same effects on the CNO enhancements. Abundances of s-process elements and the 12 C/ 13 C ratio could help us to distinguish between contributions from AGB and massive stars. Conclusions.


The reaction of formaldehyde with amines with and without sulfite has been studied using anilines (RC(_6)H(_4)NH(_2)) and benzylamines (RC(_6)H(_4)CH(_2)NH(_2)). Reaction with anilines is known to produce aminomethanesulfonates, RC(_6)H(_4)NHCH(_2)SO(_3)(^-), which are industrially important in the azo dye industry. The kinetics and mechanism of formation of RC(_6)H(_4)NHCH(_2)SO(_3)" and RC(_6)H(_4)CH(_2)NHCH(_2)SO(_3) have been studied: rate constants are quoted for the individual reaction steps in addition to the overall reaction. The reaction of formaldehyde, HCHO, with the amine, RNH(_2), gives an N-(hydroxymethyl)amine, RNHCH(_2)OH, via a zwitterionic intermediate. Rate constants of 8.0 x 10(_3) to 4.3 x 10(^6) dm(^3) mol(^-1) have been obtained. RNHCH(_2)OH then dehydrates in acidic conditions or loses hydroxyl ion to form an iminium ion, [RNH=CH(_2)](^+). This then reacts rapidly with sulfite ions to yield the product. The rate determining step was found to depend on the pH of the reaction. At low and neutral pH the reaction of HCHO with RNH(_2) is the rate determining step. At high pH the rate determining step becomes dehydration of RNHCH(_2)OH to give [RNH=CH(_2)](^+). Hydroxymethanesulfonate, CH(_2)(OH)(S0(_3)Na), was used to introduce HCHO and sulfite, SO(_3)(^2-) , into the system. This must undergo decomposition initially to yield reactive free HCHO. Above pH 3 decomposition occurs mainly through the dianion, CH(_2)(0')(S0(_3)'(^-)) Below pH 3, decomposition through the monoanion, CH(_2)(OH)(S0(_3)') forms the major pathway: this may become the rate determining step in the overall reaction at low pH. Rate constants for decomposition equal to 24 ± 5 s(^-1) and 2.3 x 10(^-8) s(^-1) have been obtained for the dianion and monoanion respectively. pK(_a) values in the range 4.9 to 5.6 have been measured for protonated adducts, RN(^1)H(_2)S0(_3)(^-), formed from benzylamines. With benzylamines, reaction with another molecule of CH(_2)(OH)(S0(_3)Na) can occur to produce RN(CH(_2)S0(_3)(^-))(_2) in addition to RNHCH(_2)SO(_3)(^-). Polymerisation of imines has also been studied: cyclic trimers and 1 : 2 HCHO : RNH(_2) adducts have been synthesised.


Urban development is occurring in many Sub-Saharan Africa cities and rapid urbanization is underway in the East African city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In an effort to address urban poverty and increase homeownership opportunities for low and middle-income residents, the City Administration of Addis Ababa initiated a large-scale housing development project in 2005. The project has resulted in the completion of 175,000 units within the city with 132,000 more under construction. To understand the impacts of both rapid growth and the housing program's impact on the city's urban form, we compared the type and distribution of land uses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between 2006 with 2016 using hand-digitized, ortho-rectified satellite images in Geographic Information Systems (GISs). While residential density has increased, overall density has decreased from 109 people/ha to 98 people/ha. We found that between 2006 and 2016, land occupied by residential housing increased from 33% to 39% and the proportion of informal housing decreased from 57% to 38%. Reflecting the country's economic prosperity, there was a dramatic increase in the presence of single family housing, particularly on the city's western side. In 2006, only 1% of residential areas were occupied by high-rise condominiums (4 floors or greater) and this increased to 11% by 2016. The majority of the new, higher density residential developments are located near the eastern edges of the city and this outlying location has significant implications for residents, infrastructure construction, and future development.


View of the Pinnacle is a richly illustrated catalogue featuring more than eighty suzuribako , dating from the fourteenth through the twentieth centuries, from the Edmund and Julia Lewis Collection. suzuribako , the exquisite lacquer boxes designed to hold the implements used in creating brush-and-ink calligraphy, have for centuries combined utilitarian function with superb craftsmanship. The art of creating suzuribako came into being during the Heian period in Japan (794-1185), when aristocratic culture--both artistic and literary--flourished; it was in full flower during the sixteenth century and continued into modern times. The designs on suzuribako frequently represent highly refined visual representations of classical poetry, literature, mythology, and history. Diverse subjects are depicted, including religious figures, philosophers, poets, animals, mythical creatures, and landscapes (real and imagined). These artistic representations are often combined with calligraphed poems or excerpts from classical literature. In the catalogue, Stephen Little and Edmund Lewis give equal attention to both the literary content of the suzuribako and the lacquer techniques used in crafting them. The literary references and themes, drawn as much from Chinese as from Japanese classical texts, reflect the deep knowledge of Chinese and Japanese classical literature among the literate classes in Japan from the eighth century onward. A full appreciation of the themes and metaphorical imagery incorporated into many of the boxes requires a deep cultural sophistication on the part of the viewer. Stephen Little, describing the layered literary themes frequently depicted in suzuribako , notes that "the excavation of hidden layers of meaning in a box's decoration becomes a thrilling quest." The volume includes an essay by Edmund Lewis on the nuances of meaning in suzuribako designs, and the interviewing of the artistic and literary expressions embodied in them. In a second essay, John Stevens presents a brief history of Japanese calligraphy and explains its central importance in Japanese cultural expression.


ABSTRACT This Article explores the intersection of social science and judicial decision making. It examines to what extent, and in what contexts, judges utilize social science in reaching and bolstering their rulings. The Article delves into three areas of law that are typically not grouped together--integration, gay rights, and capital punishment--to see the similarities and differences in the use of empirical findings. Analyzing the language in judicial opinions from family courts, district courts, circuit courts, and the United States Supreme Court enabled the emergence of trends. The opinions revealed that inconsistency in the use of social science may stem from how a given issue is framed, the tide of public opinion on an issue, and whether social science in that realm is settled. Application of these principles to the gay rights context suggests that if the Supreme Court were to hear a case on gay marriage, a national consensus on the issue would be more outcome determinative than settled social science. I. INTRODUCTION "[T]he Court must take care to speak and act in ways that allow people to accept its decisions on the terms the Court claims for them, as grounded truly in principle, not as compromises with social and political pressures." (1) Judicial opinions are significant for their holdings, but one cannot fully grasp the significance of those holdings without exploring the reasoning that led to the conclusion. To read the rule derived from a case and nothing more tells only part of the story about why a case is significant and the precedential value it may hold. Just as a holding cannot be understood in isolation, a case cannot be understood without reference to history, the changing tides of public opinion, and other cases within a given field. Judicial opinions explicate what may not be apparent from a holding and shed light on what evidence tipped the scales in a given direction. When a court's decision in a case has considerable ramifications on constitutional interpretation or ingrained societal practices, it is crucial to uncover what convinced the court. Over the past century, there has been a marked increase in the number of social science studies brought to the attention of courts and a correlated rise in the frequency with which studies are cited in judicial opinions. "Social science" refers to the work of people from myriad fields who utilize different methods to analyze and explain social phenomena and rest their explanations on a scientific basis. (2) This scientific basis permits social scientists to "claim an 'objective' understanding of human behavior." (3) One way to obtain this objective understanding is through experiments or field-based data collection to test hypotheses. (4) Both quantitative and qualitative studies fall under the social science umbrella, and both types appear in judicial opinions. Citations to--and discussions of--surveys, polls, experiments, textual analyses, and direct observations by social scientists weave throughout present-day case law. Judicial opinions often entail different kinds of methodologies and findings, strongly suggesting that there are no discernible bounds on the types of social science courts will cite. (5) The utilization of social science demonstrates that courts go beyond strict application of case law to consider extra-judicial factors when making their decisions. In other words, the citation of social science illustrates that judges do not decide a case only on the facts in front of them but instead take into account larger societal issues and "facts" from the world outside of law. Judges "must constantly import from disciplines around the law in order to stay up-to-date" (6) because the social context in which the law is applied is not static and evolves over time. Because a given case can have repercussions beyond its particular facts, it is important for judges to consider how the rule they adopt may influence society. …


In this work, we move beyond the traditional complex-valued representations, introducing more expressive hypercomplex representations to model entities and relations for knowledge graph embeddings. More specifically, quaternion embeddings, hypercomplex-valued embeddings with three imaginary components, are utilized to represent entities. Relations are modelled as rotations in the quaternion space. The advantages of the proposed approach are: (1) Latent inter-dependencies (between all components) are aptly captured with Hamilton product, encouraging a more compact interaction between entities and relations; (2) Quaternions enable expressive rotation in four-dimensional space and have more degree of freedom than rotation in complex plane; (3) The proposed framework is a generalization of ComplEx on hypercomplex space while offering better geometrical interpretations, concurrently satisfying the key desiderata of relational representation learning (i.e., modeling symmetry, anti-symmetry and inversion). Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on four well-established knowledge graph completion benchmarks.


Metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has sparked considerable interest due to its efficient photocatalytic activity in many fields. Development of new tactics toward improving the photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4 remains active and challenging. In this study, we uncover an unprecedented template-free precursor (melamine) pre-treatment protocol to achieve porous g-C3N4 nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic reduction and oxidation reaction. The introduction of thiourea solution in the hydrothermal pre-treatment process etches the surface of melamine, thus yielding the porous, thin g-C3N4 nanosheets. The microstructure and porosity of g-C3N4 can be adjusted only by controlling the thiourea amount. The as-obtained porous g-C3N4 nanosheets are found to be endowed with not only increased specific surface area, but also enhanced photoabsorption in the visible light region. Systematic characterizations of the charge movement behavior (transient photocurrent, linear sweep voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectra, photoluminescence and surface photovoltage spectroscopy) disclose that the separation of photogenerated charge carriers is remarkably boosted by fabricating such a porous nanosheet structure. Benefiting from these advantages, porous g-C3N4 nanosheets present profoundly enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance for H2 evolution (3.3-fold increase) and NO removal from the gaseous phase (5.5 times increase) in contrast to the pristine bulk g-C3N4. Our current study may offer an alternative approach to designing high-performance g-C3N4 nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications.


Abstract This paper examines the impact of time averaging and interval sampling data assuming that the data generating process for a given series follows a random walk with iid errors. We provide exact expressions for the corresponding variances, and covariances, for both levels and higher order differences of the aggregated series, as well as that for the variance ratio, demonstrating exactly how the degree of temporal aggregation impacts these properties. We empirically investigate this issue on exchange rates and find that the values of the variance ratios and autocorrelation coefficients at different frequencies are consistent with our theoretical results. We also conduct a simulation exercise that illustrates the potential effect that conditional heteroskedasticity and fat tails may have on the temporal aggregation of a random walk and of a highly persistent autoregressive process.


Generating a unitary transformation in the shortest possible time is of practical importance to quantum information processing because it helps to reduce decoherence effects and improve robustness to additive control field noise. Many analytical and numerical studies have identified the minimum time necessary to implement a variety of quantum gates on coupled-spin qubit systems. This work focuses on exploring the Pareto front that quantifies the trade-off between the competitive objectives of maximizing the gate fidelity $\mathcal{F}$ and minimizing the control time $T$. In order to identify the critical time $T^{\ast}$, below which the target transformation is not reachable, as well as to determine the associated Pareto front, we introduce a numerical method of Pareto front tracking (PFT). We consider closed two- and multi-qubit systems with constant inter-qubit coupling strengths and each individual qubit controlled by a separate time-dependent external field. Our analysis demonstrates that unit fidelity (to a desired numerical accuracy) can be achieved at any $T \geq T^{\ast}$ in most cases. However, the optimization search effort rises superexponentially as $T$ decreases and approaches $T^{\ast}$. Furthermore, a small decrease in control time incurs a significant penalty in fidelity for $T < T^{\ast}$, indicating that it is generally undesirable to operate below the critical time. We investigate the dependence of the critical time $T^{\ast}$ on the coupling strength between qubits and the target gate transformation. Practical consequences of these findings for laboratory implementation of quantum gates are discussed.


Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is an emerging networking paradigm being considered as a possible replacement for the current IP-based host-centric Internet infrastructure. CCN focuses on content distribution, which is arguably not well served by IP. Named-Data Networking (NDN) is an example of CCN. NDN is also an active research project under the NSF Future Internet Architectures (FIA) program. FIA emphasizes security and privacy from the outset and by design. To be a viable Internet architecture, NDN must be resilient against current and emerging threats. This paper focuses on distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks; in particular we address interest flooding, an attack that exploits key architectural features of NDN. We show that an adversary with limited resources can implement such attack, having a significant impact on network performance. We then introduce Poseidon: a framework for detecting and mitigating interest flooding attacks. Finally, we report on results of extensive simulations assessing proposed countermeasure.


The engineering comparative analysis of deposition and scour of noncohesive sediments in the neighborhood of bridges over tidal inlets is a unique problem which does not lend itself conveniently to microscale mechanistic modeling. This paper presents a conceptual algorithm for a numerical model which includes the effect of geometry, tides, winds, waves, and littoral currents upon sediment deposition and scour in Florida West Coast tidal inlets. Model testing and some results of the simulation of sediment motion in Clearwater Pass are presented. The study seeks answers to critical questions regarding comparative deposition rates in alternate channels proposed for a new bridge design. A new method of presenting numerical data is shown.


The study discussed in this article questions whether certain reward practices used by organizations are better than others when comparing the employee results based on TQM. We first examine reward systems and TQM relevant literature. After related literature review, reward practices have been handled in two groups as intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards. In the sample, which consists of 217 businesses that operate in Turkish manufacturing industry and apply TQM, intrinsic and extrinsic reward practices of firms on people results have been analyzed. The results of this survey are analyzed through descriptive analysis, ANOVA and MANOVA analyses. As the main finding of the research, it has been determined that application level of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in Turkish manufacturing industry is not high. It has been identified that intrinsic rewards have a significant influence on employee results; however extrinsic rewards do not have a significant influence on employee results in Turkish manufacturing industry. This study highlighted the importance of the intrinsic reward system for implementing TQM.


In the last few years, U.S. telecoms policy has shifted from encouraging the sharing of existing networks to facilitating the deployment of advanced communications networks. Given the large capital expenditures required for these networks, there can be only a few of such networks. In light of the natural forces that limit the number of facilities-based suppliers, it is vital for policymakers to investigate and implement rules that make markets more conducive to facilities-based entry, and eliminate any existing rules that discourage deployment. The purpose of this Policy Paper is to provide a simple conceptual framework that can be used to evaluate the effect of particular rules and regulation on the construction of advanced communications networks and the expansion of existing networks into new markets. We provide numerical examples and a number of applications to illustrate how the conceptual framework can be used to evaluate particular rules and regulations as to their effect on facilities-based entry. Applications include an analysis of convergence, regulated limitations on service offerings, the pernicious effects of cable franchising, and the potential for collusion.


We propose a hardware and software pipeline to fabricate flexible wearable sensors and use them to capture deformations without line-of-sight. Our first contribution is a low-cost fabrication pipeline to embed multiple aligned conductive layers with complex geometries into silicone compounds. Overlapping conductive areas from separate layers form local capacitors that measure dense area changes. Contrary to existing fabrication methods, the proposed technique only requires hardware that is readily available in modern fablabs. While area measurements alone are not enough to reconstruct the full 3D deformation of a surface, they become sufficient when paired with a data-driven prior. A novel semi-automatic tracking algorithm, based on an elastic surface geometry deformation, allows us to capture ground-truth data with an optical mocap system, even under heavy occlusions or partially unobservable markers. The resulting dataset is used to train a regressor based on deep neural networks, directly mapping the area readings to global positions of surface vertices. We demonstrate the flexibility and accuracy of the proposed hardware and software in a series of controlled experiments and design a prototype of wearable wrist, elbow, and biceps sensors, which do not require line-of-sight and can be worn below regular clothing.


Recent developments in smart responsive composites have utilized various stimuli including heat, light, solvents, electricity, and magnetic fields to induce a change in material properties. Here, we report a thermodynamically driven mechanically responsive composite, exploiting irreversible phase-transformation (relaxation) of metastable undercooled liquid metal core shell particle fillers. Thermal and mechanical analysis reveals that as the composite is deformed, the particles transform from individual liquid droplets to a solid metal network, resulting in a 300% increase in Young's modulus. In contrast to previous phase change materials, this dramatic change in stiffness occurs autonomously under deformation, is insensitive to environmental conditions, and does not require external energy sources such as heat, light, or electricity. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by transforming a flat, flexible composite strip into a rigid, 3D structure that is capable of supporting 50× its own weight. The ability for shape change and reconfiguration are further highlighted, indicating potential for multiple pathways to trigger or tune composite stiffness.


Optical limiting of nanosecond and picosecond laser pulses through millimeter-length isotropic liquid-crystalcored fiber structures is reported. Low limiting threshold and clamped transmitted outputs are observed. The underlying nonlinear mechanisms are nonlinear photoabsorptions and scattering and lossy waveguiding caused by laser-induced thermal-density index fluctuations.


Abstract This analysis revises and strengthens a study by Anderson and Pierce (2009) on referee bias in NCAA basketball. Using a logistic regression model, they determined that referees display a statistically significant tendency to even out the foul count between the two teams—every additional increase in the foul differential (home team fouls minus visiting team fouls) raises the odds of a foul on the home team. This study analyzes Anderson and Pierce's data on the 2004-2005 season from the Big Ten, Big East and ACC conferences, as well as additional data on the 2009-2010 season. Generalized linear mixed modeling, which takes into account the correlation in the data by game and by home and visiting teams, was used to consider the effect of several variables on the odds of a foul on the home team. These included the same variables used by Anderson and Pierce as well as additional terms including the timing and type of the foul. We also used estimates of the random effects in our models to study the relative proneness of different teams to fouls.In Anderson and Pierce's logistic regression model, every additional unit of foul differential was found to raise the odds of a foul on the home team by 12.5% in 2004-2005. Using a generalized linear mixed model with the same terms, along with random effects for game, home team, and visiting team, raised that estimate to 19.9% and improved the quality of the model. A more in-depth analysis of this data also found that a foul on the home team becomes less likely as the game progresses, particularly when the home team is winning. Similar results were found in an analysis of data from the 2009-2010 season. The 2009-2010 analysis also found evidence that the odds of more subjective offensive fouls were more affected by foul differential than personal or shooting fouls. The effect of individual referees on the amount of bias in each foul call was explored through a preliminary analysis but no significant results were found.A tendency to even out the number of foul calls on each team has the potential to lead to increased physicality in NCAA basketball if the referee tries to keep the foul count close even when one team is clearly playing more physically. These results strengthen the evidence that referees display this propensity significantly, consciously or unconsciously.


The central objective of the present paper is to examine how university bioscientists select their research agendas, with special attention to biotechnology firms' influence on those agendas. Among other issues, we will assess UIRs' potential effects on the private appropriability of the characteristics of bioengineered crop and animal varieties, and on the basicness and breadth of a scientist's research. Factors that potentially would affect scientists' research agenda include the university's size, reputation, resources, culture, and total government funding; the scientist's academic position and communication network; and the market power, cultures, and specialties of the biotech firms with which the university has research relationships. An electronic survey of academic life scientists, concentrating on their research objectives, funding sources, collaborators, contracts, and budgets, will form much of the data for testing these models.


We consider extending decision support facilities toward large sophisticated networks, upon which multidimensional attributes are associated with network entities, thereby forming the so-called multidimensional networks. Data warehouses and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) technology have proven to be effective tools for decision support on relational data. However, they are not well-equipped to handle the new yet important multidimensional networks. In this paper, we introduce Graph Cube, a new data warehousing model that supports OLAP queries effectively on large multidimensional networks. By taking account of both attribute aggregation and structure summarization of the networks, Graph Cube goes beyond the traditional data cube model involved solely with numeric value based group-by's, thus resulting in a more insightful and structure-enriched aggregate network within every possible multidimensional space. Besides traditional cuboid queries, a new class of OLAP queries, crossboid, is introduced that is uniquely useful in multidimensional networks and has not been studied before. We implement Graph Cube by combining special characteristics of multidimensional networks with the existing well-studied data cube techniques. We perform extensive experimental studies on a series of real world data sets and Graph Cube is shown to be a powerful and efficient tool for decision support on large multidimensional networks.


Researchers in the denial-of-service (DoS) field lack accurate, quantitative, and versatile metrics to measure service denial in simulation and testbed experiments. Without such metrics, it is impossible to measure severity of various attacks, quantify success of proposed defenses, and compare their performance. Existing DoS metrics equate service denial with slow communication, low throughput, high resource utilization, and high loss rate. These metrics are not versatile because they fail to monitor all traffic parameters that signal service degradation. They are not quantitative because they fail to specify exact ranges of parameter values that correspond to good or poor service quality. Finally, they are not accurate since they were not proven to correspond to human perception of service denial. We propose several DoS impact metrics that measure the quality of service experienced by users during an attack. Our metrics are quantitative: they map QoS requirements for several applications into measurable traffic parameters with acceptable, scientifically determined thresholds. They are versatile: they apply to a wide range of attack scenarios, which we demonstrate via testbed experiments and simulations. We also prove metrics' accuracy through testing with human users.


In this paper a new approach for solving the H∞ control problem using static state-feedback for LTI singular perturbation systems is proposed. The proposed controller is given in terms of the solution of a set of matrix inequalities independent of the singular parameter ε. These inequalities are not in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). By introducing a new algorithm, these inequalities are solved through LMI formulation. To show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm comparing to other methods, an illustrative example is also provided.


Numerical and experimental studies of the transient response of concrete shafts subjected to elastic impact were carried out using the finite element method and the impact-echo testing technique. Two- and three-dimensional finite element studies of concrete shafts were performed for: (a) solid shafts; (b) shafts containing cracks, voids, layers of low-quality concrete, and changes in cross section, such as bulges and necks; and (c) shafts in soil. These studies were carried out to gain an improved understanding of the impact response of concrete shafts containing flaws, problems for which there are currently no analytical solutions. It was also the intent of the numerical studies to determine whether information in addition to that obtained with existing nondestructive testing techniques could be obtained during impact testing of concrete shafts. Laboratory studies of solid concrete shafts were carried out to verify the finite element models. Subsequently, experimental studies were carried out on concrete shafts embedded in soil. These shafts contained flaws at known locations. The results of these studies show that additional information about the integrity of drilled shafts and piles can be obtained using impact techniques. The numerical studies also show that the finite element method is a powerful tool for studying the impact response of concrete foundation elements.


ABSTRACT: The origins and vicissitudes by which parapsychology or, as we say, psi research has gone through in Brazil have not always distinguished it from religion, alternative healing practices, superstition, and charlatanism, mainly because of the cultural complexity in which we live in the country. Consequently, to be a psi researcher in Brazil means not having any financial guarantee, living with an uncertain future, almost complete isolation from the academic world, and solitude in private libraries with books--the majority written in foreign languages--that were usually bought by the researchers themselves. However, despite these difficulties, psi research is advancing in Brazil. In this address, we focus on academic conquests, especially the development of research projects, master's theses, and PhD dissertations in some of the most important universities of Brazil. Other important advances include the creation of societies and associations, such as the Asociacion Iberoamericana de Parapsicologia, and the creation of university centers for the study of psi, such as the Inter Psi-Study Group of Semiotics, Interconnectivity and Consciousness (www.portalpsi.cjb.net). Several foreign researchers have been instrumental in improving psi research in Brazil and Latin America. The exchange of information with them has helped to overcome the language and cultural barriers in the field and has created good prospects for the future. This is a very especial day for us. We were invited by Dr. Carlos Alvarado to give this talk because we were the winners of the Gertrude Schmeidler Student Award in 1998. We take this opportunity, first, to express our gratitude to the 1998 PA Board and, second, to present briefly the development of psi research in our country, Brazil. No one expects to be recognized for being a psi researcher in Brazil. The origins and vicissitudes by which the field has passed have not always distinguished it from religion, alternative healing practices, superstition, and also charlatanism. To be a psi researcher in Brazil means almost complete isolation from the academic world, and solitude in the libraries, in which we have spent innumerable hours researching, essentially in a language that is not ours. To continue as a psi researcher in Brazil means not having any financial guarantee and living with an uncertain future. It means creating ways through which to meet interlocutors, who are few in number. It means transcending our own difficulties to do the possible out of the improbable. We believe that, because we have persisted and continued to be psi researchers despite these difficulties, we were chosen to win the award. At this moment, we want to represent all the psi researchers who have contributed with important parts of their lives to this cause . We want to represent, more than anything, those who have worked and still work anonymously, without even the opportunity of receiving such an invigorating stimulus as this. This award represents in part the inspiration their work has given us. Let us tell you a brief history. In 1996, the City Council Building of Sao Paulo in Brazil was "haunted" by ghosts. Specters were seen in the library. Women wearing wedding dresses were seen appearing and disappearing in the daylight in the meeting room. File drawers opened and closed by themselves. One of the elevator operators claimed he saw some people disappear as soon as they entered the elevator. Odd sounds were heard in the long corridors. Doors locked themselves with no explanation. One of the councilmen was locked in his office and could not open the door. From his room, he said he could hear something like voices that seemed to talk in an incomprehensible language. Because these events took place in one of the most important public buildings of Sao Paulo, journalists soon took interest and reported on these events. Many individuals said they could explain the unusual "occurrences." A "babalorixa"--a sort of priest of Candomble, an African religion-hastened to say that the occurrences were the result of the action of the souls of thousands of Black slaves who bad been tortured for almost four centuries in the past in that very place. …


We investigate the effects of the Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve (CIMR, Western Mediterranean) on the adjacent Palinurus elephas (Fabricius, 1787) fishery. After 9 to 12 yr of no-take protection there was a gradient of lobster density from the interior of the reserve up to a distance of about 4 km from its boundary. Catch and effort data were collected onboard commercial fishing boats in the fishery adjacent to the CIMR, and combined with catch per unit effort (CPUE) data from mon- itoring surveys conducted annually inside the reserve. Generalized additive (GAM) and linear (GLM) models were employed to examine the relationships of CPUE and catch per unit area (CPUA) as a function of distance to the reserve boundary. CPUE showed a significant non-linear decline with distance from the centre of the reserve, with a depression at the boundary followed by a plateau. This depression was caused by local depletion associated with concentration of fishing effort at the reserve boundary, while the plateau suggests that lobster export from the reserve is sufficient to maintain stable catch rates up to 1500 m from the boundary. Commercial catch and effort data were combined to estimate CPUA, which declined linearly with distance from the reserve. Analysis of recaptures of lobsters tagged and released inside the reserve indicates that the density gradient is caused by lobsters emigrating from the reserve.


In this thesis, we examine the main types of numerical quadrature methods for a special subclass of one-dimensional highly oscillatory integrals. Along with a presentation of the methods themselves and the error bounds, the thesis contains implementations of the methods in Maple and Python. The implementations take advantage of the symbolic computational abilities of Maple and allow for a larger class of problems to be solved with greater ease to the user. We also present a new variation on Levin integration which uses differentiation matrices in various interpolation bases.


The purpose of this research is intended to study the factors that affect the financial performance of state-owned enterprises. In this study used purposive sampling method seven state-owned enterprises with observations during the last eleven years. In the data analysis, this study uses linear regression model and its management using SPSS software-Amos 23. The results of this study found that the government subsidy variable and significant negative effect on the financial performance of the alpha 0.01, which means that the state-owned enterprises is difficult to manage the company as a independently if the subsidy program and the additional capital the government continues to do every year. Regression calculation results also found that strategic profitability and significant positive effect on alpha 0.10 to financial performance, which means that the company's management is still likely to perform earnings management practices to affect the company's financial performance. Capital structure variables showed a positive effect and no significant effect on financial performance for the investment decisions state-owned enterprises financed with debt tend not financially feasible so it does not affect financial performance. Payed on the investment decision is a low economical feasibility of using the size of externalities or social benefit is greater than the social cost. Government subsidy used as independent variables and as a moderator variable, the study found that government subsidy strengthen relationships variable capital structure with financial performance, because the government subsidy strengthen the link between debt with financial performance, because the government encouraged state-owned enterprises to seek a loan to reduce the burden of government subsidies or additional capital.


Bathymetric and topobathymetric light detection and ranging (lidar) digital elevation models created for the Delaware River were provided to the National Geospatial Program and used to evaluate synthetic flowpath extraction from bathymetric/topobathymetric lidar survey data as a data source for improving the density, distribution, and connectivity of the National Hydrography Dataset High Resolution Flowline Network. As the surface-water component of The National Map, the National Hydrography Dataset maintains the Nation's drainage network flow information and geometries for surfacewater features used in hydrologic, hydraulic, and other science and engineering disciplines. The regional lidar survey for the Delaware River between Hancock, New York, and Trenton, New Jersey, was collected for the U.S. Geological Survey using the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar sensor system and processed by the Coastal National Elevation Database Applications Program. Using 1 percent of the maximum flow accumulation value for the surveyed Delaware River corridor as the flow accumulation threshold for grid cells at 1-, 5-, and 10-meter resolution created 223 to 283 kilometers of synthetic flowpaths potentially representing the river channel thalweg, which is the deepest point in a riverbed cross-section. There was potential for improving the High Resolution National Hydrography Dataset (HR NHD) Flowline network in places where the Delaware River channel, depicted as an Artificial Path in the HR NHD, is offset from the extracted synthetic river flowpath which sometimes appeared better positioned than the Artificial Path to represent the river thalweg. For the same area, using 0.05 percent of the maximum flow accumulation at the 1-, 5-, and 10-meter resolutions extracted 744 to 1,317 kilometers of synthetic flowpaths, with extracted synthetic flowpaths representing the main river channel and additional synthetic flowpaths representing tributaries or streams adjacent to the main channel. Overlaying these results with the HR NHDFlowline Network indicates that some of the additional synthetic flowpaths are connected to or extend HR NHD stream/river feature types. Some disconnected or isolated synthetic flowpaths not included in stream/river feature types were validated in orthoimagery and U.S. Topo Maps and provide examples of how extracted synthetic flowpaths could be used to delineate new stream/river features. Other additional extracted synthetic flowpaths depict linear features such as canals, tree lines, roads, or linear topographic depressions. For some river reaches where obstructions to flow or where low-relief topographic or bathymetric surfaces alter the flow direction, the software tool used to develop the flow direction grid did not calculate a primary flowpath for the river channel. Based on the results of this analysis, site conditions for the Delaware River corridor did not affect the quality of lidar bathymetric survey data. However, depending on the resolution of the lidar bathymetric digital elevation models (BDEMs), site conditions do have different effects on results for extracted synthetic flowpaths. We found that synthetic flowpaths extracted from 1-meter resolution lidar DEMs had more varied flow directions around in-channel landforms that obstructed flow than synthetic flowpaths extracted from 5or 10-meter resolution lidar DEMs. As a result the 1-meter resolution DEM created some isolated or discontinuous synthetic flowpath segments where the 5and 10-meter DEMs developed more continuous flowpaths. In this case the river bed upstream from the in-channel obstruction is shallower than the river bed downstream. Under these conditions the 1-meter resolution DEM provided synthetic flowpaths delineating a potential river thalweg. In this same area, the software solution modified (virtually raised) the river bed in the 5and 10-meter resolution DEMs and flattened the bathymetric surface to create a continuous downstream flow direction, which caused trellis-patterned synthetic flowpaths to form. Under different site conditions and converse to the above development of synthetic flowpaths at different resolutions, at an abandoned river flood plain (terrace) with low relief that is adjacent to the river channel, the flow direction grid for the 1-meter resolution DEM developed continuous synthetic flowpath corresponding to a HR NHD Flowline network stream/river feature that connected to the main river channel but the larger resolution DEMs created isolated or disconnected synthetic flowpaths. A project to continue an evaluation of benefits of or issues caused by extracting synthetic flowpaths to enhance 2 Synthetic Flowpaths Derived from Light Detection and Ranging Topobathymetric Data and High Resolution Flowlines the HR NHD could include a study to assess the potential for merging surface-water flowpaths extracted from lidar topobathymetry and 3D Elevation Program digital elevation models. The merged DEM approach to synthetic flowpath extraction could extend the HR NHDFlowline network and enhance flow accumulations that might develop better flow direction grids in low-relief areas. Because of the confined lateral extent of the Delaware River, the lidar DEMs were not used to create catchments or watersheds; however, the merged DEM approach could also be tested as a resource for enhancing HR NHD catchments and watersheds. This lidar DEM synthetic flowpath extraction project supports the National Geospatial Program efforts to collect and produce high-quality lidar data to provide 3-dimensional representations of natural feature and aligns with the National Spatial Data Infrastructure to improve utilization of geospatial data. The results also can be useful for understanding strategies that can help maintain quality data in the HR NHD programs.


Small and medium sized engineering companies involved in product development are under considerable pressure, due to globalization, to reduce product development cost and time. Since such small companies typically cannot afford customised design support tools, but employ a wide range of design styles, there is a need for "flexible" (i.e. easily adaptable) design support tools. Flexibility in this context indicates that the same software tool can be adapted to a wide spectrum of design styles without requiring changes to the software's source code. The approach presented here to achieve flexibility for distributed design support systems, uses the notion of an ontology, combined with elements and relations in conceptual graphs for the database and user interface. This paper presents the implementation of these aspects in a design support system called DiDeas II (Distributed Design Assistant). It is aimed at the pre-detail design phases, and aims to allow design teams to manage their design information according to various design methods, to decrease time-delays and to improve communication between team members. The main focus of the paper is the practical implementation of an ontology based design support system, DiDeas II, but the results of preliminary evaluation in laboratory case studies are also reported.


Was there such a person as Homer? Who were the key figures in the first democracy of the Western World? Who is the father of tragedy? Who is the father of history? Of all the world's ancient civilisations, it is perhaps the Ancient Greece that has the strongest hold over the modern imagination. The history, philosophy and literature continue to intrigue and enthral. Now John Hazel has compiled the definitive biographical guide to the Greek and Hellenistic world from 750 BC to the end of the Roman Empire. The lives of Alexander the Great, Socrates and Plato are opened up, but so too are those of lesser-known figures: Bacchylides the lyric poet; Chares the general; and the traitor Ephialtes, giving a thorough and fascinating overview of life in Ancient Greece.


Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are widely used in everyday life to perform a variety of operations, such as e‐mail exchange, connection to social media, bank/financial transactions, and so on. Moreover, because of the large growth of multimedia applications, video and image transferring and sharing via a wireless network is becoming increasingly popular. Several modern mobile applications perform information retrieval and image recognition. For example, Google Goggles is an image recognition application that is used for searches based on pictures taken by handheld devices. In most of the cases, image recognition procedure is an image retrieval procedure. The captured images or a low‐level description of them are uploaded online, and the system recognizes their content by retrieving visually similar pictures. Taking into account the last comment, our goal in this paper is to evaluate the process of image retrieval/recognition over an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11b network, operating at 2.4 GHz. Our evaluation is performed through a simulated network configuration, which consists of a number of mobile nodes communicating with an access point. Throughout our simulations, we examine the impact of several factors, such as the existence of a strong line of sight during the communication between wireless devices. Strong line of sight depends on the fading model used for the simulations and has an effect on BER. We have used a large number of image descriptors and a variety of scenarios, reported in the relative literature, in order to comprehensively evaluate our system. To reinforce our results, experiments were conducted on two well‐known images databases by using 10 descriptors from the literature. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Zambia is one of the most forested countries in Africa, with about 50 million out of the 75 million hectares total land area under some form of forest cover. However, the country also has one of the highest rates of deforestation and degradation in the world, estimated at 250,000-300,000 hectares of forest loss per annum. Reversing/slowing this high deforestation and degradation trend will require the country to design and implement programs and strategies that will effectively deal with both the proximate and underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation.


This study examines whether security analysts underreact or overreact to prior earnings information, and whether any such behavior could explain previously documented anomalous stock price movements. We present evidence that analysts' forecasts underreact to recent earnings. This feature of the forecasts is consistent with certain properties of the naive seasonal random walk forecast that Bernard and Thomas (1990) hypothesize underlie the well-known anomalous post-earnings-announcement drift. However, the underreactions in analysts' forecasts are at most only about half as large as necessary to explain the magnitude of the drift. We also document that the "extreme" analysts' forecasts studied by DeBondt and Thaler (1990) cannot be viewed as overreactions to earnings, and are not clearly linked to the stock price overreactions discussed in DeBondt and Thaler (1985, 1987) and Chopra, Lakonishok, and Ritter (Forthcoming). We conclude that security analysts' behavior is at best only a partial explanation for stock price underreaction to earnings, and may be unrelated to stock price overreactions.


In a digital society, effective governance is needed to develop a sustainable socio-technical community where members' interactions and communications are mediated by information technology (IT). Amongst various governance mechanisms, self-governance is favourable in socio-technical communities. Despite research efforts on the use of self-governance, little is known about the role of user involvement in an effective use of self-governance. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a principle of good governance and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study develops an integrated framework which argues that users' fundamental needs, good self-governance implementations and users' attitudes towards using self-governance tools are related to user's intention to participate in self-governance. The expected contributions of this study are three-fold. First, the findings should highlight the importance of user involvement in effective use of selfgovernance. The theoretical framework promotes an understanding of the influence of psychological, technological and social factors on users' intention to participate in self-governance. Second, the research contributes to the body of knowledge on IT acceptance and use by extending TAM to include the role of users' psychological needs and the social conditions in using IT tools. Third, the results can be used to develop design guidelines for effective self-governance implementations.


The coupling between electron transfer and protein structure and dynamics in the photosynthetic reaction center of Rhodopseudomonas viridis is investigated. For this purpose molecular dynamics simulations of the essential portions (a segment of 5797 atoms) of this protein complex have been carried out. Electron transfer in the primary event is modeled by altering the charge distributions of the chromophores according to quantum chemical calculations. The simulations show (i) that fluctuations of the protein matrix, which are coupled electrostatically to electron transfer, play an important role in controlling the electron transfer rates and (ii) that the protein matrix stabilizes the separated electron pair state through rapid (200 fs) and temperature-independent dielectric relaxation. The photosynthetic reaction center resembles a polar liquid in that the internal motions of the whole protein complex, rather than only those of specific side groups, contribute to i and ii. The solvent reorganization energy is about 4.5 kcal/mol. The simulations indicate that rather small structural rearrangements and changes in motional amplitudes accompany the primary electron transfer.


John Hartung asserted in "Love Thy Neighbor: The Evolution of In-Group Morality" that the command to love, and the later use of it by Jesus, does not apply to everyone but only to those within one's own group. Through a close reading of Leviticus and the Gospel of Matthew, this essay questions Hartung's hermeneutic and assesses his conclusion as erroneous. By interrogating the world of the text using a literary method, this essay argues for an appreciation of the complexity of the language and the importance of literary context.


In Aplysia, long-term plasticity involves the reduction in miR-124, which increases the abundance of the transcription factor CREB1. Short inhibitory RNAs (~22 nucleotides) called microRNAs (miRs) provide a layer of regulation at the level of mRNAs to influence differentiation, metabolism, and proliferation. Now Rajasethupathy et al. have identified the microRNA miR-124 as a negative regulator of a form of plasticity in Aplysia, the long-term facilitation (LTF) that occurs between sensory neurons and motor neurons (see commentary by Fischbach and Carew). By screening small RNA cDNA libraries, the authors identified 170 miRNAs in Aplysia, of which all but 13 were conserved in orthologs. Nine miRNAs were enriched in Aplysia brain and in a culture system of an intact sensory neuron–motor neuron circuit; miR-124 was one of several brain-enriched miRNAs that was present only in the sensory neuron. Repeated exposure of the coculture circuit to serotonin, which produces LTF, triggered a reduction in the abundance of miR-124, without altering the abundance of the precursor miRNA, whereas a single serotonin exposure, which does not produce LTF, did not change the abundance of miR-124. Treatments that increased miR-124 or decreased miR-124 inhibited or enhanced LTF, respectively. The decrease in miR-124 abundance in response to repeated application of serotonin was blocked by inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling but not by inhibitors of protein kinase A, protein kinase C, or of the proteasome. Abundance of the transcription factor CREB1, which is implicated in long-term plasticity, was increased when miR-124 was inhibited and a miR-124 consensus site in the 3'-untranslated region of the CREB1 transcript conferred miR-124 regulation in a reporter assay. This work characterizes the role of a specific microRNA in synaptic plasticity from the upstream regulator of the specific microRNA to its downstream targets and expands the roles associated with miR-124 beyond specification of neuronal identity. P. Rajasethupathy, F. Fiumara, R. Sheridan, D. Betel. S. V. Puthanveettil, J. J. Russo, C. Sander, T. Tuschl, E. Kandel, Characterization of small RNAs in Aplysia reveals a role for miR-124 in constraining synaptic plasticity through CREB. Neuron 63, 803–817 (2009). [PubMed] S. J. Fischbach, T. J. Carew, MicroRNAs in memory processing. Neuron 63, 714–716 (2009). [PubMed]


Abstract Closthioamide (CTA) is a symmetric nonribosomal peptide (NRP) comprised of two diaminopropane‐linked polythioamidated monomers. CTA is biosynthesized by Ruminiclostridium cellulolyticum via an atypical NRP synthetase (NRPS)‐independent biosynthetic pathway. Although the logic for monomer assembly was recently elucidated, the strategy for the biosynthesis and incorporation of the diamine linker remained a mystery. By means of genome editing, synthesis, and in vitro biochemical assays, we demonstrate that the final steps in CTA maturation proceed through a surprising split‐merge pathway involving the dual use of a thiotemplated intermediate. This pathway includes the first examples of an aldo‐keto reductase catalyzing the reductive release of a thiotemplated product, and of a transthioamidating transglutaminase. In addition to clarifying the remaining steps in CTA assembly, our data shed light on largely unexplored pathways for NRPS‐independent peptide biosynthesis.


Purpose: Nearly all schools in the United States closed in spring 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze traditional public and charter school reopenings for the 2020–21 school year in five urban districts. We provide a rich and theoretically grounded description of how and why educational leaders made reopening decisions in each of our case districts. Research Methods: We used data from a multiple-case study from March 2020 to July 2021. The research team conducted 56 interviews with school, district, and system-level leaders; triangulated with publicly available data; and also drew on interview data from a subsample of parents and guardians in each of our sites. We analyzed these data through qualitative coding and memo writing and conducted detailed single- and cross-case analyses. Findings: School system leaders in our case sites generally consulted public health authorities, accounted for state-level health and educational guidance, and engaged with and were responsive to the interests of different stakeholders. Districts' adherence to and strategic uses of public health guidance, as well as a combination of union-district relations and labor market dynamics, influenced reopening. Parents, city, and state lawmakers, and local institutional conditions also played a role, helping to explain differences across cases. Implications: In contrast to the "politics or science" framing that has dominated research and public discourse on school reopening, we show that local pandemic conditions and local political dynamics both mattered and in fact were interrelated. Our findings have some implications for how educational leaders might navigate future crises.


A simple, selective and rapid method for determining trace amounts of copper(II) ions in various types of water samples using atomic absorption spectrophotometry was investigated. Copper(II) ions from water samples were preconcentrated by solid phase extraction using octadecyl silica membrane disks modified with 3-{2-[2-(2-hydroxyimino- 1-methyl-propylideneamino)-ethylamino]-ethyl-imino}-butan-2-one oxime, (H2mdo). The experimental conditions were optimized by changing several parameters such as volume of eluting solvent, the effect of pH, eluent flow rates, the amount of H2mdo, breakthrough the volume, limit of detection and maximum capacity of the disks for Cu2+ recovery. The method was applied to the recovery of Cu(II) ions from seven different water samples and an international certified reference sample (SLRS-4), the method was also quantitative.


Composites are emerging as realistic alternatives to the metal alloys in many applications like automobiles, marine, aerospace applications, sports goods, etc. Fiber composites offer many advantages such as low specific gravity, tensile strength and modulus, compressive strength and modulus, better fatigue strength, etc. Due to the low specific gravity the strength weight ratio and modulus weight ratio of these composite materials are markedly superior to those of metallic materials. In this work it is concerned general purpose poly ester-based polymer composites are developed by reinforcement of basalt fabric and jute fabric into general purpose poly ester matrix by compression moulding technique. This study describes the basalt fiber and jute fibre reinforced hybrid composites with poly ester resin with different stacking sequence. Fabricated composite plates subjected to mechanical properties like Flexural strength, Impact strength test of the various specimens are calculated by using computer assisted Universal testing machine and Charpy Impact testing machine. From the results it is found that pure basalt fibre combination maintains higher values in both flexural and tensile test. But for impact test basalt fibre is slightly lower than jute fibre reinforced composite.


Big efforts have been made these last twenty years in order to model the behaviour of steel parts in heat treatment processes [1]. Models for microstructural evolutions during continuous cooling, coupled with thermomechanical calculations do exist, but complete experimental validations of these models are still necessary. Here, we mainly present a complete experimental validation procedure from the scale of small homogeneous specimen to the scale of massive pieces with thermal gradients. Comparisons between experimental and calculated results (transformation kinetics and thermomechanical behaviour) are presented first. Then, massive cylinders quenched in air, cold oil and cold water are considered and numerical simulation results in terms of microstructure distributions, residual stresses and deformation are compared to experimental ones. The whole study concerns more specifically the bainitic transformation of a middle alloyed steel and it is shown that the effect of internal stresses on the transformation kinetics is a first order parameter in order to predict correctly microstructural gradients developed in a quenched part.


The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China passed the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in 2007. The law, which formally took effect in August 2008, provides a holistic framework for the regulation of competition. Its purpose is to prevent and restrain monopolistic conduct, protect fair competition in the market, enhance economic efficiency, safeguard the interests of consumers and the public interest, and promote the healthy development of China's socialist market economy. The AML applies to anticompetitive economic conduct within the territory of the People's Republic of China. It also applies outside of China, where such conduct serves to eliminate or restrict competition within China's domestic market.Because China has restructured aspects of its regulatory regime pursuant to government regulatory reform initiatives, the AML is now applicable in areas formerly governed exclusively by China's regulatory agencies. Many of these areas were previously considered outside of the competition sphere. The finance and telecom sectors, for example, have come under the AML's purview, and calls for similar reform in China's energy sector are gaining momentum. This is particularly true in the oil industry, where non-public enterprises are eager to see the AML enforced in order to facilitate the breaking up of oil monopolies.The AML prohibits monopolistic agreements and abuses of dominant market positions. It also establishes a scheme for reviewing mergers and acquisitions that applies to all enterprises permitted entry into an industry. In the petroleum industry, this includes the national oil companies, as well as domestic and foreign-funded, non-public enterprises. The AML does not apply to the monopoly status of established incumbents in the industry, but it may apply to This article is a joint effort of U.S. and Chinese legal and economic scholars, including a member of the AML Drafting Group, to examine the likely effects of the AML on the Chinese energy sector in general, and the petroleum industry in particular. We also examine the significance of the AML in the future crafting of coherent and compatible energy and competition policy, a process which is underway, and already having an impact on China's overall policy system. We analyze the AML in conjunction with legislative intent, mindful of the complex institutional arrangements in China that are sure to shape the law's overall impact. In the course of our analysis, we examine a key piece of future legislation, the Energy Law, which is currently undergoing a similarly lengthy drafting process.Specifically, we pose the controversial and still-unanswered question of whether the AML plays a meaningful role in China's regulated industries where, as in the petroleum industry, state-sponsored monopolies dominate the competitive landscape. We answer that it can and should. However, the AML must be properly read to apply to the fullest extent possible, much as U.S. antitrust law has been read to apply absent a "clear repugnancy" to government regulation.3 Responsible Chinese authorities must also strike the correct balance in identifying areas where competition laws have room to function in China's regulated industries. Finally, certain accommodations will have to be made in future drafts of the Energy Law.China has been moving from a command-and-control economy to a market-based system. This shift will only increase the importance of balancing competition policy and energy policy to prioritize increased industrial efficiency, but with the precondition that energy security and consumer benefits are achieved. The AML can be useful in moving China further in this direction. In the petroleum industry, going forward requires competition to be nurtured where domestic and foreign-funded non-public enterprises are permitted to operate.


Where both sexes invest substantially in offspring, both females and males should discriminate between potential partners when choosing mates. The degree of choosiness should relate to the costs of choice and to the potential benefits to be gained. We measured offspring quality from experimentally staged matings with preferred and non–preferred partners in a sex–role–reversed pipefish, Syngnathus typhle L. Here, a substantial male investment in offspring results in a lower potential reproductive rate in males than in females, and access to males limits female reproductive success rather than vice versa. Thus, males are choosier than females and females compete more intensely over mates than do males. Broods from preferred matings were superior at escaping predation, when either males or females were allowed to choose a partner. However, only 'choosing' females benefited in terms of faster–growing offspring. Our results have important implications for mate–choice research: here we show that even the more competitive and less choosy sex may contribute significantly to sexual selection through mate choice.


Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of participation in the Otago Exercise Programme (OEP) on strength and balance. The change in a number of balance and strength measures were compared between a group of community dwelling women over the age of 80 years participating in the OEP and a control group matched by gender and age. Study design: A cohort study of two independent groups. Participants: Nineteen women over the age of 80 years who were community dwelling and participating in the OEP and 18 age matched community dwelling women who continued with their normal activities of daily living. Main outcome measures: Participants' strength and balance was measured using the timed up and go test, the step test, the 30 second chair stand test and gait velocity. Participants' fear of falling was measured with the Modified Falls Efficacy Scale and falls were monitored using a falls diary. Results: There were no statistically significant improvements in strength and balance in the OEP group and no statistically significant differences between the OEP and control group, after participating in the OEP for 6 months. The only statistically significant change in the OEP group was a slowing of gait velocity, all other outcome measures remained unchanged for both the OEP group and the control group. Conclusions: There were no statistically significant improvements in strength and balance after participating in the OEP. These results are consistent with those of the original Otago trial and the subsequent meta-analysis of all the Otago trials. The results from this study need to be interpreted with caution, as due to the small sample size the study was underpowered. The critical components of the OEP remain unknown.


Response time quantiles reflect user-perceived quality of service more accurately than mean or average response time measures. Consequently, on-line transaction processing benchmarks, telecommunications Service Level Agreements and emergency services legislation all feature stringent 90th percentile response time targets. This chapter describes a range of techniques for extracting response time densities and quantiles from large-scale Markov and semi-Markov models of real-life systems. We describe a method for the computation of response time densities or cumulative distribution functions which centres on the calculation and subsequent numerical inversion of their Laplace transforms. This can be applied to both Markov and semi-Markov models. We also review the use of uniformization to calculate such measures more efficiently in purely Markovian models. We demonstrate these techniques by using them to generate response time quantiles in a semi-Markov model of a high-availability web-server. We show how these techniques can be used to analyse models with state spaces of O ` 107 states and above.


Macroalgal blooms occur worldwide and have the potential to cause severe ecological and economic damage. Narragansett Bay, RI is a eutrophic system that experiences summer macroalgal blooms composed mostly of Ulva compressa and Ulva rigida. All Ulva species have isomorphic, biphasic life cycles, and the relative contribution of the haploid and diploid life history stages to bloom formation is poorly understood. In this study, we used flow cytometry to assess ploidy levels of U. compressa and U. rigida populations from five sites in Narragansett Bay, RI, USA. Both haploid gametophytes and diploid sporophytes were present for both species. Sites ranged from a relative overabundance of gametophytes to a relative overabundance of sporophytes, compared to the null model prediction of √2 gametophytes to 1 sporophyte. We also assessed growth rates and measured cell sizes to investigate potential differences between life history phases. We found no significant differences in growth rate between ploidy levels for either species. Sporophyte cells were significantly larger than gametophyte cells in U. compressa. Our results indicate the presence of both phases of each of the two dominant bloom forming species throughout the bloom season, and represent one of the first studies of in situ Ulva life cycle dynamics.


Vascular calcification is a pathophysiological process that is associated with coronary atherosclerosis, and is a prognostic marker of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The process of arterial wall calcification is triggered and accompanied by pro-osteogenic phenotypical modifications of resident smooth muscle cells (SMC). Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient required to support the production of extracellular matrix components and maintain healthy connective tissue. In this study we investigated the effects of ascorbic acid on cultured human aortic SMC calcification process in vitro. Our results demonstrate that supplementation of SMC cultures with ascorbic acid significantly decreases calcium accumulation in SMC-produced and -deposited extracellular matrix. These effects were accompanied by a reduction in cell-associated alkaline phosphatase activity. Significantly, treatment of cultured SMC with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, simvastatin and mevastatin, resulted in increased calcium accumulation in cultured SMC. These effects were blocked by ascorbic acid. The effects of ascorbic acid supplementation on pro-osteogenic modification were compared in different cell types. Analysis of the expression of osteogenic markers in cultured human aortic SMC, human dermal fibroblasts and immortalized human osteoblasts (hFOB) revealed cell type-specific responses to ascorbate supplementation. We conclude that ascorbic acid supplementation can actively and beneficially interfere with the process of arterial wall calcification, with potential implications for human health.


ICOMOS works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places. It is the only global non-government organisation of this kind, which is dedicated to promoting the application of theory, methodology, and scientific techniques to the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage. Its work is based on the principles enshrined in the 1964 International Charter on the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (the Venice Charter). ICOMOS is a network of experts that benefits from the interdisciplinary exchange of its members, among which are architects, historians, archaeologists, art historians, geographers, anthropologists, engineers and town planners.


Many reports identify drink driving as one of the leading contributors to high arrest rates among indigenous Australians. The aim of this study is to identify the characteristics and risk factors with Indigenous drink drivers who relapse after the first offence. De-identified records were examined of all drink driving convictions by Indigenous offenders dealt with by Queensland courts between 2006 and 2010. Probabilistic linkage was used to distinguish individuals with more than one conviction from those with just one conviction. In univariate analyses, first time and repeat offenders were compared by gender, age, court location and region based on the accessibility/remoteness index of Australia (ARIA), blood alcohol content (BAC) and prosecution outcome. A multivariate logistic regression adjusted for confounding variables. The univariate analyses revealed repeat offenders were more likely to be in regional and remote areas with the association strongest in the 'very remote' region (OR=2.75, 2.06-3.76, p<.0001). Offenders aged between 15-24 years were demonstrated to be at greater risk of repeat drink driving in comparison to those over 40 years (OR=.685, .542-.867, p=.0002). Gender (p=.139), outcome (p=.659) and all BAC levels were not significantly associated with repeat drink driving offending when the confounding effects of all available variables were considered. Overall, the results indicated that the initial twelve months following court determination for the first offence was a high risk period for drink drivers committing another driving offence. Contrary to the general population, Indigenous repeat drink drivers are more likely to be aged between 15-24 years. High levels of repeat drink driving in remote areas reflect the broader alcohol-related health burden experienced by Indigenous Australians in isolated areas. Further research should explore the interaction of alcohol consumption levels with legal, social and psychological factors that may describe and explain drink driving relapse among this population. Full paper not submitted


The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process in the selection of shopping centres. The South African society is undergoing a rapid transformation in its consumption patterns. The development and expansion of shopping centres means that consumers, in most cases, have an increasing choice of shopping destinations that meet their needs for goods, services and entertainment. The development and rapid expansion of planned shopping centres, often called Shopping Malls, has been one of the greatest retail revolutions in South Africa in the last twenty years. The competitive retail environment poses serious threats and opportunities for growth and profitability of shopping centres. The empirical research, which was conducted amongst shoppers at the various centres in the greater Durban area, confirms the significance of the various situational influences, which are the physical surroundings, the social surroundings, time, task definition and antecedent states as they impact on the shopping centres. The findings of this study reveal that stakeholders of shopping centres should go beyond the tactical aspects of shopping centre operations and adopt a strategic approach to business, in which customers' needs and competitors' actions are monitored in their quest to obtain preference vis a vis their competitors. The need to create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over other centres is at the heart of ensuring the continued viability of individual shopping centres. Against the urgent need to adopt a strategic approach to shopping centre development and management, recommendations are provided for developers and managers to acknowledge the impact of the dynamic aspect of the factors that influence the consumers' decision-making process and their implications for shopping centre development and promotion. This study is aimed at providing valuable information to a variety of stakeholders such as the tenants, property developers, investors, shopping centre managers, retailers and consumers at shopping centres as well as academics interested in consumer behaviour and the impact of shopping centres in South Africa.


In optical code path networks a cycle attack phenomenon has been reported. Cycle attack is caused by multiaccess interference (MAI) among different optical code (OC) paths carried by the same wavelength. A previous study proposed a heuristic wavelength assignment scheme to avoid this unintended cycle attack problem. However, the wavelength assignment retry in the previous proposal may impose an overhead on OC path establishment latency, and furthermore it was not a complete solution to eliminate cycle attacks. In this paper, we propose a cycle-attack-free logical topology design to eliminate the unintended cycle attack problem in the network planning phase instead of the wavelength assignment. The basic idea is to convert the physical network topology into some tree-based logical topologies in which OC paths are routed. Simulation results show that (a) using the tree-based topologies with smaller average hop count helps to obtain better blocking performance and (b) in distributed optical path establishment our proposed approach performs better in terms of blocking and delay performance under the relative dynamic traffic condition.


Abstract. Various mass fixer algorithms (MFAs) have been implemented in the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) to ensure mass conservation of atmospheric tracers within the semi-Lagrangian (SL) advection scheme. Emphasis has been placed in implementing schemes that despite being primarily global in nature adjust the solution mostly in regions where the advected field has large gradients and therefore interpolation (transport) error is assumed larger. The MFAs have been tested in weather forecast, idealised and atmospheric dispersion cases. Applying these fixers to specific humidity and cloud fields did not change the accuracy of 10-day forecasts. In other words, global mass tracer conservation is achieved without deteriorating the solution accuracy. However, for longer forecast timescales or for forecasts in which correlated species are transported, experiments suggest that MFAs may improve IFS forecasts.


The Global Text Project (GTP) was initiated in 2006 to provide free, high-quality, open-content textbooks to university students in developing economies. In 2011, the GTP refocused on marketing and distribution of its own and other open content textbooks, and in 2013 involved students and other volunteers in translating textbooks into Spanish. Translation and content localization is an ongoing issue in the Global delivery of information. The case follows a graduate student project leader managing a complex Spanish translation effort. The case encourages readers to reflect upon how the process of translation could be improved. Finally, it poses questions about how the translated textbooks could be promoted for use by professors in Spanish-speaking countries, particularly those in Latin America. The issues in this case relate to volunteerism, information systems and technologies, project management, translation methodologies, and textbook adoption. Readers are encouraged to consider if machine translation, computer-aided translation, or the application of computer game elements in distributed translation might increase productivity and provide high quality translated content.


Tissue engineering and advanced manufacturing of human stem cells requires a suite of tools to control gene expression spatiotemporally in culture. Inducible gene expression systems offer cell-extrinsic control, typically through addition of small molecules, but small molecule inducers typically contain few functional groups for further chemical modification. Doxycycline (DXC), a potent small molecule inducer of tetracycline (Tet) transgene systems, was conjugated to a hyperbranched dendritic polymer (Boltorn H40) and subsequently reacted with polyethylene glycol (PEG). The resulting PEG-H40-DXC nanoparticle exhibited pH-sensitive drug release behavior and successfully controlled gene expression in stem-cell-derived fibroblasts with a Tet-On system. While free DXC inhibited fibroblast proliferation and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity, PEG-H40-DXC nanoparticles maintained higher fibroblast proliferation levels and MMP activity. The results demonstrate that the PEG-H40-DXC nanoparticle system provides an effective tool to controlling gene expression in human stem cell derivatives.


In this paper we continue our development of a structured methodology for product platform development suited to the early design stages. In addition to the previous focus on differences between new and mature products, we now consider how platform development is influenced by the morphology of a product. Purely physical products (e.g., a vacuum cleaner) often pose fewer challenges when undergoing platform design. However, products such as software, service offerings, or process-oriented solutions require adapting previous platform methods in order to accommodate the "amorphous" nature of the system. This paper includes a review of the recent literature in this area, and presents the authors latest platform methodology from the perspective of product morphology and maturity. Illustrative examples are used throughout.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


This Essay offers a fresh way to understand and talk about forced arbitration: as a wealth transfer. It argues that the rise and prevalence of forced arbitration clauses should be understood as both an outcome of and contributor to economic inequality, and that the national conversation about economic inequality should therefore include the debate over forced arbitration. Given the extreme levels of inequality in the United States — with the richest 0.1% of the country now holding the same share of national wealth as the bottom 90% — the connection between arbitration and inequality is worth exploring in depth. Here, we examine this connection in three areas: antitrust, consumer protection, and wage-and-hour law. More generally, this Essay seeks to draw attention to the distributive features and effects of civil procedure. While there is growing recognition that changes in areas of substantive law (banking law, for instance, or tax law) may contribute to inequality, less attention is paid to the role of procedural law. Those interested in addressing extreme wealth distribution should recognize procedures — including arbitration — as both a site and source of inequality.


This study examines a glass bead assemblage from surveyed and excavated portions of the Falemme (Senegal) to present a classification system for the analysis of archaeological beads in Africa and beyond. Although bead classification poses special problems, it is argued that such analysis is worthwhile, as beads may shed light on the dynamics of production, exchange and consumption in the past, on processes of culture change and continuity, and, most particularly, on chronological assessment. Focusing on the latter, the typological analysis helped us extract diagnostic information from the 474 mainly European-made beads, which complements and nicely supports the temporal sequence derived from imported trade materials and local ceramics.