This exhibition and symposium explored our auditory encounter with the urban environment and asked how we might plan for the soundscape of our futures cities, homes and dwellings. It asked in what way can the soundscape and the practice of listening inform and make meaningful the experience of living within urban environments. Do we need to revisit our relationship to the sound of cities, if so what changes should be made? What is the role of the artist and other professionals in considering alternative approaches to listening as well as helping to celebrate, re-imagine and regenerate the spaces, buildings and institutions of the urban soundscape. The sound works presented in the exhibition brought together a diverse range of artists whose practices address ways in which we encounter, explore and navigate the sounds of our urban environments. Danny Bright's Ghosting Ruins explores the multiple sonic temporalities and auditory heritage of industrial ruins. Paul Garcia Stone's Nunhead: From Dawn to Dusk charts the intersections of industrialization with the sounds of the natural world, where freight train whistles, fox calls and bird song coalesce. Ingrid Plum's The Lightship is a response to the architecture of a decommissioned lightship in Kent. The up flow of air by Conall Gleeson and Jonathan Milo Taylor is a composition made from recordings of the flow of air through the scaffold structure of St Peter's Church that is directly opposite the Onca Gallery. The artists featured in this exhibition are Danny Bright Ghosting Ruin (UK) Christopher De Laurenti Mardi Gras (USA) Leona Jones On Edge (UK) Joseph Young 6 Families of Noise (UK) Paula Garcia Stone Nunhead: From Dusk to Dawn Melissa Deerson Dawn Chorus (Australia) bunu(Aidan Deery & Matilde Meireles) Correspondence; Transition 2 (Northern Ireland) Sindhu Thirumala Composition for Temple Speakers (India) Laura Cooper A Hunt (UK) Mari Ohno Floating Sounds and Speaking Clock (Japan) Kevin Logan De Zwaan (UK) Eduardo Abrantes Two in Transition (Portugal) Ingrid Plum Lightship (UK) Johannah Hallsten The Onlookers Doubt (Sweden) Linda O'Keefe Sarah's Song, May's Song (Ireland) Conall Gleeson/Jonathan Milo Taylor the up flow of air (Ireland /UK)


Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology has become a viable target for the implementation of real time algorithms suited to video image processing applications. The unique architecture of the FPGA has allowed the technology to be used in many applications encompassing all aspects of video image processing. Among those algorithms, linear filtering based on a 2D convolution, and non-linear 2D morphological filters, represent a basic set of image operations for a number of applications. In this work, an implementation of linear and morphological image filtering using a FPGA NexysII, Xilinx, Spartan 3E, with educational purposes, is presented. The system is connected to a USB port of a personal computer, which in that way form a powerful and low-cost design station. The FPGA-based system is accessed through a Matlab graphical user interface, which handles the communication setup. A comparison between results obtained from MATLAB simulations and the described FPGA-based implementation is presented.


A single-atom microlaser involving Poissonian input of atoms with a fixed flight time through an optical resonator is described. The influence of the cavity reservoir during the interactions of successive individual atoms with the cavity field is included in the analysis. Atomic decay is also considered, as it is nonnegligible in the optical regime. During the random intervals of absence of any atom in the cavity, the field evolves under its own dynamics. The steady-state characteristics of the cavity field are discussed. Away from laser threshold, the field can be nonclassical in nature.


ABSTRACT This paper explores the conceptualisation and measurement of higher education (HE) student success relating to the world-of-work. It first considers the factors that catalysed a shift in perception and understanding of student success from engagement and academic achievement at university to post-graduation employment outcomes. It summarises and critiques approaches to measuring graduate employment outcomes for a range of developed countries. There are fundamental flaws in utilising current measures of graduate employment outcomes to gauge student success. These include devaluing the social, cultural and economic value of graduates; favouring full-time employment measures; tracking graduates in their transitional phase to the labour market and encouraging HE providers to manipulate the metrics to raise institutional status. The paper suggests a more coherent approach to gauging student success in the world-of-work, which is aligned to a broader definition of graduate outcomes, realities of contemporary working practices and the sector's locus of control.


Abstract. Several investigations reported the possible identification of anomalous geomagnetic field signals prior to earthquake occurrence. In the ULF frequency range, candidates for precursory signatures have been proposed in the increase in the noise background and polarization parameter (i.e. the ratio between the amplitude/power of the vertical component and that one of the horizontal component), in the changing characteristics of the slope of the power spectrum and fractal dimension, in the possible occurrence of short duration pulses. We conducted, with conventional techniques of data processing, a preliminary analysis of the magnetic field observations performed at L'Aquila during three months preceding the 6 April 2009 earthquake, focusing attention on the possible occurrence of features similar to those identified in previous events. Within the limits of this analysis, we do not find compelling evidence for any of the features which have been proposed as earthquake precursors: indeed, most of aspects of our observations (which, in some cases, appear consistent with previous findings) might be interpreted in terms of the general magnetospheric conditions and/or of different sources.


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This paper will look at how tax credits can help increase the affordability of health insurance among the self-employed in this country. Two of the problems involving health insurance are having enough and being able to afford it. These issues are especially true if you are part of the self-employed population in this country. Many of the self-employed have dropped health coverage or reduced it in the past few years due to rising costs About 24 million of American small business employees and their families are uninsured according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The research shows that if the self-employed could afford health insurance for their employees the number of uninsured would decrease. The government needs to step in to help make health insurance affordable for the working uninsured. The government has made some proposals that would help lower the costs of health insurance such as, Health Savings Account's, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA's), and President Bush's Tax Credit Proposal. In my paper I will look at theses as options for helping the self-employed afford health insurance and give my recommendation for a tax credit proposal. Trying to find a way to make health insurance affordable for the self-employed interests me because I have relatives who are self-employed. These relatives pay a high premium for health insurance that is not nearly as comprehensive a plan that you would get from an employer-sponsored plan. Why should someone be subjected to unfair pricing just because they have decided to work for themselves? Many of these countries corporations started out as self-employed entrepreneurs that grew. Offering the self-employed segment of the population a way to afford quality health insurance can only be done with the government's help.


In most countries of western Europe it makes little sense to speak of non-union employee representation, as this is understood in the Anglo-American world, for the principle of collective representation independent of the employer is strongly institutionalised. In this article we examine experience in two countries. In Germany, works councils with a wide repertoire of rights typically work in close partnership with trade unions. The system has experienced strains in recent years, and a growing proportion of mainly smaller workplaces are covered neither by councils nor by collective agreements; but there is virtually no evidence of alternative 'voice' mechanisms, and systems of direct participation are normally introduced by negotiation with councils. In France, works committees have fewer powers, and a divided trade union movement has been less successful than its German counterpart in 'embedding' the legally mandated institutions, at least in the private sector. Despite some common trends in both countries, national distinctiveness remains very apparent. There is growing scope for managerial strategic choice, but this is still institutionally bounded. Much more generally, countries displaying characteristics of a 'European social model' can be expected to sustain a close articulation between union and 'non-union' channels of representation.


Angiotensin II (Ang II) inhibits renin secretion and production from the kidney, but the effect of Ang II on adrenal renin is not clear. Nephrectomy, via elevated plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and potassium, is a strong stimulator of adrenal renin production in the rat. This stimulation is inhibited by the infusion of Ang II, suggesting a negative feedback between Ang II and adrenal renin. In the present study, we examined the effect of Ang II on adrenal renin using a primary culture of rat glomerulosa cells. Cells were exposed to ACTH (10(-11) M), high potassium (8 and 12 mM), db-cyclic AMP (db-cAMP), (10(-3) M), or Ang II (10(-11) to 10(-5) M) for 24 hours, and active renin and inactive renin were measured. Active renin was predominant in the cells, whereas inactive renin predominated in the medium. Ang II stimulated renin production in a dose-dependent fashion (cell-active renin, 1.21 +/- 0.20 to 2.39 +/- 0.16; medium-inactive renin, 2.59 +/- 0.40 to 6.14 +/- 0.49 ng Ang I/10(6) cells). Both ACTH and db-cAMP significantly stimulated active renin in the cells (ACTH, 1.73 +/- 0.14 to 9.44 +/- 0.98; db-cAMP, 1.45 +/- 0.16 to 3.96 +/- 0.71 ng Ang I/10(6) cells) and inactive renin in the medium (ACTH, 4.98 +/- 0.38 to 43.7 +/- 5.63; db-cAMP, 3.80 +/- 0.32 to 33.55 +/- 5.62 ng Ang I/10(6) cells). The addition of Ang II (10(-7) M) blunted the stimulation of renin production by both ACTH and db-cAMP by 60%. High potassium-stimulated renin production was not inhibited by Ang II.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The Diet Coke and Mentos reaction is a fun demonstration in chemistry and physics classes of many important concepts in thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, surface science, and the physics of explosions. The reaction has been performed numerous times on television and the Internet, but has not been systematically studied. We report on an experimental study of the Diet Coke and Mentos reaction, and consider many aspects of the reaction, including the ingredients in the candy and soda, the roughness of the candy, the temperature of the soda, and the duration of the reaction.


OBJECTIVE
The abdominal compartment syndrome is a potentially fatal condition resulting from pathologic elevation of intraabdominal pressure. We evaluated preoperative abdominal CT scans of four patients with proven abdominal compartment syndrome to identify signs of increased intraabdominal pressure.

CONCLUSION
CT findings common to all four patients included tense infiltration of the retroperitoneum out of proportion to peritoneal disease, extrinsic compression of the inferior vena cava by retroperitoneal hemorrhage or exudate, and massive abdominal distention with an increased ratio of anteroposterior-to-transverse abdominal diameter (positive round belly sign; ratio > .80; p < .001). Direct renal compression or displacement, bowel wall thickening with enhancement, and bilateral inguinal herniation were each present in two of the four patients. Radiologists should be aware of this life-threatening syndrome. In the appropriate clinical setting, CT findings of increased intraabdominal pressure should be swiftly communicated to other physicians involved in treating the patient because the abdominal compartment syndrome requires emergent surgical decompression.


Myotonic dystrophy (DM), an autosomal dominant neuromuscular disease, is caused by a CTG-repeat expansion, with affected individuals having > or = 50 repeats of this trinucleotide, at the DMPK locus of human chromosome 19q13.3. Severely affected individuals die early in life; the milder form of this disease reduces reproductive ability. Alleles in the normal range of CTG repeats are not as unstable as the (CTG)(> or = 50) alleles. In the DM families, anticipation and parental bias of allelic expansions have been noted. However, data on mechanism of maintenance of DM in populations are conflicting. We present a maximum-likelihood model for examining segregation distortion of CTG-repeat alleles in normal families. Analyzing 726 meiotic events in 95 nuclear families from the CEPH panel pedigrees, we find evidence of preferential transmission of larger alleles (of size < or = 29 repeats) from females (the probability of transmission of larger alleles is .565 +/- 0.03, different from .5 at P approximately equal .028). There is no evidence of segregation distortion during male meiosis. We propose a hypothesis that preferential transmission of larger CTG-repeat alleles during female meiosis can compensate for mutational contraction of repeats within the normal allelic size range, and reduced viability and fertility of affected individuals. Thus, the pool of premutant alleles at the DM locus can be maintained in populations, which can subsequently mutate to the full mutation status to give rise to DM.


Background and aims: Natural and technologic disasters and accidents have great influence on people's lifestyle and their health. Main object of hospitals is providing fast and timely health care to reduce mortality and complications by the disaster. The aim of this study is to evaluate preparedness crisis and disasters in centers of trauma of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. Methods: The present descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in three hospitals (A,B,C) of Kermanshah university of medical sciences, Iran, 2016. Data were collected using a self-administered checklist and questioner through observation and interview. The checklist included 220 yes/no questions in 10 domains of emergency (30 questions), admission (24 questions), evacuation and transfer (30 questions), traffic (15 questions), communication (16 questions), security (17 questions), education (17 questions), support (28 questions), human workforce (21 questions), and leadership and management (22 items). Scores 0 and 1 were given to "No" and "Yes" choices, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS and descriptive statistics. Results: Overall, the relative mean of disaster preparedness in the study hospitals A, B and C was 99.1, 43.4and 84.7, respectively. Generally, the average readiness score for all hospitals was 75. The most and lowest preparedness was related to the management and traffic domains. Conclusion: According to the results, preparedness of hospitals was in the suitable level. Officials of medical centers have the necessary programs and educations in all areas of disaster preparedness for quick response and timely in hospitals.


Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse the nexus between Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning (CP-UDP) and e-participation in urban planning, with the idea that a comprehensive planning approach is needed in order to have effective safe cities.

Design/methodology/approach

This study relies on some European case studies on CP-UDP learned by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (EU COST) Action TU1203 and on a personal research experience focused on CPTED and its potential development in Italy – which was based on literature review and interviews with key informants.

Findings

CP-UDP, as a proactive and potentially effective crime prevention strategy plays an important role in order to implement safer cities. Information and communications technology (ICT) can provide a valuable tool to enhance participatory planning. The thesis supported in this paper is that through the widespread of e-participation in urban planning is possible to implement safer cities if a comprehensive planning approach is applied and Italy has already made its first steps forward this direction.

Originality/value

The smart city concept pervades contemporary urban studies, supported by European policies, according to the logic that the use of ICT could contribute to sustainable development in its various dimensions. A new-generation CP-UDP focused on e-participation may enhance safer cities.


Shortly after the September 11 attacks of 2001, the United States Government launched an effort to fight terrorism at home and abroad. In their domestic efforts they depended heavily upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to carry out their mission of shutting down potential terrorist supporters in the United States. The FBI especially targeted Islamic charities suspected of funding terrorism. I explore the efficacy of that strategy at both the level of law enforcement as initiated by the Treasury Department, the Justice Department and the FBI, and at the level of the courtroom where the prosecution attempts to complete the state's efforts by securing criminal convictions. While the stated goal of the U.S. government is to curtail funding for global terror, this thesis questions whether that manifest function is being accomplished by contemporary policy. Instead I argue that the present targeting of Islamic charities does little to reduce the threat of terrorism, but instead serves to provide therapeutic symbolic victories that also serve the latent functions of quelling political dissent with U.S. policy, maintaining a racial state, and preserving the primacy of U.S based global capital in the world economy. In addition, the thesis looks at how the prosecution of the nation's largest Islamic charity, The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, followed these themes, but unexpectedly ended in failure for the U.S. government's case which ended in mistrial.


Personal Information Management (PIM) is an activity in which an individual stores personal information items to retrieve them later. In a former article, we suggested the user-subjective approach, a theoretical approach proposing design principles with which PIM systems can systematically use subjective attributes of information items. In this consecutive article, we report on a study that tested the approach by exploring the use of subjective attributes (i.e., project, importance, and context) in current PIM systems, and its dependence on design characteristics. Participants were 84 personal computer users. Tools included a questionnaire (N = 84), a semistructured interview that was transcribed and analyzed (n = 20), and screen captures taken from this subsample. Results indicate that participants tended to use subjective attributes when the design encouraged them to; however, when the design discouraged such use, they either found their own alternative ways to use them or refrained from using them altogether. This constitutes evidence in support of the user-subjective approach as it implies that current PIM systems do not allow for sufficient use of subjective attributes. The article also introduces seven novel system design schemes, suggested by the authors, which demonstrate how the user-subjective principles can be implemented. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background: Changes in lifestyle like displacing place could cause depression which is a common mental disorder that changes general health including growth that affects tooth alignment. However, one of the growth biomarkers is a growth hormone that is secreted in saliva. The aim of this study was to assess the relation of depression status on teeth alignment in relation to salivary growth hormone secretion among internally displaced people. Materials and methods: The sample includes 121 internally displaced people aged from 13-17 years. Method for depression is measured by using children depression inventory (CDI2) questionnaire. The total sample was assessed for tooth alignment using the criteria of the World Health Organization of 1997. The unstimulated salivary sample was collected from 60 persons under standardized condition then analyzed for assessment of human salivary growth hormone. Results: Reported that the presence of crowding in one arch was higher among person with a low grade of depression while crowding in both arch was higher in high depression grade than low grade. For the spacing score, the spacing in one and both arches was higher in high depression grade than low grade. Concerning salivary growth hormone, the data of the present study revealed no significant difference between a low and high grade of depression. Conclusion: Depression among internally displaced people had an effect on teeth alignment that couldn't be screened by salivary growth hormone.


As yet, compared to the American experience, the Japanese have barely landed on the commercial beaches of Europe. But, with the single market in Europe, Japanese companies will soon be aiming to complete the invasion of our car, computer and electronics industries and to move on to other commercial sectors and the banking and financial systems - finding Europe vulnerable in all these fields. The key is management - their better products, customer service and employee training have beaten the USA at its own game and the grim reality that America woke up to in the 1980s, may soon be ravaging Europe in the 1990s. This may not, however, be the whole picture. The Japanese are not perfect at everything and an intelligent look at America's experience can yield valuable clues as to Japanese weaknesses and strengths, and a peek through the right factory gates in Europe will demonstrate that European companies will be able to emerge unscathed from the coming battle. This book takes a theoretical look at the invasion that is already under way.


In the wake of the Tour de France's fallen heroes, the story of one of history's most legendary cyclists provides a much-needed antidote. In 1907 the world's most popular athlete was not Cy Young or Ty Cobb. Rather, he was a black bicycle racer named "Major" Taylor. In his day, Taylor became a spiritual and athletic idol. He was the fastest man in America and a champion who prevailed over unspeakable cruelty. The men who aided him were among the most colorful to emerge from the era. When hotel and restaurant operators denied Taylor food and lodgings, forcing him to sleep in horse stables and to race hungry, there was a benevolent racer-turned-trainer named Birdie Munger, who took Taylor under his wing and into his home. Then along came Arthur Zimmerman, an internationally famous bike racer, who gently mentored Taylor when some riders drew the color line and refused to race against him. Taylor's manager, pugnacious Irishman and famed Broadway producer William Brady, stood up for him when track owners tried barring him from competition. From the Old World came a rakishly handsome, mustachioed sports promoter named Victor Breyer, who lured Taylor overseas for a dramatic, Seabiscuit versus War Admiral--like match race that would be widely remembered a quarter century later. With a foreword by World Champion and three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, this spellbinding saga of fortitude, grace, forgiveness, and a man's unyielding will to win against the greatest of odds is sure to become a classic that will be enjoyed by everyone. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports--books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.


This paper addresses the question of whether the export demand for soybeans and soybean products changed structurally over the 1950 to 1992 period as the U.S. agricultural sector became more integrated with the rest of the world economy. The results suggest that export demands were stable for soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil over the sample period. Moreover, it is possible to infer conclusively that the long-run soybean and soybean product export price elasticities were in the elastic range. The implications include that for each one percent reduction in the price of soybeans, soybean meal and/or soybean oil brought about through a government program, exports increased by more than one percent, leading to a reduction in the variability of soybean and soybean product priced and sales and an increase in the net farm income of soybean producers.


Abstract. More and more cities declare themselves to be a smart city or plan to be the same. Smart cities require a solid data source as basis for all further actions and the urban digital twin is the basis on which all information is collected and analysed. The urban digital twin is much more than just a 3D city model, but often this together with GIS data is the starting point for the urban digital twin. The basis of the urban digital twin is formed by geospatial data in the form of the geospatial digital twin. The digital twin hereby acts as a kind of hub into which all relevant and available information is included and analysed. To generate a geospatial digital twin aerial sensors that collect multiple data simultaneously, hybrid sensors, are perfectly suited for this task. In aerial data acquisition a new era started with the introduction of the first real hybrid sensor systems, like the Leica CityMapper-2. Hybrid in this context means the combination of an (oblique) camera system with a topographic LiDAR into an integrated aerial mapping system. By combining these complimentary sub-systems into one system the weaknesses of the one system could be compensated by using the alternative data source. An example is the mapping of low-light urban canyons, where image-based systems mostly produce unreliable results. For an LiDAR sensor the geometrical reconstruction of these areas is straight forward and leads to accurate results. The paper gives a detailed overview over the development and technical characteristics of hybrid sensor systems. The process of data acquisition is discussed and strategies for hybrid urban mapping are proposed. Furthermore, the paper provides insights into the advantage of LiDAR data for the 3D Mesh generation for urban modelling and on the possibilities to generate new products from the combination of the single products with the help of GeoAI. Finally, the use and some use cases of the hybrid sensor data and the derived products in the context of the urban digital twin is discussed and with the infinite loop of data, analysis, and action it is shown, that all data from the urban digital twin can only be a snapshot at a given point in time and the data recording and analysis is a permanent loop.


Asbestos was once referred to as a miracle mineral' for its ability to withstand heat and it was used in thousands of products. But exposure to asbestos causes cancer and other diseases. As of the beginning of 2001, 600,000 individuals had filed lawsuits for asbestos-related diseases against more than 6,000 defendants. 85 firms have filed for bankruptcy due to asbestos liabilities and several insurers have failed or are in financial distress. More than $54 billion has been spent on the litigation higher than any other mass tort. Estimates of the eventual cost of asbestos litigation range from $200 to $265 billion. The paper examines the history of asbestos regulation and asbestos liability and argues that it was liability rather than regulation that eventually caused producers to eliminate asbestos from most products by the late 1970s. But despite the disappearance of asbestos products from the marketplace, asbestos litigation continued to grow. Plaintiffs' lawyers used forum-shopping to select the most favorable state courts techniques for mass processing of claims, and substituted new defendants when old ones went bankrupt. Because representing asbestos victims was extremely profitable, lawyers had an incentive to seek out large numbers of additional plaintiffs, including many claimants who were not harmed by asbestos exposure. The paper contrasts asbestos litigation to other mass torts involving personal injury and concludes that asbestos was unique in a number of ways, so that future mass torts are unlikely to be as big. However new legal innovations developed for asbestos are likely to make future mass torts larger and more expensive. I explore two mechanisms-- bankruptcies and class action settlements--that the legal system has developed to resolve mass torts and show that neither has worked for asbestos litigation. The first, bankruptcy by individual asbestos defendants, exacerbates the litigation by spreading it to non-bankrupt defendants. The second, a class action settlement, is impractical for asbestos litigation because of the large number of defendants. As a result, Congressional legislation is needed and the paper discusses the compensation fund approach that Congress is currently considering.


This paper analyzes the return migration of foreign-born persons in the United States. We argue that return migration may have been planned as part of an optimal life cycle residential location sequence. Return migration also occurs because immigrants based their initial migration decision on erroneous information about opportunities in the United States. The study uses the 1980 Census and administrative data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Immigrants tend to return to wealthy countries which are not too far from the United States. Moreover, return migration accentuates the type of selection characterizing the immigrant population left in the United States.


In this paper we present our work on the engine for integration of environmental data. We present a suite of selected environmental scenarios, which are integrated into a novel data mining and integration environment, being developed in the project ADMIRE . The scenarios have been chosen for their suitability for data mining by environmental experts. They deal with meteorological and hydrological problems, and apply the chosen solutions to pilot areas within Slovakia. The main challenge is that the environmental data required by scenarios are maintained and provided by different organizations and are often in different formats. We present our approach to the specification and execution of data integration tasks, which deals with the distributed nature and heterogeneity of required data resources.


In this paper, we review two techniques for topic discovery in collections of text documents (Latent Semantic Indexing and K-Means clustering) and present how we integrated them into a system for semiautomatic topic ontology construction. The system offers supports to the user during the construction process by suggesting topics and analysing them in real time.


RDF data has become a vital source of information for many applications. In this thesis, we present a set of models and algorithms to effectively search large RDF knowledge bases. These knowledge bases contain a large set of subjectpredicate-object (SPO) triples where subjects and objects are entities and predicates express relationships between them. Searching such knowledge bases can be done using the W3C-endorsed SPARQL language or by similarly designed triple-pattern search. However, the exact-match semantics of triple-pattern search might fall short of satisfying the users needs by returning too many or too few results. Thus, IR-style searching and ranking techniques are crucial. This thesis develops models and algorithms to enhance triple-pattern search. We propose a keyword extension to triple-pattern search that allows users to augment triple-pattern queries with keyword conditions. To improve the recall of triple-pattern search, we present a framework to automatically reformulate triple-pattern queries in such a way that the intention of the original user query is preserved while returning a sufficient number of ranked results. For efficient query processing, we present a set of top-k query processing algorithms and for ease of use, we develop methods for plain keyword search over RDF knowledge bases. Finally, we propose a set of techniques to diversify query results and we present several methods to allow users to interactively explore RDF knowledge bases to find additional contextual information about their query results.


This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of cable cars in public transport within urban areas. The advantages of cable car transport compared to other modes of transport are its quiet operation with an environmentally-acceptable electric drive and the possibility of transporting passengers above the ground, which can provide additional transport dimensions within urban centers. However, cable cars have some disadvantages, especially their smaller capacities in relation to other modes of transport within the urban environment. Today's built cable cars have capacities up to 2,000 persons/h for aerial tramways (or jig-back ropeways) and up to 4,000 persons/h for gondolas. Solutions are introduced in this paper as to how the current cable car technologies can increase the capacities of these devices. This can be achieved by concentrating on the vehicles (cabins) on gondola lines and by using multiple platforms at starting stations and final stations. It also provides a solution for intermediate stations, at which vehicles can be stopped independent of other vehicles on the line.


This paper describes the identification, modelling, and removal of previously unexplained systematic effects in the polarization data of the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on large angular scales, including new mapmaking and calibration procedures, new and more complete end-to-end simulations, and a set of robust internal consistency checks on the resulting maps. These maps, at 100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz, are early versions of those that will be released in final form later in 2016. The improvements allow us to determine the cosmic reionization optical depth τ using, for the first time, the low-multipole EE data from HFI, reducing significantly the central value and uncertainty, and hence the upper limit. Two different likelihood procedures are used to constrain τ from two estimators of the CMB E- and B-mode angular power spectra at 100 and 143 GHz, after debiasing the spectra from a small remaining systematic contamination. These all give fully consistent results. A further consistency test is performed using cross-correlations derived from the Low Frequency Instrument maps of the Planck 2015 data release and the new HFI data. For this purpose, end-to-end analyses of systematic effects from the two instruments are used to demonstrate the near independence of their dominant systematic error residuals. The tightest result comes from the HFI-based τ posterior distribution using the maximum likelihood power spectrum estimator from EE data only, giving a value 0.055 ± 0.009. In a companion paper these results are discussed in the context of the best-fit PlanckΛCDM cosmological model and recent models of reionization.


Significant improvements in tooth-colored restorative materials and adhesive techniques have resulted in numerous conservative esthetic treatment possibilities. Although restorative dentistry is a blend of art and science, esthetic dentistry is the art of dentistry in its purest form. One of the greatest assets a person can have is a smile, which shows beautiful, natural teeth. When teeth are discolored,malformed,crookedor missing, there is often a conscious effort to avoid smiling. Correction of these types of dental problems often result improved confidence, personality and social life. The restoration of a smile is one of the most appreciated services a dentist can render. There are certain basic artistic elements must be considered to ensure an optimal esthetic result. These elements include shape or form, symmetry and proportionality, position and alignment, surface texture, color and translucency. Therefore a basic knowledge and understanding of these artistic elements is required to attain esthetic results. This review contains esthetic principles in dentistry.


Abstract Predicting the diagenetic modification of reservoir quality in carbonate fields is poorly understood but of paramount importance to reservoir characterization. The diagenetic processes and current pore system are reported for two parasequences from the platform center to the margin of the Tengiz reservoir (∼ 16 km); the late Visean (Lvis13 cbs 900) and Bashkirian (Bash2.5 MSF 350) parasequences are separated by 8 million years. Syndepositional fibrous cement (> 10% rock volume) and aragonite skeletal molds developed in both parasequences. On subaerial exposure, brown soil-related calcite, and meniscus and pendant cements were emplaced in both parasequences. The application of CL petrography to these rocks for the first time has revealed the depositional components and early marine components are altered developing a mottled pattern implying that their original chemistry is not preserved. The principal calcite cement shows a complex growth pattern by CL that is unreported from any other calcite cement. CL is also used to divide the main cement into stage 1, nonluminescent, and stage 2, orange to brown luminescent, calcite. Stage 1 calcite shows vadose meniscus and pendant fabrics followed by uniform phreatic euhedral terminations. Stage 1 cement is patchily distributed at a millimeter scale; 28% to 40% in the Visean and 0.5% to 22% in Bashkirian grainstones. Stage 1 cement is more abundant at the center of the platform in the late Visean than at its margin. Abundant stage 1 calcite creates a framework that prevents later compaction preserving a high porosity at the center of the platform. This sweet spot is reinforced by the deposition of late-stage bitumen cement that occupies 8% rock volume at the margin of the platform but is almost absent at its center. Stage 1 δ13C values (−2.4‰ to +1.7‰) are derived by dissolution of host rock, and their δ18O values (−6.3‰ to −3.7‰) are compatible with precipitation from meteoric or mixed marine-meteoric water. Depositional micrite and micritic grains are transformed by dissolution–precipitation processes into porous microrhombic calcite not by Ostwald ripening. Microrhombic calcite is ubiquitous in the Tengiz icehouse, dispelling the myth that this fabric is restricted to greenhouse epochs. At ∼ 300 million years before significant burial the study grainstones were patchily cemented and dissolved to reach peak porosity; their transformed texture set up flow paths that controlled the distribution of later diagenetic products. Reservoir compartmentalization did not occur through extensive hardground formation at this time as occurs in some greenhouse sequences, but ash bands at parasequence boundaries were turned into tonsteins and wackestones were compacted perhaps sufficiently to influence vertical flow. CL examination of stage 2 calcite that adds 0.5% to 16% to rock volume reveals that its precipitation was episodic and switched sites as the pore network became blocked through precipitation and compaction and was opened by new fractures. A change from acute to equant habit occurred during stage 2 precipitation, causing the change from fibrous to equant crystal fabric. The δ18OPDB values of stage 2 calcite (−3‰ to −9‰) are linked to precipitation from an 18O-enriched fluid that evolved to ∼ +6‰ SMOW at temperatures of 60°C to 120°C, using the equation of Kim and O'Neil (1997). Many open macropores are lined with small cement crystals that CL shows have all stages of growth present and are terminated by euhedral surfaces. These macropores are only partly filled because of cement inhibition, not because they were dissolved during burial, as was previously claimed. Late-stage dissolution did create some macropores and rounded micrite crystals, but its effect on overall platform porosity is small. The CL examination of Tengiz platform calcite cement has recognized many diagenetic events that cannot be recognized without CL. The new Tengiz diagenetic textures recognized here are probably present in other carbonate platforms, especially those from icehouse epochs.


E-Vehicles are poised to cause a major disruption in the automobile as well as the energy industry across the globe. This disruption is propelled by powerful purpose of
creating a greener, safer and sustainable planet. Over 194 participating countries in the historical Paris climate agreement enforced in 2016 pledged to limit the average
increase in global temperature to less than 2 degree celsius in this century. The USA, China and India combined together account for a staggering 50% of the world's
Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions. The transport sector of these major economies form the bulk of the emission of GHGs. The USA and China have already promoted the replacement of fossil fuel powered vehicles by e-vehicles and as of 2016 have the highest stock of e-vehicles in the world; however, India is lagging behind its counterparts.
Out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 15 cities are in India. India has pledged to cut down its share of GHGs emissions significantly in order limit the
average increase in global temperature. As a result of this, the Indian government has set a target of 100% e-mobility by 2030. India embarked upon its e-vehicle journey in November 2017 by the deployment of 100 e-vehicle units and installation of four charging stations in a city. This paper is aimed to examine the commercial viability of
the pilot project and identify the initial roadblocks and its rectifications in order to scale up on pan-India basis. In order to achieve this, the pilot project was studied in
detail and interviews and surveys were conducted among all the stakeholders in April-May 2018. While it was found that it is a win-win proposition for stakeholders, major
roadblocks in scaling up were found to be - bureaucratic hassles in the setting up of charging stations, high initial investment and waiting time for drivers. The paper also uniquely identifies the charging pattern of the commercial electric vehicles at a particular charging station.


While it is generally believed that prosody of a spoken message conveys information concerning its syntactic structure, there exist many cases where prosody and syntax are discordant. The discordance, however, does not usually cause any difficulty in comprehension. The present study aims at elucidating the process whereby the prosodic structure is determined in speech production, as well as the process whereby it is utilized in speech perception. Using the contour of the voice fundamental frequency as an index, this paper shows examples of such discordance in utterances of various languages including English, Japanese, and Chinese, and presents an interpretation for the origin of the discordance, based on a model of the cognitive processes involved in message generation and speech production. The role of such discordance in speech preception and message comprehension is also discussed, referring to the cognitive processes involved. Finally, the implication of these results for speech synthesis by rule and...


This chapter surveys how international legal scholars have catalogued and sought to explain the legal impact of the UN even though its political and judicial organs have not been delegated the power to make law. It explains how the UN attempts to adhere to, but also challenges, the traditional sources of international law—treaties, custom, and general principles—contained in the Statute of the International Court of Justice. It enumerates how the turn to UN system organizations—amidst newly empowered non-state actors, increasing resort to 'soft' or 'informal' norms, and recourse to institutionalized processes—have led to distinct legal frameworks such as process or deliberative theories, interdisciplinary 'law and' approaches, feminist and 'Third World' critiques, and scholarly work that renews attention to or revises legal positivism.


The «Thirty-Year European civil war» has become a topos used to describe the age of the world wars. Believing in the necessity to adopt a more precise historiographical contextualization, the author reconsiders some assumptions behind the idea of the «Thirty-Year European civil war»: firstly, he underlines the heterogeneous roots of the many wars occurred from 1914 to 1945; secondly, he highlights how the process of «brutalization of the world» began only after World War I; finally, he emphasizes how the rise of European fascisms was not entirely due to the communist threat. In the end, the author questions the teleological nature of the topos and suggests reassessing the usual sharp opposition between the confrontational years following World War I and the alleged pacific post-World War II period.


BACKGROUND
Inflammation is a common phenomenon present in gastric mucosa of patients infected with H. pylori. Activation of the RAGE/multiligand axis is thought to be a relevant factor in cancer-mediated inflammation. RAGE is a membrane receptor, belonging to the immunoglobulin family, and the over-expression of RAGE has been associated with increased invasiveness and metastasis generation in different types of cancer, including gastric cancer. Furthermore recent experiences show that the use of its soluble form (sRAGE) or silencing of the gene coding for this receptor could provide therapeutic benefits in cancer.

AIM
To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of RAGE, MUC-1, β-Catenin free and phosphorylated, Cyclin-D1 and GSK3 in gastric biopsy specimens infected with H. pylori.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Immunohistochemical analysis was carried out in gastric biopsies from 138 patients: 55 with inflammatory injury (no atrophic gastritis), 42 with pre-cancerous conditions (atrophy or intestinal metaplasia) and 41 with dysplastic lesions or in situ adenocarcinoma.

RESULTS
There was a high rate of positive RAGE expression in the three groups of biopsies. Biopsies with dysplasia or in situ carcinoma had a significantly higher percentage of RAGE expression than the other groups of biopsies.

CONCLUSIONS
The increased RAGE expression reported in both dysplasia and incipient cancer support the role of the multiligand/RAGE axis in gastric carcinogenesis.


Numerical and analytical solutions for water flow from a point source are compared. The numerical solution was for the nonlinear moisture flow equation and the analytical solution for the corresponding linearized form. For cyclic conditions, results were approximately the same with regard to range in values between the wettest and driest values. However, the numerical results show a faster response both for wetting and drying. Computational times required of the analytical solution were of the order of 1/20 to 1/200th of that required for the finite difference solutions.


A recently proposed mechanism for electrochemical CO 2 reduction on Pt (111) catalyzed by aqueous acidic pyridine solutions suggests that the observed redox potential of ca. − 600 mV vs. SCE is due to the one-electron reduction of pyridinium through proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) to form H atoms adsorbed on the Pt surface (H ads ). The initial pyridinium reduction was probed isotopically via deuterium substitution. A combined experimental and theoretical analysis found equilibrium isotope effects (EIE) due to deuterium substitution at the acidic pyridinium site. A shift in the cathodic cyclic voltammetric half wave potential of − 25 mV was observed, consistent with the theoretical prediction of − 40 mV based on the recently proposed reaction mechanism where pyridinium is essential to establish a high concentration of Brønsted acid in contact with the sub- strate CO 2 and with the Pt surface. A prefeature in the cyclic voltammogram was examined under isotopic substitution and indicated an H ads intermediate in pyridinium reduction. Theoretical prediction and observation of an EIE supported the assign- ment of the cathodic wave to the proposed reduction of pyridinium through PCET forming H ads and eventually H 2 on the Pt surface.


Purpose – The five-decade-long Chinese colonialization of Tibet has led to a refugee flow. No longer confined to the Tibetan Plateau, Tibetans are scattered over the world, placing deep roots in host nations, in cities stretching from Oslo to New York City. Faced with new ideas, cultures and ways of life, diasporic Tibetans confront the same challenges as countless refugees before them. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efforts of Tibetan New Yorkers to preserve their language and culture. To what extent should they integrate themselves into host countries? What mechanisms could they use to hold onto their native heritage without isolating themselves in a foreign environment? How should they construct new diasporic identities and reconcile such efforts with their ongoing political struggles? Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on documentary sources and interviews to examine the ways in which diasporic Tibetans understood and portrayed the conventional categories of language, cultural heritage and religion, especially with respect to the Tibetan Government-in-exile in India, and in which they maintained and reinvented their linguistic and cultural heritage in the cosmopolitan environment of New York City. Findings – There is a gradual process of identity formation among Tibetan New Yorkers. While exiled Tibetans are asserting their agency to reinvent a new sense of belonging to America, they still hold onto the regional identity of their family households. Meanwhile, the US-born younger generations strengthen their ties with the larger Tibetan diaspora through community events, socio-cultural activism and electronic media. Research limitations/implications – Despite the small sample size, this study presents the first investigation of the Tibetan New Yorkers, and it provides an insider's perspective on the efforts to preserve their native heritage in a globalized environment. Practical implications – This study is a useful case study of the Tibetan diasporas in comparison with other Chinese diasporas in theWest and beyond. Originality/value – This study is the first scholarly investigation of the sociocultural experiences of Tibetan NewYorkers.


The String Octet #2 was written during the summer of 2013. A previous String Octet was written in recent years, but not fully completed. The present work was written for various string-playing colleagues and friends, including Maureen Murchie (violin), Vita Wallace (violin), Sona Hairabedian ('Cello), and Judy Donn ('Cello). The work is in three movements, and both full scores and individual parts are all available on Academic Commons. Tempi and dynamics may vary at discretion of players, but should reflect the feel of the individual movement.


In budding yeast, the cortical structure formed by the septins is remodeled at the onset of mitotic exit and delineates a specialized compartment dedicated to cytokinesis. How this septin function is spatially and timely regulated remains poorly understood. In this study, we report a role of the anillin-like protein Bud4 in the formation and the disassembly of the double ring structure formed by the septins at the time of cytokinesis. Bud4 acts with Bud3 in this pathway and in parallel with septin phosphorylation by the p21-activated kinase Cla4 and the septin-dependent kinase Gin4. In addition, we show that the function of Bud4 is regulated by the cyclin-dependent protein kinase Cdk1, the master regulator of cell cycle progression. This result suggests that the Cdks, or a locally specific pool of the kinase, may have a role past mitotic exit.


Abstract Fragmentation of stream networks from anthropogenic structures such as road culverts can affect the health of a catchment by negatively affecting the ecosystem's biota, their movements, abundance, and species richness. We present a framework using publicly available LiDAR and orthophotography to locate and identify road crossings, i.e. the most prolific of barriers in forested landscapes, and evaluate fragmentation and passability at the landscape scale. Coupling the LiDAR stream network and private road network in the 3,223 km2 study area, we identified 1,052 stream crossings of which, 32% were culverts and 12% of the total stream network was potentially inaccessible due to these culverts. We correctly identified the type of stream-road crossings at >90% of any stream order and at 100% at Orders >2. The 10 culverts restricting the most stream kilometers, restricted >34% of the potential stream habitats for four species of fish, a result that provides the resource management with a first assessment for effective improvement of connectivity across this landscape. With this framework, managers equipped with appropriate imagery can create a stream crossing database with minimal funding, create an inventory of instream barriers, and prioritize removals at a landscape-scale, thus providing an effective assessment and decision-making tool for their habitat restoration efforts.


The capsule is certainly the most obvious virulence factor for Cryptococcus neoformans. The main capsule constituents are glucuronoxylomannans (GXM). Several studies have focused on the structure and chemistry of the GXM component of the capsule, yet little is known about the genetic basis of the capsule construction. Using a monoclonal antibody specific to a sugar epitope, we isolated a capsule‐structure mutant strain and cloned by complementation a gene named CAS1 that codes for a putative membrane protein. Although no sequence homology was found with any known protein in the different databases, protein analysis using the Propsearch software classified Cas1p as a putative glycosyltransferase. Cas1p is a well‐conserved evolutionary protein, as we identified one orthologue in the human genome, one in the drosophila genome and four in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Analysis of the capsule structure after CAS1 deletion showed that it is required for GXM O‐acetylation.


The article, based on policy analysis, institutional interviews and community fieldwork, looks at why children in prostitution and victims of trafficking remain practically without state support and institutional assistance. It also explores to what extent the decriminalisation of the system assisting child victims of prostitution and trafficking, or the shift from the 'punishment' to the 'welfare model', has taken place. The ethnic aspect of the problem is addressed as well given that the majority of victims are of Roma origin. While Hungary has ratified all important international conventions that oblige the country to protect child victims, neither its policies and legislation nor its institutions including child protection, law enforcement and the judiciary, seem to have adequate structural frameworks and institutional practices to attend to these children and prosecute offenders. Policy gaps, institutional procedures and practices are identified and it is concluded that the country is still much closer to the 'punishment model'.


We describe a combination of a statistical and symbolic approaches for automated scoring of student utterances according to their semantic content. The proposed semantic classifier overcomes the limitations of bag-of-words methods by mapping natural language sentences into predicate representations and matching them against the automatically generated deductive closure of the domain givens, buggy assumptions and domain rules. With the goal to account for uncertainties in both symbolic representations of natural language sentences and logical relations between domain statements, this work extends the deterministic symbolic approach by augmenting the deductive closure graph structure with conditional probabilities, thus creating a Bayesian network. By deriving the structure of the network formally, instead of estimating it from data, we alleviate the problem of sparseness of training data. We compare the performance of the Bayesian network classifier with the deterministic graph matching-based classifiers and baselines.


PURPOSE
To determine the proportion of women who underwent clinical breast examination (CBE) within 12 months before undergoing screening mammography and to examine which factors, if any, were associated with having undergone CBE within 12 months before screening mammography.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 1,135 women presenting for screening mammography was conducted with a self-administered questionnaire. Data were collected regarding sociodemographic information, health care provider information, breast self-examination practices, and CBE history. Data were analyzed with the chi(2) test of independence.

RESULTS
One hundred forty (38.5%) of 364 nonwhite women and 366 (57.4%) of 638 white women reported having undergone CBE 12 months before screening mammography. This association between race and CBE was statistically significant before (P <.001) and after adjusting for education, age, and type of referring physician (P <.001). There was a statistically significant association between undergoing CBE within 12 months and age (P <.001), type of referring physician (P <.001), and education level (P <.001). Health insurance status was associated with having undergone CBE within the past 12 months, but it was not a statistically significant association after controlling for race.

CONCLUSION
The proportion of women who undergo comprehensive breast cancer screening differs by race, education level, and type of referring physician.


This paper reviews the recent theoretical literature on heterogeneous firms and trade, which emphasizes firm selection into international markets and reallocations of resources across firms. We discuss the empirical challenges that motivated this research and its relationship to traditional trade theories. We examine the implications of firm heterogeneity for comparative advantage, market size, aggregate trade, the welfare gains from trade, and the relationship between trade and income distribution. While a number of studies examine the endogenous response of firm productivity to trade liberalization, modelling internal firm organization and the origins of firm heterogeneity remain interesting areas of ongoing research.


Abstract : Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks have been launched against Internet sites for years. They are a significant problem because they can shut an organization off from the Internet and because there is no comprehensive solution no silver bullet for protecting your site or recovering from a denial of service. In this paper, we will describe the current situation with denial-of-service attacks and explore ways of addressing the problem. Much has been written previously about denial of service. In fact, the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) published alerts related to these attacks as early as 1996. CERT/CC publications and other references can be found at the end of this paper. In November 1999, the CERT/CC hosted a workshop in which 30 experts from around the world addressed the increasing sophistication of DoS tools to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The results of that workshop are published on the CERT/CC web site (http://www.cert.org/reports/dsit_workshop.pdf). (For additional publications, see the References section of this paper.) The report contained the most current knowledge of denial of service at the time. This paper provides the knowledge gained since the workshop. The information we provide is geared to commercial business. Though Internet service providers and home users can benefit, we have not tailored this paper to their particular needs. The next section provides background information about denial-of-service attacks. It is followed by information on steps you can take to reduce your risk of attack as well as how to identify attacks when they happen and respond to them. Finally, we take a look at future possibilities. An appendix contains additional information about denial of service.


Historically, documentary films have always encountered very serious problems of distribution and have struggled immensely to find reliable audiences, even though, ironically, documentaries are accepted by many as significant tools for the promotion of important historical, social and cultural values. There is a very serious lack of proper tools and strategies to allow documentaries to reach their potential audience in a manner that is consistent with the importance of these films as enablers of important discussion and analysis inside a society.
This is especially true in the case of most developing countries, where open discussion about social, economic or cultural issues that documentaries are perfectly suited to confront and explain is more than necessary. And among these countries, the case of Colombia will occupy this research as a remarkable case study, since it is a country that is producing a large number of documentaries about pressing matters but which unfortunately are not being seen, while at the same time it is a country whose ambivalent attitude towards film production and distribution embodies the contradictions between formal and informal economies as well as between legitimate and illegitimate ways to obtain access to films and other media.
Considering this situation, the main concern of this research is to review and analyse the different mechanisms that have been used to distribute and promote documentary films (although in some cases, such as the informal markets, the focus will be placed on issues pertaining both fiction and nonfiction films), with the intention to understand how these mechanisms have failed or succeeded in allowing these films to meet their primary objective: reaching their audiences. To provide this analysis, this study will resort to several different resources such as economic studies, surveys, reports, interviews with filmmakers, producers and film distributors –both legal and illegal– from different countries, along with other different sources that will provide what is hopefully a well-rounded account on the complex situation of film distribution in developing countries in general, and Colombia in particular,
XI
and the challenges that result from such scenario. As a consequence of this analysis, this work also aims to propose new alternatives for the distribution of documentary films; alternatives that could ultimately be of use in improving the communication between documentary filmmakers, their work and their potential spectators.


This paper presents an overview of the formal markings characteristic of focus in Atlantic languages and reflection on some problematic uses of focused forms. A common (but not universal) feature of these languages is the use of verb morphology (in various ways) to express focus. What is most remarkable in several Atlantic languages (and apparently specific to this group) is that (1) verb forms indicate the syntactic status of the focused constituent; (2) these verb forms often merge focus, aspect, and voice features. This organization of the verb system has consequences for the range of uses of focused forms, in particular, for verb focus which is often used to express a mere statement in the case of verbs expressing a quality. These uses are accounted for through a renewed definition of the focused sentence as a "split assertion" involving a temporal presupposition and a qualitative designation.


Abstract The human rights arguments that underpinned the fight against HIV over the last three decades were poised, but ultimately failed, to provide a similar foundation for success against multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and other diseases of the poor. With more than 1.5 million deaths since 2000 attributed to strains of MDR-TB, and with half a million new, and mostly untreated, MDR-TB cases in the world each year, the stakes could not be higher. The World Health Organization (WHO), whose mandate is to champion the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health, recommended unsound medical treatment for MDR-TB patients in resource-poor settings from 1993-2002. Citing cost considerations, WHO did not recommend the available standard of care that had been successfully used to contain and defeat MDR-TB in rich countries. By acting as a strategic gatekeeper in its technical advisory role to donor agencies and countries, it also facilitated the global implementation of a double standard for TB care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), upending important legal and scientific priorities. This raises serious questions about whether the organization violated international human rights standards and those established in its own constitution. While calling for additional analysis and discussion on this topic, the authors propose that policymakers should reject double standards of this kind and instead embrace the challenge of implementing the highest standard of care on a global level.


Delage (1884) and Smith (1906), two authors who published extremely important contributions on Rhizocephala, largely differed in their views concerning the morphology of these parasites. Both regarded the surface of the parasites touching the thorax of the host as the left side, but in other respects they were of a quite different opinion. Delage's (1884) ideas on the morphology of Sacculina were, as he stated himself, different from those of previous authors. In his opinion the dorsal region of the parasite is on the left side of the host, the ventral region on the right side of the host. The left side of the parasite touches the sternum of the crab, the right side the abdomen. As a matter of fact then the region of the stalk must be regarded as the anterior (in Delage's terminology "superior") part of the parasite, the region of the mantle opening as the posterior (in Delage's terminology "inferior") part. According to Delage's views consequently the mesentery is found in the ventral region of the parasite. The manner of orientation of Sacculina as proposed by Smith (1906) was largely based on comparison of the morphology with that of Peltogaster. According to Smith the mesentery determines the dorsal region. The region of the stalk is the posterior part of the parasite, the region of the mantle opening the anterior part. Consequently the surface of the parasite which is in contact with the thorax of the crab is the left side, the surface which is lying against the abdomen is the right side. In previous papers dealing with Sacculinidae I have followed Smith in distinguishing right and left side, dorsal and ventral region, anterior and posterior extremity of the parasites in exactly the same manner. In the


In this working paper we explore the independence of European Union (EU) agencies from an institutionalist perspective. Drawing on Principal Agent-theory, we first offer a definition of formal independence of EU agencies. Having specified the concept of formal independence, the second part provides an operationalisation of the concept, which captures the agencies' mandate as well as different mechanisms of ex ante and ex post control. Thirdly, we employ our operationalization of agency independence and apply it empirically to twenty-nine EU agencies. For this purpose we present an index to assess the degree of independence of the different EU agencies. In the last section we relate our discussion on agencies' independence to different conceptualisations of accountability.


In situations of declining or depleted fish stocks, exploiters seem to have fallen prey to the Tragedy of the Commons, which occurs when the maximisation of short-term self-interest produces outcomes leaving all participants worse off than feasible alternatives would. Standard economic theory predicts that in social dilemmas, such as fishing from a common resource, individuals are not willing to cooperate and sacrifice catches in the short term, and that, consequently, the resource is overharvested. However, over the last decades, a multitude of research has shown that humans often achieve outcomes that are "better than rational" by building conditions where reciprocity, reputation, and trust help to overcome the temptations of short-term self-interest. The evolution of the natural human tendency to cooperate under certain conditions can be explained, and its neuro-physiological and genetic bases are being unravelled. Nevertheless, fisheries management still often deploys top-down regulation and economic incentives in its aim to regulate fisher behaviour, and under-utilizes the potential for spontaneous responsible fisher behaviour through setting conditions that enhance natural cooperative tendencies. Here I introduce this body of knowledge on how to overcome the Tragedy of the Commons to the audience of fisheries scientists, hoping to open up novel ways of thinking in this field. I do this through a series of thought experiments, based on actual published experiments, exploring under what conditions responsible and cooperative fisher behaviour can be expected. Keys include reputation-building and indirect reciprocity, face-to-face communication, knowledge on the state of the resource, and self-decision on rules and sanctions. Solon (c. 638 BC–558 BC), drawing up his laws, was laughed at for supposing that his countrymen's greed could be kept within bounds by means of laws. He replied that he was framing his laws in such a way as to make it clear that it would be to everybody's advantage to keep rather than to break them.


Managing large amounts of dynamic visual information involves understanding changes happening out of the user's sight. In this paper, we show how current software does not adequately support users in this task, and motivate the need for a more general approach. We propose an image-based storage, visualization, and implicit interaction paradigm called mnemonic rendering that provides better support for handling visual changes. Once implemented on a system, mnemonic rendering techniques can benefit all applications. We explore its rich design space and discuss its expected benefits as well as limitations based on feedback from users of a small-screen and a wall-size prototype.


Abstract A time-dependent numerical model of ice accretion on wires, such as overhead conductors, is presented. Simulations of atmospheric icing are made with the model in order to examine the dependence of the accreted ice amount on atmospheric conditions. The results show that in wet growth (glaze formation) under constant atmospheric conditions, the growth rate increases with time until the process changes to dry growth. In dry growth (rime formation) the growth rate typically increases with time at the beginning of the icing process, but later decreases with time when the ice deposit has grown bigger. The effect of air temperature on the ice load turns out to be rather small for the first 24 hours of icing in typical dry growth conditions, but it is important for long-term icing. The ultimate ice load may either increase or decrease with decreasing air temperature, depending on the other atmospheric conditions and on the duration of icing. These results largely explain the difficulties encountered in ...


In May of 1746, slaving captain Christiaan Hagerop illegally captured ten Gold Coast canoe paddlers, seven of whom were free Africans from Elmina and Fante. Hagerop subsequently sailed to Suriname, where he sold the paddlers into slavery. To appease the relatives of the captured men and to safeguard its reputation among local Africans, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) launched a search for the kidnapped paddlers. Six of the men were eventually located in Suriname in 1749, the seventh having died in slavery. While the Africans were transported back to the Gold Coast via Amsterdam, the WIC tried to have Hagerop extradited to its Gold Coast possessions to receive punishment for his crime. A legal battle over jurisdictional competence ensued in the Dutch Republic, the outcome of which was that the captain was made to stand trial in Amsterdam, but in the end he received very little punishment.


These remarks are a transcript of a talk that was given on October 14, 2016, at the Kernochan Center Annual Symposium at Columbia Law School.
Session II addressed how international copyright treaties and FTAs affect national IP laws in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Session Panelists:
Krista Cox, Director of Public Policy Initiatives, Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
Ysolde Gendreau, Professor, Universite de Montreal
Eric J. Schwartz, Partner, Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp LLP and Counsel to the International Intellectual Property Alliance
Karyn Temple Claggett, Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy & International Affairs, U.S. Copyright Office


Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) is a method implemented within the receiver to protect users against satellite navigation system failures. Research has shown that traditional methods for the determination of RAIM holes (i.e. places where less than five satellites are visible and available) based on spatial and temporal intervals (grids) compromise accuracy dueto the constraint of computation load. Research by the authors of this paper has addressed this and developed a new algorithm to determine RAIM holes using bounded regions instead of approximation based on grid points. This paper uses the new algorithm and proposes an area based method for the computation a RAIM satellite availability statistic based on the ratio of the total area of RAIM holes and the coverage area (regional or global area). Assessment over time is based on the interpolation using a model generated from snapshot spatial statistics at a relatively long temporal interval. Test results show that the area-based method for the calculation of the RAIM satellite availability statistic is significantly more accurate with less computational load than the traditional grid points based approach.


Bacterial drug resistance is a worldwide problem threatening millions of lives. Several studies showed that bacteria develop direct resistance against an antibiotic compound used throughout treatment. However, recent studies demonstrated that resistance to one antibiotic can pleiotropically lead to resistance to other antibiotics, a concept known as cross-resistance, imposing serious limitations for combating against infectious diseases. Therefore, slowing down evolution of cross-resistance is critical and important task for developing effective antibiotic therapies. Despite its importance, mechanisms behind crossresistance are not well understood due to lack of systematic studies. Here in this systematic study, we aim to provide a better understanding of evolution of antibiotic resistance using state of the art genetic tools. In this study, we evolved 88 initially isogenic Escherichia coli populations against 22 different antibiotics for 21 days. For each drug, two populations were evolved under strong selection and two populations were evolved under mild selection. Representative clones from each evolved population were phenotyped against all 22 drugs we used in our experiments and their resistance levels were carefully quantified. Furthermore, these clones were genotyped by Illumina whole genome sequencing and resistance-conferring mutations were identified. Bacterial populations evolved under strong selection acquired stronger resistance against higher number of antibiotics compared to populations evolved under mild selection. Strongly selected populations also acquired higher number of mutations compared mildly selected populations and there mutations were found to be more pathway specific among strongly selected populations. Finally, populations evolved against aminoglycosides were found to develop hypersensitivity against several other antibiotic classes due to mutations in trkH gene, coding for a membrane protein. Our study provides a thorough understanding for phenotype to genotype in the context of antibiotic resistance and demonstrates that selection strength is an important parameter contributing to the complexity of evolution of antibiotic resistance.


Temporal variation in crop yields has considerable impact at farm, regional, and national levels. To gain a better understanding of the factors contributing to this variation, we quantified the cumulative effects of management practices and soil covariates on total yield (TY), temporal yield variance (TYV) and coefficient of variation (CV) of 2-yr (2 Yr) {corn [Zea mays L.]-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]} and 4-yr (4 Yr) [corn-soybean-spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)] crop rotations in conventional (CNV) and organic (ORG) cropping systems. Soil covariates differed individually or as a group in their impact on TY, TYV, and CV. Spatial variation, quantified by soil covariates, did not fully explain variation in TY or TYV; whereas, TYV explained up to 86% of variation in TY, both of which were less variable in ORG than in CNV. Multivariate relationships among TYV, CV, management factors, and covariates indicated that TYs of 4-Yr crop rotations were likely to be more stable than TYs of 2-Yr rotations. The largest and most stable yields obtained under both cropping systems are characterized by a combination of optimum TYV and minimum CV values. We developed a classification scheme of cropping systems, crop rotation phases, and management practices based on the three-way relationship between TY, TYV, and CV, and deviations from their respective means. In addition to its utility in selecting the largest and most stable yield, the scheme can be used to measure stability in crop production and strategically deploy appropriate management practices for a given cropping system or crop rotation.


Confronting and solving problems is a painful process which most of us attempt to avoid. And the very avoidance results in greater pain and an inability to grow both mentally and spiritually. Drawing heavily on his own professional experience, leading psychiatrist Dr M. Scott Peck suggests ways in which facing our difficulties - and suffering through the changes - can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding. He discusses the nature of loving relationships: how to recognise true compatibility, how to distinguish dependency from love, how to become one's own person, and how to be a more sensitive parent. This is the bestselling self-help book that will change the way you live, and love, for good.


This chapter discusses two case studies from the peri-urban areas of Kathmandu, Nepal, where irrigation using wastewater or highly polluted water is increasingly practiced. While climate change gradually brings more water stress to the area, the rapidly expanding urban areas are encroaching on land and water resources that were mainly used for agriculture and basic domestic purposes until quite recently. In conjunction, these processes are causing new constraints on irrigated agriculture, forcing irrigators to explore alternatives for accessing water to avoid exclusion from this crucial resource. Using two case studies of changing irrigation practices, we show how peri-urban farmers find locally specific individual and cooperative solutions to deal with the decreasing availability of water for irrigation. Reinterpreting the function of existing infrastructure, exploring new water sources, and introducing new water accessing technologies, farmers manage to maintain access to water through the adoption of increasingly ad-hoc and pragmatically arranged irrigation practices. We suggest that future policies that deal with these processes should start from the experiences and daily practices of marginalized groups and vulnerable actors who continue to depend on agriculture, to develop adaptation strategies that consider their livelihoods.


The Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) will make comprehensive three-dimensional mass-resolved measurements of the full variety of plasma phenomena found in Saturn's magnetosphere. Our fundamental scientific goals are to understand the nature of saturnian plasmas primarily their sources of ionization, and the means by which they are accelerated, transported, and lost. In so doing the CAPS investigation will contribute to understanding Saturn's magnetosphere and its complex interactions with Titan, the icy satellites and rings, Saturn's ionosphere and aurora, and the solar wind. Our design approach meets these goals by emphasizing two complementary types of measurements: high-time resolution velocity distributions of electrons and all major ion species; and lower-time resolution, high-mass resolution spectra of all ion species. The CAPS instrument is made up of three sensors: the Electron Spectrometer (ELS), the Ion Beam Spectrometer (IBS), and the Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS). The ELS measures the velocity distribution of electrons from 0.6 eV to 28,250 keV, a range that permits coverage of thermal electrons found at Titan and near the ring plane as well as more energetic trapped electrons and auroral particles. The IBS measures ion velocity distributions with very high angular and energy resolution from 1 eV to 49,800 keV. It is specially designed to measure sharply defined ion beams expected in the solar wind at 9.5 AU, highly directional rammed ion fluxes encountered in Titan's ionosphere, and anticipated field-aligned auroral fluxes. The IMS is designed to measure the composition of hot, diffuse magnetospheric plasmas and low-concentration ion species 1 eV to 50,280 eV with an atomic resolution M/ΔM ∼70 and, for certain molecules, (such asN2+ and CO+), effective resolution as high as ∼2500. The three sensors are mounted on a motor-driven actuator that rotates the entire instrument over approximately one-half of the sky every 3 min.


Learning to play a musical instrument such as the piano requires a substantial amount of practice and perseverance in learning to read and play from sheet music. Our interactivity demo allows people to learn to play songs without requiring sheet music reading skills. We project a graphical notation on top of a piano that indicates what key(s) need to be pressed and create a feedback loop that monitors the player's performance. We implemented The Augmented Piano (TAP), which is a straightforward combination of a physical piano with our alternative notation projected on top. Piano Attack (PAT) extends TAP with a shooting game that continuously provides game-based incentives for learning to play the piano.


Little is known as regards frailty in patients with functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR). Thus, in this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence, characteristics, and impact of frailty on patients with severe FTR.This prospective study included 110 consecutive patients with severe FTR who were assessed via transthoracic echocardiography at an outpatient clinic. Patients were dichotomized using short physical performance battery (SPPB). To better understand the whole picture of frailty in patients with FTR, other frailty scales were also assessed (frailty checklist, clinical frailty scale, gait speed, and Columbia frailty scale). The primary endpoint was the combination of all-cause mortality and heart failure hospitalization.According to each definition of frailty, 28%-46% were identified to be frail. Those with SPPB score of < 9 were older, had greater New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification, and had lower albumin level and estimated glomerular filtration rate compared with those with SPPB score of ≥ 9. They also have smaller tricuspid valve coaptation depth and worse right ventricular fractional area change (RV-FAC) than those with SPPB score of ≥ 9 despite having similar TR severity. The primary endpoint at 1 year was noted in 31% of patients. The SPPB score has excellent discriminatory performance for predicting the primary endpoint (area under the curve 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.76-0.91) in receiver operating characteristic analysis and was independently associated with the primary endpoint after adjustment in multivariate analysis (adjusted hazard ratio 0.81, 95% CI, 0.73-0.90; P < 0.001).Frailty has been widely prevalent in the elderly patient population with FTR; in fact, it has been determined to be strong parameter for poor outcomes.


Dielectric spectroscopic investigations are reported on an antiferroelectric liquid crystal in its pristine form and when stabilized by a polymer network without and with application of a DC bias field. While the in-phase mode associated with the helix distortion is hardly affected, the high frequency mode connected with the antiphase fluctuations shows a large decrease with increasing concentration of the photoactive monomer used to generate the polymer stabilization. With the help of X-ray data, we rule out any inter-layer nanophase segregation of the polymer strands, and argue that this strong effect is due to the large elastic interaction between the liquid crystal molecules and the polymer strands. Employing expression from a Landau theory we extract several relevant parameters, including the viscosities associated with the different relaxation modes, the elastic constant, and importantly the antiferroelectric interaction, which exhibits a substantial decrease upon polymer stabilization.


The world is governed by complex systems and it is inadequate to deal with complexity by simplifying it (Bawden, 1991). Therefore, higher-order thinking, especially systems thinking, is needed to help solve complex problems in society. This study addressed two major problems in the education systems. First, high school instruction does not typically support students in developing higher-order thinking (Ichsan, Sigit, & Miarsyah, 2019; National Research Council [NRC], 1988; Smith & Szymanski, 2013; Valerdi & Rouse, 2010). Second, a majority of high school students have limited knowledge and awareness of food, its social and economic significance, and its links to health and environmental quality (Ebrahim, 2016; Harmon & Maretzki, 2006; Mercier, 2015; NRC, 1988; Trexler, Johnson, & Heinze, 2000). This study used sustainable food systems as the context to facilitate the teaching of systems thinking because it offers highly complex and highly relatable educational content to students' everyday life. The opportunities to practice systems thinking are provided through learning about sustainable food systems that interact with social, cultural, political, economic, health, and environmental conditions at multiple scales (Grubinger et al., 2010). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe high school students' systems thinking throughout a sustainable food systems learning experience, which was designed for students to practice systems thinking. Further, the researcher sought to explore how the learning experience helped students practice systems thinking and how students intended to use systems thinking beyond the learning experience. Participants in this study were 12 high school students located in the suburban area of the central region of Indiana. Eleven students were enrolled in a food science class in a public high school and one student was enrolled in a homeschool. They participated in the learning experience using self-directed online lessons, scaffolding worksheets, reflection questions, real-world local examples, and experiential learning activities. Data sources consisted of questionnaires, assignments, and field notes, in addition to interview transcripts from a sample of six students. Data were analyzed using qualitative coding techniques. There were four conclusions for this study. First, students who demonstrated systems thinking had the following attributes: (1) they were motivated; (2) they were open-minded; (3) they were aware of holistic thinking; and (4) they had various levels and types of food systems backgrounds and experiences. Second, students demonstrated a combination of systems thinking abilities by extensively explaining about a food system's various connections, complexity, wholeness, changeability, cyclic nature, and feedback loops in temporal and spatial dimensions using multiple perspectives. Third, systems thinkers benefited from the instructional design features in practicing systems thinking in the context of sustainable food systems and they recognized that systems thinking was challenging and time-consuming, whereas students who were not systems thinkers struggled to come up with their own answers and only benefited from learning about content knowledge and some systems concepts instead of how to think in a systems thinking way. Finally, most students recognized the benefits of systems thinking in helping them better understand complex phenomena when solving problems and performing tasks. Systems thinkers elaborated the applications of systems thinking in supporting a desirable and sustainable food system through food choices, food-related decisions, and future projects. Specifically, most students intended to purchase locally grown and raised fresh food from a farm that used natural methods and used a minimal packaging. Students shared that they would reduce food waste by eating leftovers, donating, and communicating with businesses about reducing food waste. Implications for practice and policy, and recommendations for further research were discussed based on these findings.


Haringey has a long established population of Chinese people, some of whom have been living in the borough for many decades. They represent a significant proportion of Haringey's total population: 1.5% overall but over 2.5% in some wards. Many have become well settled and have been highly successful in business, professions or in other fields but others have experienced exclusion, poverty and isolation. As more of these people are reaching retirement age and beyond, and thus experiencing health and mobility issues connected with ageing, these problems are increasing and are likely to worsen still further in the future. Many of this group also have limited English language skills and thus find it difficult to access appropriate services. In addition, many have low incomes because the nature of their working lives did not allow them to make provision for adequate pensions. In spite of their numbers and the urgency of their needs, Chinese people have had a low
profile in relation to the public policy agenda, both in Haringey and in Britain as a whole and have tended to be largely invisible in relation to the planning of services.
This research project was conducted by researchers based at Middlesex University in partnership with the Haringey Chinese Centre and we are grateful for the funding received from the Business and Community Interaction programme at Middlesex University which enabled us to carry out this
work. The aims were to provide evidence of current and future needs for health and social care services by Chinese older people and to identify issues which policy makers need to be aware of in planning services. This was an exploratory study and limited in scale and thus we cannot claim that it provides a comprehensive picture of the situation of Chinese older people in the borough.
Nevertheless, it identified some important issues which deserve more detailed examination from researchers and policy makers. The project took place during a major process of restructuring of services for older people, arising from both national and local policy developments. We hope that our findings will help to inform the development of these services. This report begins by describing the study methods used. We then briefly discuss some of the characteristics of Haringey's population before focusing more particularly on the Chinese population
in Haringey and in London as a whole. We discuss first the different waves of migration which have brought a diverse Chinese population and then focus on the problems of social exclusion and isolation. The next section focuses on the elderly Chinese people, their needs, experience and
aspirations and use of services. We then discuss the policy agenda in relation to the care of the elderly and its implications for this group. Finally we draw some general conclusions about the need to plan for this group and suggest some recommendations to policy makers, Chinese organisations and other concerned with the welfare of the elderly.


The influence of chemical precursors and sunlight on the atmospheric OH abundance is investigated by a comparison of locally measured tropospheric OH with model calculations. The latter are based on the gas phase reaction mechanism of the regional acid deposition model (RADM2) which incorporates an explicit inorganic and a comprehensive organic chemistry. The experimental data were obtained in the planetary boundary layer during two sets of campaigns. In Deuselbach (1983) and Schauinsland (1984), rural conditions were encountered with NOx concentrations on the average of 2.2 and 0.9 ppb, respectively. This data set was already compared with model calculations based upon an older and less detailed chemical reaction scheme (Perner et al., 1987). Since then the experimental data were reanalyzed leading to modified measured OH concentrations and also to modified precursor concentrations. For a consistent comparison with the more recent campaigns in Julich (1987 and 1988) we have redone the calculations. The modeled and measured OH concentrations of the campaigns in 1983 and 1984 correlate well with a coefficient of correlation of r = 0.73. The model overpredicts OH by about 20%. Under more polluted conditions in Julich with average NOx concentrations of 4 ppb the correlation coefficient between experimental and modeled data are significantly smaller (r = 0.61). Possible reasons are the influence of not measured precursors, for example isoprene, and the inapplicability of a quasi-steady state model under the spatially inhomogeneous conditions in Julich. Again the model overpredicts the OH concentration by about 15%, which is somewhat smaller than for the rural case. The precision of the comparison is limited by the uncertainties of the chemical reaction rate constants.


Over the past few years, LiDAR systems have been established as a leading technology for the acquisition of high density point clouds over physical surfaces. These point clouds will be processed for the extraction of geo-spatial information. Local point density is one of the most important properties of the point cloud that highly affects the performance of data processing techniques and the quality of extracted information from these data. Therefore, it is necessary to define a standard methodology for the estimation of local point density indices to be considered for the precise processing of LiDAR data. Current definitions of local point density indices, which only consider the 2D neighbourhood of individual points, are not appropriate for 3D LiDAR data and cannot be applied for laser scans from different platforms. In order to resolve the drawbacks of these methods, this paper proposes several approaches for the estimation of the local point density index which take the 3D relationship among the points and the physical properties of the surfaces they belong to into account. In the simplest approach, an approximate value of the local point density for each point is defined while considering the 3D relationship among the points. In the other approaches, the local point density is estimated by considering the 3D neighbourhood of the point in question and the physical properties of the surface which encloses this point. The physical properties of the surfaces enclosing the LiDAR points are assessed through eigen-value analysis of the 3D neighbourhood of individual points and adaptive cylinder methods. This paper will discuss these approaches and highlight their impact on various LiDAR data processing activities (i.e., neighbourhood definition, region growing, segmentation, boundary detection, and classification). Experimental results from airborne and terrestrial LiDAR data verify the efficacy of considering local point density variation for precise LiDAR data processing.v