This study explores the UK Strategic Defence Review [SDR] 1997/98 from a strategy process perspective. The review in contrast to previous reviews was intended to be transparent and policy rather than resource led. The paper adopts a case study approach based on interviews with the leading figures involved, and supplemented with reference to Parliamentary documents and information from the Ministry of Defence's files provided under the Freedom of Information Act.
The analysis shows that the review went relatively smoothly but that a number of factors influenced the final strategy; politics (political decisions, the Treasury), power (civil servants and strong stakeholders) and influence (participants in meetings). The intention to return to a foreign policy base line was eschewed in favour of last minute adjustments and compromises. Finally the review process is considered in the light of strategic decision making models drawn from the extant literature.


Has the sanguine public policy of preference turned out to be a political soccer game? Has it been a victim of ideological fights? Can it undo the past? In India, it has become a tool of competitive populism. In the United States, it has been subjected to the ideological positioning of the Supreme Court and with all types of backlash, the policy appears to be in the doldrums. In South Africa, it is turned on its head with the majority enjoying preference resulting in the flight of the minority "white tribe." Given all the tribulations, can altruism be rescued from politics? All modern nations have tried to reach out to minorities in an effort to make their public service more representative. Such efforts are known by several names, the most commonly used being affirmative action. This article briefly compares the experience of three different nations in an effort to get a better handle on the issues revolving around this important public policy. The article provides a brief rationale for affirmative action, describes the policy initiatives and the politics of preference, and presents an assessment followed by some concluding remarks. The three nations chosen here are India, the United States, and South Africa. India, the largest working democracy, in an effort to transform an essentially unequal and hierarchical society into a "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic" has over the last 50 years embarked upon a serious measure of "reservations" to undo institutionalized social discrimination practiced over the millennia. The United States of America, an immigrant nation and the most stable democracy, has to come to grips with its ethnic diversity and more importantly undo the impact of past discrimination against minorities. South Africa, after a long rule by a tiny minority, has come into the comity of modern democratic nations only recently with the transfer of power to the majority blacks in 1994. While the experience of India and the United States in this context is formidable and long, the South African experience is nascent but important. While it is not necessary to go into an elaborate discussion of the rationale behind preferential treatment and the criticism of it since much has already been written, it is useful briefly to recall the arguments. Those who support affirmative action argue mainly on four criteria. First, the concept of compensatory justice implies that the damage done by historical discrimination against some groups either from custom and tradition or through deliberate public policy, should be undone and due compensation should be extended to them. Second, distributive justice demands that the just distribution of social goods and wealth requires equal opportunity and access to all. Third, social utility theory asserts that everyone in the society has something to contribute and that the society is better off when everyone can participate. This is an argument for inclusion rather than exclusion, which is also quite democratic. Diversity in itself becomes a core value (Rosenbloom, 1998). Fourth, there is the concept of responsiveness, an outcome of the theory of representative bureaucracy, which suggests that if public service personnel become more diverse and representative of all segments of the community, the service itself will become more responsive to the needs of all. In addition, there is an emerging definition of merit based not solely on test scores, which may or may not be valid, but on an expanded concept of deserving in other ways. There are numerous arguments against affirmative action. The first is that of reverse discrimination, which argues that an effort in the present to prefer a minority in order to undo previous discrimination, perpetuates discrimination even though it is now being practiced on a different group. Second is the "make whole" argument, which posits that at best, preference should be given only to those individuals who actually experience discrimination and not to the whole class of which they are a part because some numbers of that class may be quite successful and well off. …


Purpose: This paper discusses the waste-management defined in the London Environment Strategy in the context of the circular economy model and the practical solutions proposed therein whose innovative character is manifested in the radical reduction of waste, recycling of waste and the phasing out of landfills. Design/Methodology/Approach: Innovation of solutions adopted in the London Environment Strategy was examined with legal and institutional analysis, meso-level system analysis and the comparative method. Findings: Analysed document reflects of a properly designed environmental policy based on the typical for the smart city assumptions of the fullest possible using of all sources and the fullest possible participation of the local community in the urban systems management. Practical Implications: Consequent implementation of the London Environment Policy should allow to achieve ambitious aim of a "zero-waste-city" to 2030 with a high degree of certainty. Originality/value: Innovative character of the London's environmental policy is the result of a skilfull combination of the smart city concept with the circular economy model developed by the European Commission.


The safety of buildings which have been affected by a natural disaster such as an earthquake is currently evaluated manually by certified inspectors who identify visible damage on the structural elements. This process has been proven to be time-consuming, costly, and can delay the response and recovery. In order to automate this type of assessment, it is necessary to automatically determine the damage state of the individual structural members. Previously, the writers have created novel methods for automated detection of RC columns as well as significant damage on the column surfaces (spalling and cracking). This paper presents a novel method of automatically determining the damage state of RC columns in RC frame buildings based only on the automatically detected damage and column information. In addition, the novel method automatically determines an associated engineering demand parameter, residual drift capacity. All of the methods previously developed by the writers are combined with the method presented in this paper and the results are compared with those of manual assessment procedures. The method was implemented using computer software and its effectiveness was confirmed with this comparison. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.


Previous work in animal nutrition has focused on single feeds and assumed additivity in ration
systems. In the tropics, farmers are likely to feed mixtures of feeds, including tree fodders, which may
not be simply additive in nutritional terms. This study has increased our understanding of the
mechanisms that determine the associative effects on the in vitro fermentation of mixtures of fodder
tree leaves. Associative effects are governed by a synchronisation in the fermentation rates of the
components of the mixture. This is in turn dependent on the fermentability of their chemical
constituents. Effects were demonstrated by changes in the fermentation kinetics of gas production
curves.
The chemical components of fodder tree leaves that affect the fermentation, and the time at which the
effect occurs, were identified, using two media of different nitrogen contents.
The fermentation of mixtures of pure chemical entities in various combinations was then examined.
The greatest associative effects were found when the mixture had components of similar
fermentability. It is proposed that associative effects are a function of the synchronisation of
fermentation of the different components and was shown to occur at the point when the rate was
maximal.
With two types of protein (casein and bovine serum albumin (BSA)), utilisation of a protein by rumen
microbes was shown to be a function of its fermentability and not of its solubility. This is also
influenced by the type of associated carbohydrate.
Fodder tree leaves were then combined with different pure chemical entities. Associative effects
between fodder tree leaves and carbohydrates were shown to occur and the responses were similar to
those obtained with mixtures of pure carbohydrates and proteins.
The effect of tannins and phenolic compounds was studied using quebracho tannin as a model, and
in five of the tree species. They were shown to affect the fermentability of both carbohydrates and
proteins. The effect was greater with carbohydrates of medium to low fermentability. They also
reacted with both soluble and insoluble protein. Forages with phenolic compounds showed both
positive and negative effects. The effects were possible due to a synchrony or asynchrony in the
release of protein.
In mixtures of leaves from different species, associative effects were related to their fermentability.
Again, this appeared to be the result of the synchronisation of the release of nutrients. Associative
effects with fodder tree leaves were of a composite nature and can be both positive and negative.
The implications of these findings in relation to in vivo digestion and animal production are discussed.
Due to the diversity of fodder trees, there is the potential to develop feeding systems based on
mixtures which make better use of available resources. This will also contribute to improved
efficiency in the management and use of natural resources, and take advantage of natural plant
diversity in the tropics.


The scientific literature is a rich and challenging data source for research in systems biology, providing numerous interactions between biological entities. Text mining techniques have been increasingly useful to extract such information from the literature in an automatic way, but up to now the main focus of text mining in the systems biology field has been restricted mostly to the discovery of protein-protein interactions. Here, we take this approach one step further, and use machine learning techniques combined with text mining to extract a much wider variety of interactions between biological entities. Each particular interaction type gives rise to a separate network, represented as a graph, all of which can be subsequently combined to yield a so-called integrated network representation. This provides a much broader view on the biological system as a whole, which can then be used in further investigations to analyse specific properties of the network.


A large number of proteins have shown ability to bind to SUMO (Small
Ubiquitin like Modifier) proteins through a short conserved motif called SIM (SUMO Interacting Motif). The work presented here shows that the different SUMO isoforms interact with the hydrophobic core of the SIM by forming an intermolecular b-sheet with the b2 strand of SUMO. This interaction is crucial for SUMO binding, and is modulated by interactions between SUMO and the amino acids flanking the core of the SIM. The SIM can be phosphorylated, providing a possibility for regulating the strength of SUMO binding in the lifetime of a protein. Furthermore, a concentration threshold effect is observed in the binding of the unphosphorylated SIM of PIAS (Protein inhibitor of activated STAT) to SUMO. The dependency on the amino acids flanking
the hydrophobic core is stronger in binding to SUMO1 than to SUMO2, providing a mechanism for SUMO isoform discrimination.


The main goal of this study is the use of polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) to analyze the uncertainty in calculating the lateral and longitudinal center of gravity for a vehicle from static load cell measurements. A secondary goal is to use experimental testing as a source of uncertainty and as a method to confirm the results from the PCE simulation. While PCE has often been used as an alternative to Monte Carlo, PCE models have rarely been based on experimental data. The 8-post test rig at the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research facility at Virginia International Raceway is the experimental test bed used to implement the PCE model. Experimental tests are conducted to define the true distribution for the load measurement systems' uncertainty. A method that does not require a new uncertainty distribution experiment for multiple tests with different goals is presented. Moved mass tests confirm the uncertainty analysis using portable scales that provide accurate results. The polynomial chaos model used to find the uncertainty in the center of gravity calculation is derived. Karhunen-Loeve expansions, similar to Fourier series, are used to define the uncertainties to allow for the polynomial chaos expansion. PCE models are typically computed via the collocation method or the Galerkin method. The Galerkin method is chosen as the PCE method in order to formulate a more accurate analytical result. The derivation systematically increases from one uncertain load cell to all four uncertain load cells noting the differences and increased complexity as the uncertainty dimensions increase. For each derivation the PCE model is shown and the solution to the simulation is given. Results are presented comparing the polynomial chaos simulation to the Monte Carlo simulation and to the accurate scales. It is shown that the PCE simulations closely match the Monte Carlo simulations.


Extreme weather and climate events such as floods and droughts are common in East Africa, causing huge socio-economic losses. This study links the east African October-December (OND) rainfall, Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Mascarene High (MH).Correlation analysis is applied to quantify the relationship between the index of IOD (Dipole Mode Index (DMI)) and OND rainfall. Results show that there exists a significant correlation between OND rainfall and DMI, with a correlation coefficient of 0.6.During dry years, MH is observed to intensify and align itself in the southeast-northwest orientation,
stretching up to the continent, which in turn inhibits the influx of moisture from Indian Ocean into East
Africa. During wet years, MH weakens, shifts to the east and aligns itself in the zonal orientation. Moisture from Indian Ocean is freely transported into east Africa during wet years. Analysis of the drought and flood years with respect to the different variables including wind, velocity potential and divergence/convergence revealed that the drought (flood) years were characterized by divergence (convergence) in the lower troposphere and convergence (divergence) at the upper level, implying sinking (rising) motion, especially over the western Indian Ocean and the study area. Convergence at low level gives rise to vertical stretching, whereas divergence results in vertical shrinking, which suppresses convection due to subsidence. Positive IOD (Negative IOD) event results into flood (drought) in the region. The evolution of these phenomena can thus be keenly observed for utilization in the update of seasonal forecasts.


The literature highlights that labour market churn, including job-to-job transitions, is a key element of wage growth. Using microdata from the Labour Force Survey, we compute measures of labour market churn and compare these with pre-crisis averages to assess implications for wage growth. Overall, while it has improved in Canada, labour market churn broadly remains below pre-crisis averages. This relatively subdued level of churn is consistent with modest slack remaining in the Canadian labour market and thus helps explain the modest wage growth over the past few years.


Reprogramming
Diabetics lack insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. One therapeutic strategy involves generating these cells from other sources and then transplanting them into patients. To withstand the pathological diabetic environment, a renewable source of beta cells is crucial. Ariyachet et al. demonstrate that stomach cells fit the bill. Like the pancreas, the stomach arises from the endoderm and harbors many stem and progenitor cells. Introducing the trio of proteins into mouse endocrine cells from the lower stomach reprograms them into insulin-producing beta cells. Transplanting reprogrammed stomach mini-organs into diabetic mice allowed them to control their hyperglycemia, suggesting a viable gastric source for the production of insulin.

Cell Stem Cell 10.1016/j.stem.2016.01.003 (2016).


The results of this thesis are oriented towards the study of convex problems of optimal control in the extended piecewise linear-quadratic format. Such format greatly extends the classical linear-quadratic regulator problem and allows for the treatment of control constraints, including state-dependent ones. The Hamiltonian system associated with a control problem, the optimal feedback mapping, and the value function are objects of main interest. Several tools of nonsmooth and convex analysis are developed, including a new approximation scheme for convex functions, characterizations of a saddle function through the properties of it's conjugate, and a new distance formula for monotone operators. The optimal feedback mapping for control problems is given, in terms of subdifferentials of the corresponding Hamiltonian and of the value function. The Hamiltonian system is employed to investigate the regularity properties of the value function for the problem in question. Conditions for differentiability of the value function and single-valuedness of the feedback in an extended linear-quadratic control problem are stated, in terms of the matrices and constraint sets defining the problem. Application of convex analysis to differential games yields explicit formulas for equilibrium controls and a generalized Hamiltonian equation describing an equilibrium trajectory.


In this study, the mechanisms for the development of a localized heavy rainfall event during the evening of 2 June to the early morning of 3 June 1984 over northern Taiwan are investigated. This event occurred under favorable large-scale conditions including: upper-level divergence; low-level high equivalent potential temperature; low levels of free convection; and subsynoptic-scale ascending motion over the northern Taiwan Strait and northern Taiwan associated with a baroclinic front. In the late night of 2 June, pre-existing rainfall is simulated to the southeast of a trough axis over the southeastern China coast as well as in the frontal zone north of Taiwan. The pre-existing rainfall is enhanced as it moves over the northeastern Taiwan Strait where the prevailing southwesterly winds within the Taiwan Strait converge with the orographically deflected flow with a southerly wind component off the western/northwestern Taiwan coast. As the pre-existing convective rainfall continues to move toward northern Taiwan, it is further enhanced in a localized low-level convergence zone over the northwestern coast where a barrier jet along the coast converges with the northwesterly winds behind the surface front. Furthermore, on the morning of 3 June, focusing of rainfall is simulated where the barrier jet encounters the leading edge of the cold pool caused by rain evaporative cooling. As the convective rainfall areas drift inland, the orographic lifting of the pre-frontal southwesterly flow over the slopes south of the Taipei Basin also plays a role in the simulated enhanced heavy rainfall there.


Whiteflies are phytophagous insects, whose nymphs and adults suck the phloem sap, causing direct damage due to host plant weakness. In tomato (Lycopersicon spp.) crops, they are important vectors of limiting fitoviruses. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of Lycopersicon spp. genotypes on Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889) biotype B development under greenhouse conditions. The evaluated genotypes were LA462 (L. peruvianum), LA716 (L. pennellii), LA1584 (L. pimpinellifolium), LA1609 (L. peruvianum), LA1739 (L. hirsutum), P25 (L. esculentum), PI134417 (L. hirsutum f. glabratum) and Santa Clara (L. esculentum). LA716 was non-preferred for oviposition by the whitefly, which suggests an antixenotic effect. LA1584 showed an antibiotic resistance because nymphal survival was reduced and nymphal developmental time was increased. Antixenotic resistance was observed in LA1739 and PI134417, based on a reduction of oviposition. PI134417 also reduced nymphal survival, which suggests an antibiotic effect, but LA1739 was suitable for insect development. LA1609 was highly preferred for oviposition, however it reduced insect survival. P25 and Santa Clara (L. esculentum) were highly preferred for oviposition.


In recent years, there has been a rapid rise in the development of engineered bamboo materials, which have the potential to play an important role as alternatives to conventional building materials. Despite the growing diversity of bamboo products available on the market, the international standardization of both bamboo products and their constituent elements is limited, and a lack of universal nomenclature is recognized as one of the main constraints on developing standards. Similar or identical terminology is used interchangeably to describe different bamboo elements, processes, or products across sectors and continents. In some cases, translated colloquial names are misleading and scientifically inaccurate, which forms a barrier to global collaboration and research, creates ambiguity, and potentially limits trade. The present work aims to address this gap by proposing a set of appropriate terms in English that accurately describe and differentiate between currently produced engineered bamboo products and their constituent elements, accompanied by parallel terms in Chinese and Spanish. From these, new categories of engineered bamboo building materials are proposed for the Harmonized System of product codes. This paper highlights current ambiguities and provides terminology together with clear definitions of the main primary elements, processing steps, and products.


Plasma lipids have been known to be altered by the within-month variations in the female hormonal system. The female hormonal system also controls the menstrual cycle in the pre-menopausal women. This study is, therefore, aimed at finding the possible effects of menopause on plasma lipids and lipoproteins, as shown by the lipid profile. The lipid profiles of 200 post-menopausal women and 100 pre-menopausal control women were estimated. The results obtained show a statistically significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the total cholesterol level of early menopausal subjects (6.05 plus/minus 1.03mmol/L) and slightly higher values in late menopausal subjects (6.80 plus/minus 0.81mmol/L), when compared with the control subjects (4.6 plus/minus 0.62mmol/L). Triglycerides (TG) showed slight but significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the early menopausal subjects (1.40 plus/minus 0.80 mmol/L) and higher levels in late menopausal subjects(1.96 plus/minus 0.45 mmol/L) in comparison with the control subjects (1.02 plus/minus 0.44 mmol/L). High density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were however reduced significantly (P less than 0.05) in early menopausal subjects (1.20 plus/minus 0.27 mmol/L) and even lower in late menopausal subjects (1.17 plus/minus 0.28 mmol/L) when compared to the controls; while Low density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) levels were significantly increased (P less than 0.05) in early menopausal subjects (4.21 plus/minus 0.81 and 0.63 plus/minus 0.37 mmol/L), and higher in late menopausal subjects (4.70 plus/minus 0.55 and 0.81 plus/minus 0.41 mmol/L) when compared with the control subjects. The findings suggest the probability that menopausal syndrome can lead to hyperlipidaemia, dyslipidaemia and possibly predispose women to coronary artery disease.


Cypriot Greek is an understudied variety of Modern Greek, certainly as concerns the morphosyntactic grammatical system and developmental stages in young learners. This chapter lays out the beginnings of a larger research agenda currently undertaken by the Cyprus Acquisition Team and presents a first systematic foray into the first language acquisition of Cypriot Greek. One interesting contrast with Standard Modern Greek, and its relevance for young learners, is particularly highlighted: direct object clitic placement. The results from the pilot study presented here are capitalized on by formulating the tender beginnings of the Socio-Syntax of Development Hypothesis for language acquisition in 'bi-x environments' – that is, first language development in linguistic environments, such as that of Greek-speaking Cyprus, that are variably characterized as diglossic, bidialectal, or bilingual.


We numerically investigate the trade-offs between the dispersion properties, coupling efficiency, and geometrical constraints in dual-wire (twin-lead) terahertz (THz) waveguides. In particular, we show that their inherent linearly polarized quasi-transverse electromagnetic (TEM) modes exist for waveguide transverse dimensions comparable with the wavelength, enabling significant end-fire coupling (>10%) for numericalaperture limited Gaussian beams while supporting a relatively low-dispersion propagation of below 0.5 ps2/m, as desired for short-pulse time-domain spectroscopy applications. Starting from the dual-wire structure, we also demonstrate that low-dispersion tapers can be designed to improve coupling efficiency.


A survey of fishes of the Kunene River along the Namibia-Angola border in 1990-1991 resulted in a total of 69 freshwater and 19 marine species being recorded. Previously Bell-Cross (1982) reported 70 species, Bethune and Roberts (1991) 69 species and Van der Waal(1991) 63 species. The absence of several species not collected during the survey is attributed to the limited sampling done in floodplain and swampy areas.


Abstract Despite the growing success of well-marketed environmentally friendly products, there remains a gap between consumers' positive attitudes towards green issues and products, and their inconsistent and often conflicting consumption behaviour. Indeed, this is a challenge for social marketers seeking to advance the sustainability agenda. Therefore, this study problematises what has been conceptualised as attitude–behaviour gaps (Boulstridge & Carrigan, 2000), and explores how groups of consumers have re-construed such practices and their meanings through the formation of New Consumption Communities (Szmigin, Carrigan, & Bekin, 2007). Multi-sited ethnographic findings illustrate the social processes through which ethical and green forms of consumption are established and normalised. Findings also stress the importance of normative and habitual reframing through 'ethical spaces' (Barnett, Clarke et al., 2005) in establishing and maintaining increased consistency in participants' consumption meanings, behaviours, and goals. Thus we re-frame attitude–behaviour gaps as coherent inconsistencies, which allows for a move away from solely trying to explain and change individual consumer behaviour, to identifying how suitable upstream and downstream (Verplanken & Wood, 2006) approaches and policies can be used to facilitate more sustainable forms of consumption.


What you need to prepare, install, and maintain SolidWorks It's not enough to know how to use SolidWorks, if your job also requires you to install or maintain it, train new users, and implement standards. This in-depth guide was written for those of you who have to actually manage your company's SolidWorks system. From hardware selection to helping users to licensing and more, this is the everyday, bread-and-butter SolidWorks administration resource that IT and CAD managers have been seeking. SolidWorks is a powerful 3D solid modeling system that is popular with CAD users everywhere, but often leaves IT administrators in the dark as to how to manage it; this essential guide covers SolidWorks admin for both IT staff and CAD users Walks you through preparing, installing, and maintaining SolidWorks Covers setting up shared libraries, automated deployment tools, licensing, updates and upgrades, support and troubleshooting, standardization, and collaboration Get the high-level assistance you need to efficiently manage SolidWorks in your enterprise or small business. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Praise for the First Edition. . . outstandingly appealing with regard to its style, contents, considerations of requirements of practice, choice of examples, and exercises.Zentralblatt MATH. . . carefully structured with many detailed worked examples.The Mathematical GazetteThe Second Edition of the highly regarded An Introduction to Numerical Methods and Analysis provides a fully revised guide to numerical approximation. The book continues to be accessible and expertly guides readers through the many available techniques of numerical methods and analysis.An Introduction to Numerical Methods and Analysis, Second Edition reflects the latest trends in the field, includes new material and revised exercises, and offers a unique emphasis on applications. The author clearly explains how to both construct and evaluate approximations for accuracy and performance, which are key skills in a variety of fields. A wide range of higher-level methods and solutions, including new topics such as the roots of polynomials, spectral collocation, finite element ideas, and Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature, are presented from an introductory perspective, and the Second Edition also features:Chapters and sections that begin with basic, elementary material followed by gradual coverage of more advanced materialExercises ranging from simple hand computations to challenging derivations and minor proofs to programming exercisesWidespread exposure and utilization of MATLABAn appendix that contains proofs of various theorems and other materialThe book is an ideal textbook for students in advanced undergraduate mathematics and engineering courses who are interested in gaining an understanding of numerical methods and numerical analysis.


Biological materials are widely used as a bioindicator for environmental pollution with heavy metals. Among these are human hair and nails, which also recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for worldwide environmental monitoring. Heavy metals Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were determined in fingernails and scalp hair from different sexes and ages of school children, adults and workers from polluted (Kima area and industrial region) and unpolluted areas (West Aswan) located at the West Nile of Aswan, Egypt. The atomic absorption spectroscopic technique was used for determination of the studied metals at their recommended conditions. The results reveal that individual nails and hair from polluted areas showed significantly higher concentrations of Cd and Pb (in children) and Cd, Cu and Pb (in adults and workers) than in those from unpolluted ones. Concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in nails and hair depend on human sex but little on the ages. Studied metal concentrations in fingernails and scalp hair were ...


Ecommerce refers to the buying and selling of products and services electronically via the
Internet and other computer networks (Electronic Commerce 2011). The critical components
of ecommerce are a well designed website and a merchant account for payment by the
customer (Ecommerce critical components 2008). Merchants that sell their products and
services via the Internet have a competitive edge over those that do not. It is therefore
becoming common practice for both small and large business to transact electronically. With
the vast opportunities, new risks and vulnerabilities are introduced. Consumers are reluctant
to transact electronically because of the fear of unauthorized access and interception of
confidential information (Online Banking Concerns 2011). Other fears include the changing
of data with malicious intent, denial of use, hacking, deliberate disclosure of confidential
information and e-mail associated risks (Safeena, Abdulla & Date 2010). The use of
technology such as encryption and decryption has not adequately addressed these problems
because fraudsters have found new and sophisticated methods of attaining consumer
information illegally. Phishing is one such method. Phishing results in identity theft and
financial fraud when the fraudster tricks the online users into giving their confidential
information like passwords, identity numbers, credit card number and personal information
such as birthdates and maiden names. The fraudster will then use the information to
impersonate the victim to transfer funds from the victim"s account or use the victim"s
information to make purchases (Srivastava 2007). Since 2002, many laws passed in South
Africa have attempted to allay fears so that consumers can conduct business electronically
with confidence. The following legislation aims to protect consumers:
- The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (Republic of South Africa
2002).
- The Consumer Protection Act (Republic of South Africa 2008).
- The Protection of Personal Information Bill which is expected to be passed in 2011
(Republic of South Africa 2009).
This research aims to examine the extent to which these legislation can address the security
concerns of consumers. The researcher is also interested in ascertaining how knowledgeable
consumers are on these legislation and what their attitudes are towards their personal
information security.


Drugs that prevent aurora kinase A from interacting with the transcription factor MYC may treat p53-mutant liver cancer. The growth of various cancers is driven by increased activity of RAS family enzymes or increased abundance of the transcription factor MYC. Some hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) exhibit both abnormalities in conjunction with mutations in p53, a transcription factor that promotes cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. However, these HCCs lack targeted therapeutic options because RAS and MYC are largely considered "undruggable." Dauch et al. have found a druggable target—surprisingly, a tumor suppressor—that partners with MYC and enables its activity in p53-mutant liver cancer. An RNA interference screen combined with deep sequencing in tumors from genetic mouse models of hepatocarcinoma suggested that the growth of NRAS-driven, p53-mutant liver cancer cells depended on a high abundance of MYC and the mitosis checkpoint kinase aurora kinase A (AURKA). However, various experiments in transgenic mice indicated that AURKA was a tumor suppressor and that expression of the gene encoding it was induced by RAS-mediated activation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A, also known as p19ARF), which also promotes p53 stability. In HCC cells lacking wild-type p53, phosphorylated (but not unphosphorylated) MYC immunoprecipitated with AURKA. The phosphorylation of MYC promotes its ubiquitylation and proteasome-mediated degradation. Treating cells with allosteric inhibitors of AURKA kinase activity (MLN8237 and CD532) prevented the formation of new AURKA-phosphorylated MYC complexes, induced the degradation of MYC, and led to cell death. Injecting MLN8237 into mice bearing HCC xenografts that were NRAS-positive and either p53-mutant or p53-null suppressed tumor growth and improved animal survival. Increased AURKA expression correlated with that of mutant TP53 (the gene that encodes p53) and of MYC in human HCCs. The findings suggest that interaction with AURKA stabilizes MYC, which promotes cell cycling in the absence of functional p53. Therefore, conformational AURKA inhibitors that block this interaction may be a way to treat patients with MYC-positive, NRAS-driven, p53-mutant liver cancer. D. Dauch, R. Rudalska, G. Cossa, J.-C. Nault, T.-W. Kang, T. Wuestefeld, A. Hohmeyer, S. Imbeaud, T. Yevsa, L. Hoenicke, T. Pantsar, P. Bozko, N. P. Malek, T. Longerich, S. Laufer, A. Poso, J. Zucman-Rossi, M. Eilers, L. Zender, A MYC–aurora kinase A protein complex represents an actionable drug target in p53-altered liver cancer. Nat. Med. 22, 744–753 (2016). [PubMed]


The PhD outlines criteria under which a psychiatric classification merits belief and, as a case study, establishes that autism merits belief. Three chapters respond to anti-realist arguments, three chapters establish conditions under which psychiatric classifications merit belief. Chapter one addresses the pessimistic meta-induction. I historically analyse autism to show there has been sufficient historical continuity to avoid the pessimistic meta induction. Chapter two considers arguments from underdetermination. I consider the strongest candidate for an alternative to autism, classificatory changes which occurred between 1980 and 1985. I argue this does not constitute underdetermination because those changes were methodologically and evidentially flawed. Chapter three considers theory-ladenness. I consider the two strongest candidates for background theories which might have a negative epistemic effect (cognitive psychology and psychoanalysis). I show these have little influence on what symptoms are formulated or how symptoms are grouped together. Chapter four argues against psychiatric classifications as natural kinds and against notions that inductive knowledge of psychiatric classifications requires robust causes. I outline psychiatric classifications as scientific laws. They are high level idealised models which guide construction of lower level, more specific, models. This opens alternative routes to belief for psychiatric classification lacking robust causes. Chapter five shows that psychiatric classifications can set relevant populations for deriving statistically significant symptoms. The same behaviour can count as statistically significant for one psychiatric classification but not another. I argue this process strengthens psychiatric classifications inductively, thus contributing to belief. Chapter six bases belief on theoretical virtues. Unifications and causation are the two main theoretical virtues. Autism strongly exhibits unifications, stringently covering a wide range of otherwise unrelated symptoms. Additionally, emphasising causation may reduce unifications and thus reduce belief. Attributing unifications is reliable because autism is accessible without employing extremely complicated experimental processes and relies upon secure background theories.


We experimentally investigate the impact of recognizing contributors on public good contributions. We vary recognizing all, highest or lowest contributors. Consistent with previous studies, recognizing all contributors significantly increases contributions relative to the baseline. Recognizing only the highest contributors does not increase contributions compared to not recognizing contributors, while recognizing only the lowest contributors is as effective as recognizing all contributors. These findings support our conjecture that aversion from shame is a more powerful motivator for giving than anticipation of prestige.


Several lines of evidence implicate type I interferons (IFN-I, including IFN-α and IFN-β) in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are specialized in the production of IFN-α and produce high concentrations of this cytokine following exposure to immune complexes (ICs) containing nucleic acids such as those that are found in the serum and tissues of patients with SLE. We previously reported that normal human serum inhibits IFN-α production by pDCs in response to SLE ICs and that inhibition is mediated, in part, by immunoglobulin G (IgG). IgG is the major component of intravenous Ig (IVIg), a therapeutic that is well known to exert anti-inflammatory properties and is used to treat several diseases associated with increased IFN-I expression. Although the sialylated subfraction of IVIg has been implicated as the key anti-inflammatory component in murine models of arthritis and thrombocytopenia, the mechanism of inhibition of IFN-α by IgG and the importance of sialylation have not been studied. To address these questions we stimulated human primary cells with immune complexes or Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists and then evaluated their IFN-α production after addition of total IgG, its proteolytic fragments or differentially glycosylated subfractions. We discovered two very different mechanisms of inhibition by IgG. In the first, IgG potently inhibited IC-induced IFN-α by blocking binding of ICs to FcγRIIa on pDCs, which required the Fc portion of IgG but not sialylation. We also elucidated a novel second mechanism by which IgG inhibited TLR agonist-induced IFN-α that was independent of FcγR interaction. F(ab')2 fragments from the sialylated subfraction of IgG induced monocytes to produce prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) which potently inhibited pDC production of IFN-α. We found that PGE2 could inhibit IFN-α by direct activity on pDCs, but the signaling pathways involved in the inhibition of IFN-α by PGE2 are not well understood. We demonstrated that an activator of PKA (dibutyryl-cAMP) or a suppressor of mTOR (rapamycin) also inhibited IFN-α production, implicating the PKA and mTOR pathways as key regulators. Future studies will address the identification of the target molecule(s) on monocytes that are important for PGE2 production and the signal transduction pathways responsible for PGE2 suppression of IFN-α production by pDCs. These findings could lead to more efficient therapies for immune modulation in SLE and other diseases in which IFN-I is thought to play an important role.


Studies on welfare programs in the United States have identified three types of welfare migration (employment, benefit, and amenity-related). This paper introduces a fourth type of migration induced by welfare time limits. After a welfare-dependent family runs out of benefits, it is possible for them to reset the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families time clock by crossing state lines to extend their benefits. Our theoretical results suggest that the likelihood of migration increases if the migration distance is small or the gain from the move is large. We hypothesize that, ceteris paribus, families migrating in order to extend their benefits will minimize the distance they migrate, and will be likely to move into the nearest state, especially into counties just across the state border. We utilize macro data at the county level to look for evidence of time-limit induced migration. Estimates indicate that time limits may be associated with an increase in welfare migration.


The literature on cognition and communication documents that people use round numbers to convey uncertainty. This paper introduces a method of quantifying the uncertainty associated with round responses in pre-existing survey data. I construct micro-level and time series measures of inflation uncertainty since 1978. Inflation uncertainty is countercyclical and correlated with inflation disagreement, volatility, and the Economic Policy Uncertainty index. Inflation uncertainty is lowest among high-income consumers, college graduates, males, and stock market investors. More uncertain consumers are more reluctant to spend on durables, cars, and homes. Round responses are common on many surveys, suggesting numerous applications of this method.


We examined the effect of physiological hyperinsulinemia on insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) tyrosine phosphorylation and phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase activity in skeletal muscle from six lean–to–moderately obese NIDDM patients and six healthy subjects. A rise in serum insulin levels from ∼60 to ∼650 pmol/l increased IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation sixfold over basal levels in control muscle (P < 0.01), whereas no significant increase was noted in NIDDM muscle. The reduced IRS-1 phosphorylation in the NIDDM muscle was not related to changes in IRS-1 protein content, since IRS-1 protein expression was similar between control and NIDDM subjects (16.0 ± 1.7 vs. 22.9 ± 4.0 arbitrary units/mg protein for control and NIDDM, respectively; NS). Physiological hyperinsulinemia increased PI 3-kinase activity in control muscle twofold (P < 0.01), whereas no increase in insulin-stimulated PI 3-kinase activity was noted in the NIDDM muscle. Furthermore, in vitro insulin-stimulated (600 pmol/l) 3-O-methylglucose transport was 40% lower in isolated muscle from NIDDM subjects (P < 0.05). The present findings couple both reduced insulin-stimulated IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation and PI 3-kinase activity to the impaired insulin-stimulated glucose transport in skeletal muscle from lean–to–moderately obese NIDDM subjects.


This paper presents work on a method to detect names of proteins in running text.

Our system - Yapex - uses a combination of lexical and syntactic knowledge, heuristic filters and a local dynamic dictionary. The syntactic information given by a general-purpose off-the-shelf parser supports the correct identification of the boundaries of protein names, and the local dynamic dictionary finds protein names in positions incompletely analysed by the parser.

We present the different steps involved in our approach to protein tagging, and show how combinations of them influence recall and precision.

We evaluate the system on a corpus of MEDLINE abstracts and compare it with the KeX system (Fukuda et al., 1998) along four different notions of correctness.


Consequentialist doctrines have often been criticized for their excessive demandingness, in that they require the thorough instrumentalization of each person's life as a vehicle for the production of good consequences. In turn, the proponents of such doctrines have often objected to what they perceive as the irrationality of the demandingness of deontological duties. In this paper, I shall address objections of the latter kind in an effort to show that they are unfounded. My investigation of this matter will unfold by reference to a scenario that strikingly and concretely exemplifies the demandingness of deontological duties. That scenario, which involves a situation of torture (specifically, placatory torture – in other words, torture undertaken for the purpose of appeasing people who have demanded that it be administered), will serve as a springboard for my endeavor to vindicate the rationality of deontological absolutes and will help to illuminate the endeavor's practical implications.


Autophagy is a catabolic process that targets impaired organelles and proteins for lysosomal degradation to maintain cell hemostasis. Autophagy in cancer is dynamic and, more specifically, depending on the stage and type of tumor. Researches in genetically engineered mouse models are agreed with the concept that autophagy can constrain initiation of the tumor by controlling oxidative stress and DNA damage, while in established tumors, autophagy can also be required for tumor survival. As shown in preclinical models, suppression of autophagy restored chemotherapy sensitivity against tumor cells. Targeting autophagy in cancer will develop a new era for anti-cancer drugs, but more specific and potent inhibitors of autophagy are needed. The role of autophagy in cancer cells continues to emerge, and further studying to identify optimum strategies to modulate autophagy for therapeutic advantage.


Motion planning in dynamic environments consists of the generation of a collision-free trajectory from an initial to a goal state. When the environment contains uncertainty, preventing a perfect predictive model of its dynamics, a robot ends up only successfully executing a short part of the plan and then requires replanning, using the latest observed state of the environment. Each such replanning step is computationally expensive. Furthermore, we note that such sophisticated planning effort is unnecessary as the resulting plans are not likely to ever be fully executed, due to an unpredictable and changing environment. In this paper, we introduce the concept of Variable Level-Of-Detail (VLOD) planning, that is able to focus its search on obtaining accurate short-term results, while considering the farfuture with a different level of detail, selectively ignoring the physical interactions with poorly predictable dynamic objects (e.g., other mobile bodies that are controlled by external entities). Unlike finitehorizon planning, which limits the maximum search depth, VLOD planning deals with local minima and generates full plans to the goal, while requiring much less computation than traditional planning. We contribute VLOD planning on a rich simulated physics-based planner and show results for varying LOD thresholds and replanning intervals.


The article aims to add a ludic perspective to those generally used for studying environmental issues in social sciences. To introduce in the debate a play/game metaphor enriches the interpretations of environmental crisis and provides a further motivation to action. The ludic perspective has a sociorelational background. That tradition of studies helps in constructing a set of categories that are then applied to environmental education (EE). The choice of such a topic is motivated by two factors: EE is an aspect generally practiced but mistreated in the main theorizations, and EE is exemplary of the potentialities of the playing games metaphor, which are the desire to create, the acceptance of slow changes, the protection of an experimental bubble, and irony toward environmental issues.


Technologies that will lead to adaptive, intelligent, and aware wireless communications systems are expected to offer solutions to the capacity, interference, and reliability problems of wireless networks. The spectrum sensing feature of CR systems is a step forward to better recognize the problems and to achieve efficient spectrum allocation. On the other hand, even though spectrum sensing can constitute a solid base to accomplish the reconfigurability and awareness goals of next generation networks, a new perspective is required to benefit from all of the dimensions of the available electro (or spectrum) hyperspace, beyond frequency and time. Therefore, spectrum sensing should evolve to a more general and comprehensive awareness-providing mechanism, not only as part of CR systems but also as a communication environment-awareness component of an ASHA paradigm that can adapt sensing parameters autonomously to ensure robust signal identification, parameter estimation, and interference avoidance. Such an approach will lead to recognition of communication opportunities in different dimensions of the spectrum hyperspace, and provide necessary information about the air interfaces, access techniques, and waveforms that are deployed over the monitored spectrum to accomplish ASHA resource and interference management.


This book explores the series of classic commentaries on the most important Latin texts published by Oxford University Press between 1933 and 1976, which remain extremely influential textbooks for teaching school and university students wherever Classics is taught to English-speakers: in verse, R.G. Austin on four books of Virgil's "Aeneid" and C.J. Fordyce on "Catullus'; in prose, Austin on Cicero's "Pro Caelio", R.G. Nisbet on Cicero's "De Domo" and R.G.M. Nisbet on Cicero's "In Pisonem". The maroon boards used for these books (hence "Oxford Reds") gave them the added impact of a 'series', and, as well as capturing an impressive niche in the market, they provided a model for editions of Latin authors in the post-war competition for curriculum space in the expanding UK university system. In "Oxford Reds", John Henderson uncovers the individual and often surprising stories behind these publications, and brings out the personalities and negotiations that shaped them. His aim is to encourage students and scholars to take a close look at the textbooks they use and live with and, while not ducking the quirks and frailties, to be alive to their pioneering qualities and pedagogical ambition.


The successful establishment of a population into a new empty habitat outside of its initial niche is a phenomenon akin to evolutionary rescue in the presence of immigration. It underlies a wide range of processes, such as biological invasions by alien organisms, host shifts in pathogens or the emergence of resistance to pesticides or antibiotics from untreated areas. In this study, we derive an analytically tractable framework to describe the coupled evolutionary and demographic dynamics of asexual populations in a source-sink system. In particular, we analyze the influence of several factors — immigration rate, mutational parameters, and harshness of the stress induced by migration — on the establishment success in the sink, and on the time until establishment. To this aim, we use a classic phenotype-fitness landscape (Fisher's geometrical model in n dimensions) where source and sink habitats determine distinct phenotypic optima. The harshness of stress, in the sink, is determined by the distance between its optimum and that in the source. The dynamics of the full distribution of fitness and of population size in the sink are analytically predicted under a strong mutation strong immigration limit where the population is always polymorphic. The resulting eco-evolutionary dynamics depend on mutation and immigration rates in a non straightforward way. Beyond some mutation rate threshold, establishment always occurs in the sink, following a typical three-phase trajectory of mean fitness. The waiting time to this establishment is independent of immigration rate and decreases with the mutation rate. Beyond the mutation rate threshold, lethal mutagenesis impedes establishment and the sink population remains so, albeit with an equilibrium state that depends on the details of the fitness landscape. We use these results to get some insight into possible effects of several management strategies.


AIM AND OBJECTIVE
This study investigates molecular structural requirements that are responsible for the antioxidant activity in phenolic compounds.

METHOD
Antioxidant activity of compounds was determined with a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical assay. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify phenolic antioxidants according to the key molecular features that contribute to their antioxidant activity. Artificial neutral networks (ANNs) was used to develop a predictive QSAR model.

RESULTS
Both models agreed that structural characteristics of phenolic compounds responsible for the antioxidant activity include: (1) number and position of alcohol groups on the aromatic ring; (2) molecular size; (3) flexibility/bulkiness; and (4) water solubility. PCA has classified data into phenolic acids and flavonoids, suggesting two distinct mechanisms of action. ANN has confirmed different mechanisms of action for flavonoids and polyphenolic acids, i.e. breaking of free radical chain reactions by donation of a hydrogen atom to neutralise a free radical and the chelating ability of polyphenolic acids.

CONCLUSION
Although two phenolic acids may have the same relative polarity, their different functional groups may drastically change the nature of their interactions with free radicals, and their antioxidant activity.


The concept of the follow-up as the third element of a sequential triad wasoriginally formulated in the context of classroom discourse by Sinclair andCoulthard (1975). In this chapter, it is applied to the analysis of three distinctgenres of political discourse: speeches, interviews, and parliamentary questions.Illustrative examples are drawn from television broadcasts with Britishpoliticians. It is proposed that the concepts of the follow-up and the sequentialtriad can be usefully applied to all three genres of political discourse. Theirapplication also highlights significant gaps in the current research literature,most notably, how both interviewers and politicians follow up equivocal andunequivocal responses by politicians to questions. In addition, it is argued thatthe concept of the follow-up can be usefully extended beyond the sequentialtriad to analyze not only sequential interactions over time, but also variousforms of political action within and outside parliament.


We study the effect of relationship lending on small firms´ failure probability using a uniquely rich data set comprised of information on individual loans of a large number of small firms in Colombia. We control for firm-specific variables and find that small firms involved in long-term liaisons with commercial banks have a significantly lower probability of becoming bankrupt than otherwise identical firms not involved in a long-term credit relationship. We also find that small firms with multiple banking relationships face a lower failure hazard than otherwise identical firms involved in a unique long-term relationship.


Hong Kong has adopted a dual-track system of the education for students with special educational needs (SEN). The system provides a diverse school education to cater to the individual needs of students. In principle, students with SEN are encouraged to receive education in ordinary schools as far as possible. Students with severe SEN or multiple disabilities, however, can be referred to special schools for intensive support services upon the recommendation of specialists and with parents' consent. Before the launch of the pilot scheme of integrated education in 1998, students with SEN were mostly placed in special schools. The change from a mono-track system to a dual-track system caused concerns for teachers in ordinary schools. This is because integrated education is more than placing students with SEN in ordinary classrooms. It involves a total change in the way schools and teachers operate. Teachers require the skills and background knowledge to support a diverse range of students in the classroom through ordinary classroom practices, and the ability to meet the needs of every student as an individual. In Hong Kong, most teachers have particular concerns about the short duration of training in professional development, the difficulties in the design of the curriculum and assessment differentiation under the three-tier support system, the practice of collaboration among different teaching teams, and the change of administrators' perceptions on the education of students with SEN. The central authority and the school community should work collaboratively to deal with these pressing difficulties.


Columbite crystals from niobium-yttrium-fluorine (NYF) pegmatites lacking zircon or containing metamict cyrtolite were analyzed for major and minor elements (Electron Microprobe (EMP)), trace elements (Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)), and U-Pb geochronology (Laser AblationMulti-Collector-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS)). All four pegmatite localities sampled are hosted by the Proterozoic Fordham gneiss and/or Paleozoic Bedford gneiss (Columbite-(Fe); Kinkel and Baylis localities) and the Manhattan Schist of Lower Paleozoic age (Columbite-(Mn); Fort George and Harlem River Drive localities) and yield Neoacadian ages. The weighted average U-Pb ages are 372.2 ± 8.2 Ma (Baylis Quarry), 371.3 ± 7.3 and 383.4 ± 8.9 Ma (Kinkel Quarry); 383 ± 15 Ma (185th St. and Harlem River Drive); and 372 ± 10 Ma (Fort George). A partial metamict zircon ("cyrtolite") from the Kinkel Quarry yielded a weighted average U-Pb age of 376.9 ± 4.3 Ma. The Neoacadian ages obtained agree with those determined by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) for zircon from Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites from Connecticut and Maine. No pegmatites temporally associated with the Taconic orogeny were found. The size, lack of common Pb, uniform U concentrations across crystal cross-sections, sufficient but moderate uranium concentrations, lack of metamictization, and consistency in U-Pb isotopic ratios for columbite samples BCB-COL, NYSM #25232, and NYSM #525.8 suggests they show promise as potential standards for oxide mineral LA-MC-ICP-MS geochronological analyses, however, additional characterization using ID-TIMS would be necessary to develop as such.


Abstract Although recent accumulative data reveal the clinicopathogenesis of regression in methotrexate-induced lymphoproliferative disorders (MTX-LPDs), the precise understanding including this category remains controversial. In this study, we analyzed 62 patients with MTX-LPD. Forty-three patients showed regression (Reg group), with high rates of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and LPD (90 and 88%, respectively). Among the 43 patients of the Reg group, 14 patients (33%) relapsed. The median duration before relapse in the Reg group was 10.6 months. Although the difference of OS between the Reg and Non-Reg groups was not significantly different, relapse-free patients in the Reg group had a superior overall survival (OS). MTX duration had a significant impact on Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection (p = .00131). Furthermore, EBV infection was significantly related to clinical manifestations, including spleen invasion, in the regression phenomenon. Some human leukocyte antigens (HLA) alleles might affect MTX-LPD development via EBV infection, although A*2402 and DRB1*0405 might be affected as fundamental factors.


The objective of this thesis is to propose and evaluate a simplified dynamic model of a wind turbine. This is done by assuming that the structure behaves linearly, and that a load model based of the mean and variance of simulated rotor thrust, depending linearly on turbulence, is sufficient to estimate the response. The realistic response of the wind turbine is calculated in time domain using the NREL FAST finite element code, whereas the simplified model response are calculated analytically because of the Gaussian behavior of the load model. It is suspected that more sophisticated simplified load models in the future might not be linear, and the response of the simplified system is therefore also calculated using the relatively new probability density evolution method. This is done to assess the general feasibility of using this method to estimate responses of such models. Probability density evolution is performed numerically using the cell-mapping method, and evaluation of the accuracy and performance of these calculations is also a primary object of the thesis. It is also shown how autoregression could be used to incorporate correlated forcing in the cell-mapping method. The wind turbine considered is the NREL 5-MW Baseline turbine, supported by its reference tower. Results show that the response of the proposed simplified dynamic system is too coarse compared to the simulated response distributions. The model seems to overestimate both the mean value and the variance of the true displacements. Possible improvements of the dynamic system, especially of the simplified load model, is evaluated and discussed. The results also show that first order autoregression successfully implements correlated force realizations into the cell-mapping method, and that both Kaimal simulated turbulence and the proposed simplified thrust are processes that could be estimated to a satisfactory degree using first order autoregression. With correlated forcing incorporated through autoregression, probability density evolution is shown to provide accurate estimates of the model response. The method also shows great promise to be useful when considering future simplified models, provided that one could find ways to keep the number of state-space dimensions to a minimum.


The PDB, BASt and Opel conducted two test series to evaluate possible effects on the results obtained using the EEVC WG17 Lower Legform Impactor as a test tool for the assessment of pedestrian safety. The reproducibility and repeatability of the test results were assessed using six legform impactors while keeping the test parameters constant. In the second series one impactor was used and the test parameters were varied to assess the effects on the readings of the legform. The test parameters were velocity, temperature, relative humidity, the point of first contact regarding the deviation in z-direction and the deviations of the pitch, roll and yaw angle. The tests were performed using an inverse setup, i.e. the legform was hit by a guided linear impactor equipped with a honeycomb deformation element. This setup was chosen to be able to vary each single parameter while avoiding variations of the other test parameters at the same time. The test parameters were varied stronger than allowed in regulatory use in order to determine possible dependencies between the parameters and the readings which were acceleration, bending angle and shear displacement.


In this paper, we represent automated code smell detection and refactoring tools for calculating code quality by detecting Code Smells and increase code quality by Refactoring Techniques. Refactoring is a process for restructuring or improving internal structure of software without changing its behavior. To achieve this aim Declarative Programming approach is followed along with object-oriented software metrics. Detection of Code Smells is based on various Facts and Rules. We used this tool to detect the bad smells in oops based case studies. Code maintainability index is represented in three categories (Hi, Low, Medium) that shows source code quality (Low, Hi, Medium).


The present investigation is a cross-sectional, multi-national, quantitative, and quasi-experimental comparison of tourists' risk perceptions regarding different destinations throughout the past decade. Over 10,000 tourists to Norway from 89 different countries filled in a questionnaire rating the perceived risk for various destinations. Data were collected during 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 and allow for a comparison of perceived risk across time, place and nationality. Results show that while absolute risk judgments for different destinations fluctuate somewhat over the years, relative risk judgments remain constant. Findings also reveal a "home-is-safer-then-abroad-bias" with tourists consistently perceiving their home country among the safest destinations. The current investigation is rare because it looks at more than one destination at a time. Insights gained from the present findings diverge from what would have been concluded from employing case studies, that is, looking at one destination at a time.


In 1967 the transnational mining company Freeport was the first foreign company to sign a contract after Sukarno was sidelined by Suharto. Eventually, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, through its subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia, came to operate the biggest gold mine and lowest extraction-price copper mine in the world in the isolated mountains of the Indonesian province of West Papua. It also became politically and economically significant to the Suharto regime. In the absence of the central government, the American mining company became the de facto developer and administrator of its concession in West Papua while in the United States it served as an important political lobby group for Jakarta. With Freeport becoming the largest taxpayer in Indonesia, one of the largest employers, and eventually running one of the largest socioeconomic programs in the republic, it was described by Suharto as essential to the nation's economy. Freeport's importance encouraged the development of mutually beneficial and supportive relationships between the company, the Indonesian president, his military, and the nation's political elite. In return, Freeport was politically and physically protected by the regime. Eventually, Freeport's financing of the president and his cronies' interests in the company threatened to see Freeport violating the United States' Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.Today Freeport's past relationship with Suharto has made it a high-profile target for anticorruption reformers in Indonesia. Because of the pivotal economic role the company continues to play in Jakarta and West Papua, any question of future independence for the province will be inextricably linked to the company.


Three key questions have driven recent discussions of the energy and environmental impacts of automotive lithium-ion batteries. We address each of them, beginning with whether the energy intensity of producing all materials used in batteries or that of battery assembly is greater. Notably, battery assembly energy intensity depends on assembly facility throughput because energy consumption of equipment, especially the dry room, is mainly throughput-independent. Low-throughput facilities therefore will have higher energy intensities than near-capacity facilities. In our analysis, adopting an assembly energy intensity reflective of a low-throughput plant caused the assembly stage to dominate cradle-to-gate battery energy and environmental impact results. Results generated with an at-capacity assembly plant energy intensity, however, indicated cathode material production and aluminium use as a structural material were the drivers. Estimates of cradle-to-gate battery energy and environmental impacts must therefore be interpreted in light of assumptions made about assembly facility throughput. The second key question is whether battery recycling is worthwhile if battery assembly dominates battery cradle-to-gate impacts. In this case, even if recycled cathode materials are less energy and emissions intensive than virgin cathode materials, little energy and environmental benefit is obtained from their use because the energy consumed in assembly is so high. We reviewed the local impacts of metals recovery for cathode materials and concluded that avoiding or reducing these impacts, including SOx emissions and water contamination, is a key motivator of battery recycling regardless of the energy intensity of assembly. Finally, we address whether electric vehicles (EV) offer improved energy and environmental performance compared to internal combustion-engine vehicles (ICV). This analysis illustrated that, even if a battery assembly energy reflective of a low-throughput facility is adopted, EVs consume less petroleum and emit fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) than an ICV on a life-cycle basis. The only scenario in which an EV emitted more GHGs than an ICV was when it used solely coal-derived electricity as a fuel source. SOx emissions, however, were up to four times greater for EVs than ICVs. These emissions could be reduced through battery recycling.


Tourism is an inherently social phenomenon Tourists travel with others and experience places and cultures through interacting with both familiar and unfamiliar others. This volume presents a thorough tour of the social psychological processes which underpin contemporary travel. The fascinating phenomenon of tourist behaviour deals with topics such as motivation, destination choice, travellers' on site experiences, satisfaction and learning. This book uses an array of developing and recently constructed conceptual frameworks to both synthesise what is established, and to create new insights and directions for further analysis and, ultimately, management action.


Although competition law is viewed as being focussed on fostering competition, there is more depth to it. Australian competition policy has been designed to provide space for public benefits, whereby prima facie anticompetitive conducts that eventually result in a public benefit can continue. This is a unique feature which reveals the importance of having flexibility in legislative design and the benefits of case by case approach. The objective of this article is to identify the types of public benefits that have been recognized through the authorization process in Australian competition law. The article uses an innovative methodology to study 244 authorization determinations made between 1976 and 2010 and analyses them in their economic and social context. This study demonstrates that the authorization process has been a valuable one which has allowed competition policy to operate effectively while accommodating many wider concerns. Conducts that promote competition or encourage cost savings have been recognized alongside those which enhance product safety or encourages environmental protection, demonstrating the complexity and breadth of competition law in practice. This type of decision making can be explained as a triumph of practice.


Increasing life expectancy in the UK is one of the greatest changes to affect our society in the last 200 years. Over 65s in Britain now outnumber those under 16, with over 85s the fastest growing part of the population. Currently life expectancy is increasing by two or more years each decade, or five hours for every day you live, with no sign of slowing down. The average life expectancy for a child born now is 80. This exhibition draws together a range of historic and contemporary artworks showing the many different ways artists have examined the effects, the wisdom and the achievements of ageing. It explores the phenomenon of increased longevity and celebrates the triumphs and vitality of older age. The exhibition is part of a year-long programme of events organised by Newcastle University to launch the 'Changing Age' initiative, spotlighting the challenges facing society as we live longer. During 2010, three artists, Andrew Carnie, Annie Cattrell and Jennie Pedley, observed the work of scientists within the University's Institute for Ageing and Health, one of the world's leading research centres in this area. The artists responded to this ground-breaking research into the ageing process by producing a new body of specially commissioned artworks. To listen to a podcast with the exhibition curator Lucy Jenkins, artist Jennie Pedley and collaborating scientist Glynn Nelson please click on the link above John Coplan's Fingers which is on the right hand side of the page.


Legal experts traditionally distinguish corporations from unincorporated business forms by focusing on such corporate characteristics as limited shareholder liability, centralised management, perpetual life, and freely transferred shares. While this approach has value, this essay argues that the nature of the corporation can be better understood by focusing on a fifth, often-overlooked, characteristic of corporations: their capacity to "lock in" equity investors' initial capital contributions by making it far more difficult for those investors to subsequently withdraw assets from the firm. Like a tar pit, a corporation is much easier for equity investors to get into, than to get out of. An emerging school of theorists has begun to explore the implications of this idea for corporate law and practice. The idea is still novel enough to lack a uniformly- accepted label—in addition to the phrase "capital lock-in," scholars have described this aspect of incorporation as "affirmative asset partitioning," "the absence of a repurchase condition," and "asset separation from shareholders." Whatever label one chooses, the idea shows great promise for illuminating a variety of thorny problems that have long troubled corporate scholars and practitioners. In illustration, this essay considers how the idea of capital lock-in sheds light on three corporate mysteries in the United States: the sui generis nature of corporate directors' fiduciary duties; the rise of the large modern service partnership; and lawmakers' enthusiasm for meddling with corporate governance rules.


Abstract In this article, we investigate the organisational identity (OI) of the 2016 Lillehammer Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (LYOGOC). Using OI theory, we scrutinised how the youth focus of the winter edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the institutional environment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shaped LYOGOC's identity. We conducted an interview with five leaders in a focus group after the games, as well as observations and interviews before, during, and after the games. We identified four core values in LOYGOC's identity, which pair and balance each other: raw/awesome versus humble, and playful versus determined. These values were lived by internally and expressed externally to make the LYOGOC work within the institutional environment of the IOC and 'the Olympic family', local sport organisations, and communities, and to get the work done within LYOGOC. Moreover, doing things 'the Norwegian way' combined with the 'local Olympic identity' was important for LYOGOC's leaders, for their work, and for the organisation's identity.


The pancreatic islet blood flow and insulin secretion of adult rats submitted to an isocaloric low protein diet (8% vs. 20%) during pre- and postnatal life were investigated by the nonradioactive microsphere technique. In the basal state, female rats chronically exposed to a low protein diet (LP) displayed a specific marked decrease in islet blood flow (10 +/- 2 vs. 29 +/- 5 microliters/min.g pancreas; P < 0.01) and overall pancreatic blood flow (P < 0.01). The plasma insulin level, however, was not affected. During a glucose challenge, the control animals enhanced their islet blood flow 2.3-fold, whereas the LP group reached control values with a 6-fold increase. Plasma insulin levels rose similarly in the control and LP animals. A third group of animals designated the recuperation group, exposed to a low protein diet only in utero, displayed islet blood flow comparable to control values, but increased basal plasma insulin (2.0 +/- 0.3 vs. 1.2 +/- 0.1 ng/ml; P < 0.05). These data are consistent with the possibility of dissociation of islet blood flow and insulin release under basal conditions, which may not be the case after a glucose challenge. Furthermore, the low blood flow values in the LP group may reflect an adaptive physiological response, an impaired pancreatic vasculogenesis, or a dysfunction of endothelial cells.


In Strong Managers, Weak Owners, Professor Mark J. Roe articulates an expansive theory to explain the evolution of the fragmented market structure in the United States. He posits that political choices led to fragmentation in the American financial markets, thus guiding the evolution of the Berle-Means Corporation. His view is sometimes supplemental to, but often in contradiction with, conventional economic efficiency or functionalism arguments that are used to explain that evolution. This Article examines Professor Roe's theory. It will use the political influences that Roe credits with fragmentation to understand current changes in market structure, including the growth of hedge funds, in general, as well as the advent of activist hedge funds that are re-shaping corporate governance. It will end by exploring some unique problems facing pensions and trusts that invest in hedge funds. The result will be a deeper understanding of the Disintermediation Thesis within the model of recent market evolution. This Article will also offer a policy prescription for government regulators that oversee the fiduciary intermediaries who invest in these new vehicles.


UNAIDS and WHO recommend safe, voluntary male circumcision as an additional, important strategy for the prevention of heterosexually-acquired HIV in men in areas with high HIV prevalence and low levels of male circumcision. Comprehensive male circumcision services should include HIV testing and counseling, partner reduction, and male and female condom use. Yet, male circumcision can have deep symbolic meaning that could pose barriers to implementation. In some parts of the world, it is a traditional practice with religious or cultural significance, in others it is a common hygiene intervention, and in yet others it is unfamiliar or foreign. Consequently, the proportion of men who are circumcised varies from 80%, with an estimated 30-40% of adult men circumcised worldwide.Confirming a number of observational studies, three randomized controlled trials in Africa have shown that circumcision reduces the likelihood of female-to-male HIV transmission by 50-60%, leading WHO/UNAIDS to conclude that the evidence is "compelling." Male circumcision is a relatively simple, inexpensive one-time surgical procedure that is cost-effective, but raises a host of ethical, legal, and human rights challenges.


Infectious diseases are a major public health burden causing millions of deaths every year. Government authorities need to be able to monitor disease incidence and evaluate their interventions for disease control. Monitoring the status of infectious diseases is one of the most challenging problems facing the public health sector, and epidemiological surveillance systems for infectious diseases, particularly notifiable diseases are essential. Despite initiatives to encourage reporting of infectious diseases, underreporting and poor surveillance are on-going challenges for many developing countries. Most surveillance systems in these settings use traditional paper-based methods, which are both inefficient and impractical. There is a need for alternative tools to strengthen infectious disease surveillance systems in resource-limited settings.

The remarkable progress made in mobile computing technology has the potential to improve infectious disease surveillance systems. However, user experience in digital technologies and infrastructure needs to be given greater attention. My study investigated the use of mobile phone devices as surveillance tools in health information systems. A mobile phone-based surveillance system was developed and applied in Tanzania as an alternative approach to traditional paper-based systems. Using this system different factors that affect the usability of mobile phone-based systems were investigated, by examining the quality of surveillance data in the context of completeness, timeliness and costs. After two years of operation in twenty-eight districts in southern Tanzania, numerous factors were identified that affect user accuracy and speed of use of the mobile phone-based surveillance. These include user experience in digital technology, particularly mobile device ownership; digital technology literacy, such as access and use of SMS and user's age. The mobile phone-based surveillance system was more accurate compared to the traditional paper-based system with greater data reporting, more complete data and timelier reporting. Initially the mobile phone-based surveillance system required more capital investment, although the running costs of paper-based surveillance were greater.

The utility of the mobile phone-based surveillance in monitoring and evaluating large-scale rabies control interventions was examined and the data produced was used to analyse the impacts of interventions on reducing disease incidence. Significant relationships were detected between the incidence of reported bite injuries in the focal district the previous month and in neighbouring districts that month, with more injuries detected in mainland Tanzania than on the island of Pemba. The relationship between bite injuries and vaccination coverage was complicated, with some evidence that vaccination reduced bite incidence. However, more data and a better model are needed to fully understand the impact of vaccination on bite incidence. The system provided timely information on the implementation of control measures and incidence of bite injuries, vital for improving control efforts.

Use of automated short text messages (SMS) as part of the mobile phone-based surveillance was assessed to determine whether they could improve patient's adherence to treatment regimens. Patients who received SMS reminders had significantly better compliance than those who did not, with attendance improved by at least 10%. Use of SMS reminders has the potential to improve patients' compliance in other treatment regimens that require repeat clinic visits or administration of medicines.

This thesis documented how the use of mobile phone devices can be used to improve surveillance in resource-limited settings. The use of effective integrated surveillance system could empower major stakeholders concerned with public health problems by providing them with appropriate real-time information on disease incidence and control interventions. In the final chapter the challenges encountered and insights gained in the application of mobile computing in strengthening infectious diseases surveillance are discussed. Despite infrastructural challenges such as unreliable power and Internet, mobile computing technologies can improve patient care and authorities can be prompted in a timely manner about infectious disease outbreaks and of supply shortages. In conclusion, innovative tools that can strengthen and integrate human and animal surveillance can improve the control and prevention of infectious diseases. Mobile phones have great potential for this, and can be used to strengthen health information systems.


: The Quality analysis of online higher education websites is very important now a day. As such most of the quality parameters are defined to measure the quality of these websites. The paper is an attempt to make proper analysis of higher education websites. The research involves the creation of a database that includes well-defined parameters. Details are provided as an input to a learning model based on a vector support machine for comparison and ultimately geographical location. Testing the efficiency and accuracy of the database prepared for this task. This data was developed for seven different training, testing and verification on websites using support systems (SVM) algorithm. Algorithms trained with this database have proven to work well in site testing and level. The parameters provided are included in the model that includes the key keywords obtained (KH), average rating (AS), global standard (GR), wrap rate (BR) and daily page views per visitor (DPVPV). Thereafter a quality matrix is produced based on the quality of the extracted material. Pair pairing analysis was performed to determine the interaction between websites using scores on a quality matrix. The University of Kent (KENT) has been found to have very high standards (13212.43) and in terms of quality content.


The study was conducted in the experimental field of the Institute of Forage Crops Pleven, Pavlikeni branch during the 2005-2007 period. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of soil trampling by the wheels of the tractor unit on the structural elements of yield and productivity of soybean. It was found that soil trampling by the tractor unit tires had a negative effect on the ramification number, being most pronounced after three and four passages. The trampling influenced negatively also the pod number and grain yield per plant, the results being statistically significant. The single and two-fold passage decreased productivity 13 to 24% and after three and four passages over the area the yield was reduced to 40% and the yield was lower at very good statistical significance.


This paper explores integrating a reputation-based trust mechanism with an agent-based backup protection system to help protect against malicious or byzantine failures. A distributed cooperative trust system has the potential to add an additional layer of protection designed to operate with greater autonomy. This trust component enables the agents in the system to make assessments using an estimate of the trustworthiness of cooperating protection agents based on their responsiveness and the consistency of their responses when compared with their peers. Results illustrate the improved decision-making capability of agents who incorporate this cooperative trust method in the presence of failures in neighboring relays.


In many countries, Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) establishes different regulations for certain groups of workers who face more disadvantages in the labour market (young workers, women, unskilled workers, etc.) with the aim of improving their employability. Well-known examples are the introduction of atypical employment contracts (e.g. temporary and determined-duration contracts), which ease firing restrictions for some, but not all, workers. This paper discusses the effects of EPL varying among workers of different skills on the level and composition of unemployment, job flows, productivity and welfare. By using an extension of Mortensen-Pissarides' (1994) search model where heterogeneous workers compete for the same jobs, we are able to identify several key channels through which changing firing costs for some groups of workers affects hiring and firing of all workers and, hence, may have a different impact on aggregate labour market variables than reducing firing costs across the board. Some analytical and simulation results also show that these effects of differentiated firing costs by workers' skills may be different depending upon the initial state of the labour market.


This paper makes two contributions. The first contribution is an approach called the "customized-queries" approach (CQA) to content-based image retrieval. The second is an algorithm called FSSEM that performs feature selection and clustering simultaneously. The customized queries approach first classifies a query using the features that best differentiate the major classes and then customizes the query to that class by using the features that best distinguish the images within the chosen major class. This approach is motivated by the observation that the features that are most effective in discriminating among images from different classes may not be the most effective for retrieval of visually similar images within a class. This occurs for domains in which not all pairs of images within one class have equivalent visual similarity, i.e., subclasses exists. Because we are not given subclass labels, we must simultaneously find the features that best discriminate the subclasses and at the same time find these subclasses. We use FSSEM to find these features. We apply this approach to content-based retrieval of high-resolution tomographic images of patients with lung disease and show that this approach radically improves the retrieval precision over the traditional approach that performs retrieval using a single feature vector.


One of the major research directions in robotic vision focuses on calculating the real world size of objects in a scene using stereo imaging. This information can be used while decision making for robots, manipulator localization in the workspace, path planning and collision prevention, augmented reality, object classification in images and other areas that require object sizes as a feature. In this paper we present a novel approach to calculate real world object size using RGB-D image acquired from Microsoft Kinect™, as an alternative to stereo imaging based approaches. We introduce a dynamic resolution matrix that estimates the size of each pixel in an image in real world units. The main objective is to convert the size of objects represented in the image in pixels; to real world units (such as feet, inches etc.).We verify our results using available OpenSource RGB-D datasets. The experimental results show that our approach provides accurate measurements.


Imagine beetles ejecting defensive sprays as hot as boiling water; female moths holding their mates for ransom; caterpillars disguising themselves as flowers by fastening petals to their bodies; termites emitting a viscous glue to rally fellow soldiers - and you will have entered an insect world once beyond imagining, a world observed and described down to its tiniest astonishing detail by Thomas Eisner. The story of a lifetime of such minute explorations, "For Love of Insects" celebrates the small creatures that have emerged triumphant on the planet, the beneficiaries of extraordinary evolutionary inventiveness and unparalleled reproductive capacity. To understand the success of insects is to appreciate our own shortcomings, Eisner tells us, but never has a reckoning been such a pleasure. Recounting exploits and discoveries in his laboratory at Cornell and in the field in Uruguay, Australia, Panama, Europe and North America, Eisner time and again demonstrates how inquiry into the survival strategies of an insect leads to clarifications beyond the expected; insects are revealed as masters of achievement, forms of life worthy of study and respect from even the most recalcitrant entomophobe. Filled with descriptions of his ingenious experiments and illustrated with photographs, this book makes readers participants in the grand adventure of discovery on a scale infinitesimally small and infinitely surprising.


The aim of this paper is to understand the emerging practices of work from home drawing from the works of Friedrich Engels. Situating the rising debate on work from home, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article revisits some of the texts by Friedrich Engels to understand the issues of distribution, freedom, necessity and work. The idea of work from home becomes especially critical in the context of a developing country like India, with its limited access to digital infrastructure, inadequate work-space at home, and precarious work conditions. However, the digital network and devices play a pivotal role under these conditions and often offer a promise of "new freedom" and flexibility. It is not just the middle-class professionals, but several other dimensions of work and labour are implicated within the idea of work from home under sudden economic and social disruption. The new organisation of production, assisted by capitalism, forges new relations of production, and new predicaments and Engels's thoughts on freedom, work and the condition of the working class become increasingly relevant to understand these shifts, particularly in neoliberal, developing country like India under nationwide lockdown.


Research and practice in the use of electronic voting systems has developed over the last five years. Electronic voting systems, also known as personal response systems, audience response systems or classroom communication systems, use handsets to elicit responses from students as part of structured teaching sessions, typically lectures. The use of this information has implications for pedagogy; they are associated with the introduction of interactive, discursive and more segmented approaches to teaching. The pedagogic and organisational implications of adopting such systems are summarised, along with the perceptions that staff and students hold. Comparisons are drawn between practice up to 2002 and between 2002 and 2006; these reveal how both practice and research on this topic has matured, highlighting (for example) the development of models that seek to abstract and share practice. The paper concludes by outlining the ways in which such tools can be used to improve lecturing, and identifies an agenda for future work in this area.


Whether you're thinking about buying or have already purchased a Canon Rebel XTi/400D, this 18-page Short Cut guide helps you think about optimizing your digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) for various kinds of photographic situations. From the basic camera setup to specific photographic situations, the most important features of the Canon XTi/400D are discussed in context. This guide covers the basic principles to understand how the settings work (alone or in conjunction with other settings) and how to set them for your particular style of shooting. So you know how to go from just "taking a picture" to what professionals refer to as "making a picture." For complete coverage of DSLR cameras and photography, including using Adobe Photoshop to improve your images, try The Digital SLR Guide: Beyond Point-and-Shoot Photography by Jon Canfield.


From the Publisher:
More than fifty years ago, Joseph Schumpeter stated that processes intrinsic to a capitalist society produce a "creative destruction," whereby innovations destroy obsolete technologies, only to be assaulted in turn by newer and more efficient rivals. This book asks whether the current chaotic state of the telecommunications and related Internet industries is evidence of creative destruction, or simply a result of firms, governments, and others wasting valuable resources with limited benefits to society as a whole. In telecommunications, for example, wireless, IP, and cable-based technologies are all fighting for a share of the market currently dominated by older, circuit-switched, copper-terminated networks. This process is accompanied by mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, and investment and divestment in worldwide markets.
The selections discuss the primary challenge facing firms, governments, and other players: how to exploit the opportunities created by such destructive dynamics. They highlight the importance of national regulations promoting competition and nonmonopolistic market structures, as well as the role of new technologies such as the Internet in driving down the price and speeding the diffusion of innovative products and services in telecommunications, media, electronic retailing, and other "new economy" industries.


From the Proceedings of the 1997 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 19, 1997, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada


This essay discusses alternative models to mimesis as the norm in mainstream immersive technologies. Projects by two Latin American designers, the Uruguayan videogame designer Gonzalo Frasca, and the Cuban interaction designer, Ivan Abreu Ochoa, exemplify such alternatives. I examine how both designers eschew idealized realism in favor of repositioning immersive spaces as a forum of debate about issues relevant to contemporary civic life, respectively, war and immigration. Conceived thusly, these works constitute uses of immersive technologies, gaming and the internet, for purposes of cultural critique and catalyzing emancipatory social energies. In this light, I argue that these projects work to both undermine normative conceptions of mimesis, as mimetic simulations are revealed to be partial, not neutral; and as well,    demonstrate belief in the role of immersive technologies as support of convivial culture. As such, these projects are not unique, but can be understood as being part of transnational networks of alternative media, and extensions of the significant historical and contemporary contributions of Latin American artists and designers to this project.