Abstract The research aims to examine the perceptions of relative novice users of self-service checkouts (SSCOs) and if these perceptions change before, during and following use. Employing a diary approach with 31 respondents relatively unfamiliar with SSCOs, the research will document their experiences with this technology across stationary, hardware and grocery stores in two Scottish cities (Glasgow and Dundee). Findings suggest that the majority of respondents were motivated to use the technology because of time saving and convenience. However, the actual experience of using SSCOs was not always considered quicker when compared to staffed checkouts because of technical issues, lack of staff assistance and the impersonal, sometimes stressful and controlled nature of the cramped SSCO environment. Following post-use reflections, the majority of respondents' opinions did not change from their initial perceptions and indicated that they would prefer not to use the technology in the future. Based on the findings, this study makes some practical suggestions centring on the design and usability of SSCOs, which may go some way to reducing customer dissatisfaction and frustration with the technology, especially from the perspective of new users of the technology.


First-semester general chemistry is a known "gatekeeper" course due to its high failure rate. These higher education courses are taken by students who for the most part are regularly admitted freshmen, yet many struggle to succeed. In this investigation researchers from six higher-education institutions of varied sizes with student bodies of different ethnic composition teamed up to investigate the Math-Up Skills Test (MUST) as a potential tool to identify at-risk students in first-semester general chemistry (Chem I). A large population (N = 1073) was given the MUST at the beginning of the semester. The MUST had good internal consistency with the sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.856). The MUST offers a quick 15 minute assessment of basic mathematics ability without a calculator. Instructors may find it easier than other documented predictors, which may take more time or involve obtaining student records (e.g., Math SAT). Results from the MUST support prior findings that mathematics skills correlate with course grades in chemistry. Poor arithmetic automaticity may be an underlying factor in lower performance by many students. With statistical modeling, the MUST, along with other demographic variables, was able to identify students who would go on to make a 69.5% or better in Chem I with a high percent of accuracy. The MUST, in tandem with other demographic variables, should be considered a potential tool for early identification of students at-risk for failing the class.


Book synopsis: The question about the relation between legality and political legitimacy is both one of the basic questions of modern legal and political philosophy and one of the most important problems in theoretical sociology. This volume brings together the work of a number of internationally prominent legal theorists, political theorists, sociologists, historians and philosophers, all of whom have worked extensively on the conceptual analysis of law and power, in order to address and illuminate this central question of the social sciences. The primary objective of the book is to propose and elaborate paradigms that traverse conventional disciplinary boundaries, and to combine sociological and normative/deductive patterns of analysis in order both to capture the legitimatory foundations of modern societies and accurately to account for the transformation of the classical foundations of political legitimacy in recent decades. All chapters in the volume propose new and challenging paradigms for analyzing the legal sources of legitimate power both in the historical formation of modern societies and in the present.


The paper analyzes the history of establishing vocational training of managerial personnel for education management in MS programs in Ukraine within the specialities: Educational Institution Management, Public Administration (specialization: Education Management), Public Administration in Education. It provides chronology of its emergence. Emphasis is placed on the key role played by training in the Educational Institution Management speciality. The paper also outlines the most recent period of higher managerial education development in Ukraine. The work analyzes the corresponding curricula and syllabi, makes propositions as to enhancing the academic process in Master's programs. It illustrates the changes happening at higher educational institutions after Ukraine has joined the Bologna Process in 2005. The author points out that the processes of managerial personnel vocational training in Master's degree programs has emerged significantly following the adoption of the new Law of Ukraine On Higher Education in 2014. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.14.1.10152


In the Tatun mountain area of northern Taiwan are two strong motion stations approximately 2.5 km apart, TAP056 and TAP066 of the TSMIP network. The accelerometer at station TAP056 is often triggered by earthquakes, but that at TAP066 station is not. Comparisons of vertical and horizontal peak ground accelerations reveal PGA in the vertical, east-west, and north-south components at TAP056 station to be 3.89, 7.57, and 5.45 times those at station TAP066, respectively. The PGA ratio does not seem to be related to earthquake source or path. Fourier spectra of earthquake records at station TAP056 always have approximately the same dominant frequency; however, those at station TAP066 are different due to different sources and paths of different events. This shows that spectra at TAP056 station are mainly controlled by local site effects. The spectral ratios of TAP056/TAP066 show the S-wave is amplified at around 8~10 Hz. The horizontal/vertical spectral ratios of station TAP056 also show a dominant frequency at about 6 and 8~10 Hz. After dense microtremor surveying and the addition of one accelerometer just 20 meters away from the original observation station, we can confirm that the top soft soil layer upon which the observation station is constructed generates the local site response at station TAP056.


The restoration, conservation and management of water resources require a thorough understanding of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem. Monitoring and assessment
provides the basic information on the condition of our waterbodies. The present work details the study carried out at two waterbodies, namely, the Chamarajasagar reservoir and
the Madiwala Lake. The waterbodies were selected on the basis of their current use and locations. Chamarajasagar reservoir serves the purpose of supplying drinking water to
Bangalore city and is located on the outskirts of the city surrounded by agricultural and forest land. On the other hand, Madiwala lake is situated in the heart of Bangalore city receiving an influx of pollutants from domestic and industrial sewage. Comparative assessment of the surface water quality of both were carried out by instituting the various physico–chemical and biological parameters. The physico-chemical analyses included temperature, transparency, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness, nitrates, phosphates, sodium, potassium
and COD measurements of the given waterbody. The analysis was done based on the standard methods prescribed (or recommended) by (APHA) and NEERI. The biological
parameter included phytoplankton analysis. The detailed investigations of the parameters, which are well within the tolerance limits in Chamarajasagar reservoir, indicate that it is fairly unpolluted, except for the pH values,
which indicate greater alkalinity. This may be attributed to the natural causes and the agricultural runoff from the catchment. On the contrary, the limnology of Madiwala lake is greatly influenced by the inflow of sewage that contributes significantly to the dissolved solids of the lake water, total hardness, alkalinity and a low DO level. Although, the two study areas differ in age, physiography, chemistry and type of inflows, they still maintain a
phytoplankton distribution overwhelmingly dominated by Cyanophyceae members,specifically Microcystis aeruginosa. These blue green algae apparently enter the waterbodies from soil, which are known to harbour a rich diversity of blue green flora with several species common to limnoplankton, a feature reported to be unique to the south
Indian lakes.Chamarajasagar water samples revealed five classes of phytoplankton, of which Cyanophyceae (92.15 percent) that dominated other algal forms comprised of one single species of Microcystis aeruginosa. The next major class of algae was Chlorophyceae (3.752 percent) followed by Dinophyceae (3.51 percent), Bacillariophyceae (0.47 percent) and a sparsely available and unidentified class (0.12 percent).Madiwala Lake phytoplankton, in addition to Cyanophyceae (26.20 percent), revealed a high density of Chlorophyceae members (73.44 percent) dominated by Scenedesmus sp.,Pediastrum sp., and Euglena sp.,which are considered to be indicators of organic pollution.
The domestic and industrial sewage, which finds its way into the lake, is a factor causing organic pollution. As compared to the other classes, Euglenophyceae and
Bacillariophyceae members were the lowest in number.
Thus, the analysis of various parameters indicates that Chamarajasagar reservoir is relatively unpolluted except for the high percentage of Microcystis aeruginosa, and a
slightly alkaline nature of water. Madiwala lake samples revealed eutrophication and high levels of pollution, which is clarified by the physico–chemical analysis, whose values are way above the tolerance limits. Also, the phytoplankton analysis in Madiwala lake reveals the dominance of Chlorophyceae members, which indicate organic pollution (sewage being the causative factor).


This paper discusses axial holographic speckle screens for projecting images recorded in a volume photosensitive material based on dichromated gelatin. It is shown that, when speckle screens are recorded with radiation in the sensitivity region of dichromated gelatin at a wavelength of 442 nm, it is possible to reconstruct images with radiation of another region of the spectrum, including with white light. The projective properties of the screens are investigated, and the effect of light concentration by means of the screen in the region of the visibility zone is demonstrated.


There is the desire amongst elderly Canadians to remain living at home, maintaining their independence. As the population ages, the health care system is faced with the challenge of allocating limited resources. Home care in Ontario is provided through Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) or Community Support Agencies (CSA). This study made comparisons among CSA clients (using the interRAI-Community Health Assessment, n=796), a sub-population of CCAC clients with lighter-care needs (n=8163) and all other CCAC clients (n=31,078), both using the Minimum Data Set-Home Care (MDS HC). The majority of clients in all groups were female, widowed, and spoke English as their primary language. CCAC clients had more health conditions than did CSA clients. Light-care CCAC clients received less hours of formal support than other CCAC clients and were less likely to have informal support caregivers who reported caregiver burden. Between 1998 and 2005, Ontario provided services to an increasingly impaired home care population, although overall impairment among home care client remained low. For the purposes of benchmarking, MDS HC data from Ontario was compared with MDS HC data from 11 European countries and was found to fall within the range of the other countries in terms of average impairment level of home care clients. Logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of receiving CCAC services. Not being self-reliant, having decline in activities of daily living, having experienced falls, self-reporting one's health to be poor and reporting less loneliness were all correlates for CCAC service use. Implications and direction for future research were discussed.


▼ Objective: To investigate intracerebral insulin resistance and its relationship with tau-protein hyperphosphorylation. Methods: A rat model of type 2 diabetes (T2D) was established with streptozotocin (STZ). Diabetic rats received intragastric administration of pioglitazone (PIO group) or normal saline (T2D group) for 4 weeks. As a control, non-diabetic rats received intragastric normal saline (CTL group). The insulin concentrations in cerebrospinal fl uid (CSF) and blood were determined with radioimmunoassay, and blood glucose concentration was determined using a glucose oxidation technique. Total and phosphorylated levels of protein kinase B (AKT), glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and tau-protein in the hippocampus were analyzed using western blotting. Results: The plasma insulin level in the T2D group was higher, and the CSF insulin level in the T2D group lower than in the CTL group. Hippocampal phosphorylated AKT and phosphorylated GSK-3β levels were signifi cantly lower in the T2D group than in the CTL group. Hippocampal tauprotein in the T2D group was hyperphosphorylated at Ser199 and Ser396. Plasma insulin levels in the PIO group were lower than in the T2D group, with no diff erences in CSF insulin levels. Phosphorylated AKT and phosphorylated GSK-3β levels in the PIO group were signifi cantly higher than in the T2D group . Hippocampal phosphorylated tau-protein (Ser199/Ser396) was lower in the PIO group than in the T2D group. Conclusion: Hyperphosphorylation of tau-protein in pioglitazone-treated rats with T2D was improved. Rats with T2D have both cerebral insulin resistance and cerebral hypoinsulinism. Pioglitazone can ameliorate intracerebral insulin resistance and decrease tau-protein hyperphosphorylation, but cannot increase intracerebral insulin levels. T hi s do cu m en t w as d ow nl oa de d fo r pe rs on al u se o nl y. U na ut ho riz ed d is tr ib ut io n is s tr ic tly p ro hi bi te d.


We consider the problem of computing optical flow in monocular video taken from a moving vehicle. In this setting, the vast majority of image flow is due to the vehicle's ego-motion. We propose to take advantage of this fact and estimate flow along the epipolar lines of the egomotion. Towards this goal, we derive a slanted-plane MRF model which explicitly reasons about the ordering of planes and their physical validity at junctions. Furthermore, we present a bottom-up grouping algorithm which produces over-segmentations that respect flow boundaries. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in the challenging KITTI flow benchmark [11] achieving half the error of the best competing general flow algorithm and one third of the error of the best epipolar flow algorithm.


A mixture of theory, experiments, and simulations that provide qualitative and quantitative insights into the technology The important new technology of wireless sensor and actuator networks provides radically new communication and networking paradigms with many new applications. Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks is a timely text that presents a fault-tolerant, reliable, low-latency, and energy-aware framework for wireless sensor and actuator networks, enabling readers to fulfill the ultimate goals of the applicationssuch as protecting critical infrastructures, achieving timely emergency responses, and monitoring the environment. Taking a problem-oriented approach, this resource discusses a wide range of computing and communication problems and solutions that arise in rapidly emerging wireless sensor and actuator networks, striking a balance between theory and practice. Discusses backbones as subsets of sensors or actuators that suffice for performing basic data communication operations or area sensing coverage Surveys existing data communication schemes (broadcasting, routing, multicasting, anycasting, geocasting) for sensor-actuator coordination Reviews the location service techniques Addresses the problem of energy-efficient data gathering by mobile sinks/actuators Describes protocols for coordination and topology control in sensor, actuator, and robot networks Reviews existing solutions to the sensor placement problem in wireless sensor and actuator networks This book is unique in that it addresses sensor and actuator networking in a comprehensive mannercovering all the aspects and providing up-to-date informationso that industry operators and academics from various areas can learn more about current networking trends, become aware of the possible architectures, and understand the advantages and limits in future commercial, social, and educational applications. Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks is appropriate for graduate students in computer science, electrical engineering, and telecommunications, as well as practitioners working as engineers, programmers, and technologists.


In their article 'Towards convivial conservation' (2019), Büscher and Fletcher propose a vision for conservation which partly builds on Ivan Illich's 1973 book Tools for conviviality. Given a growing chorus of voices calling for decolonizing conservation to address the ramifications of racialized mindsets and biases,this article asks: what role could conviviality play in envisioning alternative, decolonizing conservation ideas, particularly for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15? The article first reflects on the case for decolonizing conservation. It then conducts an in-depth analysis of Illich's radical ideas as well as subsequent understandings of conviviality, before juxtaposing Illich's ideas with Büscher and Fletcher's suggestions through a decolonizing lens. Finally,the article reviews SDG 15, 'Life on Land', against the backdrop of the prior decolonizing and convivial perspectives. The article argues that Illich's conviviality and related ideas have much to offer in envisioning alternative, decolonizing conservation ideas by promoting grassroots, democratic decision-making, living within bounds by the rich, emphasizing interdependencies between and within people and the environment, yet need to avoid imposition and incorporate intergenerational and marginalized viewpoints adequately.


Environmental amenities, like beautiful vistas and famous natural landmarks, are highly valued by many people, but it is difficult to determine what would constitute an optimal supply of them. Since enjoyment of an amenity by one person does not preclude enjoyment by many others, and it is impractical to limit such enjoyment to those who pay, individuals have an incentive to understate their demand for environmental amenities, thus leading to their underproduction. On the other hand, interest groups might spur government to overestimate the unarticulated demand. Furthermore, much demand is not policy relevant, since individuals with a moderate taste for particular amenities might be more than surfeited by the supply that others voluntarily provide. Building upon this framework, the author contends that commonly employed methodologies for ascertaining the value of amenities are seriously flawed, and that attempts to provide very high levels of amenities without commensurate public expenditures may damage private property rights.


In this paper, we develop a novel algorithm that allows service consumers to execute business processes (or workflows) of interdependent services in a dependable manner within tight time-constraints. In particular, we consider large interorganizational service-oriented systems, where services are offered by external organizations that demand financial remuneration and where their use has to be negotiated in advance using explicit service-level agreements (as is common in Grids and cloud computing). Here, different providers often offer the same type of service at varying levels of quality and price. Furthermore, some providers may be less trustworthy than others, possibly failing to meet their agreements. To control this unreliability and ensure end-to-end dependability while maximizing the profit obtained from completing a business process, our algorithm automatically selects the most suitable providers. Moreover, unlike existing work, it reasons about the dependability properties of a workflow, and it controls these by using service redundancy for critical tasks and by planning for contingencies. Finally, our algorithm reserves services for only parts of its workflow at any time, in order to retain flexibility when failures occur. We show empirically that our algorithm consistently outperforms existing approaches, achieving up to a 35-fold increase in profit and successfully completing most workflows, even when the majority of providers fail.


The paper surveys the literature on optimal taxation with emphasis on intermediate goods, or, more specific, freight (road) transport. There are two models frequently used, first, the one emanated from Diamond & Mirrlees' (1971) paper, where the production efficiency lemma made it clear that intermediate goods was not to be taxed. And, second, the Ramsey-Boiteux model where a cost-of-service regulation imposes a budget constraint for the regulated firm. In the latter model, in contrast to the first, freight transports (intermediate goods) are to be taxed in the Ramsey tradition, and thus trades the production efficiency lemma against a budget restriction. The paper also discusses welfare effects due to environmental tax reforms, with emphasis to what has become to known as the double dividend hypothesis. Finally, administrative costs in the context of optimal taxation is touched upon, a subject that is to a large degree repressed in optimal tax theory.


The purpose of this study is to examine ankle, knee and hip movement in the sagittal plane and the knee movement in the coronal plane of professional sports people when performing both single and double-legged squats. The use of IMUs enabled accurate measurements in a routine training environment, with the potential for immediate feedback of the data to the trainer/coach/ player. One hundred and two football and fifty nine rugby players performed double leg squats and single leg squats on both legs. IMUs were mounted on the pelvis, thigh and calf of each leg and data captured when the players performed the squats at their training ground. The mean and standard deviation values were calculated and differences of flexion angles between footballers and rugby players were analysed using multi-variate analysis of variance (MANOVA) using SPSS. The results for the double leg squat gave the average hip, knee and ankle angles of 107°, 98° and 25° respectively for both rugby and football players. For the single leg squats there was no difference between the average hip, knee and ankle flexion on the dominant or non-dominant side. In the coronal plane the majority of the knees moved to a varus position of 15˚ and 13˚ for the non-dominant and dominant legs respectively. The conclusions are that there is minimal difference between football and rugby players when performing squats. However, few players are symmetrical and the variation between players is high, both in the sagittal and coronal plane. The practical application would be to measure players during training to identify weaknesses, set an exercise programme and monitor rehabilitation.


Changing the color of an object is a basic image editing operation, but a high quality result must also preserve natural shading. A common approach is to first compute reflectance and illumination intrinsic images. Reflectances can then be edited independently, and recomposed with the illumination. However, manipulating only the reflectance color does not account for diffuse interreflections, and can result in inconsistent shading in the edited image. We propose an approach for further decomposing illumination into direct lighting, and indirect diffuse illumination from each material. This decomposition allows us to change indirect illumination from an individual material independently, so it matches the modified reflectance color. To address the underconstrained problem of decomposing illumination into multiple components, we take advantage of its smooth nature, as well as user-provided constraints. We demonstrate our approach on a number of examples, where we consistently edit material colors and the associated interreflections.


Sea spray aerosols are an important part of the cli- mate system through their direct and indirect effects. Due to the diminishing sea ice, the Arctic Ocean is one of the most rapidly changing sea spray aerosol source areas. However, the influence of these changes on primary particle produc- tion is not known. In laboratory experiments we examined the influence of Arctic Ocean water temperature, salinity, and oxygen satu- ration on primary particle concentration characteristics. Sea water temperature was identified as the most important of these parameters. A strong decrease in sea spray aerosol production with increasing water temperature was observed for water temperatures between 1 C and 9 C. Aerosol number concentrations decreased from at least 1400 cm 3 to 350 cm 3 . In general, the aerosol number size distribution exhibited a robust shape with one mode close to dry diame- ter Dp 0.2 µm with approximately 45 % of particles at smaller sizes. Changes in sea water temperature did not result in pro- nounced change of the shape of the aerosol size distribution, only in the magnitude of the concentrations. Our experiments indicate that changes in aerosol emissions are most likely linked to changes of the physical properties of sea water at low temperatures. The observed strong dependence of sea spray aerosol concentrations on sea water temperature, with a large fraction of the emitted particles in the typical cloud condensation nuclei size range, provide strong arguments for a more careful consideration of this effect in climate models.


This research investigates the influences of Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) on student achievement and behavioural outcomes, with teacher and parent perspectives included in the analysis. The individualised movement programme comprises passive, active and isometric exercises and is designed to integrate retained primitive reflexes within the brain. There is anecdotal evidence that RMT can make significant differences for children both academically and behaviourally. The research presented in this paper describes the mixed methods study that was completed and details the preliminary results of one child from the group of participants. Orla was 6.5 years old at the beginning of the study and had been identified as having learning challenges. Her progress after RMT was introduced was commented on by her teacher and the specialist teachers who worked with her. The quasi-experimental nature of classroom-based research means that it is not clear exactly how the changes in her progress were made, as there were other interventions taking place at the same time. However, it has been noted that there was an increase in the rate of change once she started the exercises.


Introduction Response times have been used as a key quality indicator for emergency ambulance services in the United Kingdom, but criticised for their narrow focus. Consequently, there is a need to consider wider measures of quality. The patient perspective is becoming an increasingly important dimension in pre-hospital outcomes research. To that end, we aimed to investigate patients' experiences of the 999 ambulance service to understand the processes and outcomes important to them. Methods We employed a qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of people who had recently used a 999 ambulance in the East Midlands. We recruited patients of different age, sex, geographical location, and ambulance service response including 'hear and treat', 'see and treat' and 'see and convey'. Results We interviewed 20 service users. Eleven men and nine women participated and 12 were aged 65 years and over. Users valued a quick response when they perceived the call to be an emergency. This was of less value to those who did not perceive their situation as an emergency and irrelevant to 'hear and treat' users. All users valued the professional approach and information and advice given by call handlers, crew and first responders, which provided them with reassurance in a worrying situation. 'See and convey' users valued a seamless handover to secondary care. Limitations We found it challenging to engage participants to consider quality indicators beyond response times because these were considered to be abstract in comparison with their concrete experiences. Conclusions and recommendations Aspects other than response times were important to patients, particularly in situations perceived by patients to be non-emergency. The results will be combined with issues identified from systematic reviews and used in a Delphi study to identify candidates for new outcome measures for emergency ambulance services.


Over 1,240 beautiful museum quality hats reveal the milliner's ingenuity from the 1790s to the 1970s. Among the styles displayed are ascots, bourrelets, bigonnets, chapeaux rouges, nurses' hats, Pamelas, pillboxes, toreodors, turbans, and wedding hats. They are made with materials including felts, furs (real and imitation), and feathers, and are adorned with beads, flowers, sequins, and much more! Among the milliners whose hats are shown are John B. Stetson, Tress & Co., Elsa Schiaparelli, Lilly Dache, Christian Dior, Laddie Northridge, Frank Olive, and Hattie Carnegie. The meticulously researched text provides an engaging retrospective of the millinery business. A precise glossary of terms is very useful to today's collectors and researchers. Prices reflecting the hat market today are in the captions. Vintage clothing collectors, dealers, historians, milliners, and curators all will find this an essential and beguiling reference.


In Classical Mathematical Logic, Richard L. Epstein relates the systems of mathematical logic to their original motivations to formalize reasoning in mathematics. The book also shows how mathematical logic can be used to formalize particular systems of mathematics. It sets out the formalization not only of arithmetic, but also of group theory, field theory, and linear orderings. These lead to the formalization of the real numbers and Euclidean plane geometry. The scope and limitations of modern logic are made clear in these formalizations. The book provides detailed explanations of all proofs and the insights behind the proofs, as well as detailed and nontrivial examples and problems. The book has more than 550 exercises. It can be used in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses and for self-study and reference. Classical Mathematical Logic presents a unified treatment of material that until now has been available only by consulting many different books and research articles, written with various notation systems and axiomatizations.


British excavations at the important archaeological site of Qasr Ibrim have yielded numerous written sources composed in Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian, and Arabic. However, only a small number of them have been published so far, among them some sixty Old Nubian texts, both literary and documents. They were edited between 1988 and 1991 by Gerald Michael Browne. After twenty years of stagnation in this field, Ruffini took up the task initiated by Browne and produced the edition of further sixty-two Old Nubian texts, this time only documents. Texts included in this volume supplement Ruffini's 2012 monograph (Medieval Nubia. A Social and Economic History) and provide illustrattion for his recosntruciotn of social and economic life of the Middle Nile Valley in the 12th-14th century. The edition of each document is supplied with a photograph as well as extensive linguistic and historical commentary and the volume is accompanied by a set of well organised indices.


In recent years, the analytical concept of structural depth has been subjected to intense critical scrutiny. But amid debates over the relative merit of depth- and surface-oriented modes of listening and analysis, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the history of the two terms in music journalism. Focusing on the period around 1800, this article examines the entry of the term "depth" into German literature on music and explores the metaphorOs diverse, even contradictory, meanings. Writers like Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and E. T. A. Hoffmann endorsed the idea, prominent in German Pietism and the criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder, that sound was uniquely able to access the deepest regions of subjectivity. At the same time, such writers began to imagine a musical inner space uncannily similar to the inner space of the listening subject. Unlike earlier aestheticians of a poetic bent, Hoffmann thought that the "deepest" works--works that stirred the soul with special force--required the critic to "penetrate" their "inner structure." Given that earlier technical discourse had treated music essentially as a linear sequence of periods, HoffmannOs writings exhibit a momentous shift in perspective from the sequential to the vertical. By adding a new dimension to music complementing its axis of horizontal or temporal unfolding, Hoffmann imported the full spectrum of depthOs meanings, ranging from the scientific to the spiritual, the rational to the irrational, into the modern notion of the masterwork.


Abstract. The difference with respect to the kind of evidence evoked by the so-called 'epistemic' uses of the German modals mussen and sollen is argued to affect the epistemic contribution of both verbs in a crucial way. With quotative sollen, a genuine subjective-epistemic moment (which should not automatically be associated with an expression of scepticism, i.e. a low commitment on the part of the speaker) remains marginal at best, whereas inferential mussen easily invites speaker-oriented interpretations to the extent that the speaker can be taken to be rather strongly committed to the factuality of the proposition. The latter 'epistemic' interpretation, however, can but need not occur.


The resource utilization level in open laboratories of several universities has been shown to be very low. Our aim is to take advantage of those idle resources for parallel computation without disturbing the local load. In order to provide a system that lets us execute parallel applications in such a non-dedicated cluster, we use an integral scheduling system that considers both Space and Time sharing concerns. For dealing with the Time Sharing (TS) aspect, we use a technique based on the communication-driven coscheduling principle. This kind of TS system has some implications on the Space Sharing (SS) system, that force us to modify the way job scheduling is traditionally done. In this paper, we analyze the relation between the TS and the SS systems in a non-dedicated cluster. As a consequence of this analysis, we propose a new technique, termed 3DBackfilling. This proposal implements the well known SS technique of backfilling, but applied to an environment with a MultiProgramming Level (MPL) of the parallel applications that is greater than one. Besides, 3DBackfilling considers the requirements of the local workload running on each node. Our proposal was evaluated in a PVM/MPI Linux cluster, and it was compared with several more traditional SS policies applied to non-dedicated environments.


Whole body CT (WBCT) is now an accepted practice in the primary management of the major trauma patient, but there remains a notable absence of a universal clinical decision tool for patient selection in any country. In the UK, The Royal College of Radiologists advises that a polytrauma protocol Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) is indicated when there is haemodynamic instability, the mechanism of injury or presentation suggests that there may be occult severe injuries that cannot be excluded by clinical examination or plain films, plain films or Focussed Assessment with Songraphy for Trauma (FAST) suggest significant injury or there is obvious severe injury on clinical assessment.1 The 2016 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Major Trauma Guidelines also broadly recommended to use WBCT in patients with 'blunt major trauma and suspected multiple injuries'.2

Trauma team leaders must use their clinical judgement to weigh up the potential benefits of detecting significant injury with diagnostic certainty, against the risk of radiation exposure, the use of potentially nephrotoxic intravenous contrast and the cost of blocking a valuable imaging resource.

When assessing risks of imaging, the standard WBCT is equivalent to 2100 chest radiographs or 11 years of background radiation in the UK. The overall lifetime risk of developing an invasive cancer is 1 in 3 for women and 1 in 2 for men, and for a 20-year-old female, a WBCT will create an estimated additional lifetime risk of cancer of 1 in 184 or a 99.45% chance of having no effect.3 Younger age, female sex, higher body mass index and cumulative scans create a higher risk. However, the true risk of radiation exposure is impossible to quantify. Studies reporting cancer risk include …


Models of the thermal behavior of a cometary nucleus, the evolution of the neutral gas coma, the ionized cometary coma and of the interaction of the cometary plasma with the solar wind are studied in this work. The general aim is to develop a global model of the comet and its environment in order to characterize the physical conditions around comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and 46P/Wirtanen with respect to the heliocentric distance. The results also provide estimates of the effects of the cometary environment on the radio science investigations experiment (RSI) aboard the spacecraft Rosetta. After the launch that is scheduled for February 2004, the Rosetta mission is planned to encounter comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and accompany it on its orbit. Comet 46P/Wirtanen has been the original target comet, but serves now as back-up target due to the postponement of the Rosetta launch in January 2003. The model of the heat diffusion within the cometary nucleus is one-dimensional. A grid of one-dimensional models is distributed over the nucleus in order to determine the temperature distribution and the sublimation characteristics of the comet on the whole surface of the comet. A heat balance equation is applied as boundary condition on the surface. Many parameters that have to be accounted for in a heat diffusion model are not precisely known to date. The variation of these parameters within reasonable limits yields a wide range of possible results. The heat diffusion within the cometary nucleus is derived from an energy conservation equation that includes heat conduction through the porous cometary material and heat convection due to the transport of latent heat by the gas phase within the nucleus. Model results are evaluated by a comparison of modeled and observed global gas production rates. Exemplary maps of the local temperature distribution and local sublimation rates at particular heliocentric distances are also provided. The neutral gas coma of the comet is modeled with a hydrodynamic approximation. This method is justified within a collision dominated regime. Due to the expected weak gas production of a comet at large heliocentric distances, this hydrodynamic regime might be small and might not enclose the whole nucleus. When the comet approaches the sun and the gas production increases, the hydrodynamic regime extends to cometocentric distances of several hundred or thousand kilometer. The gas mass flux within the coma perturbs an orbiting spacecraft. The acceleration of the spacecraft due to the gas mass flux is evaluated with the model results. The resulting change in velocity can be measured as a Doppler shift of the recorded frequency of the carrier signal. Case studies at several heliocentric distances are carried out. It turns out that even at heliocentric distances of ~3 AU the drag force of the gas can become strong enough to perturb the measurements of the second order gravity coefficients, which is a primary science objective of RSI. The ionized coma of a comet can also have an effect on the carrier signal. Changes of the electron content in the line of sight between spacecraft and observer at earth are in principle observable. A one-dimensional model of the plasma density at the comet-sun axis is developed. The assumption of photochemical equilibrium is not necessarily justified within the coma of weak outgassing comets. The continuity equation of the plasma density has to be solved without this simplifying assumption. A model of the electron temperature profile is also generated. The transition from a regime where electrons are effectively cooled to a region with temperatures of the electron fluid similar to solar wind levels is assumed to set in at the position of the thermal electron collisionopause. The plasma densities obtained from the ionospheric model indicate only minor effects on the carrier signal. The interaction of the cometary plasma with the solar wind is also studied. The respective standoff distances of the bow shock, the cavity surface and the collisionopause of comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and 46P/Wirtanen are determined with respect to the heliocentric distance. The variation of the solar wind parameters with heliocentric distance is accounted for. Effects of transient solar events, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, are discussed. It can be concluded that the plasma environment of comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and 46P/Wirtanen and their interaction with the solar wind will have only a minor effect on the carrier signal. Special scenarios might be needed in order to locate plasma boundaries within the cometary environment with RSI.


This will be my last editorial as the academic head of the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care at Stellenbosch University. At the end of February 2009 I will be saying farewell to a great team of colleagues, students and administrative staff at my long time alma mater. Like Julius Caesar of ancient Rome, I know that this ''crossing of the Rubicon'' is a point of no return and it will hold inevitable consequences both for me and my former department. But I also remember how Caesar was slaughtered at the hands of his friends and colleagues on the senate floor, because he presumably wanted to be king and did not have the foresight to step down in time. He should have followed the example of Naas Botha who retired from rugby when he was on top of his game. Like Naas Botha I have decided that the best time to get out is whilst people still want you there.


The first publication to apply the modern theory and techniques in the consultancy process, presenting a clear, practical approach targeted specifically at forensic issues and contexts.

* The first publication to apply consultancy literature to a forensic setting
* Provides a combination of the theoretical and practical underpinnings needed in consultancy work, offering a development of knowledge with practical application
* Brings together papers from researchers, academics, practitioners and consultants within forensic psychology whilst drawing upon expertise in business consultancy and administration
* Chapters combine psychological, ethical, managerial and evaluative aspects into themed summaries
* Offers directions for further study and practice development


The ring-opening polymerization of macrolactones (C15–C23) enables the production of long-chain aliphatic polyesters which are crystalline polymers with melting temperatures ranging from 98–106 °C. Here, the polymerization of ω-pentadecalactone (C15), nonadecalactone (C19) and tricosalactone (C23) are investigated using an yttrium phosphasalen catalyst. The catalyst enables typical conversions to exceed >80% and the reactions occur either in neat monomer or in solution in toluene, over the temperature range 25–100 °C. The yttrium catalyst shows higher activities than previously reported aluminium–salen complexes, with TOF values in the range 200–400 h−1 in the best cases. The polymerizations occur with linear increase in molecular weight vs. conversion and enable the production of polyester with 10 < Mn< 60 kg mol−1. Using tricosalactone the polymerization thermodynamic parameters are determined and confirm the polymerization is entropically driven. The findings underscore the importance of continued catalyst development to allow higher rates of reaction which has the added benefit of accessing the highest conversions to polymer.


Unlike in the case of legislative acts, retroactive effect of court decisions does not at first glance constitute a legal problem. However, the retroactive effect of court decisions becomes a problem when other cases, such as parallel cases which were not the subject of the original court decision, are affected and these questions become even more precarious in the context of decisions reviewing legislation due to an erga omnes (de iure or de facto as precedents) effect. The article aims to provide a reappraisal of the problem of the retroactive effect of decisions of the European Court of Justice against the backdrop of recent cases (particularly the dogmatically significant decisions "Meilicke" and "Banco Popolare di Cremona" both focusing on tax issues in 2006), taking into account the Court's jurisprudence to date, the normative basis in the EC Treaty as well as the diverse Member States' traditions and experiences. By way of conclusion the study advocates the limitation of the retroactive effect of decisions of the European Court of Justice in certain cases against the background of the protection of legal certainty and its sub–category of legitimate expectations. In particular in cases where unforeseen and in aggregate very substantial pecuniary obligations of the Member States vis–à–vis their citizens are at issue, a balancing approach in applying the retroactive effect of judgements, as yet insufficiently explored, appears to be called for.


We apply social psychology to our understanding of organizational life, by looking in particular at the relationship between the individual and the organization. From a social psychological perspective, an organization is conceptualised as a collection of roles (some of which may be organised into local teams or workgroups) that are all interconnected in the pursuit of some common goal, attached to which are particular behavioural norms and values (Katz & Kahn, 1964). Organizations impact on individuals through processes of social influence which bind them in some psychological way to organizational interests and pursuits. This binding can be conceptualised as a psychological relationship between individual and organization that can be tenuous or strong depending on the extent to which an individual is a fully integrated organizational member. A tenuous relationship may imply that the individual's interests outweigh those of the organization, and if these are not being fulfilled by an organization he or she will leave. This type of relationship has been conceptualised as instrumental or transactional (Rousseau, 1995; Chapter 22) in which there is a quid-pro-quo type of reciprocation in which an individual supplies specific services (usually highly circumscribed around time spent in relation to a particular work schedule) in return for extrinsic reward (pay, benefits) and little else. A fully integrated relationship on the other hand presupposes that an individual has internalised the norms and values of the organization as their own to the extent that their interests are mutually bound and synonymous. This type of relationship has been conceptualised as relational as it values the relationship per se: here there is an exchange of services based on intrinsic need fulfilment (Rousseau, 1995). A transactional relationship is built on a largely economic interpretation of the employment contract, whilst core to a relational relationship is a more complex psycho-social interpretation of the employment contract. Both are forms of what Rousseau (1995) calls the 'psychological contract' (Chapter 22) and both are dependent on how an individual makes sense of themselves in an organizational context through their perceptions and interpretations. Understanding the mechanisms via which self becomes psychologically (whether transactional or relational) connected to organizational life is pivotal to understanding 'organizational behaviour'.


Several efforts have been made over the past years to study the electrical, physical and chemicals properties of insulating oils. Among those efforts there is a property of natural aged oils (real oil samples corresponding to the scale of industrial transformers). This is investigated in this paper to determine the lifetime of naturally aged oil with different applied electric field and different shapes. This paper presents an experimental work to study the lifetime of transformer oil as a function of conduction current. In this paper, the electrification current in the tested oil is measured for different temperatures. Finally, tests have been carried out on oil samples under testing with different services period to determine the relation between breakdown voltage and the oil lifetime under uniform and nonuniform fields.


In a previous paper [ Phys. Rev.138, B1561 ( 1965)] some new results were presented relating to the structure of the electromagnetic field near the focus of a coherent beam emerging from an aplanatic optical system. The present paper supplements the previous one by providing detailed analysis of the behavior of the Poynting vector in the focal region of such a beam. In particular, diagrams showing the flow lines and the contours of constant amplitude of the time-averaged Poynting vector are given. The energy flow is found to have vortices near certain points of the focal plane. Two diagrams showing the behavior of the flow near a typical vortex are also included.


In addition to dominating the list of the world's largest banks, Japanese banks currently account for about two-fifths of measured international banking assets of all banks. Between year-end 1984 and year-end 1988 Japanese banks accounted for slightly over one-half of the measured growth of total international banking activity. A large proportion of their international assets are at their branches in the United Kingdom and their agency and branch offices in the United States. ; This paper analyzes the U.S. and U.K. activities of Japanese banks. The paper integrates the activities of the Japanese banks in these two markets with the regulatory environment for banks in Japan, with Japan's overall external financial position, as well as with business opportunities in the two host country markets. The paper concludes that the domestic regulatory environment in Japan, including restraints on interest rates, and possible quantitative restraints, has had an important impact on the activities of Japanese banks in these two foreign markets. ; Japanese banks appear to have adjusted to their domestic regulatory environment by using their London branches as a flexible funding source, and their branches and agencies in the United States as substitutes for their head offices in extending commercial and industrial loans to Japan-based companies as well as a substitute location for large interbank trading activities. In both markets Japanese banking offices are large net borrowers from unrelated banks because of the constraints on raising funds in their home market.


"Prayer was the rope of survival." "Religious needs are my primary needs." "I wish I had been asked." These statements were shared by displaced women in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey in three independent, coordinated research studies in 2019 led by University of Birmingham, Queen Margaret University and Syria Bright Future in collaboration with Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Humanitarian Academy for Development. The studies examined the role of faith in coping and recovery of women in forced migration and conflict contexts.1 The women in this study, like many forced migrants, suffered unspeakable hardships, experiencing loss of relatives and belongings, war and violence (including sexual and gender-based violence), lifethreatening journeys, separation from family, and powerlessness. Having once belonged to a local faith community, now, on the move, they had held onto the religion, faith and spirituality that move with them. Faith resilience and spiritual suffering – often difficult to comprehend for outsiders – influenced women's wellbeing in varied ways. Throughout their experiences, religious identity, religious practices and religious beliefs had a profound impact on mental health, both buffering and contributing to psychological distress.


Objective: Due to the higher morbidity prevalent in the increasing older population, prisons are facing new challenges on a structural, ethical, and financial level. This study's goal was to explore older prisoners' views and experiences regarding the quality of medical services. Method: In this qualitative study, 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted with older inmates aged 50 years and above in 12 different prisons in the German-speaking (23 interviews) and the French-speaking parts (12 interviews) of Switzerland. Results: The majority of older prisoners in this sample expressed concerns about quality of treatment throughout incarceration. Topics addressed reached from quality of the entrance to routine examinations, quality of the treatment received, and delays in care and services provided. Conclusion: This study's findings suggest that healthcare in prison is often perceived as insufficient and inadequate by older inmates.


The microbiome has received increasing attention over the last 15 years. Although gut microbes have been explored for several decades, investigations of the role of microorganisms that reside in the human gut has attracted much attention beyond classical infectious diseases. For example, numerous studies have reported changes in the gut microbiota during not only obesity, diabetes, and liver diseases but also cancer and even neurodegenerative diseases. The human gut microbiota is viewed as a potential source of novel therapeutics. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of publications focusing on the gut microbiota was, remarkably, 12 900, which represents four-fifths of the total number of publications over the last 40 years that investigated this topic. This review discusses recent evidence of the impact of the gut microbiota on metabolic disorders and focus on selected key mechanisms. This review also aims to provide a critical analysis of the current knowledge in this field, identify putative key issues or problems and discuss misinterpretations. The abundance of metagenomic data generated on comparing diseased and healthy subjects can lead to the erroneous claim that a bacterium is causally linked with the protection or the onset of a disease. In fact, environmental factors such as dietary habits, drug treatments, intestinal motility and stool frequency and consistency are all factors that influence the composition of the microbiota and should be considered. The cases of the bacteria Prevotella copri and Akkermansia muciniphila will be discussed as key examples.


We have experimentally observed the transitional and steady mode-locking (ML) evolution of dissipative solitons (DSs). It is found that pulses with different energies can coexist in the cavity during the evolution. When an additional pulse is generated from the laser, it initially exhibits weak intensity, and then gradually develops into the fully grown pulse with the increase of pump power. Meanwhile, the spectral profile of pulses is modulated at its top. The dynamic processes occur stage by stage, and can be regarded as the transitional states between the two nearby steady ML states. To our best knowledge, this is the first report on experimental observations for the detailed dynamic evolutions of pulse shaping in a DS laser.


Smart Grid (SG) achieves bidirectional energy and information flow between the energy user and the utility grid, allowing energy users not only to consume energy, but also to generate the energy and share with the utility grid or with other energy consumers. This type of energy user who consumes energy and who also can generate the energy is called the "prosumer". The sustainability of the SG energy sharing process heavily depends on its participating prosumers, making prosumer participation and management schemes crucial within the energy sharing approaches. However in literature, there is very little attention on prosumer management schemes. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, this article introduces a novel concept of participating and managing the prosumers in the SG energy sharing process in the form of autonomous, intelligent goal-oriented virtual communities. Here, the community of prosumers can collectively increase the amount of power to be auctioned or bought offering higher bargaining power, thereby settling for a higher price per kilowatt in long-term. According to the literature, this research is the first of this type introducing a community approach for prosumer management. The initial step to build an effective prosumer-community is the identification of those prosumers who would be suitable to make efficient prosumer communities. This leads the necessity of identifying parameters that influence the energy sharing behaviours of prosumers. The second contribution of this article is that, this comprehensively analyzes the different parameters influencing the prosumer's energy sharing behaviours and thus presents multi-agent architecture for optimal prosumer-community formation.


Esophageal adenocarcinomas (EAC) are aggressive tumors with considerable rates of chemoresistance. Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent degradation process, characterized by the formation of vesicles called autophagosomes, and has been implicated in cancer. Protein light chain 3 B (LC3B) and p62 are associated with autophagosomal membranes and degraded. We aimed to assess the impact of basal autophagy on EAC. In EAC cell lines, an increase in LC3B and p62 was observed with increasing concentrations of the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine, which indicates functional basal autophagy. LC3B and p62 immunohistochemistry was performed on primary resected EAC. High LC3B and p62 expression was associated with earlier tumor stages (p < 0.05). High nuclear and cytoplasmic p62 staining were associated with a better prognosis (p = 0.006; p = 0.028). Various combinations of p62 expression with or without LC3B expression identified different prognostic groups. Tumors with low total p62 (p = 0.007) or low LC3B/low p62 expression had the worst outcome (p = 0.007; p = 0.005). A combination score of dot-like/cytoplasmic p62 and nuclear p62 staining was an independent prognostic parameter (p = 0.033; HR = 0.6). This study highlights the potential significance of basal autophagy in EAC biology. Tumors with low LC3B and p62 expression show the most aggressive behavior and may be candidates for autophagy regulating therapeutics.


Electrospinning has recently emerged as a leading technique for generating biomimetic scaffolds made of synthetic and natural polymers for tissue engineering applications. PVA was dissolved in distilled water at concentration (10% wt). PVA 10% DW solution was prepared as biopolymeric materials for fabricating tissue engineered scaffolds by electrospinning, varying ambient temperature (25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50) ͦ C and investigated the ambient temperature effect on tissue nanofibers pore size. Scanning electron microscopy was utilized to profile the topography of individual electrospun fibers. Statistical measurements for each SEM images lead to measure the mean pore size of tissue obtained. Our results indicate that the average pore size of PVA fiber tisues could be scaled down to mean values (132-300)nm smooth nanofibers without any beads, pore size decreased as ambient temperature increase to certain temperature at (40 °C) and retrain increasing at (45 and 50) °C temperature.


Energy efficiency is becoming a prominent issue in ICT networks. Many approaches have been proposed to reduce the power consumption of ICT network devices. Among those green approaches, dynamic frequency scaling (DFS) offers an elegant solution for improving the energy efficiency of processors. To evaluate the impact of different DFS techniques on energy efficiency of real network devices, this work designs a prototype of a novel energy-aware Frequency Adaptive Router (FAR) that dynamically scales the operating frequency of core logic FPGA processor among five different processing capacities in response to traffic load, rather than leaving the network devices running on its maximum processing capacity all the time.

Three dynamic frequency adaptation control policies are introduced into the FAR to balance the trade-off between performance and power consumption. Based on statistics monitoring and preset thresholds, the proposed dynamic frequency adaptation control policies can manage the FAR to always operate at the lowest processing capacity required to handle instantaneous traffic load without affecting the quality of service (QoS). The implementation of these frequency adaptation control policies involves assessing an associated traffic throughput threshold beyond which the router will begin to lose packets for each of the five operating frequencies, and then adaptively scaling the operating frequency in response to the instantaneous traffic load to save energy without compromising end-to-end QoS.

The energy efficiency and performance of the FAR is evaluated at the five different operating frequencies with different number of active ports, traffic bit rates and packet sizes. The evaluation results show that when in idle state, the FAR can significantly save power of up to 52%. Experiments with synthetic traces indicate that 46% of power can be saved while maintaining required QoS. Similar results can be expected when these general power-saving principles are applied in future commercial routers.


This paper focuses on the design and development of a noninvasive smart and pervasive mobile solution to measure blood glucose without the need for drawing blood or pricking fingers. Specifically, it examines the possibility of sensors using Terahertz (THz) technology to measure blood glucose. This paper reports on a research in progress looking at identifying and then designing superior strategies for measuring blood glucose. It presents the central role that measuring blood glucose plays in diabetes care management. It then highlights the current methods and problems and concerns with finger pricking. From there, the paper proffers a non-invasive solution using THz technology to measure blood glucose and outlines the approach to design and develop such a solution using a decision science methodology.


The Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective is the first scholarly study of the Senate in over a quarter century and the first analysis of the upper house as one chamber of a bicameral legislature. David E. Smith's aim in this work is to demonstrate the interrelationship of the two chambers and the constraints this relationship poses for Senate reform. He analyses past literature on the Senate and current proposals for reform - such as a Triple-E Senate - and compares Canada's upper chamber with those of Australia, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, noting a revival of interest in Canada and abroad in upper chambers and bicameralism. Drawing on parliamentary debates and committee reports, as well as a range of broad secondary sources, The Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective examine the Canadian Senate within the international context, shedding light on its role as a political institution and arguing for a renewed investigation into its future.


A successful electronics and computer engineering technology program has been offered at Arizona State University (USA) since 1973. Engineering technology programs graduate students who can readily contribute to the workforce in industry and society, The immediate contribution is achieved by imparting state-of-the-art knowledge and skills; continued success and lifelong learning are assured by a knowledge of the fundamental concepts in engineering and the physical sciences acquired in their studies. A balanced combination of courses in engineering technology, mathematics, natural sciences and general studies produces these results, Core courses provide a working knowledge in a broad category of subjects. The breadth acquired through these basic courses is complemented by a depth of optional elective courses. Graduates are trained in engineering design, are taught appropriate communication skills, and are given extensive hands-on laboratory experience, The curriculum mandates all students develop a design project from definition through final product fabrication and submit a formal project report, Both the undergraduate and graduate programs provide opportunities to do research and analysis and to develop technical skills required for a successful career. To meet the challenges imposed by the changing demands of industry, continuous refinements to keep the program current and viable have been ongoing in the curriculum since its inception.


Aim: The first experience modulates the network of integration and memory. Depending on the characteristics of this initial stimulation, the brain adjusts his electrical activity to respond. This adjustment is different for every sub type of neurons. Pyramidal cells and inhibitory cells behaviours after a short reminder is still unclear.
Materials and methods: Inhibitory interneurons and excitatory pyramidal cells in the primary visual cortex of anesthetised mice were stimulated with a briefly applied grating (BAG), without orientation following by a control grating (CG). The control grating changed orientation every 25 trials, and firing rates was computed before and after visual stimulation.
Results: A primary stability was revealed in the firing pattern. In the global sample, the discharge of inhibitory interneurons was the same before and after visual stimulation with the block BAG+CG. Absence of orientation in the stimuli reduced the neuronal activity. The findings also suggested the interplay between primary visual cortex and short-term plasticity.
Conclusion: The parameters included in a first target leave a trace in the cortical structures, and prepares the mechanism of plasticity. Memorisation of new information is altered if one or many parameters like orientation are missing.


This paper applies a technique called multidimensional scaling (MDS) to illustrate how European destinations are positioned in relation to each other. The basis for doing so is bednight statistics from Eurostat for the period from 1998 to 2009 for 33 European destinations (countries, nations). For each destination bednights are registered in four categories: domestic hotel guests, foreign hotel guests, domestic guests at other types of accommodation, and foreign guests at other types of accommodation. With bednights on a monthly basis, this makes a data matrix with 12*12*4=576 cases. The variables are the destinations, which count up to 28, when combining a few of them. Month or quarter, guest type, and type of accommodation are dummy-variables. A series of MDS diagrams are shown. Two separate factor analyses are used to form groups of destinations, which are also visible in two of the three MDS diagrams. The European destinations for international visitors can be grouped by major language spheres.


This paper addresses how young Zulu women choose two different isiZulu varieties, isiTsotsi and isiHlonipho, in order to construct 'modern' and 'traditional' femininities in South Africa. Based on semi-ethnographic data gathered over a period of six years (2004–2010), the paper explores how isiZulu-speaking females make use of the two linguistic varieties and what significance and implications these choices have in terms of gender dynamics. It is argued that speaking isiTsotsi signals linguistically that 'traditional' Zulu femininity is rejected while making use of an isiHlonipho lexicon endorses this very femininity. The research also highlights the context-dependent nature of linguistic gender constructions and contributes to the study of African femininities.


: At a time when branding new, occasionally innovative but often only catchy terms has become a familiar activity of researchers, companies and policymakers alike, it is necessary to reflect on which of these concepts is actually worthwhile, provides analytic value and in effect describes something new. This new special section Defining concepts of the digital society seeks to foster a platform that discusses and validates these overarching frameworks and theories. Based on the latest research, yet broad in scope, the contributions offer effective tools to analyse the digital society. Their authors offer concise articles that portray and critically discuss individual concepts such as algorithmic governance, datafication, platformisation, privacy with an interdisciplinary mindset. Each article contextualises their respective origin and academic traditions, analyses their contemporary usage in different research approaches and discusses their social, political, cultural, ethical or economic relevance and impact as well as their analytical value. The special section is a continuing project that will expand the collection of concepts in 2020 and beyond. We sincerely hope that it will grow into a valuable forum for making sense of the digital transformation and a pertinent resource for researchers, teachers, students and practitioners.


If general relativity is the correct theory of physics on large scales, then there is a differential equation that relates the Hubble expansion function, inferred from measurements of angular diameter distance and luminosity distance, to the growth rate of large scale structure. For a dark energy fluid without couplings or an unusual sound speed, deviations from this consistency relationship could be the signature of modified gravity on cosmological scales. We propose a procedure based on this consistency relation in order to distinguish between some dark energy models and modified gravity models. The procedure uses different combinations of cosmological observations and is able to find inconsistencies when present. As an example, we apply the procedure to a universe described by a recently proposed 5-dimensional modified gravity model. We show that this leads to an inconsistency within the dark energy parameter space detectable by future experiments.


Parallel workloads using compute resources such as GPUs and accelerators is a rapidly developing trend in the field of high performance computing. At the same time, virtualization is a generally accepted solution to share compute resources with remote users in a secure and isolated way. However, accessing compute resources from inside virtualized environments still poses a huge problem without any generally accepted and vendor independent solution. This work presents a brief experimental evaluation of employing dOpenCL as an approach to solve this problem. dOpenCL extends OpenCL for distributed computing by forwarding OpenCL calls to remote compute nodes. We evaluate the dOpenCL implementation for accessing local GPU resources from inside virtual machines, thus omitting the need of any specialized or proprietary GPU virtualization software. Our measurements revealed that the overhead of using dOpenCL from inside a VM compared to utilizing OpenCL directly on the host is less than 10% for average and large data sets. For very small data sets, it may even provide a performance benefit. Furthermore, dOpenCL greatly simplifies distributed programming compared to, e.g., MPI based approaches, as it only requires a single programming paradigm and is mostly binary compatible to plain OpenCL implementations.


Causation plays an essential role in attributions of legal responsibility. However, considerable confusion has been generated in philosophy, law and economics by the use of causal language to refer not merely to causation in its basic (actual/factual/natural) sense, which refers to the operation of the laws of nature, but also to the quite different normative issue of appropriate legal responsibility. To reduce such confusion, we argue that causal language in these disciplines should be used to refer solely to causation in its basic sense. While it is often said that the law need not and should not concern itself with philosophical analyses of causation, we demonstrate that this is incorrect with respect to causation in its basic sense. After surveying the philosophical foundations of the modern analyses of causation, we discuss the inadequacy of the counterfactual strong necessity (sine qua non, but-for) criterion for a condition to be a cause in a specific instance, which is dominant in modern philosophy, law and economics. We argue instead for the need to employ the more comprehensive, factual, weak-necessity/strong-sufficiency criterion, which is based on the "covering law" account elaborated by John Stuart Mill and has been developed in the modern legal literature as the "NESS" (necessary element of a sufficient set) criterion. We discuss the importance of understanding the required standards of persuasion for proving causation (or any other required fact) as generally requiring a warranted belief rather than a mere statistical probability. We note the confusion and paradoxes that result from some courts' employing the statistical probability interpretation of the standards of persuasion in certain situations involving inherent uncertainty regarding causation, rather than acknowledging the inherent uncertainty and explicitly addressing the normative responsibility issue. Finally, we criticize the efficiency theorists' attempt to explain the causation requirement for legal responsibility, despite causation's being irrelevant under their theories.


This study investigates public information as a component of the democratic process, advancing previous frameworks by considering information as a spatial product of multiple governmental and civil society organizations. The symbolic weight of information campaigns is a critical component of two democratic processes: awareness of the public9s vulnerability to formal water policy change and the perception within the public that the policy space is open to their participation. This research examines the locations of water-centered public information across 31 organizations in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The patterns of disparities found in the study indicate that the neighborhoods in the eastern portion of the study region receive more information than those in Phoenix or cities to the west. There is also more information in areas with large numbers of rental homes, but less information in regions with larger Latino populations. Results support a need to evaluate new initiatives for public information with respect to the content and distribution of materials originating from multiple sources. Evaluating the patterns created by water information providers could aid more strategic coordination among groups and provide a bellwether of whether public interests are adequately considered in local water decision-making processes and the distribution of outcomes.


The worker between practice and ideology: 1850–2000 Labour culture and the labour movement have previously been prominent fields of research. On the one hand, this had to do with the profound societal influence of the labour movement; on the other hand, it had to do with the fact that many scholars regarded a self-conscious labour class as a means to balance capitalism's negative aspects, if not simply to overcome them. Based upon this background, the author argues that the common worker has hitherto not been satisfactorily understood as a subject of cultural history. Using detailed investigations amongst workers on the workshop floor at Denmark's largest enterprise in the period from 1850 to 2000, the author emphasises how complex and diverse the everyday working life of industrialism actually was – and hence, also the relations between workers as well as employers and society as a whole. This bottom-up analysis is linked to a top-down perspective; here, the author argues that, as seen from the overall perspective of the state, the labour population – with varying intensity – played a very strong strategic role from around 1870 to 1990. Simply stated, consideration for the well-being of the labour population was understood as a precondition for societal cohesion. In theoretical terms, the author draws upon the structural state-form and life-mode analysis, where the idea of a 'wage-earner' life-mode is understood in its reciprocal relationship to the capitalist mode of production and, hence, not as a potential means to overcome capitalism. With this background, the labour movement's alleged objective to overcome capitalism – whether through revolution or long-term reforms – is instead analysed as an effectual means in the movement's struggles . The argument is as follows: the threat of societal transformation, which occurred over a number of decades – not least of all during the Cold War's polarisation of capitalism and communism – led to significant attention being paid to workers' claims of improving life conditions. Accordingly, the changed world order that followed the end of the Cold War is seen as a main reason for why concepts such as 'worker' or 'labourer' are infrequently used today, and for why the labour movement has experienced a severe debilitation in recent years.


Recently, the phenomenon of climate change effect has been clearly seen. Green city as concept of development have been initiated in several countries in the world with the expectation to contribute to the mitigation of global warming impact. Green City is the city that prioritizes the balance of bio-ecosystem with the environment to create comfortableness for the city residents and visitors (Yunus, 2012). Attributes of green city is related with the concept of sustainable architecture as the effort to minimize the negative impact towards the environment to address environmental problems caused by architectural complications.  This paper focuses on the implementation of sustainable architecture in supporting the effort to achieve green city. This research conducted exploration in the aspect of planning and implementation that accommodate the concept of green city in architectural aspect based on the city planning in Surakarta City. This research is conducted in several locations in Surakarta City such as Kampung Iklim Sekip Kadipiro, Selasar Budaya Kampung Jagalan, and Mojosongo. The three locations develop the planning and implementation of design with the principles of low cost, simple technology and low impact to the environment. Those efforts support the program to realize green city through sustainable architecture implemented in the building and simple supporting element of environment with low cost.   Keywords : green city, sustainable architecture, eco-friendly, climate change Â


Soil organic carbon (SOC) and rainfall are generally
positively related, whereas a negative relationship
between soil inorganic carbon (SIC) and rainfall with
some exception is observed. Land use pattern in black
soil region (BSR) of the semi-arid tropical (SAT)
India, consists of 80% under agriculture, followed by
forest, horticulture, wasteland and permanent fallow.
For sustainable agriculture on these soils, there is a
concern about their low OC status, which warrants
fresh initiatives to enhance their OC status by suitable
management interventions. In the BSR region, cotton,
soybean and cereal-based systems dominate but it is
not yet clear as to which cropping system in the SAT
black soils is most suitable for higher OC sequestration.
Many short-term experiments on cotton or
cereal-based systems clearly suggest that cotton or
cereal-based cropping systems including leguminous
crops perform better in terms of SOC sequestration
whereas soybean–legume combination do not add any
substantial amount of OC. In sub-humid bioclimatic
zones (1053–1209 mm mean annual rainfall), soybean is
grown successfully with wheat or fallowing, and SOC
concentration is maintained at 0.75% in the 0.30 m soil
layer under integrated nutrient management. In view of
enhancement and maintenance of OC in many shortterm
experiments conducted in various agro-climate
zones of SAT, it is realized that OC accumulation in
soils of the semi-arid ecosystem with suitable cropping
and management practices could be substantial especially
in cotton–pigeon pea rotation, and thus the discussed
crop rotations in each major bio-climatic zone
stand for wide acceptance by the SAT farmers.


Undertaking palliative care research is renowned for its difficulties particularly of recruitment, design and attrition. Furthermore palliative care researchers are faced with the challenge of obtaining informed consent from patients who are vulnerable because of their disease, with the increasing debate surrounding dual consent being obtained from patients and families. More recently researchers are faced with a problem of obtaining approval to undertake research. Major changes have taken place in the UK with the advent of Research Governance resulting in changes to guidelines regarding approval to undertake research. Although these initiatives were aimed at helping researchers it appears they are now starting to hinder. One change has been the need for ethics committee's approval to undertake any research with staff, including using anonymous questionnaires. Additionally there is the move for researchers to attend the ethics committee meeting. As well as being time consuming this can be a threatening experience for junior researcher. Practical difficulties are emerging with approval required from research and development units. This approval includes issuing an honorary employment contract (if appropriate) and where patient contact is required criminal registration bureau checking. Finally registration of the project has to be made with the data protection department. All of which can delay research commencing. This paper will discuss the practical problems facing palliative care researchers in gaining approval to undertake research. Suggestions will be made to overcome the practical difficulties as well as the ethical issues that can hinder a project from starting.


In 1998 World Health Organisation Europe outlined a vision of a new community-based nurse called the Family Health Nurse (FHN) who would help individuals, families and communities to cope with illness and to improve their health. Scotland was the first European country to develop this idea through policy, education and practice. The two phase national pilot project (2001-2006) primarily involved remote and rural regions. Despite its vanguard position, Scottish family health nursing has been subject to little in-depth critical analysis. This thesis addresses this deficit by analysing why and how family health nursing developed in Scotland. The research methods used are: critical review of textual sources; empirical research into policy, education and practice; and critical review and application of relevant theoretical perspectives to enable interpretation. Grounded primarily in constructivism, this approach builds explanation of the development of family health nursing in Scotland as a phenomenon in contemporary nursing history. This explanation highlights the importance of key factors and processes, particularly: agency at policy formulation level; use of the piloting mechanism to mediate knowledge production, containment and expansion; tensions between generalism and specialism as manifest within the promulgated FHN concept, the educational programme, and the FHN role as it was variously enacted in practice; related difficulty in engaging substantially with families; and the strong influence of local context on the nature and scope of FHN role development, especially in terms of situated power and embedded culture of place. The explanation is summarised as a synoptic story. A new integrative, explanatory model of the development of family health nursing in Scotland is also posited. This knowledge is then examined in relation to contemporary community nursing and primary care in order to understand influence and implications. This highlights the importance of the development of family health nursing in shaping the new Community Health Nurse (CHN) role which emerged from the Review of Nursing in the Community in Scotland 2006. The new explanatory model constructed within the thesis is then applied in its more generic MAPPED format (Model for Analysing Policy to Practice Executive Developments) to analyse the new policy formulation advancing the CHN role and to anticipate key developmental factors and processes. On this basis, the thesis argues that the MAPPED model is potentially valuable for the analysis of developments that require purview from policy through to practice. The thesis concludes by summarising its contributions to understandings of community nursing policy, practice, research and theory, and makes a number of related recommendations.


We consider the stock performance of America's 100 Best Corporate Citizens following the annual survey by Business Ethics. We examine both possible short-term announcement effects around the time of the survey's publication, and whether longer-term returns are higher for firms that are listed as good citizens. We find some evidence of a positive market reaction to a firm's presence in the Top 100 firms that are made public, and that holders of the stock of such firms earn small abnormal returns during an announcement window. Over the year following the announcement, companies in the Top 100 yield negative abnormal returns of around 3%. However, such companies tend to be large and with stocks exhibiting a growth style, which existing studies suggest will tend to perform poorly. Once we allow for these firm characteristics, the poor performance of the highly rated firms declines. We also find companies that are newly listed as good citizens and companies in the Top 100 but outside the S&P 500 can provide considerable positive abnormal returns to investors, even after allowing for their market capitalization, price-to-book ratios, and sectoral classification.


Life-threatening allergies often present difficult diagnostic challenges to health practitioners managing children. They are a source of great anxiety to parents and children and require accurate assessment and careful management. In recent decades there has been a real increase in true food and drug allergies affecting children across the age spectrum, from well-nourished ones to those infected with HIV. Although the most severe life-threatening allergies in children most often result from food and drug hypersensitivities, severe allergic reactions with life-threatening consequences are also encountered after exposure to latex, insect venoms, vaccines, immunotherapy, certain aero-allergens and certain food and drug preservatives. In high-risk children life-threatening reactions may also follow exercise or exposure to cross-reacting allergens. The principle of taking a careful history, details of the events and exposure before the reaction and before embarking on blood tests or other investigations, applies to all life-threatening allergies. There are a number of useful new diagnostic tests for evaluating life-threatening reactions. These include nonspecific tests, such as the mast cell tryptase test, and specific tests, including the Immunocap radio-allergosorbent test (RAST), cellular activated sulphido-leukotriene release test (CAST), titrated specific skin-prick testing and controlled challenge tests. Assessment of risk, level of exposure, inadvertent exposure and prevention of subsequent reactions are important components of the comprehensive management of these children.


Selecting suitable anti-malarial treatment represents one of the best tools for reducing morbidity and mortality caused by this disease. Sexual and asexual parasite dynamics were thus evaluated in patients involved in antimalarial drug efficacy studies by using combined treatment with and without artemisinin derivatives for treating uncomplicated acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Antioquia, Colombia. All treatment doses were supervised and administered according to patients' weight; sexual and asexual parasitemia were evaluated during 28- or 42-days follow-up in 468 patients. Artemisinin-based combination therapy showed greater parasiticidal ability, showing a mean asexual parasitemia survival rate of one day and mean gametocyte survival rate of 1-2 days. Sexual and asexual parasitemias were eliminated more quickly and effectively in the group receiving artemisinin-based combination therapy. Adding 45 mg of primaquine to treatment with artesunate and mefloquine reduced gametocyte and asexual parasite survival by one day.


In recent years, salt marsh restoration projects have focused upon restoring hydrology through culvert enlargement to return functional values lost due to reduced tidal flow. To evaluate culvert effects on upstream nekton assemblages, fyke nets were set upstream of tidally restricted creeks, creeks recently restored with larger culverts, and paired reference creeks in New Hampshire and Maine, U.S.A. Subtidal habitats created or enlarged by scour were found immediately upstream of undersized culverts. All marshes supported similar assemblages and densities of fish, suggesting that marshes upstream of moderately restrictive culverts provide suitable habitat to support fish communities. However, densities of Crangon septemspinosa (sand shrimp) were significantly reduced upstream of culverts. A mark–recapture study was conducted in tidally restricted, restored, and reference marsh creeks to evaluate culvert effects on the movement of Fundulus heteroclitus (mummichog), the numerically dominant fish species in New England salt marshes. Recapture data indicated that small culvert size and consequently increased water velocity significantly decreased fish passage rates. We infer that upstream subtidal habitats and greater water velocities due to undersized culverts decreased nekton movements between upstream and downstream areas, resulting in segregated nekton populations. Restoration of salt marsh hydrology by the installation of adequately sized culverts will support increased fish access to marsh habitats and nekton‐mediated export of marsh‐derived production to coastal waters.


One of the most substantive efforts in recent constructive Trinitarian theology of religions is by Gerald McDermott and Harold Netland. This article interacts with their proposal and expands their ideas from a perspective that foregrounds the work of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology). While evangelical thinking about the religions can remain disjunctive at the discursive level, evangelical mission vis-à-vis those in other faiths demands a more dynamic Trinitarian praxis than that developed by the authors. I thus propose a more pneumatologically informed Trinitarian theology of holistic Christian mission to undergird evangelical practice in our pluralistic world.


The analysis of urine sediments (Urinalysis) is a common procedure in diagnostic laboratories, and allows the identification of important diseases. This procedure is usually done by a professional, which performs a visual inspection of microscope slides containing urine, aiming to identify crystals, bacteria and other relevant elements, resulting in a laborious task. The automation of this task is of great value to medicine and related areas, raising the quality and reliability of diagnosis and reducing the time spent with these tasks. This paper describes a new method for automating the analysis of urine sediments in digital images that has the main goal of finding cystine crystals. Real images obtained from a microscope and from some public image databases were used to test the developed algorithm, which demonstrated satisfactory results with 73.72% and 93.08% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively.


This paper presents an analytical study of the performance of transmission control protocol (TCP) over free-space optical (FSO) turbulence channels when the automatic-repeat request, selective-repeat (ARQ-SR) scheme is employed. Different TCP versions, including Tahoe, Reno, and selective acknowledgement, are considered. In the TCP throughput analysis, a three-dimensional Markov model is used. In addition, to analyze the joint effect of ARQ-SR and FSO turbulence channels in terms of both TCP throughput and energy consumption, a newly defined joint throughput ¿ energy-efficiency parameter is analytically derived. In the numerical results, we discuss cross-layer design strategies for the selection of FSO system parameters and the ARQ-SR scheme in order to maximize the TCP throughput and to achieve the trade-off between the energy consumption and the throughput under various conditions of the FSO turbulence channel.


Many planktonic copepods use diffusible pheromone or hydromechanical signals to remotely detect the presence of potential mates. To determine whether these mating signals also play a role in species recognition and mate choice, we observed and video recorded (3D) mate-finding and pursuit behaviors in heterospecific and conspecific mating crosses in a pair of congeneric, partially sympatric species (Temora stylifera and T. longicornis) in the laboratory. The species appear to have asymmetrical pre-mating isolation, with T. longicornis males readily pursuing T. stylifera females to mate contact and capture, but with little mate-finding activity observed in the reverse cross. Males of T. longicornis pursuing heterospecific females executed a number of behaviors known to facilitate successful pheromone trail following and mate capture in conspecific mating, including accelerated swimming in a 'signal-scanning' mode to recover a lost pheromone trail, reversal of the tracking direction in cases when the male initiated tracking in the incorrect direction, and accelerated swimming speeds when in the presence of a pheromone signal but prior to locating the trail. Detailed analyses of mate-tracking behavior in T. longicornis male × T. stylifera female crosses gave no indication that males were aware they were pursuing heterospecific females prior to mate contact, indicating that diffusible pheromone and hydromechanical signals are not used, either singly or in combination, for species recognition in this mating pair. Heterospecific mating attempts among sympatric, congeneric copepods may commonly proceed to mate capture, and incur fitness costs to either or both mating partners.


"Effeminism" charts the flows of colonial desire in the works of British writers in India. Working on the assumption that desire is intensely political, historically constituted, and materially determined, the book shows how the inscriptions of masculinity in the fictions of Flora Annie Steel, Rudyard Kipling, and E. M. Forster are deeply implicated in the politics of colonial rule and anticolonial resistance. At the same time, the study refrains from representing colonialism as a coherent set of public events, policies, and practices whose social, political, and cultural meanings are self-evident. Instead, by tracing the resistant and unassailable modes of masculine desire in colonial fiction, the study insists on an explosive revolutionary potential that makes desire often intractable. And by restoring the political in the unconscious and the unconscious in the political, the book proposes to understand colonialism in terms of historical failure, ideological inadequacy, and political contention. This book will interest not only scholars of 19th- and 20th-century British literature and colonial and postcolonial literatures, but also those working in the areas of cultural studies, gender studies, and South Asian studies."Krishnaswamy uses 'effeminization' to describe the complicated paths of colonial sexual desire, stereotypes of Indian male passivity, and how 'colonizing men used womanhood to delegitimize, discredit and disempower colonized men.' Reading texts by Rudyard Kipling (a 'culturally hybrid male'), E. M. Forster (a homosexual), and F. A. Steel (a woman), the author shows how these tactics affect the representation not only of colonized men and women but also of the marginalized writers of the colonizing culture. In the process, she makes intriguing analogies between androgyny and biculturalism.""--Choice"


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