The parallel multichannel stop-and-wait (SAW) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mechanism is one of key technologies for high-speed downlink packet access in the wideband code division multiple access system. However, this parallel HARQ mechanism may encounter a serious stall problem, resulting from the error of the negative acknowledgement (NACK) changing to the acknowledgement (ACK) in the control channel. In the stall situation, the receiver waits for a packet that will be no longer be sent by the transmitter and stops delivering the medium access control (MAC) layer packets to the upper layer. The stall issue seriously degrades the quality of service for the high-speed mobile terminal owing to the high probability of NACK-to-ACK errors. In this paper, we present an analytical approach to compare three stall avoidance schemes: the timer-based, the window-based, and the indicator-based schemes. To this end, we first propose a new performance metric-gap processing time, which is defined as the duration for a non recoverable gap appearing in the MAC layer reordering buffer until it is recognized. Second, we derive the probability mass functions and the closed-form expressions for the average gap processing time of these three stall avoidance schemes. It will be shown that our analytical results match the simulations well. Further, by analysis, we demonstrate that the indicator-based stall avoidance scheme outperforms the timer-based and the window-based schemes. The developed analytical approaches can help determine a proper number of processes for the parallel SAW HARQ mechanisms. We also show that the analytical formulas can be used to design the number of acceptable fully loaded users for an admission control policy subject to the gap processing time constraint. In the future, our analysis can facilitate the MAC/radio link control (RLC) cross-layer design because the gap processing time in the MAC layer is closely related to the RLC timeout mechanism and the window size in the RLC retransmission mechanism


Multiple forms of reductases for several drug ketones were isolated from rabbit liver, but their interrelationship and physiologic roles remain unknown. We isolated cDNAs for four aldo-keto reductases (AKR1C30, AKR1C31, AKR1C32, and AKR1C33), which share high amino acid sequence identity with the partial sequences of two rabbit naloxone reductases. The four recombinant enzymes reduced a variety of carbonyl compounds, including endogenous a-dicarbonyls (e.g., isatin and diacetyl), aldehydes (e.g., farnesal and 4-oxo2-nonenal), and ketosteroids. They differed in specificity for drug ketones and ketosteroids. Although daunorubicin and befunolol were common substrates of all of the enzymes, AKR enzymes specifically reduced naloxone (AKR1C30, AKR1C32, and AKR1C33), metyrapone (AKR1C32 and AKR1C33), loxoprofen (AKR1C31 and AKR1C32), ketotifen (AKR1C30), and naltrexone and fenofibric acid (AKR1C33). AKR1C30 reduced only 17-keto-5b-androstanes, whereas the other enzymes were active toward 3-, 17-, and 20-ketosteroids, and AKR1C33 further reduced 3-keto groups of bile acids and 7ahydroxy-5b-cholestanes. In addition, AKR1C30, AKR1C31, AKR1C32, and AKR1C33 were selectively inhibited by carbenoxolone, baccharin, phenolphthalein, and zearalenone, respectively. The mRNAs for the four enzymes were ubiquitously expressed in male rabbit tissues, in which highly expressed tissues were the brain, heart, liver, kidney, intestine, colon, and testis (for AKR1C30 and AKR1C31); brain, heart, liver, kidney, testis, lung, and adrenal gland (for AKR1C32); and liver and intestine (for AKR1C33). Thus, the four enzymes correspond to the multiple drug ketone reductases, and may function in the metabolisms of steroids, isatin and reactive carbonyl compounds, and bile acid synthesis.


This thesis concerns the history and the intrafamilial delimitations of the plant family Colchicaceae. A phylogeny of 73 taxa representing all genera of Colchicaceae, except the monotypic Kuntheria, is presented. The molecular analysis based on three plastid regions—the rps16 intron, the atpB-rbcL intergenic spacer, and the trnL-F region—reveal the intrafamilial classification to be in need of revision. The two tribes Iphigenieae and Uvularieae are demon-strated to be paraphyletic. The well-known genus Colchicum is shown to be nested within Androcymbium, Onixotis constitutes a grade between Neodregea and Wurmbea, and Gloriosa is intermixed with species of Littonia. Two new tribes are described, Burchardieae and Tripladenieae, and the two tribes Colchiceae and Uvularieae are emended, leaving four tribes in the family. At generic level new combinations are made in Wurmbea and Gloriosa in order to render them monophyletic. The genus Androcymbium is paraphyletic in relation to Colchicum and the latter genus is therefore expanded. An investigation of the distribution of colchicine within the expanded Colchicaceae is conducted to evaluate the potential of colchicine as a synapomorphy of the re-circumscribed family. The results demonstrate presence of colchicine in all genera previously not examined in Colchicaceae and in the genus Burchardia, earlier reported to lack colchicine. Hence, demonstrating colchicine to be a synapomorphy for the family. An attempt to date the phylogeny of the order Liliales together with a dispersal-vicariance (DIVA) analysis indicates that the split between Colchicaceae and Alstromeriaceae-Luzuriagaceae represents a vicariance event following the disintegration of the Australian-Antarctican-South American link, ~34 million years ago. Further, the DIVA analysis indicates that Colchicaceae originated in Australia, first reached Asia and North America, and later Africa, from where they expanded to Europe and also dispersed back to Australia.


JOHN WILSON [*] MARC MUSICK [**] I INTRODUCTION To most people, a "volunteer" is someone who contributes time to helping others with no expectation of pay or other material benefit to herself. However, this does not mean that volunteer work is of no consequence for the volunteer. Indeed, it is widely believed that helping others is as beneficial for the donor as it is for the recipient. "Research studies show that most people do in fact hold the belief that helping others is a good way to gain fulfillment for yourself." [1] In this article, we review some of the research on the supposed benefits of volunteering and describe briefly some of the results of our own work in this area. We first examine the contribution volunteering is thought to make to a society's social capital, its supply of the generalized trust and norms of reciprocity that make democratic politics possible. Are volunteers more civic minded and more likely to take an active role in political life? Next, we examine the possible link between volunteering and "leading the good life." Are vol unteers less likely to engage in anti-social behavior? We then consider the contribution volunteering might make to both physical and mental health. Is there any evidence to suggest that volunteering can make people healthier or contribute positive feelings of well-being? Finally, we examine the contribution volunteering makes to occupational achievement. Is there any empirical evidence to support the notion that volunteering is either a direct path to good jobs or indirectly provides the self-confidence and skills needed to secure good jobs or to do well in the jobs we have? II CITIZENSHIP For a number of reasons, the possibility that volunteering is useful for building and maintaining civil society--a sphere of activity where people feel free to organize groups, engage in public debate, and in which norms of mutual respect and toleration protect the voices of majority and minority alike--has recently been undergoing fresh scrutiny. Part of this renewed interest stems from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the task faced by newly democratizing countries trying to build, or re-build, the infrastructure of participatory politics. How do people acquire the skills and aptitudes necessary for the give-and-take of democratic government? Some of this renewed interest also stems from concerns expressed in established democracies that fewer and fewer people are taking the time to vote, run for local office, or support political organizations with their time and money. Ever since de Tocqueville's mid-nineteenth-century analysis of American democracy, it has been assumed that a healthy voluntary secto r is vital to the survival of democratic politics. [2] De Tocqueville believed that voluntary associations were essential intermediary bodies between the mass of individuals and their institutions of government. [3] Active membership in a voluntary association created the generalized trust--a trust that extends beyond the boundaries of kinship and friendship--on which democratic political life depends. If the habit of "joining" were allowed to die, so too would democracy. Robert Putnam, who found substantial variation in the performance of Italian governmental institutions across different regions, has recently revived this idea. [4] His explanation for this variation centered on the concept of social capital. Putnam defined social capital as "features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions." [5] His theory, redolent of de Tocqueville, is that active membership in voluntary associations generates the trust necessary for people to organize effectively and act collectively. The associations need not be political to have this beneficial effect, although those that were organized "horizontally," where members could easily participate in running the organization, would be more likely to produce it. …


The Tenth Annual Conference on Human Retrovirus Testing, sponsored by the Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors (ASTPHLD), was held March 6 to 9, 1995, in Reno, Nevada. The conference, which was attended by more than 300 representatives of public and private sector laboratories as well as test kit manufacturers, emphasized three themes: new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) variants, international issues, and HIV testing of newborns. The topics discussed included sequence data for type O isolates, the search for new HIV variants, zidovudine (AZT) resistance, decreased maternal-neonatal transmission due to AZT prophylaxis, results of the national anonymous survey of HIV prevalence in the United States, and the ethical concerns of perinatal screening. An international perspective on HIV testing was brought to the conference by presentations that focused on India and Latin America. Results were given of a project, funded by a 12-month study grant from the World AIDS Foundation, to provide training on HIV testing to laboratories in India. Four Indian facilitators were trained in the United States; they provided translation and other assistance to eight ASTPHLD faculty, who gave workshops in four training centers in India. This training, which focused on enzyme immunoassay, linked trainees with staff from Indian reference centers and established training materials and trainers for future workshops to be conducted by Indian staff. Laboratory aspects of HIV testing in Latin American and the Caribbean were also discussed by a member of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), who described the spectrum of HIV incidence rates and testing algorithms. PAHO is asking countries of the region to assess their algorithms in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and cost. PAHO aims to support national laboratories by providing guidelines and quality assurance. Proficiency testing, which is encouraged, will be provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ASTPHLD's 11th Annual Human Retrovirus Conference is set for March 6-8, 1996, in Orlando, Florida. Requests for additional information are available; FAX request to 202-887-5098.


After local research had shown that house burglary attracted the highest rate of custodial sentences, Plymouth probation officers David Nation and John Arnott developed a group programme designed to offer a credible non-custodial option and to change offending behaviour through encounters with victims and prisoners, plus reparation and crime prevention tasks. They evaluate their first four completed programmes.


One billion people lack access to electricity around the world. Most of these people live in rural inaccessible areas and improving electricity access them is considered an important goal towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Minigrids is one way of improving electricity access for these people. Minigrids have however largely suffered from high costs and low incomes, making it a challenge for them to reach cost-recovery. In this paper we investigate the issue of cost-recovery for minigrid utilities in developing countries. We develop a system dynamics model to investigate the effects of initial capacity generation on cost-recovery, user diffusion and electricity usage. Our results show that it is essential to correctly dimension the capacity of a minigrid and that the effects on cost-recovery from an incorrectly sized minigrid can be delayed up to several years. Furthermore, our results show that in order to evaluate the performance of minigrids it is important to make a comprehensive analysis also looking at growth and absolute number of electricity users and their electricity usage. For future work it is important to endogenously describe the amount of connections the utility can perform and to further investigate the relationship between electricity provision and economic development.


Title of Dissertation: A CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPA CT OF CHECK & CONNECT WITH STUDENTS RETURNING FROM ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL PLACEMENTS Robert Joseph Bartolotta, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Peter E. Leone, Department of Speci al Education In this case study, the impact of Check & Connect on the first semester reintegration experiences of a cohort of high school students who had returned from a disciplinary alternative educational placement was examined. Archival dat a, surveys, and interviews were used to compare the students' experiences, academic and behavioral performance, and attendance, to a cohort of control students who returned to schools lacking the intervention and a group of students who remained at the alternative placement. Interviews were also conducted with the interventio n implementers (monitors), a sample of the intervention participants' teacher s, and the administrators who oversaw the intervention. These interviews allowed for a mor e thorough examination of the experiences, opinions, and perceptions of Check & Connect's value to the educational experience. Quantitative data collected showed that while both groups of students who left the alternative school experienced declines in their academic performance , the d cline was greatest among students with longer established academic and behavior al difficulties. Students with IEPs or 504 Plans had a higher average decline than the ir nondisabled peers. Improvements in the number of absences and behavioral referral s were seen with the majority of the intervention students. Results among the control students were mixed. Interviews indicated that the intervention participants experienced a stronge r connection to their school that was frequently attributed to the use of Check & Connect. Many felt that the intervention, particularly their relationships wit h the monitors, had provided them opportunities to succeed that they might not have had otherwise. Control students, and students who remained at the alternative program, expressed an interest in developing a similar connection with an adult in their sc hools. School staff interviewed believed that the benefits of Check & Connect may not be immediately evident in the quantitative data, but that the relationships made betwe n the students and monitors were potentially beneficial. Teachers found the additiona l information provided helpful and frequently requested greater sharing of resourc . Administrators believed that the positive adult relationships formed between the monitor and students reduced the likelihood of eventual school dropout. A CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPACT OF CHECK & CONNECT WITH STUDENTS RETURNING FROM ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL PLACEMENTS


Robust and accurate visual tracking is one of the most challenging computer vision problems. Due to the inherent lack of training data, a robust approach for constructing a target appearance model is crucial. Recently, discriminatively learned correlation filters (DCF) have been successfully applied to address this problem for tracking. These methods utilize a periodic assumption of the training samples to efficiently learn a classifier on all patches in the target neighborhood. However, the periodic assumption also introduces unwanted boundary effects, which severely degrade the quality of the tracking model. We propose Spatially Regularized Discriminative Correlation Filters (SRDCF) for tracking. A spatial regularization component is introduced in the learning to penalize correlation filter coefficients depending on their spatial location. Our SRDCF formulation allows the correlation filters to be learned on a significantly larger set of negative training samples, without corrupting the positive samples. We further propose an optimization strategy, based on the iterative Gauss-Seidel method, for efficient online learning of our SRDCF. Experiments are performed on four benchmark datasets: OTB-2013, ALOV++, OTB-2015, and VOT2014. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art results on all four datasets. On OTB-2013 and OTB-2015, we obtain an absolute gain of 8.0% and 8.2% respectively, in mean overlap precision, compared to the best existing trackers.


This document presents security-related requirements for the Interface
to the Routing System (I2RS) protocol, which provides a new interface
to the routing system described in the I2RS architecture document (RFC
7921). The I2RS protocol is implemented by reusing portions of
existing IETF protocols and adding new features to them. One such
reuse is of the security features of a secure transport (e.g.,
Transport Layer Security (TLS), Secure SHell (SSH) Protocol, Datagram
TLS (DTLS)) such as encryption, message integrity, mutual peer
authentication, and anti-replay protection. The new I2RS features to
consider from a security perspective are as follows: a priority
mechanism to handle multi-headed write transactions, an opaque
secondary identifier that identifies an application using the I2RS
client, and an extremely constrained read-only non-secure transport.


A long time ago in China, there existed three Books of Peace that proved so threatening to the reigning powers that they had them burned. Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a Fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned--in the catastrophic Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. Now in this visionary and redemptive work, Kingston completes her interrupted labor, weaving fiction and memoir into a luminous meditation on war and peace, devastation and renewal.


We describe MuZeeker, a search engine with domain knowledge based on Wikipedia. MuZeeker enables the user to refine a search in multiple steps by means of category selection. In the present version we focus on multimedia search related to music and we present two prototype search applications (web-based and mobile). A category based filtering approach enables the user to refine a search through relevance feedback by category selection instead of typing additional text, which was found to be an advantage in the mobile MuZeeker application. We report from a usability evaluation using the think aloud protocol, in which N=10 participants performed tasks using respectively MuZeeker and a customized Google search engine. The experiment gave initial indications that participants were capable of solving tasks slightly better using MuZeeker, while the "inexperienced" MuZeeker users performed slightly slower than experienced Google users. 75% of the participants reported a subjective preference for MuZeeker.


Duty cycling is a technique for saving energy in resource-limited wireless networks such as sensor networks. With duty cycling, each node periodically switches between active and sleeping states, for example being active for only 1 to 10 percent of the time. Wireless duty-cycling networks face many challenges such as maintaining high energy efficiency, efficient packet delivery under dynamic channel conditions, and effective route discovery. This thesis presents a series of protocols to address these challenges. The first part of this thesis presents a new single-channel energy-efficient MAC protocol, called the Predictive-Wakeup MAC (PW-MAC). The key idea behind PWMAC is to allow each node to wake up asynchronously at randomized times, while enabling senders to predict receiver wakeup times to save energy. Extending the randomized predictive wakeup mechanism of PW-MAC, the second part of this thesis presents a new multichannel energy-efficient MAC protocol, called the Efficient-Multichannel MAC (EM-MAC). EM-MAC enables each node to dynamically optimize the selection of wireless channels it utilizes based on the channel conditions it senses. By adapting to changing channel conditions, EMMAC achieves high packet delivery performance. EM-MAC also achieves high energy efficiency through its predictive multichannel wakeup mechanism. Although duty cycling saves energy, I found that, in asynchronous duty-cycling networks, existing on-demand routing protocols tend to discover routes much worse than the optimal routes. The last part of this thesis presents four optimization techniques to improve the routes discovered in such networks. These optimizations are fully distributed and work on different route metrics, such as hop-count and ETX. Implemented in TinyOS on a testbed of MICAz sensor nodes, PW-MAC achieved the lowest energy consumption and delivery latency among the single-channel protocols, while EM-MAC significantly outperformed all other protocols tested. EM-MAC maintained the lowest duty cycles, the lowest packet delivery latency, and 100% packet delivery ratio across all experiments, including those with concurrent multihop traffic flows, and those with heavy ZigBee and Wi-Fi interference. Finally, in simulations on the ns-2 network simulator, compared with the conventional on-demand route discovery, the presented route discovery optimizations substantially improved the routes discovered in asynchronous duty-cycling networks.


Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a physiological disorder that causes many negative effects involving a variety of systems in the body, such as the endocrine, metabolic, psychological, and reproductive systems. This paper will explore the complex mechanisms behind the manifestation of PCOS and how these, and other factors, may make diagnosis difficult. In order to thoroughly understand these aspects of PCOS, the causes, symptoms, and treatments were explored. The diversity of causes and symptoms of the disease add to the difficulty in diagnosis and treatment of PCOS. The best treatment option varies among individuals, and the effectiveness of each treatment can vary according to an individual's condition. The research on all of these aspects of PCOS will inform the public about how PCOS can affect them and their loved ones. From this newly gathered knowledge, individuals may be able to protect themselves from some of the negative consequences associated with PCOS.


Abstract This article asks what is universal about phonological systems. Beginning with universals of segment inventories, a distinction is drawn between descriptive universals (where the effect of different theoretical frameworks is minimized) vs. analytic universals (which are specific-theory-dependent). Since there are few absolute universals such as "all languages have stops" and "all languages have at least two degrees of vowel height", theory-driven or "architectural" universals concerning distinctive features and syllable structure are also considered. Although several near-universals are also mentioned, the existence of conflicting "universal tendencies" and contradictory resolutions naturally leads into questions concerning the status of markedness and synchronic explanation in phonology. While diachrony is best at accounting for typologically unusual and language-specific phonological properties, the absolute universals discussed in this study are clearly grounded in synchrony.


The present study examined the effects of N-hydroxy-N′-(4-butyl-2 methylphenyl) formamidine (HET0016), a selective inhibitor of the formation of 20-hydroxyeicosatrienoic acid (20-HETE) on the growth of 9L rat gliosarcoma cells in vitro and in vivo. After 48 h of incubation, HET0016 reduced the proliferation of 9L in vitro by 55%, and this was associated with a fall in p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase and stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase phosphorylation and increased apoptosis. HET0016 inhibited epidermal growth factor (EGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced proliferation and diminished phosphorylation of PDGF receptors. A stable 20-HETE analog increased 9L cell proliferation. In vivo, chronic administration of HET0016 (10 mg/kg/day i.p.) for 2 weeks reduced the volume of 9L tumors by 80%. This was accompanied by a 4-fold reduction in the mitotic index, a 3- to 4-fold increase in the apoptotic index, and a ∼50% decrease in vascularization in the tumor. HET0016 treatment increased mean survival time of the animals from 17 to 22 days. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry experiments indicated that neither 9L cells grown in vitro nor 9L tumors removed produce 20-HETE when incubated with arachidonic acid. The normal surrounding brain tissue, however, avidly makes 20-HETE, and this activity is selectively inhibited by HET0016. These results suggest that HET0016 may be the prototype of a class of antigrowth compounds that may be efficacious for treating malignant brain tumors. In vivo, it may act in part by inhibiting the formation of 20-HETE by the surrounding tissue. However, the antiproliferative effects of HET0016 on 9L cells in vitro seem unrelated to its ability to inhibit the formation of 20-HETE.


The introduction to this special section foregrounds the key distinction between 'religious plurality' and 'interreligious pluralism'. Building from the example of a recent controversy over an exhibition on shared religious sites in Thessaloniki, Greece, we analyze the ways in which advocates and adversaries of pluralism alternately place minority religions at the center or attempt to relegate them to the margins of visual, spatial, and political fields. To establish the conceptual scaffolding that supports this special section, we engage the complex relations that govern the operations of state and civil society, sacrality and secularity, as well as spectacular acts of disavowal that simultaneously coincide with everyday multiplicities in the shared use of space. We conclude with brief summaries of the four articles that site religious plurality and interreligious pluralism in the diverse contexts of Brazil, Russia, Sri Lanka, and the Balkans.


Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique first introduced by Barker et al. in 1985. The principle of rTMS is based on a cortical neuronal transmembrane potential stimulated by a pulsative magnetic field. This magnetic field is induced by a direct electrical current sent through a circular coil. rTMS is an effective and widely used therapeutic stimulation method for psychiatric disorders, primarily for unipolar depression. Cost-effectiveness, minor side effects and well-tolerated profile of rTMS with no need to hospitalization for administation are the prominent features of this method. Beside the information for depression, rTMS has been reported to have some remarkable impacts in alleviating symptoms of anxiety disorders. Although data regarding efficacy of rTMS in anxiety disorders is conflicting, there are positive outcomes about generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder whereas results of rTMS treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder are generally not favorable. Since low frequency stimulation techniques have been found to be effective in treatment of auditory hallucinations, methodological similarity in concerned studies could be accepted as a supportive aspect of efficacy. Additionally, high frequency stimulation techniques applied to prefrontal area have a potential to impact negative symptoms of schizophrenia. With improving novel techniques of this stimulation method, rTMS is being used increasingly in psychiatric disorders. However, some issues concerning rTMS treatment such as maintenance or prophilactic therapy procedures, duration of effect are remain unclear. Hence, we conclude that multicenter sham controlled studies including similar designs, sociodemographic and clinical variables, methodological protocols with larger sample sizes and studies guieded by imaging methods are warranted to determinate efficacy and side effects of rTMS use in psychiatric disorders.


The San Francisco Bay area is crossed by several right-lateral strike-slip faults of the San Andreas fault zone. Fault-plane reflections reveal that two of these faults, the San Andreas and Hayward, dip toward each other below seismogenic depths at 60° and 70°, respectively, and persist to the base of the crust. Previously, a horizontal detachment linking the two faults in the lower crust beneath San Francisco Bay was proposed. The only near-vertical-incidence reflection data available prior to the most recent experiment in 1997 were recorded parallel to the major fault structures. When the new reflection data recorded orthogonal to the faults are compared with the older data, the highest amplitude reflections show clear variations in moveout with recording azimuth. In addition, reflection times consistently increase with distance from the faults. If the reflectors were horizontal, reflection moveout would be independent of azimuth, and reflection times would be independent of distance from the faults. The best-fit solution from three-dimensional traveltime modeling is a pair of high-angle dipping surfaces. The close correspondence of these dipping structures with the San Andreas and Hayward faults leads us to conclude that they are the faults beneath seismogenic depths. If the faults retain their observed dips, they would converge into a single zone in the upper mantle ~45 km beneath the surface, although we can only observe them in the crust.


This article explores the socio-environmental implications of two different value models currently competing for dominance in the digital economy: the neo-feudal cognitive capitalism (NFCC) and the hypothetical case of mature peer production (HMPP). Using a systematisation that considers environmental effects of information and communication technologies as direct, indirect and structural, this article discerns the future socioenvironmental scenarios indicative of each value model. We argue that the two value models share the same type of direct environmental effects associated with a similar technological infrastructure; however, their indirect effects differ in prospects of consumer behaviour, environmental awareness and product design. Likewise the difference in structural effects is significant as the NFCC is based on profit maximisation and an accumulation of capital, whereas the HMPP is agnostic to growth and oriented towards the commons. Hence, the latter is considered as the socio-environmentally auspicious choice, but comes not without transitional challenges of its own. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


This study investigates the relationship between fear and privacy by using the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) to examine whether there is an association between fear appeals and the willingness to allow increased governmental surveillance of online and phone communications. Research suggests that, in the United States, privacy is important. Moreover, courts have inferred privacy rights in the U.S. Constitution, including protection from intrusions by the government. However, the threat of terrorism is also very real. There are indications that some people may be willing to allow intrusion by the government if it means keeping them safe. This study uses an experimental method to determine whether the fear of terrorism is stronger than the need to keep private communications secure from the government. EPPM is a dominate theory in the area of fear appeals and persuasion. Scholars indicate that the EPPM can predict whether a persuasive message will be successful based on the levels of threat and efficacy. The underlining assumption of the theory is that if a person feels fear, that person will take some sort of action to alleviate the fear. EPPM research suggests that, in order to persuade, a fear appeal message must contain language that accentuates a high threat and high efficacy to combat the threat. According to the theory, if a person perceives a high threat and high efficacy (i.e., feels he or she has the ability to overcome the threat by taking the action proposed in the message), that person will be persuaded by the message. EPPM is used primarily in the field of health communication; however, this study takes a unique route by using EPPM to study attitudes and behaviors toward terrorism and privacy rights policies. This study used terrorism as the threat and offered two separate efficacy options. The first was allowing increased government surveillance, and the second was individual reporting of suspicious activity to police. This study found no support for the EPPM hypotheses, meaning there was no indication that participants who read the fear appeal containing the high threat and high efficacy options were persuaded by the message. However, the results did offer evidence that a high pre-existing perception of the threat could make a fear appeal ineffective. The perceived terrorism threat severity level for all of the experimental groups, including the control group, were high, which left little room for the threat to be increased using a fear appeal. EPPM proposes that, in order to be persuaded, the perceived efficacy felt by the reader of the message must be able to surpass the perceived threat. In this case, it is likely that the perceived threat of terrorism is so high that the efficacy options provided could not overcome the threat. Moreover, the results provided evidence that type of efficacy offered in the fear appeal message is important. This study also extends EPPM research by determining if there is a relationship between cognitive dissonance and rejection of a fear appeal message. Cognitive dissonance refers to inconsistencies between an individual's beliefs and actions. The theory proposes that if an individual has an inconsistency in her beliefs and behaviors, it can lead to discomfort. The individual will want to alleviate the discomfort by reducing the dissonance, which could mean either changing beliefs or behaviors to make them consistent. This study proposed that the amount of dissonance a person feels when reading a fear appeal may affect whether the person accepts or rejects the message. The results showed that cognitive dissonance is a predictor of message rejection. The higher the amount of cognitive dissonance the participant felt when reading the fear appeal message, the more likely that participant was to reject the message. In fact, the results indicated that cognitive dissonance is a better predictor of message rejection than perceived threat and perceived efficacy combined. This finding suggests that cognitive dissonance should be considered when drafting a fear appeal message and that it should be included as a variable in the EPPM theoretical model. Finally, this study investigated the relationship between cognitive dissonance and the privacy paradox theory. The privacy paradox theory refers to an inconsistency between a person's beliefs and behaviors about privacy. The results indicated that there is a relationship between dissonance and the privacy paradox. Privacy vs. Security: Fear appeals, terrorism and the willingness to allow increased government surveillance by Angela M. Rulffes B.S., Plattsburgh State University, 2002 M.S., Syracuse University, 2003 J.D., Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, 2009 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication. Syracuse University May 2017 Copyright © Angela M. Rulffes 2017 All Rights Reserved


Courts are proudly resigned to the fact that the probable cause inquiry is "nontechnical." In order to conduct a search or make an arrest, police need to satisfy the probable cause standard, which the Supreme Court has deemed "incapable of precise definition or quantification into percentages." The flexibility of this standard enables courts to defer to police officers' reasonable judgments and expert intuitions in unique situations. However, police officers are increasingly using investigative techniques that replace their own observational skills with test results from some other source, such as drug sniffing dogs, facial recognition technology, and DNA matching. The reliability of such practices can and should be quantified, but the vagueness of the probable cause standard renders it impossible for judges to determine which error rates are inconsistent with probable cause. This article confronts the intersection between quantifiable evidence and the relentlessly fuzzy probable cause standard. It proposes that the probable cause standard be assigned a numerical value as a minimum threshold in cases where probable cause is based on mechanistic techniques that essentially replace a police officer's own judgment. The article begins by exploring how the police and courts currently apply the probable cause standard, including courts' confrontations with probabilities. It then explains why certain evidence should require quantified error rates to establish probable cause and how to properly calculate these error rates. In the final section, the article argues that assigning a minimum percentage to probable cause in appropriate circumstances would add much needed clarity to the law and protect against systemic abuses.


Great progress has been made in the past 20 years in providing South Africans with access to domestic water supplies. Although groundwater is a valuable water resource with much potential, particularly in the rural and semi-rural areas with the biggest water supply backlogs, there is evidence that local authorities in South Africa increasingly consider it to be unreliable and difficult to exploit. A research project carried out on behalf of the Water Research Commission investigated groundwater supplies at local government level by carrying out interviews and studying national hydrogeological and demographic datasets. A more detailed case study of the groundwater supply to the town of Mahikeng was also made. More than 90% groundwater dependent, Mahikeng derives its water supplies from aquifers in the Vaalian-age Malmani Subgroup of the Chuniespoort Group to the east of the town, but declining groundwater levels threaten one of the two major sources. The study has found that operation and maintenance (O&M) of groundwater supplies is more important than primary or "physical" groundwater availability. Despite this, unreliable groundwater supplies are often seen as a deficiency of the primary resource and much effort is put into developing physical hydrogeological tools such as maps, guidelines and software. O&M includes repetitive tasks such as servicing, repairs, monitoring, ensuring pump duty cycles, testing, and so on, but O&M programmes also need to handle non-routine tasks such as breakdowns. Good O&M rests on adequate planning, staffing, budgeting, monitoring and other functions, as well as sufficient intra- and inter-organisational collaboration. Compared with resources for determining primary groundwater availability such as hydrogeological maps, there are few resources for institutionalising O&M procedures, and few guidelines for the O&M tasks themselves. As the case study of Mahikeng shows there is a consequent risk of greater expense and uncertainty unless efficient management (including O&M) of groundwater schemes is realised.


Existing work on "rational cryptographic protocols" treats each party (or coalition of parties) running the protocol as a selfish agent trying to maximize its utility. In this work we propose a fundamentally different approach that is better suited to modeling a protocol under attack from an external entity. Specifically, we consider a two-party game between an protocol designer and an external attacker. The goal of the attacker is to break security properties such as correctness or privacy, possibly by corrupting protocol participants; the goal of the protocol designer is to prevent the attacker from succeeding. We lay the theoretical groundwork for a study of cryptographic protocol design in this setting by providing a methodology for defining the problem within the traditional simulation paradigm. Our framework provides ways of reasoning about important cryptographic concepts (e.g., adaptive corruptions or attacks on communication resources) not handled by previous game-theoretic treatments of cryptography. We also prove composition theorems that-for the first time-provide a sound way to design rational protocols assuming "ideal communication resources" (such as broadcast or authenticated channels) and then instantiate these resources using standard cryptographic tools. Finally, we investigate the problem of secure function evaluation in our framework, where the attacker has to pay for each party it corrupts. Our results demonstrate how knowledge of the attacker's incentives can be used to circumvent known impossibility results in this setting.


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a newly deployed networking technology consisting of multifunctional sensor nodes that are small in size and communicate over short distances. These sensor nodes are mainly in large numbers and are densely deployed either inside the phenomenon or very close to it. They can be used for various application areas (e.g. health, military, home). WSNs provide several advantages over traditional networks, such as large-scale deployment, highresolution sensed data, and application adaptive mechanisms. However, due to their unique characteristics (having dynamic topology, ad-hoc and unattended deployment, huge amount of data generation and traffic flow, limited bandwidth and energy), WSNs pose considerable challenges for network management and make application development nontrivial. Management of wireless sensor networks is extremely important in order to keep the whole network and application work properly and continuously. Despite the importance of sensor network management, there is no generalize solution available for managing and controlling these resource constrained WSNs. In network management of WSNs, energy-efficient network selforganization is one of the main challenging issues. Self-organization is the property which the sensor nodes must have to organize themselves to form the network. Selforganization of WSNs is challenging because of the tight constraints on the bandwidth and energy resources available in these networks. A self organized sensor network can be clustered or grouped into an easily manageable network. However, existing clustering schemes offer various limitations. For example, existing clustering schemes consume too much energy in cluster formation and re-formation. This thesis presents a novel cellular self-organizing hierarchical architecture for wireless sensor networks. The cellular architecture extends the network life time by efficiently utilizing nodes energy and support the scalability of the system. We have analyzed the performance of the architecture analytically and by simulations. The results obtained from simulation have shown that our cellular architecture is more energy efficient and achieves better energy consumption distribution. The cellular architecture is then mapped into a management framework to support the network management system for resource constraints WSNs. The management framework is self-managing and robust to changes in the network. It is application-co-operative and optimizes itself to support the unique requirements of each application. The management framework consists of three core functional areas i.e., configuration management, fault management, and mobility management. For configuration management, we have developed a re-configuration algorithm to support sensor networks to energy-efficiently re-form the network topology due to network dynamics i.e. node dying, node power on and off, new node joining the network and cells merging. In the area of fault management we have developed a new fault management mechanism to detect failing nodes and recover the connectivity in WSNs. For mobility management, we have developed a two phase sensor relocation solution: redundant mobile sensors are first identified and then relocated to the target location to deal with coverage holes. All the three functional areas have been evaluated and compared against existing solutions. Evaluation results show a significant improvement in terms of re-configuration, failure detection and recovery, and sensors relocation.


We consider a microscopic model (a system of self-propelled particles) to study the behaviour of a large group of pedestrians walking in a corridor. Our point of interest is the effect of anisotropic interactions on the global behaviour of the crowd. The anisotropy we have in mind reflects the fact that people do not perceive (i.e. see, hear, feel or smell) their environment equally well in all directions. The dynamics of the individuals in our model follow from a system of Newton-like equations in the overdamped limit. The instantaneous velocity is modelled in such a way that it accounts for the angle at which an individual perceives another individual. We investigate the effects of this perception anisotropy by means of simulations, very much in the spirit of molecular dynamics. We define a number of characteristic quantifiers (including the polarization index and Morisita index) that serve as measures, for example, for organization and clustering, and we use these indices to investigate the influence of anisotropy on the global behaviour of the crowd. The goal of the paper is to investigate the potential of this model; extensive statistical analysis of simulation data and reproducing any specific real-life situation are beyond its scope.


Building on a previous study into first year international students' experiences (Jones et al.,2015) and Briggs et al. (2012, p17) we conducted new research. This aimed to: identify ways in which: 1. first year international undergraduates' experiences are influenced by university and international partner-college pedagogy and support practices; and 2. experiences vary among first year international undergraduates who have, and have not, attended an IFY in different UK universities and disciplinary contexts. This research contributes to knowledge in international student transition research, helping to identify effective practices and ways to address challenges when working with first year international students.


The new edition focuses on the current controversies in Tort law. Changes in the law endorsed by the Restatement (3rd) are explored. The casebook strives to invigorate the study of intentional torts by going beyond the traditional personal injury approach. Battery is considered in its increasing application in environmental litigation. The torts of intentional interference with contractual and economic relations, which almost all students will encounter in whatever field of practice(e.g. corporate, entertainment, public interest) they ultimately choose are introduced in the basic intentional tort section including the case that nearly bankrupt Texaco and the potential liability of an environmental public interest group for encouraging a boycott. The negligence section addresses controversies ranging from parental liability for failure to prevent a child from committing homicides, mental distress for exposure to toxic pollutants to tobacco industry liability. The necessity defense is considered in the context of Katrina. Negligence is critiqued from feminist, economic and other perspectives. Cases have been selected for their teachability and stimulation for students. Notes are straight forward to allow professors freedom to focus on policy concerns.


The Sant9Arcangelo Basin, defined as a piggyback basin (Caldara et alii, 1988a; 1988b), developed during the late Pliocene on the inner front of the last allochthonous Apennine thrust sheet. Four cycles, or depositional sequences, late Pliocene-middle Pleistocene in age, are recognized on the basis of stratigraphic, sedimentologic and structural characters of deposits outcropping in the northern part of the basin. These cycles are separated by unconformities, syntectonic also in origin. Every cycle, several hundred metres thick, represents one or more depositional systems (alluvial, marine-deltaic, lacustrine); within each system some stratigraphic units are distinguished (see geological map). The Caliandro Cycle, late Pliocene in age, is the oldest one; it lies unconformably on the allochthonous units and includes, from west to east, a lower alluvial system evolving to a marine delta, a thick pelitic marine unit corresponding to maximum deepening of the basin, and a regressive fan delta system. The Agri Cycle overlies, with syntectonic unconformity, the alluvial deposits of the Caliandro Cycle, and develops north-eastwards. The facies analysis allows to refer the depositional system to a marine fan delta. The biostratigraphic analysis assigned these sediments to late Pliocene-early Pleistocene. The third cycle (Sauro Cycle), the most eastern one, lies unconformably on the Caliandro Cycle deposits, and with syntectonic unconformity on the conglomerates of the Agri Cycle. The Sauro Cycle, early-middle Pleistocene in age, may be interpreted as a southeastwards prograding marine fan delta system. At the same time, in an innermost area of the basin, owing to a growing anticline, a lacustrine basin develops. The filling of this lacustrine basin, representing the S. Lorenzo Cycle, is made up of alluvial conglomerates and clays with volcaniclastic beds. A K-Ar age of 1.1+ or -0.3 M.y. obtained for the volcanic glasses (Caggianelli et alii, 1992), allows to refer these deposits to the early Pleistocene. Data from facies analysis suggest that the basin was bounded to the West and to the South by emerged Apennine reliefs, while to the ENE it was partially separated from the foredeep by the submarine Stigliano-Montegiordano structural high. The complete uplift and the emersion of this structure took place in middle Pleistocene. It was during this time that alluvial deposits (Conglomerati e Sabbie di Serra Corneta) deposited unconformably on the younger sediments. During the filling of the Sant9Arcangelo Basin the allochthonous sheets moving east-northeastwards, gave rise to syntectonic unconformities between the Caliandro, Agri and Sauro Cycles. These unconformities are more evident in the western proximal areas. Furthermore synsedimentary tectonics is testified by folds which affected the alluvial and deltaic basin-fill sequences. An example of synsedimentary fold is represented, in the middle part of the basin, by an anticline NS directed. This structure separated Sant9Arcangelo Basin into two parts: an inner part toward west where the deposition of lacustrine S. Lorenzo Cycle took place, and an outer one towards east where marine Sauro Cycle developed. During its evolution the Sant9Arcangelo Basin went through modifications, but it kept its features and in particular the connection with the foredeep to the north-east, till the middle Pleistocene. The overall evolution of this piggyback basin was strongly controlled by synsedimentary tectonics; in fact it led to the migration of the basin depocenters from west to east-northeast. The reconstruction of the tectonic and sedimentary phases carried out in the northern part of the basin, well explains the whole evolution of the Sant9Arcangelo Basin. In fact, the oldest deposits (Caliandro Cycle) and the youngest ones (Sauro Cycle) outcrop in the studied area; current investigations suggest that the Sauro Cycle is not represented in the southern part of the basin.


J. Ame 'Abstract. Exposure of tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) to salinity stress either before or after inoculation with Phytophthora parasitica increased root and crown rot severity relative to nonstressed controls. The synergy between salinity and P. parasitic was most pronounced on young (prebloom) plants and least pronounced on older (postbloom) plants. Salt stressed, inoculated plants had significantly reduced top weight, significantly more root necrosis, greater incidence of crown necrosis, and significantly greater mortality. Increased disease severity occurred even though experiments showed salinity reduced zoospore release arid motility of P. parasitic, suggesting that even low inoculum levels can result in severe root rot on young tomato plants in saline soils.


Objective. To investigate the use of laboratory tests and which factors infl uence the use in Norwegian out-of-hours (OOH) services. Design. Cross-sectional observational study. Setting. Out-of-hours services in Norway. Subjects. All electronic reimbursement claims from doctors at OOH services in Norway in 2007. Main outcome measures. Number of contacts and laboratory tests in relation to patients ' and doctors ' characteristics. Results. 1 323 281 consultations and home visits were reported. Laboratory tests were used in 31% of the contacts. C-reactive protein (CRP) was the most common test (27% of all contacts), especially in respiratory illness (55%) and infants (44%). Electrocardiogram and rapid strep A test were used in 4% of the contacts. Young doctors, female doctors, and doctors in central areas used laboratory tests more often. Conclusion . CRP is extensively used in OOH services, especially by young and inexperienced doctors, and in central areas. Further investigations are required to see if this extensive use of CRP is of importance for correct diagnosis and treatment.


Abstract. Analysis of a global eddy-resolving simulation using the NEMO general circulation model is presented. The model has 1/16° horizontal spacing at the Equator, employs two displaced poles in the Northern Hemisphere, and uses 98 vertical levels. The simulation was spun up from rest and integrated for 11 model years, using ERA-Interim reanalysis as surface forcing. Primary intent of this hindcast is to test how the model represents upper ocean characteristics and sea ice properties. Analysis of the zonal averaged temperature and salinity, and the mixed layer depth indicate that the model average state is in good agreement with observed fields and that the model successfully represents the variability in the upper ocean and at intermediate depths. Comparisons against observational estimates of mass transports through key straits indicate that most aspects of the model circulation are realistic. As expected, the simulation exhibits turbulent behaviour and the spatial distribution of the sea surface height (SSH) variability from the model is close to the observed pattern. The distribution and volume of the sea ice are, to a large extent, comparable to observed values. Compared with a corresponding eddy-permitting configuration, the performance of the model is significantly improved: reduced temperature and salinity biases, in particular at intermediate depths, improved mass and heat transports, better representation of fluxes through narrow and shallow straits, and increased global-mean eddy kinetic energy (by ∼ 40 %). However, relatively minor weaknesses still exist such as a lower than observed magnitude of the SSH variability. We conclude that the model output is suitable for broader analysis to better understand upper ocean dynamics and ocean variability at global scales. This simulation represents a major step forward in the global ocean modelling at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change and constitutes the groundwork for future applications to short-range ocean forecasting.


The efficiency of hospitals is of interest to health insurers, government authorities and hospital management itself. However, econometric methods for determining (in)efficiency have severe drawbacks since hospitals are multiproduct firms and because the duality between production and cost functions cannot be assumed. In this work, non-parametric, deterministic data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the relative inefficiency of 89 Swiss hospitals covering the years 1993–1996 (310 observations). Special attention is given to the role of patient days in the production of health. The findings depend on whether patient days are viewed as an input of patient time or as an output, as in previous studies. While the probability of a unit being inefficient cannot be explained using the available data, the degree of overall inefficiency is shown to significantly depend on the financial incentives faced by management, in particular due to subsidization. Private hospitals do not seem to be less inefficient than public ones; however, this may be caused by their 'overusing' inputs that in fact are valued as amenities by patients. This consideration points to an important limitation in applying the purely quantitative criteria of DEA to hospitals.


There is contradictory evidence surrounding the role of critical cues in the successful anticipation of penalty kicks in soccer. In the current study, skilled and less-skilled soccer goalkeepers were required to anticipate when viewing penalty kicks that were both spatially (full body; hip region) and temporally (–160 ms, –80 ms before, foot–ball contact) occluded. The skilled group outperformed the less-skilled group in all conditions. Participants performed better in the full body condition when compared to hip region condition. Performance in the hip only condition was significantly better than chance for the skilled group across all occlusion conditions. However, the less-skilled group were no better than chance in the hip condition for the early occlusion points when predicting direction and height. Later temporal occlusion conditions were associated with increased performance both in the correct response and correct direction analyses, but not for correct height. These data suggest that postural information solely from the hip region may be used by skilled goalkeepers to make accurate predictions of penalty kick direction, however, information from other sources are needed in order to make predictions of height. Findings demonstrate how the importance of anticipation cues evolve over time, which has implications for the design of training programs to enhance perceptual-cognitive skill.


In his recent article, A Job is Not a Hobby: The Judicial Revival of Corporate Paternalism and its Problematic Implications, Judge Leo Strine endeavors to fashion an unbreakable link between the Supreme Court's recent decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in combination with the Court's recent corporate law jurisprudence surfacing in Citizens United and the reappearance of "corporate paternalism." This move ostensibly threaten employee autonomy and positive rights. Advancing a profuse panegyric on the New Deal and later Fair Deal reforms, Strine stoutly defends the quest for "social progress." He is particularly animated to counter the efforts of employers, such as the respective corporations that participated in the Hobby Lobby decision to pursue a religious accommodation from generally applicable law. Properly appreciated his article raises the vexed question whether corporations — particularly religious corporations — have rights either directly or derivatively when such rights delimit the nation's social safety net that progressives and liberals have constructed and sustained through novel interpretation of the law. This article also questions the Supreme Court's understanding of corporate law, which on Strine's account threatens the return of "wage slavery."This essay responds to Strine's observations and analysis in several ways. After summarizing his argument, this essay ascertains whether Judge Strine's largely utilitarian calculus eradicates debate or rather sparks it. This inspection is complemented by reconsidering Progressive Era currents, New Deal labor law and the ongoing plight of marginalized individuals and groups despite increasing levels of government intrusion in society grounded in the presumed benefits of reform initiatives. In addition, this response evaluates the possibility that the United States can be defined plausibly as a truly secular society and the implications arising from an answer to this question for purposes of sorting out whether religious exemptions ought to be available for for-profit corporations either within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or within the parameters of the First Amendment. Lastly, I consider whether Supreme Court jurisprudence has reinstituted "corporate paternalism" that somehow transforms corporate law or, alternatively strengthens it. Of particular interest is Strine's claim that granting corporations statutory or constitutional rights is incompatible with the notion of corporate "separateness," a claim that may be difficult to square with a robust conception of the theory of the firm grounded in contractarianism and law and economics scholarship. Taken as a whole, Judge Strine's approach is refracted through a prism supplied by political theorists, constitutional scholars and corporate law scholars. Such an inspection exposes the doubtful provenance of his claims.


Alternative assessment has made remarkable changes in SLA instruction. Along with the assessment, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and technological developments have penetrated into instruction as well. This study was an attempt to compare the effect of wiki and e-portfolio on writing skill of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To do so, 81 out of 107 participants of 9 intact classes were homogenized by the Preliminary Test of English. They attended a 14 session term in two experimental and one control groups. Following the pretest, the writing points were taught in each group. Meanwhile, the students in both experimental groups were instructed to use technology (wiki and e-portfolio) to write their assignments on specific topics, and also they were requested to assess, to give feedback and comments on their classmates' assignments online and working collaboratively on their feedback in the classes accompanied with the feedback provided by the teacher. Besides, the students in control group were required to do their assignments paper-based and bring them back to the class in order to correct problems. At the end, the posttest of writing was administrated. The results of statistical analysis revealed that applying CALL in both forms of wiki and e-portfolio were significantly more effective in learners' writing than the conventional way. However, wiki could encourage higher levels of progress in writing skill in comparison with using e-portfolio.


ABSTRACT Connected vehicles give more precise and detailed information on vehicle movements, thus can be beneficial to provide priority to public transportation. This paper proposes a transit signal priority algorithm using connected vehicle information for multimodal traffic control. The algorithm can also be adapted to scenarios with near-side or far-side bus stops. Moreover, it can minimize either signal delay or schedule delay for buses while minimizing additional car delays. Simulation is conducted for different volume to capacity ratios, bus arrivals, bus occupancies, and penetration rates. Results show that this algorithm successfully reduces the total passenger delay. It is also shown that this algorithm is not sensitive to the assumed bus passenger occupancy, nor the estimation of bus dwell time, hence does not require accurate information on these parameters. Overall, this algorithm seems rather promising as it significantly reduces the delay of buses with minimal increase to the delay of cars in the conflicting approach.


The intercalation of linear alkylamines (C1-C4) in the two-dimensional (2D) Ising antiferromagnet, FePS3, has been investigated. Intercalation proceeds with a dilation of the interlayer distance. The expansion (approximately 3.8 angstrom) is the same for all four amine molecules, suggesting that they are oriented flat with respect to the layers. From an analysis of the products of deintercalation, it is concluded that the intercalated species are the alkylammonium cations and neutral amine molecules. The intercalated compounds are highly moisture sensitive, as reflected in the chemical nature of the intercalated species. Charge neutrality of the lattice after intercalation is preserved by the loss of Fe2+ ions from the lattice. These Fe2+ ions are further oxidized to form superparamagnetic Fe2O3 clusters, as confirmed by Mossbauer spectra and magnetic measurements. This was further corroborated by in situ EPR studies. The Fe-57 Mossbauer spectra of the intercalated compounds showed evidence for two species other than Fe2O3. On the basis of the observed isomer shifts and quadrupole splittings, they have been assigned to Fe2+ in an environment similar to that in FePS3 and in a distorted FePS3 environment. The temperature and field dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of single crystals of the amine-intercalated FePS3 have been measured. Their magnetic behavior shows many of the features expected of a 2D Ising antiferromagnet with random defects, Fe1-xPS3, in agreement with the mechanism of intercalation.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Strategies to manage the COVID-19 pandemic included widespread use of physical distancing measures. These well intended strategies adversely affected long-term care (LTC) residents' socialization and their caregiving arrangements, leading to exacerbation of social isolation and emotional distress for both residents and their caregivers. This study aimed to understand how these measures affected informal caregivers of people living in LTC homes in Ontario. Strategies to increase socialization and promote social connection during and post-COVID-19 were also explored.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
This qualitative study used descriptive and photovoice approaches. Of the nine potential caregivers identified, six participated in the study and shared their experiences and photographic reflections in virtual focus group sessions.

RESULTS
Findings highlighted the increased social isolation experienced by people living in LTC and their caregivers during COVID-19. Caregivers reported pronounced declines in residents' well-being and were frustrated by challenges connecting with their family members during quarantine. Attempts made by LTC homes to maintain social connections, such as window visits and video calls, did not fulfill the social needs of residents and their caregivers.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Findings underscore a need for better social support and resources for both LTC residents and their caregivers going forward to prevent further isolation and disengagement. Even in times of lockdown, LTC homes must implement policies, services and programs that promote meaningful engagement for older adults and their families.


Glowing Pathfinder Bugs is an interactive art project primarily aimed at children and created by the digital arts group Squidsoup. It uses projection to visualize virtual bugs on a real sandpit. The bugs are aware of their surroundings and respond to its form in their vicinity. By altering the topography of the sand, participants affect the bugs' environment in real time, facilitating direct communication between them and computer-generated creatures.
 This highly malleable and tactile physical environment lets us define and carve out the landscape in which the creatures exist in real time. Thus, virtual creatures and real people coexist and communicate through a shared tactile environment. Participants can use natural modes of play, kinesthetic intelligence, and their sense of tactility to collaboratively interact with creatures inhabiting a hybrid parallel world.
 This paper describes the project and analyzes how children in particular respond to the experience; it looks at the types of physical formations that tend to be built and notes how children instinctively anthropomorphize the bugs, treating projected imagery as living creatures - though with a ludic twist.


Rapeseed (canola, Brassica napus L.) is the second major oilseed crop of the world and provides a source of healthy oil for human consumption, meal for stock markets and several other by-products. Several weed species afflict the sustainable production and quality of canola. Various agronomic practices such as crop rotation, stubble management (e.g. burning), minimum tillage, application of herbicides and cultivation of herbicide resistant varieties have been deployed to minimise yield losses. There is no doubt that herbicide-tolerant cultivars enable management of weeds which are difficult to control otherwise. However, widespread usage increases the risk of herbicide resistance. This is becoming a major impediment in sustaining high crop productivity. Allelopathic and weed competitive varieties are potential tools to reduce the dependence on herbicides and could be grown to suppress weed growth in commercial canola. Genetic variation and 'proxy' traits involved in both crop competition as well as allelopathy have been reported. Further research is required to link genetic variation in weed competition and allelopathy, and genetic/genomicmarker technologies to unravel effective alleles to expand breeding activity for weed interference in canola.


iRhoms are related to a family of intramembrane serine proteinases called rhomboids but lack proteolytic activity. In mammals, there are two iRhoms, iRhom1 and iRhom2, which have similar domain structures and overlapping specificities as well as distinctive functions. These catalytically inactive rhomboids are essential regulators for the maturation and trafficking of the disintegrin metalloprotease ADAM17 from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cell surface, and are required for the cleavage and release of a variety of membrane‐associated proteins, including the IL‐6 receptor, l‐selectin, TNF, and EGFR ligands. iRhom2‐dependent regulation of ADAM17 function has been recently implicated in the development and progression of several autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus nephritis, as well as hemophilic arthropathy. In this review, we discuss our current understanding of iRhom biology, their implications in autoimmune pathologies, and their potential as therapeutic targets.


A filtration device including a filtration medium having a plurality of nanofibers of diameters less than 1 micron formed into a fiber mat in the presence of an abruptly varying electric field. The filtration device includes a support attached to the filtration medium and having openings for fluid flow therethrough. A device for making a filter material. The device includes an electrospinning element configured to electrospin a plurality of fibers from a tip of the electrospinning element, a collector opposed to the electrospinning element configured to collect electrospun fibers on a surface of the collector, and an electric field modulation device configured to abruptly vary an electric field at the collector at least once during electrospinning of the fibers. A method for making a filter material. The method provides a support having openings for fluid flow therethrough, electrospins nanofibers across an entirety of the openings, and abruptly varies an electric field at the collector at least once during electrospinning of the fibers.


In haematology, developing an automated blood cells types identifications based on microscopic examination could serve as a software tool for archiving haematology images, for automatic classification and it could help widely the clinicians in their laboratory tasks. This paper presents basic algorithms used in automated blood cell identifications based on microscopic image processing techniques. White blood cell segmentation method, red blood cell segmentation method and classification of basic blood cell types are presented. The promising results are compared with the manual investigation results obtained by the haematologists and experts of the field. A ratio of white blood cells over red blood cells is computed and gives an idea of the clinical diagnosis of the blood smear examined and all the examined samples matched the real clinical diagnostic.


SUMMARY

A concept of a factorized anisotropic inhomogeneous (FAI) medium is introduced. In the FAI medium, the position dependent density normalized elastic parameters aijkl(Xi) can be factorized in the following sense: aijkl(Xi) =f2(xi)Aijkl, where Aijkl are constants, independent of Cartesian coordinates xi, and f(xi) is an arbitrary continuous function of xi. Thus, all the density normalized elastic parameters aijkl(xi) in the FAI medium depend on the coordinates xi in the same way, but the generality of anisotropy and of inhomogeneity is not restricted. The factorization of aijkl(xi) leads to a factorization of certain important ray theory expressions and equations (eikonal equation, etc.), and to particularly simple ray tracing and dynamic ray tracing. For certain types of FAI media, these equations may even be solved analytically or semianalytically.


The Catostomidae, colloquially known as the suckers, is a family of freshwater fish endemic to North America and Asia. This family is hypothesized to have evolved sometime before or during the Paleocene (56-66 Mya) from a single tetraploid ancestor, which is thought to be the product of a hybridization event between two closely related, diploid cypriniforms. Currently, there are 79 recognized, extant species, some of which are difficult to discriminate between in the field. Despite the numerous studies that have aimed to reconstruct the evolutionary history of this family, little consensus exists for the relationships of the subfamilies within the Catostomidae, with practically every combination of subfamilial relationships having been proposed in the past. Additionally, and of importance to our understanding of the evolution of the catostomids, little is still known about the consequences of whole genome duplication on molecular evolution, especially for polyploid animals. In this study, we sought to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Catostomidae as well as characterize the patterns of molecular evolution of lineages within this family. Two nucleotide sequence, genome-scale data sets were generated with the aim to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Catostomidae as well as characterize patterns of molecular evolution of their polyploid genomes. These data sets, an unphased data including one sequence for each taxon and a phased data with the number of sequences per taxon representative of their ploidy level, included 179 and 267 loci, respectively. From the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the family, we recovered a topology which places Myxocyprinus asiaticus as the sister taxon to all other extant catostomids and Cycleptus elongatus as the sister taxon to an Ictiobinae + Catostominae clade. Additionally, we found that Catostomus was recovered as paraphyletic, with Deltistes luxatus, Chasmistes liorus, and Xyrauchen texanus forming strongly supported sister species relationships with species within Catostomus. In the second chapter, we found that the ictiobines, cycleptines, and myxocyprinines tended to have more polymorphic alleles than taxa within Catostominae. We also found that rates of molecular evolution were significantly greater within catostomine lineages than all other catostomid lineages. RECONSTRUCTING THE PHYLOGENY AND CHARACTERIZING THE PATTERNS OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF THE TETRAPLOID, FRESHWATER SUCKERS (CYPRINIFORMES: CATOSTOMIDAE) A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Zachary Evan Sperstad University of Northern Iowa


The apparent molecular density of states from combined photoemission and inverse photoemission spectroscopies is compared to the bulk conductivity and frequency dependent dielectric measurements for a variety of ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) copolymers and terpolymers. While some extra chemical groups introduced into the PVDF long chains increase the measured conductivities at room temperature and can cause significant changes in the dielectric properties, few changes are observed in the overall experimental molecular density of states. The exception appears to be the very short polymer chains. The significance of this comparison is that profound changes can occur in the overall dielectric and transport properties of this class of polymers and copolymers through molecular "dopant addition," without altering the overall density of states of the dominant PVDF polymer host.


The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.- James Joyce, UlyssesWe are like a dish of loose sand.- Lu Xun, Selected WorksIn tandem with the renewed interest in world literature and global comparativism, contemporary modernist studies has become much more visibly invested in reconfiguring its archive under new spatial and temporal modalities. The new modernist studies constitutes its analytical framework in the expanded field of twentieth-century cultural globalization and calls for reexamining the historical conjuncture of modernism prior to its co-optation into the triumphant discourse of the North Atlantic bloc, where a particular strand of aesthetic experimentation was codified into an inventory of universal hegemonic techniques.1 Similar to the eventual bankruptcy of the modernization theory in area studies, the North Atlantic ideology of modernism has lost its sustainability in explaining other modernist situations, such as African negritude, Brazilian anthropofagia, Greek ellinikptita, Arab hadatha, and so on, where notions such as elite, tradition, and popularity assume different codings.2 To conceptualize these differences through tropes of derivation or of exception is to be trapped in the binary of innovative centers and imitative peripheries. Drawing more expansive maps of the modern, the new trajectories have challenged the foundational tenets of the classic accounts of modernism by enlarging the scope to include racially, sexually, and geographically marginal(ized) works and authors, as well as nascent methodologies in cultural history and literary criticism.3 The new modernist studies aims in particular at the rerouting of modernity through a set of alternative texts and traditions that might initially appear outside official borders of the unarticulated, yet powerful cartographic paradigm. These modulations around the times, spaces, and agents of modernism have certainly led to a greater recognition of its multiplicity.4 Speculatively speaking, Matei Calinescu's groundbreaking work, Five Faces of Modernity (1987), now has to be rewritten as "A Thousand Faces of Modernity."Even so, the concept of global modernism may still run the risk of producing a diffusionist model in which modernism is taken as the standard measure for what Pascale Casanova calls the "Greenwich meridian time" of the world literary space and the privileged aesthetic mandate for entering the literary present.5 Rather than focusing on how modernism travels the globe or can be found in different parts of the world, in this essay I want to propose an interpretive framework that situates different constellations of modernism in relation to how they mediate a phenomenology of globality through subjective affects of the historically determined transformations in everyday common life.6 I locate the formation of twentieth-century modernisms in a globally dispersed process that I call plebeianization - a concept that refers to the dissolution and reconstitution of former traditional forms of subjectivity (that were expressed in terms of various status designations and social polarities such as urban-rural, bourgeois - peasant, metropolitan - colonial, entrepreneurlaborer, and so on) in the broadened social basis of modern culture. To rephrase Marx's famous maxim, all solid forms of subjecthood melt into air. This is not to say that these subject positions cease to exist. Rather, they lose their presumed stability under the mobilizing kinetics of imperialist/finance capitalism and are inflected by new national, class, racial, and geopolitical situations.At this juncture, it is necessary to note the dialectical double bind of this transformation. On the one hand, plebeianization describes a destructive process that violently opens up the lifeworld of the common individual to capitalism. The plebeian, in my special usage, refers to this mode of subjectivity that becomes increasingly vulnerable to, and more immediately impacted by, the penetration of the global system in everyday life. …


Some 20 years ago the genocide of worst kind was taking place just one hour flight from Brussels. That time, assassination of different kind from the one of 1914 has enveloped Sarajevo. While massive European ignorance turned Bosnia (and the Union of different peoples – Yugoslavia) into a years-long slaughterhouse, the Maastricht dream was unifying the Westphalian world of the Old continent. Today, two decades later, Atlantic Europe is a political powerhouse (with two of three European nuclear powers, and two of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, P–5), Central Europe is an economic powerhouse, Russophone Europe is an energy powerhouse, Scandinavian Europe is a bit of all that, and Eastern Europe is none of it. No wonder that as soon as serious external or inner security challenges emerge, the compounding parts of the true, historic Europe are resurfacing again. Formerly in Iraq (with the exception of France) and now with Libya, Sudan, Mali and Syria; Central Europe is hesitant to act, Atlantic Europe is eager, Scandinavian Europe is absent, Eastern Europe is bandwagoning, and Russophone Europe is opposing. Did Europe change (after its own 11/9), or it only became more itself?


Based on weighted noncrossing partitions of type $B$, we obtain type $B$ analogues of Coker's identities on the Narayana polynomials. A parity reversing involution is given for the alternating sum of Narayana numbers of type $B$. Moreover, we find type $B$ analogues of the refinements of Coker's identities due to Chen, Deutsch and Elizalde. By combinatorial constructions, we provide type $B$ analogues of three identities of Mansour and Sun also on the Narayana polynomials.


This paper puts forward the concept of 'geographies of (con)text' to critique the metaphors and materialities of 'the digital', concentrating on the physical constructs and constraints of language on the web. A landscape of words as opposed to a landscape of code (Thrift & French, 2002), language-as-data becomes material in ways very different from both print and spoken word; its physicality represented in bits, bytes and circuitry, and its limits and variations mediated and governed by the processes which order, sort, move and index it. By virtue of their reproducibility and enhanced means of dissemination, digitised words can have paratextual – and often political – agencies and excesses beyond their linguistic function. Using examples of online search, dictionaries and translation, the paper will imagine how context as a kind of space might be produced, constructed and limited, how competing actors contribute tactically (de Certeau, 1984) to the (in)visibility and (im)mobility of the linguistic data in the searchable database, and how these actors negotiate the conflicting interests of money, efficiency and truth (Lyotard, 1984) in the geo-linguistic spaces of the web. With a geography of (con)text thus imagined, the mathematical and binary logics that construct and mediate the language within it are also clearly exposed. The paper goes on to discuss how creativity and originality might be restricted by ongoing processes of quantification and monetisation of language, before concluding that digitised language falls somewhere in the middle of a structuralist/post-structuralist critique; being at the same time both free from and constrained by the geographies of context.


Finland and New Zealand are two countries with many geographic social demographic and historic similarities. Their telecommunications markets also demonstrate many superficial similarities. However beneath the superficial performance parallels lie two markets that have developed under fundamentally different cultural institutional commercial and political assumptions. By tracing the development of each market this paper explores the effect that these differences have had upon shaping the markets and explaining both the observed similarities in market performance and the differences. The comparative analysis suggests that Finland's industry characterised by decentralised and privately-owned local firms has adjusted to the more liberalised commercially-focused and competitive markets in the 21st century in a more measured and evolutionary manner than has been observed in New Zealand where centralised government ownership and control prevailed until the revolutionary joint privatisation and liberalisation occurred. The different cultures norms values and attitudes observed in the two countries have both evolved as a consequence of the different market development paths taken and in part explain many of the commercial differences. Nonetheless the most significant differences in observed market performance appear to arise from regulatory artefacts - in New Zealand's case to the distorting influence of universal service and free local calling obligations and in Finland's case to the prevention of mobile handset bundling with subscriptions.


The aim of this paper is to design efficient gathering algorithms (data collection) in a Base Station of a wireless multi hop grid network when interferences constraints are present. We suppose the time is slotted and that during one time slot (step) each node can transmit to one of its neighbor at most one data item. Each device is equipped with a half duplex interface; so a node cannot both receive and transmit simultaneously. During a step only non interfering transmissions can be done. In other words, the non interfering calls done during a step will form a matching. The aim is to minimize the number of steps needed to send all messages to the base station, a.k.a. makespan or completion time. The best known algorithm for grids was a multiplicative 1.5-approximation algorithm. In such topologies, we give a very simple +2 approximation algorithm and then a more involved +1 approximation algorithm. Moreover, our algorithms work when no buffering is allowed in intermediary nodes, i.e., when a node receives a message at some step, it must transmit it during the next step.


Poster presentation for the 2008 University Scholars Day at the University of North Texas. This poster discusses research on bank failure and its causes. The author's research focuses on the primary influences and characteristics of a collapse. The aim is to enable us to deduce common factors that contribute to bank failure, allowing us to reform and prevent collapses.


Accurate phone-level segmentation of speech remains an important task for many subfields of speech research. We investigate techniques for boosting the accuracy of automatic phonetic segmentation based on HMM acoustic-phonetic models. In prior work [25] we were able to improve on state-of-the-art alignment accuracy by employing special phone boundary HMM models, trained on phonetically segmented training data, in conjunction with a simple boundary-time correction model. Here we present further improved results by using more powerful statistical models for boundary correction that are conditioned on phonetic context and duration features. Furthermore, we find that combining multiple acoustic front-ends gives additional gains in accuracy, and that conditioning the combiner on phonetic context and side information helps. Overall, we reduce segmentation errors on the TIMIT corpus by almost one half, from 93.9% to 96.8% boundary accuracy with a 20-ms tolerance.


One uncertainty associated with large dam removal is the level of downstream sediment deposition and associated short‐term biological effects, particularly on salmonid spawning habitat. Recent studies report downstream sediment deposition following dam removal is influenced by proximity to the source and river transport capacity. The impacts of dam removal sediment releases are difficult to generalize due to the relatively small number of dam removals completed, the variation in release strategies, and the physical nature of systems. Changes to sediment deposition and associated streambed composition in the Elwha River, Washington State, were monitored prior to (2010‐2011) and during (2012‐2014) the simultaneous removal of two large dams (32 and 64 m). Changes in the surface layer substrate composition during dam removal varied by year and channel type. Riffles in floodplain channels downstream of the dams fined and remained sand dominated throughout the study period, and exceeded levels known to be detrimental to incubating salmonids. Mainstem riffles tended to fine to gravel, but appear to be trending toward cobble after the majority of the sediment was released and transported through system. Thus, salmonid spawning habitats in the mainstem appear to have been minimally impacted while those in floodplain channels appear to have been severely impacted during dam removal.


The yellow mongoose Cynictis penicillata is a facultatively social species and provides an opportunity to study the evolution of social behaviour. We examined genetic structure, relatedness and helping behaviour in the yellow mongoose in natural habitat in the Kalahari Desert, where the species lives in small family groups of up to four individuals and shows no cooperative breeding; and in farmland in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, where they live in larger groups of up to 13 individuals, engage in numerous social interactions and show cooperative breeding. The farmland population showed significant inbreeding, and lower genetic variability than the desert population, but there was no evidence of a recent population bottleneck. The genetic relatedness between individuals within social groups and that between future potential helpers and pups were higher in the farmland population than in the desert population. However, based on a limited sample, helping effort (in the farmland population) was not preferentially directed towards kin. Thus, the origin of helping in the farmland population is consistent with kin selection, but in the absence of kin discrimination, future research should investigate whether long-term breeding opportunities or group augmentation contribute to maintaining cooperative breeding in this population.


This study introduces a new method for identifying the output gap, based on the estimation of multivariate autoregression (VAR) models. This approach, which involves using restrictions to identify structural shocks that have only a transitory effect on output but that affect the trend inflation rate, is compared with the decomposition method proposed by Blanchard and Quah (1989). We also show some applications based on VAR model estimations for the Canadian, United States, and German economies. We find in particular that shocks having a transitory influence on output can explain most of the variance in inflation in these three countries. This suggests that the long-term neutrality hypothesis about the production of inflation-influencing shocks is a good approximation. We also find that only a small part of the output variance reflects changes in trend inflation. We go on to estimate simple inflation indicator models in order to assess the information that is contained in output gap estimations and used to explain inflationary pressures. The results suggest that the proposed method is a promising one.


Important economic and environmental decisions are routinely based on spatial/temporal models. This thesis studies the uncertainty in the predictions of three such models caused by uncertainty propagation. This is considered important as it quantifies the sensitivity of a model's prediction to uncertainty in other components of the model, such as the model's inputs. Furthermore, many software packages that implement these models do not permit users to easily visualize either the uncertainty in the data inputs, the effects of the model on the magnitude of that uncertainty, or the sensitivity of the uncertainty to individual data layers. In this thesis, emphasis has been placed on demonstrating the methods used to quantify and then, to a lesser extent, visualize the sensitivity of the models. Also, the key questions required to be resolved with regards to the source of the uncertainty and the structure of the model is investigated. For all models investigated, the propagation paths that most influence the uncertainty in the prediction were determined. How the influence of these paths can be minimised, or removed, is also discussed. Two different methods commonly used to analyse uncertainty propagation were investigated. The first is the analytical Taylor series method, which can be applied to models with continuous functions. The second is the Monte Carlo simulation method which can be used on most types of models. Also, the later can be used to investigate how the uncertainty propagation changes when the distribution of model uncertainty is non Gaussian. This is not possible with the Taylor method. The models tested were two continuous Precision Agriculture models and one ecological niche statistical model. The Precision Agriculture models studied were the nitrogen (N) availability component of the SPLAT model and the Mitscherlich precision agricultural model. The third, called BIOCLIM, is a probabilistic model that can be used to investigate and predict species distributions for both native and agricultural species. It was generally expected that, for a specific model, the results from the Taylor method and the Monte Carlo will agree. However, it was found that the structure of the model in fact influences this agreement, especially in the Mitscherlich Model which has more complex non linear functions. Several nonnormal input uncertainty distributions were investigated to see if they could improve the agreement between these methods. The uncertainty and skew of the Monte Carlo results relative to the prediction of the model was also useful in highlighting how the distribution of model inputs and the models structure itself, may bias the results. The version of BIOCLIM used in this study uses three basic spatial climatic input layers (monthly maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation layers) and a dataset describing the current spatial distribution of the species of interest. The thesis investigated how uncertainty in the input data propagates through to the estimated spatial distribution for Field Peas (Pisum sativum) in the agriculturally significant region of south west Western Australia. The results clearly show the effect of uncertainty in the input layers on the predicted specie's distribution map. In places the uncertainty significantly influences the final validity of the result and the spatial distribution of the validity also varies significantly. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. R. Corner and Prof. G. Wright for their advice and direction during the course of this work. I would also like to acknowledge Amos Maggi, Simon Cook, Peter Fearns, Jim Davies, Prof. M.J. Lynch, Margot and Mike Harness, Barbarra Hart and Dr Susan Ho. Finally, a special thanks must also go to my parents, and to Chris and Melissa for their support and patience.


This book explores the application of art and design principles in the digital realm. It explains some of the necessary technical details of digital media that can help readers make better technical decisions when using their tools for creative purposes. The book covers the essentials of digital media digital imaging, video, audio, and multimedia authoring while emphasizing the elements of art and design. Software-specific videos show how to use popular digital media applications. For anyone interested in learning the basics of digital media.


Australia is a country of migrants and many cultures. From the Second World War to 2006-07, more than 6.6 million people from around 200 countries have settled in Australia. Amongst these migrants are Sri Lankan/Australians, the majority whom have settled in Victoria. A qualitative phenomenological case study was conducted in 2009 to explore "how Sri Lankan/Australian students use music for construction of their self identity in multicultural Australia." Participants of this research study are Australian/Victorian school students coming from a Sri Lankan background. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data that were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Benefits of community music making for school students was one of the major themes that emerged from this study. These students recognised the importance of community music making, recalling participation in Sri Lankan community arts performances and cultural events in Australia. This case study identified the importance of community involvement through music education in the process of sustaining their musical traditions and cultural heritage for Sri Lankan-Australian students, thus community music making and activities can be considered a vital resource for cultural, social and educational sustainability.