Since its inception, stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has found many applications. The approach commonly taken in stochastic DEA is via chance constraint models. This approach cannot, however, capture the inherent random fluctuations of the efficiency score caused by the random nature of the input and output variables. Having taken a random efficiency perspective, one can introduce an alternative approach that provides ground for capturing these fluctuations. One aspect of this alternative approach, which seems to have been neglected, concerns the distribution of the random efficiency score. We show that the efficiency score does not have a continuous distribution even if the random input and output variables distributions are continuous. The efficiency score distribution has, in fact, a point mass decomposition at 1. This observation renders the non-parametric bootstrap of efficiency score impossible. We introduce several criteria for the ranking and classification of Decision Making Units (DMUs) using a random efficiency perspective, including an interactive ranking method that incorporates managers' knowledge and preferences. We then apply the point mass decomposition of efficiency score distributions of DMUs and show how these criteria can be implemented. We also discuss how one may estimate the efficiency score distributions of DMUs using both Bayesian and frequentist approaches. Our proposed methodology is illustrated using a real data set.


When studying diatoms, an important consideration is the role of associated bacteria in the diatom-microbiome holobiont. To that end, bacteria isolated from a culture of Skeletonema marinoi strain R05AC were sequenced, one of which being bacterial strain SMR1, presented here. The genome consists of a circular chromosome and seven circular plasmids, totalling 5,121,602 bp. After phylotaxonomic analysis and 16S rRNA sequence comparison, we place this strain in the taxon Sulfitobacter pseudonitzschiae on account of similarity to the type strain. The annotated genome suggests similar interactions between strain SMR1 and its host diatom as have been shown previously in diatom-associated Sulfitobacter, for example bacterial production of growth hormone for its host, and breakdown of diatom-derived DMSP by Sulfitobacter for use as a sulfur source.


When entering the university, the student is invited to develop another type of learning, more rigorous, and with a more consistent intellectual autonomy, at the same time freshmen are developing new relationships with knowledge. Once in university, the learning habitus the students had at the end of secondary studies such as memorizing, passive assimilation of disparate, disarticulated materials, lose relevance. Meeting the requirements of a university education involves a change in the way of learning and addressing towards academic tasks. This intellectual and methodological metamorphosis is supplemented by other disruptions due to shifting of this new learning environment for instance the acceptance of behaviours and practices adapted to the pedagogical and social context of the university. The student must build a new temporality, he also must learn how to manage and dominate the time, since his/her whole social and psychological life is being targeted by the new settings. Switching from pupil to student means altering his social role, moreover it is essential he/she changes the way of learning and how he/she intermingles with the academic environment. The main difference between school and higher education is often the amount of support and supervision that is being offered. During secondary school a teacher meets his/her students relatively often and together they set up and monitor the assignments on a regular basis, the teacher being willing to lead the learning they hope to develop, in contrast, the professor cannot meet with students too often due to the particularities of the classes. A certain problem arises when as a young student they feel very lonely and somehow, they have a sense of absence of interaction with their professors, so it is very likely that the freshmen have to assume more responsibilities for planning and completing work tasks, far more then when they were in school. The aim of this article is to show students` perception regarding the way ICT is used for making the transition from secondary education to university considering their communication with the administration staff, professors and colleagues. The paper is based on an exploratory empirical research with a hypothetical-deductive reasoning with premises and variables based on postulates and hypotheses with chances of logical verifiability.


Rationale and Objectives We investigated the relationships between spontaneously healed asymptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis (SHAPTB), airflow obstruction (AFO), and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) findings. Materials and Methods We selected 82 participants with SHAPTB diagnosed by interferon-&ggr; release assay and 8044 with normal chest radiographs (CXR). We applied a CT scoring system for the extent of tuberculous sequelae to correlate the HRCT findings with pulmonary function test. We compared the AFO prevalence between subjects with and without SHAPTB. Results The subjects with SHAPTB diagnosed by interferon-&ggr; release assay had a significantly higher prevalence of AFO (13.4% [11/82]) than those with normal CXR (7.4% [595/8044]). The important HRCT findings that correlated with AFO were the number of lung segments with TB sequelae and the CT score for emphysema. Conclusion The subjects with SHAPTB had a higher AFO prevalence than those with normal CXR, and the important HRCT findings correlated with AFO were the extent of tuberculous sequelae and emphysema.


Abstract Serpins are serine protease inhibitors that are widely distributed in metazoans, but they have not been characterized previously in Eimeria spp. A serpin from Eimeria acervulina was cloned, expressed, and characterized. Random screening of an E. acervulina sporozoite cDNA library identified a single clone (D14) whose coding region shared high similarity to consensus structure of serpins. Clone D14 contained an entire open reading frame consisting of 1,245 nucleotides that encode a peptide of 413 amino acids, with a predicted molecular weight of 45.5 kDa and containing a signal peptide 28 residues. By Western blot analysis, polyclonal antiserum to the recombinant serpin (rbSp) recognized a major 55-kDa protein band in unsporulated oocysts and in oocysts sporulated up to 24 hr (fully sporulated). The anti-rbSp detected bands of 55 and 48 kDa in sporozoites (SZ) and merozoites (MZ), respectively. Analysis of MZ secretion products revealed a single protein of 48 kDa that may correspond to secreted serpin. By immunostaining, the serpin was located in granules distributed throughout both the SZ and MZ, but granules seemed to be concentrated in the parasites' anterior. Analysis of the structure predicts that the E. acervulina serpin should be an active inhibitor. However, rbSp was without inhibitory activity against common serine proteases. By Western blot analysis, the endogenous serpin in MZ extracts did not form the expected high-molecular-weight complex when coincubated with either trypsin or subtilisin. The results demonstrate that E. acervulina contains a serpin gene and expresses a protein with structural properties similar to an active serine protease inhibitor. Although the function of the E. acervulina serpin remains unknown, the results further suggest that serpin is secreted by the parasite where it may be involved in cell invasion and other basic developmental processes.


Ecological restoration benefits from information on population genetic structure and variation within a species to make informed decisions on where to source material of the local genetic provenance. Conospermum triplinervium is extremely rare in Bold Park, a large bushland remnant currently undergoing restoration in Perth, Western Australia. We sampled plants from Bold Park and six other native populations across the northern half of the species' range to assess patterns of morphological and genetic variation. There was considerable variation across six leaf measures with significant differentiation among some populations. The molecular data showed a high level of population structure (ΘB = 0.4974), with varying degrees of spatial overlap among populations in an ordination plot. Significant differentiation was observed among all pairs of populations, except for Bold Park and its geographically closest populations at Kings Park and Neerabup. These two populations had greater genetic variation (50.9% and 54.5% polymorphic markers, respectively) than did that at Bold Park (20.2%). The small Bold Park population would benefit from augmentation (via cuttings) from local plants. However, in the longer term, should the Bold Park population show evidence of declining viability, then material should be sourced from the genetically similar Kings Park population to increase genetic variation whilst also maintaining genetic integrity.


Abstract The theoretical separation of jus ad bellum and jus in bello provides important protection during armed conflict. It guarantees that jus in bello will apply regardless of the cause of a conflict. However, this distinction has been challenged by the view that in some cases a situation of self-defence may be so extreme, and the threat to the survival of the state so great, that violations of jus in bello may be warranted. The situation is compounded by the confusion of the principles of necessity and proportionality under jus ad bellum and jus in bello in both academic writing and the jurisprudence of international courts. The dangers of blurring the distinction will be elucidated by examining how jus ad bellum considerations have affected the application of jus in bello in armed conflicts between states and non-state actors.


Cultivation of kelp has been well established throughout Asia, and there is now growing interest in the cultivation of macroalgae in Europe to meet future resource needs. If this industry is to become established throughout Europe, then balancing the associated environmental risks with potential benefits will be necessary to ensure the carrying capacity of the receiving environments are not exceeded and conservation objects are not undermined. This is a systematic review of the ecosystem changes likely to be associated with a developing seaweed aquaculture industry. Monitoring recommendations are made by risk ranking environmental changes, highlighting the current knowledge gaps and providing research priorities to address them. Environmental changes of greatest concern were identified to include: facilitation of disease, alteration of population genetics and wider alterations to the local physiochemical environment. Current high levels of uncertainty surrounding the true extent of some environmental changes mean conservative risk rankings are given. Recommended monitoring options are discussed that aim to address uncertainty and facilitate informed decision-making. Whilst current small-scale cultivation projects are considered 'low risk', an expansion of the industry that includes 'large-scale' cultivation will necessitate a more complete understanding of the scale dependent changes in order to balance environmental risks with the benefits that seaweed cultivation projects can offer.


Introduction to a thematic issue entitled "Russia/former USSR/Latin America: Studies in Post-Authoritarian Transformation." Because of language barriers and a lack of institutionalized ties, the impressive literature on democratization in each of these areas is virtually unknown to authors from the other region. The striking similarities between the former Soviet Union and Latin America are best studied through comparison based on ground-level fieldwork. This approach highlights the blind spots of standard democratization and free-market modernization theory, which tends to universalize scenarios of economic development without paying sufficient attention to case studies. The introduction outlines the conceptual shift from "transition" to "transformation" in the literature on democratization, and presents the articles in the issue as well as some of the challenges the editors faced in bringing authors from Latin America and the former USSR together. English and Russian versions.


This study was done in four rural communities in Ghana to assess uptake of household latrines. A total of 156 household interviews, 16 focus group discussions and 8 in-depth interviews with key informants were conducted. Study findings show that only 8.5% of households were using improved sanitation facilities with more than 75% of the households relying on open defecation and communal trench latrines. Knowledge of technological options was very limited and the cost for preferred latrines was unaffordable. Though health-related benefits motivated household latrine uptake, those related to personal security, privacy, social status and convenience were ranked higher. Sanitation uptake was constrained mainly by finances, poor sanitation promotion and general biophysical factors. High costs of latrine construction could be reduced by introducing cheaper technological options, using low-cost construction materials and labor contributions from households. Financing models like microcredit financing can also be explored and adapted for use in Ghana. We recommend the use of approaches aimed at behavior change while giving households a range of technological options such as community led total sanitation (CLTS). Hence, despite the low coverage of improved sanitation in rural Ghana, there exist real opportunities to accelerate sanitation uptake.


With the fast progression of data exchange in electronic way, information security is becoming more important in data storage and transmission. Cryptography is the study of mathematical techniques related to aspects of information security such as confidentiality, data integrity, entity authentication and data origin authentication. In data and telecommunications, cryptography is necessary when communicating over any unreliable medium, which includes any network particularly the internet. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the newly accepted symmetric cryptography standard for transferring block of data securely. The AES algorithm defined by the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) of United States has been widely accepted. AES involves the sequence of four primitive functions: Sub Bytes, Shift Rows, MixColumn and Add Round Key. This paper presents the design of a 128 bit encryptor using AES Rijndael Algorithm for 128 bit data encryption. These designs were described using VerilogHDL. Xilinx ISE 14.2 software is used for synthesis.


Markowitz' celebrated optimal portfolio theory generally fails to deliver out-of-sample diversification. In this note, we propose a new portfolio construction strategy based on symmetry arguments only, leading to "Eigenrisk Parity" portfolios that achieve equal realized risk on all the principal components of the covariance matrix. This holds true for any other definition of uncorrelated factors. We then specialize our general formula to the most agnostic case where the indicators of future returns are assumed to be uncorrelated and of equal variance. This "Agnostic Risk Parity" (AGP) portfolio minimizes unknown-unknown risks generated by over-optimistic hedging of the different bets. AGP is shown to fare quite well when applied to standard technical strategies such as trend following.


The present study analyzes both diachronically and typologically the synchronically irregular Spanish syntagm, entre tu y yo "between you and me", which employs the subject pronouns, tu and yo, rather than the expected prepositional pronouns, ti and mi. First, a thorough examination of Old Spanish texts reveals that the Old Spanish syntagm did indeed exhibit prepositional pronouns, i.e., OSp. entre mi & ti (a fact virtually unknown to specialists of Spanish historical grammar), thus unveiling a syntactic change from entre mi & ti > entre tu y yo. Next, the change is compared to the typologically similar ongoing change in Modern English, namely, between you and me > between you and I. It is then shown here that although the change in these languages appears, on the surface, to be an exact parallel, the origin, or cause, of the change in each language is different. Nevertheless, certain factors — including the ultimate inability of the preposition to govern the second of two conjoined elements, as well as word-order patterns of the subject pronouns — were indeed found to have played a role in the development of both entre tu y yo and between you and I.


This article provides a broad overview of the likely global/regional contextual factors and unique national characteristics that influence e-commerce diffusion in Singapore. Our analysis suggests that Singapore is likely to be a very fast adopter of e-commerce applications that have relatively proven business models in other advanced countries. In particular, advanced manufacturing clusters in Singapore with strong global supply chain links to advanced countries (especially electronics), logistics and transportation services, and other global market-oriented, business-to-business (B2B) industries are likely to be the most aggressive in adopting e-commerce applications. In contrast, we predict that Singapore will be less likely to innovate new e-commerce technologies or pioneer revolutionary e-commerce applications with radical global impacts, due to the small local market and the inadequate development of an information and communications technologies (ICT) entrepreneurial community with extensive network links to Silicon Valley and other entrepreneurial hot spots. Singapore is also unlikely to be a leader in large-scale business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce applications and mass consumer contents publishing. Our review of government policy initiatives to promote e-commerce suggests that although they are by and large in the right direction, they are unlikely to have significant impact until proven e-commerce models have emerged and competitive pressure start to be felt by companies. A possible exception is "e-government" applications. In contrast, we identify a number of areas where government policy initiatives have been a bit slow, notably in liberalizing the telecommunications services sector and in promoting technology entrepreneurship. Our review of the available empirical evidence on recent e-commerce diffusion trend and pattern in Singapore appears to be consistent with this analysis.


Experimental research is commonly held up as the paradigm of "good" science. Although experiment plays many roles in science, its classical role is testing hypotheses in controlled laboratory settings. Historical science (which includes work in geology, biology, and astronomy, as well as paleontology and archaeology) is sometimes held to be inferior on the grounds that its hypothesis cannot be tested by controlled laboratory experiments. Using contemporary examples from diverse scientific disciplines, this paper explores differences in practice between historical and experimental research vis‐à‐vis the testing of hypotheses. It rejects the claim that historical research is epistemically inferior. For as I argue, scientists engage in two very different patterns of evidential reasoning and, although there is overlap, one pattern predominates in historical research and the other pattern predominates in classical experimental research. I show that these different patterns of reasoning are grounded in an objective and remarkably pervasive time asymmetry of nature.


THICK, UNWIELDY three-ring binders are no place to keep school emergency response protocols. In a crisis, information and time are critical. Precious time can be lost in locating a binder, flipping through the tabs to find the correct section, and finally finding the vital information. And what if an evacuation is necessary? So you lug the binder out and start the information search all over again during different stages of the emergency? Even then, its contents are only as good as the people who created it, limited to how much the binder can hold, and only accessible to those on site. But in the digital age, when information can be securely accessed and disseminated in an instant, more schools are turning to advanced measures such as database-driven crisis management software solutions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Better Response Seattle-based Prepared Response (www.preparedresponse.com) was founded to help prevent tragedies like the one that transpired at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999. There were no established protocols for that type of attack, and it forever changed the concept of school security. Prepared Response wants to use technology to better respond to emergencies like Columbine. The company wants to help schools engage in state-of-the-art planning measures with school officials and police, fire, state patrol, and emergency services, and distribute the critical information via a secure internet connection, network, or USB storage device. Company officials believe preparedness is key to a strong defense. To a first responder, there's nothing worse than arriving at a site and not knowing exactly where the emergency is and how to get to it. Prepared Response's Rapid Responder solution is designed to eliminate this scenario. "We usually implement the system a whole district at a time, which includes working closely with local responders," says Jim Finnell, president and CEO of Prepared Response. "We notify them that if they get a 911 call at a specific address, that site has the Rapid Responder system. We database everything you would want to know about a critical infrastructure, so when first responders arrive at the scene, they don't have to go looking for information in order to make decisions. "The system is not meant to replace a 911 system, but when that call does occur, within seconds, first responders can get right on the system and have immediate access to everything they need to know." "There's no limit to what kind of information can be entered [in the system]," says Walt Pegram, district resource officer Spokane Public Schools in the state of Washington. With Rapid Responder, school officials and first responders can instantly access more than 300 data points, including tactical plans, satellite and geospatial imagery, interior and exterior photos, floor plans, staging areas, hazardous materials, utility shut-offs, best access and evacuation routes, incident response plans, and containment and family reunification locations. Try stuffing all that in a binder. In Action On Sept. 22, 2003, a student pulled out a 9-millimeter handgun during science class at Lewis & Clark High School in Spokane, WA, shot at a cabinet, and demanded the teacher and students leave the room. Fortunately, Rapid Responder was already in place. Within minutes of the shot, the software was up and running in a command center, providing site-specific information. Arriving officers were able to isolate the gunman in less than 12 minutes, while more than 2,000 students were quickly evacuated. Using the system, officials noticed that the room in which the gunman was holed up had unobstructed views of a field where the students had been evacuated to--along with eight lanes of traffic on an adjacent freeway. Using contacts listed in the database, officials called a transportation vendor to immediately send buses to relocate the students off site. …


Chalcogenide glass materials exhibit a variety of optical properties that make them desirable for near- and mid-infrared communications and sensing applications. However, processing limitations for these photorefractive materials have made the direct integration of waveguides with sources or detectors challenging. Here we demonstrate the viability of two complementary soft lithography methods for patterning and integrating chalcogenide glass waveguides from solution. One method, micro-molding in capillaries (MIMIC), is shown to fabricate multi-mode As(2)S(3) waveguides which are directly integrated with quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). In a second method, we demonstrate the ability of micro-transfer molding (µTM), to produce arrays of single mode rib waveguides (2.5 µm wide and 4.5 µm high) over areas larger than 6 cm(2) while maintaining edge roughness below 5.1 nm. These methods form a suite of processes that can be applied to chalcogenide solutions to create a diverse array of mid-IR optical and photonic structures ranging from <5 to 10's of µm in dimension.


Deep networks can potentially express a learning problem more efficiently than local learning machines. While deep networks outperform local learning machines on some problems, it is still unclear how their nice representation emerges from their complex structure. We present an analysis based on Gaussian kernels that measures how the representation of the learning problem evolves layer after layer as the deep network builds higher-level abstract representations of the input. We use this analysis to show empirically that deep networks build progressively better representations of the learning problem and that the best representations are obtained when the deep network discriminates only in the last layers.


Question: How to evaluate and integrate relevant ecological, social and techni- cal criteria to select species to be introduced in restoration projects of highly diverse ecosystems such as tropical riparian forests. Location: Riparian forest, Marqude Comillas municipality, southeast Mexico (16°54'N, 92°05'W). Methods: We proposed a 'species selection index' (SSI) using five independent criteria related to ecological, social and technical information. SSI targeted spe- cies that (1) are important in the reference forest; (2) are less likely to establish following disturbance; (3) are not specific to a particular habitat; (4) are socially accepted; and (5) their propagation requires a reasonable time and financial investment. SSI may range between zero and 50, with higher values meaning higher potential for restoration purposes. Results: Out of a local pool of 97 species, we identified 30 target tree species that together represented >60% of total importance value index in the reference riparian forests. SSI averaged 28.3 1.0 over the studied species, suggesting that species with high values are not frequent. For 20 species, reintroduction by means of active forest restoration was deemed necessary. Species that estab- lished through natural regeneration, following secondary regrowth, had lower social value among local farmers. Nearly half of the identified species showed technical constraints for easy propagation and seeding. Conclusions: The proposed procedure is useful for selecting species to initiate forest restoration projects and of other woody ecosystems that harbour high bio- diversity, and is suitable for several stakeholders interested in restoration.


Using different initiators, potassium persulphate (KPS) and azodiisobutyronitrile (AIBN), two conventional emulsifier-free emulsion polymerizations of the monomer tert-butyl acrylate (t-BA) in aqueous medium were carried out. The results of the measurements on the transmittance of the reaction system and the conversion of the monomer through UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy indicate that the polymerization processes of the t-BA initiated by KPS shows three stages while that initiated by AIBN behaves two stages. Investigations on the morphology and the average hydrodynamic diameter and its distribution of the obtained poly (t-BA) nano-microspheres by scanning electron microscope and dynamic light scattering techniques show that, during the polymerization, the poly(t-BA) nano-microspheres from AIBN initiated polymerization show a larger average hydrodynamic diameter and a steady diameter's distribution. The results have prompted us to have a new insight in emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization and provide us a new idea and a convenient approach to synthesize polymeric nano-microspheres with a different hydrodynamic diameter by using initiator with required solubility in aqueous medium through free-radical polymerization.


We present the first results on the analysis of spacecraft charging with the implicit particle-in-cell code iPic3D, designed for running on massively parallel supercomputers. The numerical algorithm is presented, highlighting the implementation of the electrostatic solver and the immersed boundary algorithm; the latter which creates the possibility to handle complex spacecraft geometries. As a first step in the verification process, a comparison is made between the floating potential obtained with iPic3D and with Orbital Motion Limited theory for a spherical particle in a uniform stationary plasma. Second, the numerical model is verified for a CubeSat benchmark by comparing simulation results with those of PTetra for space environment conditions with increasing levels of complexity. In particular, we consider spacecraft charging from plasma particle collection, photoelectron and secondary electron emission. The influence of a background magnetic field on the floating potential profile near the spacecraft is also considered. Although the numerical approaches in iPic3D and PTetra are rather different, good agreement is found between the two models, raising the level of confidence in both codes to predict and evaluate the complex plasma environment around spacecraft.


Introduction Georges Bernanos' first novel Under Satan's Sun (Sous le soleil de Satan) from 1926 contains a twenty-page fantastic episode: on his way to a neighbouring village a young priest, Donissan, meets a local horse dealer. As night falls, his nocturnal fellow traveller reveals himself to be Satan, and in the subsequent terrible combat against the Devil, God himself is also present, invisible, but definitely there. This fantastic episode is surprising, first because the popular genre of the fantastic may seem strangely out of place in a novel by Bernanos, whose serious works, extensively drawing on Catholic theology, belong to the combat literature of the Catholic Revival movement in France. (1) Secondly, it is important to underline the novelty of this direct representation of the supernatural in the Catholic novel which, as a genre, is deeply rooted in realism. The first novelists of the Catholic Revival, such as Karl-Joris Huysmans and Leon Bloy, as well as interwar Catholic novelists like Francois Mauriac and Graham Greene, shun the incarnation in concrete space and time of God or Satan. Maintaining a realistic, non-magical world, Catholic fiction dealt with God and Satan in the form of discourse as abstract, theological concepts and spiritual phenomena which can be talked or thought about by narrators or characters, but never be represented directly. Divine intervention in the universe of these novels is indirectly represented as signs, interpreted as such by the Church. The goal of this paper is to show that in spite of the above-mentioned departures from the conventions of the genre, the fantastic Satan episode in Under Satan's Sun is neither a break with the seriousness nor with the realism of the Catholic novel because Bernanos uses the traditional fantastic tale in quite unprecedented ways. In Introduction a la litterature fantastique, Tzvetan Todorov defines the traditional fantastic tale of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the following way. The beginning of the tale baffles the readers by playing on their hesitation between two options in that, "the text obliges the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of real people and to hesitate between a natural explanation and a supernatural explanation of the described events". (2) Todorov categorises the natural, rational explanation, such as illusions, dreams, or madness, as the strange, while the supernatural explanation, i.e. events taking place in a magic world, is classified as the marvellous. At the end of the fantastic narrative the reader's hesitation comes to an end when the narrator either chooses the rational explanation (the fantastic-strange) typical of the gothic tale, or the supernatural explanation (the fantastic-marvellous) typical of the fairytale. (3) My analysis shows that the beginning of the Satan episode follows Todorov's definition, as it plays on the reader's hesitation between the strange and the marvellous. But concerning the choice of final explanation I show that Bernanos chooses neither of the two Todorovian explanations, which indeed are incompatible with the genre of the Catholic novel. The fantastic-strange explanation does not fit because it denies the existence of the supernatural while the fantastic-marvellous one does not apply because a magic fairytale universe breaks with the realism of the Catholic novel. Instead Bernanos invents a new category of the fantastic which is a synthesis of the strange and the supernatural. This new fantastic mode is simultaneously Christian and realistic, as it maintains the existence of the supernatural and locates the supernatural forces within the human mind. What is the point of writing in the fantastic mode in a solemn Catholic novel? In the secular world of the 1920s the Catholic novelist can no longer presuppose reader responsiveness to abstract theological language, and I argue that Bernanos' choice of the fantastic mode is a rhetorical strategy (4) addressed to modern readers. …


Environmental application of radiation technologies is an important part of radiation processing. Radiation treatment of aqueous systems contaminated with organic compounds is a promising method of water and wastewater purification and corresponding technologies are being developed. In this chapter, the following aspects of radiation treatment process are considered: sources of contamination and major contaminants of water and wastewater; primary processes in aqueous systems initiated by ionizing radiation; principal ways of contaminant conversion as consequences of primary pro- cesses (complete mineralization of organic compounds, partial decomposition of organic molecules resulted in detoxification, decolorization, disinfection of polluted water, and improvement in biological degradation of contaminant, polymerization of monomers ' contaminants, oxidation-reduction processes, and coagulation of colloids); sources of ionizing radiation; and main equipment applied in radiation technologies of aqueous system purification. and — identified; and (AOX); pollutants characterized by BOD, COD,


The main result of this paper is a generic composition theorem for low error two-query probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs). Prior to this work, composition of PCPs was well-understood only in the constant error regime. Existing composition methods in the low error regime were non-modular (i.e., very much tailored to the specific PCPs that were being composed), resulting in complicated constructions of PCPs. Furthermore, until recently, composition in the low error regime suffered from incurring an extra 'consistency' query, resulting in PCPs that are not 'two-query' and hence, much less useful for hardness-of-approximation reductions. In a recent breakthrough, Moshkovitz and Raz [In Proc. 49th IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Comp. Science (FOCS), 2008] constructed almost linear-sized low-error 2-query PCPs for every language in NP. Indeed, the main technical component of their construction is a novel composition of certain specific PCPs. We give a modular and simpler proof of their result by repeatedly applying the new composition theorem to known PCP components. To facilitate the new modular composition, we introduce a new variant of PCP, which we call a "decodable PCP (dPCP)". A dPCP is an encoding of an NP witness that is both locally checkable and locally decodable. The dPCP verifier in addition to verifying the validity of the given proof like a standard PCP verifier, also locally decodes the original NP witness. Our composition is generic in the sense that it works regardless of the way the component PCPs are constructed.


Conflicts in several countries in Asia resulted in increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers. The need for protection and a decent life makes them willing to take any way to get protection in other countries, including by being illegal migrants. Australia, as a destination country for asylum seekers, imposed Operation Sovereign Borders by intercepting and returning ships carrying asylum seekers to protect the border while reducing the rate of illegal migrants coming into the country. In practice, this policy violates various provisions of international law, namely the principle of non-refoulement, human rights law, SAR obligation, the handling of migrant smuggling and violations of Indonesia sovereignty.


Changing Industrial Relations System Over the past two decades, Taiwan's economy has become more open and liberalized due to the influence of globalization of the world economy. The opening up and liberalizing of Taiwan's economy has not only affected its industrial structure but also the composition of its workforce and industrial relations system. In terms of the industrial structure, Taiwan's labor-intensive industries quickly relocated their production facilities abroad during the late 1980s, mainly to mainland China and other Southeast Asian countries, in order to take advantage of the low labor costs. Those that stayed behind rapidly upgraded themselves into high-tech or other high value-added industries as well as knowledge-intensive service industries. Accompanying these changes were major shifts in employment from the agricultural and manufacturing sectors to the service sector and from blue collar production work to white collar professional, technical and clerical work. For example, the share of workers in the manufacturing sector declined from 32% in 1990 to 27.15% in 2009 while that in the service sector rose from 46.32% to 68.87% within the same period (Table 1). The share of workers employed as professionals rose from 5.15% of the overall workforce in 1990 to 8.88% in 2009, while those of technical workers and clerical workers rose from 11.63% to 21.10% and from 7.98% to 11.08%, respectively. Conversely, the share of production workers in the total workforce fell from 41.11% to 30.84% over the same period (Table 2). As workers have moved from manufacturing jobs to white collar and service jobs, the pattern of industrial relations in Taiwan has also changed. Human resource management (HRM) and high performance HRM practices have become more and more popular in Taiwan while trade unions and collective agreements have been fading away. As the figures in Table 3 show, the number of industrial unions has fallen from 1,354 in 1990 to 982 in 2007, and union density in terms of industrial union members as a percentage of the total labor force has declined from 31.0% to 17.4% in the same period (Table 3). As the number of trade unions falls, the number of collective agreements will also be reduced. Thus, while in 1990 there were a total of 283 collective agreements drawn up among industrial unions, this number declined to 282 in 1995 and further to 236 in 2005, before falling sharply to 73 in 2006 and 69 in 2007. Collective bargaining is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in Taiwan. This is understandable because white collar and knowledge workers do not like to join unions since their employment, level of pay and benefits are determined based on their individual performance and innovative and creative abilities, and not by collectivism. It is, however, interesting to see that while the number of union members is declining in manufacturing industries, the number of union members in the banking sector is in fact rising. For example, while in 1997 only 22,849 banking employees were members of unions, by 2004 this figure had risen to 54,782 and is still continuing to increase. In western industrialized countries, school teachers and government employees are the major sources of white collar union members. This is not the case in Taiwan, however, because while teachers and government employees may form their own associations, they have no legal right to engage in collective bargaining and work stoppages. This article investigates the reasons for the rapid rise in union membership in the banking industry as well as the role played by trade unions when technologies and the work environment have been drastically changing in recent years. A study on the increase in union membership in the banking industry is also important in the sense that one of the major causes of the lack of union influence in Taiwan is the fragmentation of trade unions. This is because the Taiwan economy is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) so that most of the unions are small in size and lack economies of scale. …


This article focuses on the meaning of 'repertoire policy', which in a broader sense usually means the conformity of someone's creative activities with their main target groups and the interests and expectations of these target groups. Usually, factors inside the theatre also influence repertoire policy (such as contemporary and classical texts, the relationship between local and foreign material, as well as the consideration of the artistic interests and abilities of the directors and actors involved). When analysing the Vanemuine Theatre and its long-standing manager Kaarel Ird (at Vanemuine during the years 1940–1986), a certain aspect stemming from the ideological doctrine of the totalitarian state should be taken into account: the mandatory quota of Soviet drama works (of the Russian and other Soviet nations written after the revolution of 1917), which had to be no less than two-thirds of the plays staged. One of Ird's more distinguishable accomplishments in the formation of repertoire policy is the rehabilitation of classical Estonian drama and its legacy, which had been ostracised from the stage during the years following the war (1944–1955). Ird justified this with numerous performances and articles as well as in the choice of repertoire at the Vanemuine Theatre, which was very well received by the growing audience. Ird's own best directed works were based on the legacy of classic Estonian drama (Lydia Koidula, Oskar Luts and others). The other tendency in Ird's repertoire policy is the attention paid to the Estonian contemporary drama. His role in enthusing writers to create contributions for the drama genre was remarkable, as well as the care taken in order to make their plays reach the stage at Vanemuine Theatre. Something that should be pointed out in Ird's favour is his explanation – which at the time was not at all self-evident – of the repertoire to the supervisory organs: that contemporary Estonian dramas ought to be treated as Soviet plays, and that these works should count towards the quota of Soviet plays. The disproportion between the large amount of attention given to original works and the varying literary level and quality of the contemporary Estonian plays gave rise to sharp public polemics in the first half of the 1960s, which also affected the actors at the theatre. Ird took these viewpoints into consideration, and directed more attention to the quality of the plays. The same kind of a turning point also took place in relation to the contemporary Russian and Soviet drama. When it came to the latter, Ird had to consider the overcoming of differences of opinion within the theatre. A memorandum addressed to Ird by a representative of the younger generation – the young author Mati Unt, who worked at the theatre as a dramatist– in 1970 points to the shortfalls in the theatre's repertoire policy, which did not ensure sufficient contact with the younger audience and did not find favour with the young Estonian directors who were seeking for theatre renewal. In the 1970s, Ird made corrections in this area by giving the young staff at the theatre free hands in the choice of texts to be staged, and protected their access to the stage before the control organs supervising stage productions (the ESSR Ministry of Culture and the censorship officials). Attempts at bringing the world classics of theatre to the stage were not as successful, and their proportion at the theatre was not large. However, the 1970s saw the attention of a significant number of young directors gravitate towards introducing the authors of drama classics (Ibsen, Strindberg, Brecht) to the audience. The theatre focused less on the inclusion of contemporary Western dramas in the repertoire, the reason for this being the limited and strictly enforced quotas. When it came to the musical genres performed at the theatre (operas, operettas/musicals, ballets) there was a noticeable preference for contemporary Estonian composers. In the case of classic opera, the staging of less played works was considered important. The theatre won the approval of its audience with a choice of repertoire that took the audience's expectations into account, and increased its number of visitors almost threefold in 20 years (1957–1977). The repertoire policy received much recognition in the second half of the 1970s from theatre critics and many experts from other parts of the Soviet Union. This was helped along by the multi-genre theatre's regular guest performances in Moscow and Leningrad featuring different areas of activity, which were also taken into consideration for repertoire choices. An important result of the repertoire policy of Vanemuine theatre was – also in comparison with other Estonian theatres – a successful participation in union-wide contests dedicated to Soviet public holidays or the dramaturgies of different peoples.


Identical parallel machines problems (Pm) involve task assignments to the system's resources (a machine bank in parallel). The basic model consists of m machines and n tasks. The tasks are assigned according to the availability of the resources, following some allocation rule. In this work, the minimization of some objectives related to the due dates such as the maximum tardiness (Tmax) and the average tardiness (Tavg) were dealt with centralized and decentralized evolutive algorithms (EAs). In order to test our algorithms we used standard benchmarks. The main goal of this research was determinate the quality of the results obtained with a centralized GA and three decentralized GAs used to solve parallel machines scheduling problems. The results were compared using the ANOVA statistic method.


The paper presents the development of fast fuzzy logic based hardware for various applications such as controllers for very fast processes, real-time image processing and pattern recognition. It is based on the fired-rules-hyper-cube (FRHC) concept, characterized by extremely simple way of the fuzzy inference in a layered parallel architecture. The processing time slightly depends on the number of inputs of the fuzzy system and does not depend on the number of rules and fuzzy partitioning of all variables. Most important is the inherent high speed of processing because of the parallelism and pipelining, implemented in all layers.


In this article, I consider role of the television show Derry Girls in providing containment for the unbearable aspects of conflict-related and transgenerational trauma in the context of Northern Ireland. Derry Girls is a situation comedy set during the political conflict
 of Northern Ireland in the 1990s. The show provides nostalgic, satirical and affectionate observations on the seemingly mundane and at times farcical misdemeanours of a group of young people living out their everyday lives in the backdrop of sectarianism, bigotry and political violence. First
 airing in 2018, 20 years after the peace agreement in Northern Ireland, Derry Girls offers a forum for experiencing a flavour of life in the height of the Troubles, evoking strong emotional reactions in audiences through laughter, consternation and tears. I consider the role of psychosocial
 studies in framing understanding of the show as a cultural outlet for and container of societal level trauma and collective pain.


The potential to remove Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions through biosorption using the husk of Bengal gram (Cicer arientinum), was investigated in batch experiments. The results showed removal of 99.9% of chromium in the 10 $mgl^{-1}$ chromium solution, the biomass required at saturation was 1 g $mg^{-1}$. Kinetic experiments revealed that the dilute chromium solutions reached equilibrium within 180 min. The biosorptive capacity of the (bgh) was dependent on the pH of the chromium solution, with pH 2 being optimal. The adsorption data fit well with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The adsorption capacity calculated from the Langmuir isotherm was 91.64 mg Cr (VI)/g at pH 2. The adsorption capacity increased with increase in agitation speed and an optimum was achieved at 120 rpm. The biosorption of Cr (VI) was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which suggested that the presence of Cr (VI)ions in the biomass affects the bands corresponding to hydroxyl and carboxyl groups. Comprehensive characterisation of parameters indicates bgh to be an excellent material for biosorption of Cr (VI) to treat wastewaters containing low concentration of the metal.


We perform an analysis to determine how well the introduction of a countercyclical loanto- value (LTV) ratio can reduce household indebtedness and housing price fluctuations compared with a monetary policy rule augmented with house price inflation. To this end, we construct a New Keynesian model in which a fraction of households borrow against the value of their houses and we introduce news shocks on housing demand. We estimate the model with Canadian data using Bayesian methods. We find that the introduction of news shocks can generate a housing market boom-bust cycle, the bust following unrealized expectations on housing demand. Our study also suggests that a countercyclical LTV ratio is a useful policy to reduce the spillover from the housing market to consumption, and to lean against news-driven boom-bust cycles in housing price and credit generated by expectations of future macroeconomic developments.


Community partnerships have the potential to empower and arm students with the tools to positively engage with all members of society. In this study, the author explores how race and class shaped students' experiences with community-based research. Participants included 44 social science majors enrolled in an undergraduate research methods course. Students partnered with two community non-profits that served socioeconomically and ethnically distinct communities. Findings suggest that although students expressed varying levels of early resistance toward each partnership, they gained a raised awareness of their feelings toward and their unconscious reactions to race and class and began to work through initial resistance.


The preferred treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is surgery, which is the only way to achieve long-term survival and even a cure. However, the vast majority of patients with liver cancer in China are already in the middle to advanced stage of the disease and no longer have the opportunity to undergo surgery. The goal of conversion therapy is to transform unresectable advanced liver cancer or potentially resectable liver cancer into resectable cancer, so it has become a topic of interest in the treatment of advanced liver cancer. Common modalities of conversion therapy are: local treatment (TACE, TARE, or HAIC), systemic treatment (targeted therapy alone or combined with immunotherapy), and a therapeutic alliance (TACE combined with radiation therapy, TACE combined with targeted therapy, HAIC combined with targeted therapy, or HAIC combined with targeted therapy and immunotherapy). The plan for maintenance treatment after conversion therapy is determined based on the outcome of conversion therapy to obtain the best survival benefit for patients.


This paper explores the impact of regulations imposed by the Chinese government on the development of the Chinese IPO market between 2000 and 2011. Some of these regulations have affected the population of Chinese firms that went public domestically, some firms being excluding from the domestic IPO markets, others being induced to list abroad. We also provide evidence that, because of limits on prices and proceeds, the Chinese IPO market does not attract companies that need cash the most. Some IPO firms that raise large amounts of cash decide to pay large dividends shortly after going public, which investors interpret as evidence that their growth options were overestimated at the time of their IPO.


At this stage, Georgia is a country which is actively involved in the European integration process, for which the primary priority is effective integration in the European education system. The modern Georgian higher education system is the process of establishing a new sociocultural reality, whose main priorities are determined by the Quality System as a continuous cycle of planning, implementation, checking and acting. Obviously, in this situation, the issue of management of education institutions comes out in the foreground, since the proper planning and implementation of personnel management processes is one of the main determinants of the company's performance. At the same time, one of the most important factors is the psychological comfort of the personnel, ensuring their protection and efficiency of stress management policy. The purpose of this research is to determine how intensely the relationship is between the psychological comfort of the personnel and the efficiency of the quality system in the institution as the quality assurance mechanisms of educational institutions affect the stability of personnel, prevention and management of the stressful situation. The research was carried out within the framework of the Internal Grant Project «The Role of Organizational Culture in the Process of Settlement of Management of Stress and Conflict, Georgian Reality and European Experience » of the Batumi Navigation Teaching University, based on the analysis of the survey results of target groups. The small-scale research conducted by us has revealed that the introduction of quality assurance system and its active implementation increased the quality of management of Georgian educational institutions, increased the level of universal engagement in internal and external processes and as a result, it has improved the quality of education as well as social and psychological comfort indicators of the society. Keywords—Quality assurance, effective management, stability of personnel, psychological comfort, stress management.


OBJECTIVE—Total sedentary (absence of whole-body movement) time is associated with obesity, abnormal glucose metabolism, and the metabolic syndrome. In addition to the effects of total sedentary time, the manner in which it is accumulated may also be important. We examined the association of breaks in objectively measured sedentary time with biological markers of metabolic risk. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Participants (n = 168, mean age 53.4 years) for this cross-sectional study were recruited from the 2004–2005 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study. Sedentary time was measured by an accelerometer (counts/minute−1 < 100) worn during waking hours for seven consecutive days. Each interruption in sedentary time (counts/min ≥100) was considered a break. Fasting plasma glucose, 2-h plasma glucose, serum triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, weight, height, waist circumference, and resting blood pressure were measured. MatLab was used to derive the breaks variable; SPSS was used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS—Independent of total sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity time, increased breaks in sedentary time were beneficially associated with waist circumference (standardized β = −0.16, 95% CI −0.31 to −0.02, P = 0.026), BMI (β = −0.19, −0.35 to −0.02, P = 0.026), triglycerides (β = −0.18, −0.34 to −0.02, P = 0.029), and 2-h plasma glucose (β = −0.18, −0.34 to −0.02, P = 0.025). CONCLUSIONS—This study provides evidence of the importance of avoiding prolonged uninterrupted periods of sedentary (primarily sitting) time. These findings suggest new public health recommendations regarding breaking up sedentary time that are complementary to those for physical activity.


The expansion of credit markets has fostered economic growth across the European Union, but it has also produced a sharp increase in the average level of household indebtedness. As a consequence of the financial crisis, the drop in households' disposable income has undermined the ability of many EU households to honour their financial commitments. Against this background, this paper investigates the complexity of indebtedness and draws a distinction between its legal and economic dimensions in order to better understand the phenomenon. Despite efforts made by the European Commission, we found that the definition of indebtedness and over-indebtedness still lacks precision. Mirroring the interventions of national legislators in terms of consumer protection, over-indebtedness in the EU tends to be narrowly defined in terms of its relationship with insolvency. Therefore, further efforts need to be taken in designing the necessary measures to alleviate and prevent over-indebtedness. Accordingly, this study focuses on the role of financial education, analyses the impact of the relevant EU directives, collects important evidence in support of harmonising debt-advice services and explores the path towards a common methodology of early detection of vulnerable households.


I develop and analyze a DSGE model of a currency union to revise the question of how to conduct monetary and fiscal policy in countries that share the same currency. In contrast with the previous literature which assumes coordination, this paper analyzes the case where coordination lacks among fiscal authorities as well as between fiscal and monetary authorities. I show that the normative prescriptions emphasized by former analyses are not valid any more once policymakers are not coordinated. Indeed, in that case the common central bank does not stabilize the average union in ation as if it were in a closed economy because it has to take into account the distortions caused by the lack of coordination among fiscal policymakers. At the same time, if there is not a common agreement to coordinate fiscal policies, autonomous governments should use government expenditure as a stabilization tool even if shocks are symmetric.


Spreadsheets are used widely in engineering to perform several analysis and design calculations. They are also very attractive as educational tools due to their flexibility and efficiency. This paper demonstrates the use of spreadsheets in teaching the analysis of water pipe networks, which involves the calculation of pipe flows or nodal heads given the network layout, pipe characteristics (diameter, length, and roughness), in addition to external flows. The network performance is better understood if students can change pipe characteristics and/or external flows and be able to monitor the corresponding changes in pipe flows and head losses. The solution of the analysis problem is characterized by the possibility of solving it using different system variables (i.e. flows, head, incremental flows, and incremental heads), resulting in different system of equations, in addition to different methods of solution (i.e. Newton Raphson, linearization, or single adjustment). The developed spreadsheets can be used to introduce the network design concept as a series of analysis problems, performed by trial and error, to satisfy operational constraints.


Medium-grade Alaska pollock surimi was used to investigate the effects of functional protein additives on texture and colors. Torsion failure and differential scanning calorimetry tests were applied to measure gel strength, gel deformability, and calorimetric properties. CIE Lab color values were also measured. Shear stress values of gels and peak temperature of DSC thermograms were all increased. Shear strain, a good indicator of protein-protein interaction, was increased only by addition of egg white and beef plasma protein. Yellowness (b*) values were affected by all additives except frozen egg white. Whiteness index (L*-3b*) was a more effective indicator to differentiate additives.


In this document, the SURF detector-descriptor scheme used in the OpenSURF library is discussed in detail. First the algorithm is analysed from a theoretical standpoint to provide a detailed overview of how and why it works. Next the design and development choices for the implementation of the library are discussed and justified. During the implementation of the library, it was found that some of the finer details of the algorithm had been omitted or overlooked, so Section 1.5 serves to make clear the concepts which are not explicitly defined in the SURF paper [1].


We present an experimental study of the reopening mechanics of a collapsed liquid-filled elastic tube. The experiment is a simple mechanical model of pulmonary airway reopening and aims to assess the robustness of existing theoretical models. A metre-long horizontal elastic tube of inner radius Ri=4.88 ± 0.14mm is filled with silicone oil and is carefully collapsed mechanically. The injection of nitrogen at a constant flow rate results in the steady propagation of an air finger, after the decay of initial transients. This behaviour is observed over the realizable range of the capillary numbers Ca, which measures the ratio of viscous and capillary forces. With increasing Ca, the transition region between the collapsed and reopened sections of the tube shortens, and the height of the tube behind the bubble tip increases. We also find that air fingers can propagate in partially reopened tubes, in which the transmural pressure is negative far behind the finger tip. The effect of viscosity on the reopening dynamics was explored by performing experiments using three different grades of silicone oil, with kinematic viscosities of 1000cS, 200cS and 100cS. A direct comparison between the experimental pressure dependence on Ca and numerical simulations of the zero-gravity three-dimensional airway-reopening model of Hazel & Heil (Trans. ASME: J. Biomech. Engng, vol. 128, 2006, p. 473) highlights some significant differences. Within the experimental parameter range, gravity profoundly influences the reopening mechanics in several ways. The reopening tube is supported by a rigid base, which induces an asymmetry about the horizontal mid-plane of the collapsed tube, resulting in distinct phases of reopening as Ca increases. In addition, buoyancy forces act on the air finger, which is observed to propagate near the top of the cross-section of the tube, leaving a thicker fluid-lining below. In the limit of small Ca, the height of the reopened tube increases significantly with viscosity. Experimental evidence suggests that this increase in viscosity leads to significant changes in the film configuration behind the propagating finger, caused by the increased contribution of buoyancy forces. The altered film configuration changes the mechanical load on the tube walls and, hence, the shape of the reopened tube.


The following case study was conducted in 2014 in the Department of Didactics of the Institute for English Language and Literature at the Freie Universitat Berlin. It was conceived as a preliminary investigation for an ongoing qualitative research project called The Experience of Theatrical Performance in EFL Teacher Education. The purpose of this larger project is to study the effects of the experience of theatrical performance (i.e. live performance before an audience) on EFL teachers-in-training. For this preliminary study, qualitative data were obtained from a group of seven undergraduate English Education students in conjunction with a course focused on the use of creative writing in the EFL classroom. As part of the course work, the students produced a small number of original creative texts in traditional literary genres: a personal essay, two short stories (using 1 st and 3 rd person point-of-view), a poem and a short play. Each student also kept a Course Journal, in which he or she wrote daily in-class creative writing exercises as well as critical and personal reflections. The course ended with a Public Reading: the students presented their creative work before an audience comprised of peers, faculty, and members of the general public. The following paper considers in particular the students' personal reflections both before and after this Public Reading. What emerges is a coherent emotional and cognitive trajectory, determined in all of its moments by the theatrical event (as future, present, and past experience) of performing original creative work before a live audience. Because the investigation was conducted by a participant in the course (i.e. the teacher himself, a native English speaker born in the United States), the report also includes thick description of the intersubjective and intercultural contexts of the study, as well as ethnographic reflections on its limitations.


In this article, I critically examine Peru's Law to Protect Minors from situations of Begging. I consider the way in which a language of children's rights is ironically invoked to justify the physical removal and criminalization of children working in public spaces by appeals to very specific understandings of childhood, parenting, and space. Despite the law's formal emphasis on protection, I suggest it is more concerned with social control and containment than children's actual well-being. As such, it fails to reflect the basic principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Peru has committed. However, because the crc is subject to multiple interpretations, it also serves as a potential resource to counter repressive legislation such as the Begging Bill. The article is based on 14 months of field work in Peru and over 100 interviews with policy makers, government officials, educators, and street children themselves, among others.


The increasing of chicken meat consumption will increase the number of Chicken Slaughter House(RPA). RPA is a special place to process the meat. However, However, it causes the increasing number of waste from unprocessed meat that may damage the environment. Whereas, the waste from RPA contains a huge amount of protein that can support entog's (Cairinamoschata) growth and development. Entog is well known with its immunity against virus and bacteria. According to PKHDG(2011), demand for ducken meat, including entog, reaching 33,000 tons annually. Entog market price is also quite high. Lowest price per head reached Rp. 25.0600. Higher market entog males aged two months, around Rp. 50,000 per head. Entog was marketed in size from 2.6 to 3 kg for males, while females weighing 1.5 to 1.9kg. Utilization of waste as a source of live stock feed RPA is considered very advantageous, because the feed is readily available, abundant, cheap, highly nutria thousand not lead to residues in meat. The result is that we have sold 200 entogs (period I) and 110 entogs in period II with the total yield Rp.8.910.000 and the total profit Rp.2.400.000. Keywords : Entog, waste, Chicken Slaughtern House (RPA)


The present study of personal context and continuity in 23 students' thinking builds upon data from a longitudinal study of the students' conceptualisations of ecological processes. Each student was interviewed 11 times from age 9-15 about these processes. At the ages of 15 and 19, the students listened to what they said at the age of 11 and 15, respectively, and described how they thought their understanding had developed. The occurrence of charac teristic individual elements in the students' conceptions can be followed as themes in the interviews year by year. The students could, as 15- and 19-year-olds, often reveal concrete experiences from an early age that they referred to repeatedly in the interviews. Even if there was a substantial conceptual development, there was also a very strong element of personal continuity. Conceptions that had developed at an early age seemed to be important for future conceptual development.


Compressive sensing (CS) is a signal processing technique for acquiring sparse signals at sampling rates much lower than the Nyquist rate. Traditionally to avoid generation of large sensing matrices for 2D signals or images, individual rows or columns of the images are compressed in the sensing phase. This increases the number of matrix multiplication operations and results in a compressed image with a different aspect ratio than the original uncompressed image. To overcome these issues, in this paper, we investigate a 2D deterministic sensing technique that maintains both the aspect ratio and the morphology of the image. We use a linear filtering-based measurement matrix. Through this paper, we demonstrate that deterministic CS will preserve the features and there by enable analysis of the images such as detection and identification of objects in the compressed domain without the need to perform a computationally expensive reconstruction. In order to demonstrate this, images obtained by infra-red electro-optic camera on an airborne platform (low resolution), LandSat (medium resolution) and multispectral images (high resolutions) are chosen. Features of chosen objects from an uncompressed image are compared with those corresponding objects in the compressed image using template matching to demonstrate that such image analysis can be done in the compressed domain. Frobenius norm-based structural similarity analysis for the images at different levels of compression is presented to demonstrate the similarity in structure. Robustness of the deterministic CS technique is shown by performing template matching based image analysis on noisy compressed images.


We have developed a compact, flash-lamp-pumped Cr:LiSrAlF6 (Cr:LiSAF) laser system capable of producing femtosecond pulses exhibiting peak powers greater than 2 TW. Chirped pulse amplification in a Cr:LiSAF regenerative amplifier produces 15-mJ pulses at a 5-Hz repetition rate. Further amplification in Cr:LiSAF yields recompressed pulse energies of 280 mJ and a pulse duration of less than 135 fs at a 1.0-Hz repetition rate. We describe the design and performance of this laser as well as the optimization of chirped pulse amplification in flash-lamp-pumped Cr:LiSAF.


Micro-blogs, or short blogs, are a social media channel commonly used by fashion brands, and luxury brands are no exception. Luxury firms are utilizing micro-blogs and bloggers to promote their products and connect with their customers. This new trend has led to increasing interest in studying how micro-blogs can be utilized effectively within luxury marketing. In this study, the emotions consumers experience as a result of micro-blogs were regarded as key for effective management for luxury fashion brands. In particular, envy, an emotion often associated with interpersonal comparisons, was examined because it relates to both luxury consumption and social media. To understand consumer behaviors triggered by luxury brand micro-blogs, three main questions were examined in two experimental studies: 1) Why and how do micro-blogs encourage consumer purchases? 2) Does envy mediate between micro-blog contents and purchase intention, specifically for luxury brands? 3) What specific characteristics of micro-blogs are related to consumer envy and purchase intention? To address these questions, study 1 investigated the influence of blog presentations on envy and purchase intention, and study 2 examined the impact of congruence to blogger race and featured brand image. A total of 16 hypotheses were developed for studies 1 and 2 based on social identity theory, signaling theory, self-congruity theory, and social comparison theory, among other relevant concepts. In study 1, social identity theory (Sirgy, 1982) suggested that people tend to identify with a group of people and compare themselves with others who are similar to themselves, which may lead to envy. Thus, in micro-blog posts, people should feel more envious when they see a group of people as opposed to a single person (H1). Spence's (1973) signaling theory suggests that people are more likely to be influenced by lifestyle centric micro-blog posts rather than product centric posts because it signals a luxurious lifestyle, evoking greater envy among blog audiences (H2). Further, the combination of a group of people with a lifestyle centric background in micro-blogs should elicit the most envy because it combines the elements to present to the audience a complete story (H3). In study 2, self-congruity theory (Sirgy, 1982) and social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) suggest that envy would be elicited to a greater extent when the blog audience's race is highly congruent with that of the blogger's because people tend to identify with a product or an image that is similar to their own. When individuals recognize their similarities with others, they may be inclined to compare themselves with the other group and consequently feel envious due to upward comparison (H6). Similarly, when audiences view a product on a micro-blog post, they should feel more envious when the featured brand image is highly congruent to their own self-image (H7). Further, the combination effect of both race and brand image congruencies was hypothesized to elicit the most envy as it combines both factors (H8). In both studies 1 and 2, envy was hypothesized to positively influence purchase intention (H4a, H4b, and H4c for Study 1 and H9a, H9b, and H9c for Study 2) and mediate all manipulation variables (excluding combination content) and purchase intention (H5a and H5b for Study 1 and H10a and H10b for Study 3). Responses from a total of 592 female ages 18 years and older were collected through MTurk, and approximately 300 of these responses were assigned to each study. All images contained a Louis Vuitton handbag and were in the format of an Instagram post because both are broadly known by social media audiences. An ANOVA was used to test the differences in envy elicited from the manipulated variables. A series of regression analyses were used to test for mediating effects. Findings of study 1 revealed that micro-blogs featuring groups and combination content (group of people and lifestyle centric background) elicited envy the way we anticipated (H1 and H3). In people content, envy had a partial mediating effect leading to purchase intention (H5a). In study 2, a high level of racial congruence between respondents and bloggers elicited envy (H6) and envy served as a partial mediator for congruence levels in blogger race (H10a). Regardless of sources of envy, all elicited envy in studies 1 and 2 positively influenced purchase intention (H4a, H4b, H4c, H9a, H9b, and H9c). These findings suggest that micro-blog presentations and blogger characteristics are important factors influencing envy and purchase intention. Envy was indeed shown to be an important factor in micro-blog marketing strategies. However, envy did not appear to be the only influencer of purchase intention. The study also revealed that micro-blog content was a crucial factor in determining purchase intention. Furthermore, congruence in blogger race had a more significant effect than congruence in brand image. Future studies should further explore blogger characteristics in micro-blogs. Collectively, luxury brands should be creative in designing their micro-blog posts to cater to their target market. To do so, this study suggests the following: conduct a story-based way of communicating in micro-blog posts, hire bloggers who are racially similar to the target market, explore other blogger characteristics, and investigate other blog presentation elements. This study addresses the gap in research regarding the role of emotions in relation to luxury brand micro-blogs. Using experimental data, this paper discusses the theoretical contributions, real-world implications, and study limitations and further suggests possibilities for future studies.


The avocado (Persea americana Mill.) is considered by many to be a horticultural problem. Cultivars in use today have several drawbacks associated with yield, disease susceptibility and fruit quality. Breeding programs to counter these disadvantages have been met with limited success due mainly to the crop's heterozygosity, outbreeding nature and long juvenile period. Furthermore, genetic information regarding current commercial scions and rootstocks is limited and crosses are made based on parental phenotypic characteristics which are not always additive. It is proposed that the development of a protoplast-to-plant system for avocado would not only provide a means for plant breeders to overcome these problems, but would also present researchers with a useful tool for studying biochemical and physiological mechanisms operating within the plant. An investigation into the development of an in vitro system for use in metabolic studies was carried out. This technology was then used as a model system for studies into the metabolic control of cell growth. An attempt was made at developing a protoplast system from the mesocarp tissue of 'Hass' avocado. It was found that the purity and activity of the cellulase preparation in the protoplast isolation medium was critical. Failure to generate a protoplast system from mesocarp tissue prompted an investigation into the development of cell cultures. Mesocarp, seed and embryo tissue was subjected to various treatments in an attempt to induce callus for use as a source material for cell cultures. Callus derived from nucellar tissue of 'Hass' avocado seed at high concentrations of a-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA)(5 mgL-) and isopentenyladenine (iP)(5 mgL-) in Murashige and Skoog media (MS) proved to be the most amenable to subculture into liquid medium. Cell suspensions initiated from this callus grew fastest in MS media supplemented with NAA (5 mgL-) and iP (1 mgL-\ These cell suspensions were maintained through subculture and were selected for use in metabolic studies. Cytokinin-dependent cell cultures from avocado seed callus were used to study the involvement of isoprenoid products in cell division. Addition of mevastatin, a competitive inhibitor of the key enzyme in the isoprenoid pathway, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), caused a reduction in cell growth at low concentrations (0.01 ~M, 0.1 ~M and 1 ~M) and cessation of growth at higher concentrations (1 0 ~M and 40 ~M). Cotreatment with the isoprenoid compounds mevalonic acid lactone (MVL)(6 mM) and farnesyl diphosphate (FDP)(1 0 ~M) completely reversed the effects of mevastatin at the 1 ~M and 40 ~M levels. The addition of stigmasterol (10 ~M) to cell cultures treated with mevastatin (1 ~M and 40 ~M) resulted in a slight positive growth response indicating partial alleviation of inhibition. However, the response was not significantly different from the control suggesting that sterols played a minor role in cell division. It was concluded that isoprenoid-derived products played a critical role in the regulation of the cell cycle. Furthermore, it was suggested that mevastatin-induced HMGR inhibition gave rise to a response, most likely ABA-mediated, that acted antagonistically to regulatory mechanisms controlled, in part, by isoprenoid compounds.


Abstract This article first traces the origin of hybrid warfare and the label game surrounding the concept, asking whether it is merely old wine in a new bottle, and if so, whether it is still a useful concept. It is found that while being old wine in new bottles, it is still a good wine well worth drinking. While there is not much new in the concept itself, it is a useful tool to think about past wars, today's wars and the wars of the future. Thereafter, this paper analyses how hybrid warfare and hybrid threats are to be understood in the context of peace, conflict and war. It is shown how hybrid warfare and threats fit into our traditional understanding of conflict dynamics.


The use and benefits of repository evaluation of software reuse are illustrated through an analysis of the evolving repositories of two large firms that recently implemented integrated CASE development tools. The analysis shows that these tools have supported high levels of software reuse, but it also suggests that there remains considerable unexploited reuse potential. The findings indicate that organizational changes will be required before the full potential of the new technology can be realized. >


We have isolated and analyzed human CTCF cDNA clones and show here that the ubiquitously expressed 11-zinc-finger factor CTCF is an exceptionally highly conserved protein displaying 93% identity between avian and human amino acid sequences. It binds specifically to regulatory sequences in the promoter-proximal regions of chicken, mouse, and human c-myc oncogenes. CTCF contains two transcription repressor domains transferable to a heterologous DNA binding domain. One CTCF binding site, conserved in mouse and human c-myc genes, is found immediately downstream of the major P2 promoter at a sequence which maps precisely within the region of RNA polymerase II pausing and release. Gel shift assays of nuclear extracts from mouse and human cells show that CTCF is the predominant factor binding to this sequence. Mutational analysis of the P2-proximal CTCF binding site and transient-cotransfection experiments demonstrate that CTCF is a transcriptional repressor of the human c-myc gene. Although there is 100% sequence identity in the DNA binding domains of the avian and human CTCF proteins, the regulatory sequences recognized by CTCF in chicken and human c-myc promoters are clearly diverged. Mutating the contact nucleotides confirms that CTCF binding to the human c-myc P2 promoter requires a number of unique contact DNA bases that are absent in the chicken c-myc CTCF binding site. Moreover, proteolytic-protection assays indicate that several more CTCF Zn fingers are involved in contacting the human CTCF binding site than the chicken site. Gel shift assays utilizing successively deleted Zn finger domains indicate that CTCF Zn fingers 2 to 7 are involved in binding to the chicken c-myc promoter, while fingers 3 to 11 mediate CTCF binding to the human promoter. This flexibility in Zn finger usage reveals CTCF to be a unique "multivalent" transcriptional factor and provides the first feasible explanation of how certain homologous genes (i.e., c-myc) of different vertebrate species are regulated by the same factor and maintain similar expression patterns despite significant promoter sequence divergence.


Loans between institutions continue to be issued and traded, and corporate lending remains a booming practice. At the core of these activities is the credit agreement--a complicated document that often acts as an obstacle even to the professionals and support personnel who work with it every day. From determining the terms of the agreement to managing defaults, assignments, and competitive bids, this comprehensive reference tool unlocks the heart and soul of the loan market for institutional investors and professionals in financial and corporate lending firms. Operations personnel who are responsible for executing and managing credit agreements will find it invaluable. The LSTA's Complete Credit Agreement Guide goes far beyond the fundamentals to provide: Unmatched coverage on the nuts and bolts of the credit agreement In-depth discussions that include all the nuances of today's global marketplace Insightful explanations that address how to manage situations that go off course With The LSTA's Complete Credit Agreement Guide, all the answers are at your fingertips. Sponsored by the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) and written by the partners at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, it provides a definitive road map to managing the entire credit agreement process.


The coadsorption of CO2/CH4 in the breathing MIL‐53(Cr) under the application of an additional mechanical pressure is investigated through the use of an extended thermodynamic mean‐field model. The focus is on the breathing behavior, negative gas adsorption (NGA), and selective adsorption of CO2 as well as to what degree the application of mechanical pressure influences this behavior. To this end, phase diagrams, coadsorption isotherms are constructed and the CO2/CH4 selectivity is computed in terms of the vapor pressure of methane and carbon dioxide as well as the mechanical pressure. As a result, it is found that NGA can be induced by coadsorption of CO2/CH4 gas mixtures with certain molar compositions. Finally, a specific adsorption/desorption cycle, which includes the application of an additional mechanical pressure, is proposed to allow for an increased CO2/CH4 selectivity as well as for an expected less energy demanding CO2 desorption step.


Newly produced air source heat pumps can provide heat energy from outdoor air at temperature as low as -20°C. As a result they could be utilized during most days of the year even in the cold Nordic climates. The drawback of air source heat pumps is the reduction in efficiency as the outdoor air become colder, resulting in lower heat supply in times when it is most needed. Despite its inverse relationship between efficiency and outdoor temperature, air source heat pumps were installed in 57000 detached houses in Sweden during 2010 alone, which is 3% of the total detached houses stock. That makes air source heat pumps the most sold heating technology for detached houses in Sweden during 2010, 1.6 times more than the number of installations of ground source heat pump and 3 times more than the number of connections of detached houses to district heating during the same year. Similar trends can be found in other Nordic countries.This study compares the use of an air source heat pump with other existing commercial technologies in detached houses and analyzes the impacts on primary energy use, on final energy use, on electricity production and on costs benefits for house owners. It was found that converting existing electric heated Swedish detaches houses to district heating with biomass based CHP or bed-rock heat pump could reduce the use of resources, which could benefit Sweden as a society. Converting electric heated Swedish detaches houses to district heating or pellets stove could reduce power demand and level out the power demand load curve. That would benefit utilities of power supply as it could secure power supply. However cost effectiveness in one of most important drivers for house owners of detached houses to choose energy efficiency measures. For that reason house owners may most likely benefit by the installation of air-source heat pumps.


A darkly satirical tale of the generation and gender gaps in Japanese society, Ruy Murakami's Popular Hits of the Showa Era is a literary karaoke act combining manga and street culture It's a set-up like a video game: two rival gangs fight to death for the control of a Tokyo district. In one gang, six young losers committed only to drinking, voyeurism and karaoke singing, in the other six tough independent older women. From ambush to revenge, both groups are gradually decimated until the ultimate showdown. In Murakami's inimitably brutal and brilliant style, Popular Hits dissects the gender and generational conflicts of contemporary society in a hilarious satire. Murakami is mercilessly funny as he tracks his characters' evolution from twits to scholars of guerrilla warfare' New Yorker 'One of the funniest and strangest gang wars in recent literature' Booklist Ryu Murakami's Popular Hits From the Showa Era is translated from the Japanese by Ralph McCarthy and published by Pushkin Press Born in 1952 in Nagasaki prefecture, Ryu Murakami is the enfant terrible of contemporary Japanese literature. Awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for his first book, a novel about a group of young people drowned in sex and drugs, he has gone on to explore with cinematic intensity the themes of violence and technology in contemporary Japanese society. His novels include Coin Locker Babies, Sixty-Nine, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, Audition, In the Miso Soup and From the Fatherland, with Love. Murakami is also a screenwriter and a director; his films include Tokyo Decadence, Audition and Because of You.


Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often do not use their leisure time appropriately. Previous studies have shown that children with ASD tend to engage in inappropriate actions and maladaptive behaviors (such as engaging in stereotypy and tantrums) that decrease their quality of life. Establishing age-appropriate leisure skills is important for these children as these skills have been recognized as fulfilling habilitative needs, and can increase the quality of life and social acceptance and decrease the amount of stress for these individuals. The present study used a multiple baseline acrossparticipants design to investigate whether children with ASD can learn and maintain the skill of photography. Eight children (5 boys and 3 girls, ages 5-16) with ASD were taught using behavioral skills training to engage in an appropriate leisure skill– taking pictures. When mastery criterion was met during training (participants were able to take two consecutive pictures following the six operationally defined steps), participants completed a follow-up three weeks later to examine whether they were able to maintain the skill. Six out of the eight participants were able to successfully learn how to take pictures. This study furthers the current literature on teaching leisure skills to children with ASD and future studies can focus on expanding appropriate leisure skills that are taught to children with ASD, as well as measuring the effects (i.e. social, therapeutic) of learning photography, in addition to other leisure skills. TEACHING THE LEISURE SKILL OF PHOTOGRAPHY 5 Teaching the Leisure Skill of Photography to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder


A comparative study of fertility trends since 1950 in 30 countries from sub-Saharan Africa revealed several cases of "fertility stall", that is a change from downward fertility trends to flat- or even slightly rising- trends for some time, usually a few years: Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1995-2003), Madagascar in urban areas (1987-1993), Nigeria (1999-2003), Rwanda in rural areas (1999-2005), Tanzania in rural areas (1995-2004). In a first part, the paper presents the statistical evidence of changes in fertility trends. In a second part, the analysis focuses on possible causes of these changes. Fertility stalls were often associated with changes in two proximate determinants (contraceptive use and age at marriage) and in two socio-economic correlates (income and labour force participation). The paper concludes to a variety of situations leading to different causality in the various countries, including one case (Ghana) for which no reasonable explanation could be found from the available data.


Geothermal energy plays a vital role in the context of climate change as a mitigation and adaptation technology. However, the full potential role of geothermal in this regard has not been realized in Kenya, especially in responding to the impacts of climate change at the micro-level where it occurs, meeting gender specific needs and ultimately the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While geothermal energy is considered the most feasible option for capacity expansion, very little has been done to assess its role in climate change beyond Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. Most unexploited geothermal prospect areas in Kenya experience adverse climate impacts. The development of the resource in these areas could enhance adaptive capacity and resilience of the local people. The paper aims to discuss in general the role geothermal energy should play in mitigation and adaptation to climate change in Kenya and how its utilization can meet different gender economic requirements at the micro-level. Barriers to achieving this with possible recommendations are also discussed.


The breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea over the past ~ 180 million years has left its imprint on the global distribution of species and resulted in vicariance-driven allopatric speciation. Here we test the idea that the molecular clock dates for the divergences of species whose geographic ranges were divided, should agree with the palaeomagnetic dates for the continental separations. Our analysis of recently available phylogenetic divergence dates of 42 pairs of vertebrate taxa, selected for their reduced ability to have undergone dispersal-driven speciation, demonstrates that the divergence dates in phylogenetic trees of continent-bound terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates are consistent with the palaeomagnetic dates of continental separation.


This paper describes basic classroom practices that would change and reshape EFL learners" perception of language learning at university level. Additionally, it seeks to reroute EFL teachers to get rid of unnecessary complexities that make classroom language learning difficult. Specifically, the paper attempts to give answers to questions related with ways EFL teachers can use to gear their learners towards a positive change of classroom EFL learning. The classroom practices suggested in this paper are designated to help teachers explore pedagogical alternatives that would improve their learners" performance, and eventually motivate their learners. In order to pinpoint the preferable practices in EFL classroom, the paper used two questionnaires distributed to a sample population of Birzeit University (BZU) EFL teachers and students. Apparently, the findings indicate that there are good practices that teachers need to approach systematically in classroom; on the other hand, the questionnaire results draw the teachers" attention to abandon some of their needless classroom behaviors. Based on these paper findings, alongside other major findings of studies in this respect, it is possible to objectively highlight certain classroom behaviors, if employed, would change our learners" negative attitude towards classroom EFL learning. These behaviors, to be examined in the discussion, are confined to five themes: fostering classroom-centeredness, spoon-feeding elimination, reflecting learners" learning preferences, promoting independent learning, and reconsidering 'wrong' evaluation practices.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common type of cancer worldwide. Surgical resection of the primary tumors is the main treatment for early-stage/localized colon cancers and often patients have a positive follow up. Unfortunately the relative survival of patients undergoing recurrence and development of distant metastasis is modest, and adjuvant therapies are most likely non curative in these cases. Over the past decades, a number of culture systems and in vivo murine approaches have been established with the aim to mimic CRC in the lab and gain better understanding of disease development, response to therapy and acquisition of resistance. While initial stages of CRC can be well studied with the current models, few approaches allow the visualization of metastatic colonization of distant organs. This thesis describes the development of a microsurgical approach, based on orthotopic transplantation of CRC organoids in mice. This technique allowed modelling of in situ CRC and its metastatic spread (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3 this technique was used to test the in vivo contribution of four of the most common CRC driver mutations to disease progression. We discovered that only combination of all these genetic alterations drive the onset of metastatic lesions. Stem cells maintenance in healthy intestine is guaranteed by factors secreted by the surrounding stem cell niche. Quadruple mutant organoids have the capacity to grow without a supporting niche, because they survive in vitro in absence of any stem cell-inducing factor. Therefore we concluded that niche independence is a feature sufficient to drive metastatic colonization of CRC cells. Chapter 4 describes the development of a novel fluorescent intestinal stem cell reporter (the STem cell Ascl2 Reporter - STAR) that can be easily integrated in CRC organoids to map cell fate decisions in vitro. Orthotopic transplantation of CRC organoids expressing fluorescent stem cell reporters (such as STAR or Lgr5) allowed visualization of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in both human and murine colorectal tumors in vivo (Chapter 4 and Chapter 5). In Chapter 5 we focused on dissecting the role of CSCs in the different steps of CRC metastasis. We found that CSCs are not the major contributors of metastatic seeding whilst Lgr5- more committed cancer cells are the main population of cancer cells we detected in the blood as circulating tumor cells. Once Lgr5- cancer cells reach the secondary site they undergo phenotypic transition and become CSCs (i.e. they start expressing the Lgr5 CSCs marker). Our experiments revealed that this plasticity can occur without the trigger of signals from the microenvironment and it is a required step for metastatic outgrowth. Ultimately, the transplantation approach presented in this thesis opens up opportunities for further in vivo characterization of the late stages of CRC, potentially providing a set up for preclinical models of metastatic CRC. The discovery that CSCs are not the main cancer cells taking part in CRC metastatic seeding calls upon a rethink on how to strategically try to battle CRC disease. Are the CSCs the only enemies we need to defeat?


There is a significant industrial organization (IO) economics literature on the economics of innovation and intellectual property (IP) protection. As some courts and antitrust agencies have recognized, the IO economics toolkit for business arrangements (e.g., vertical restraints, tying and bundling, etc.) involving IP rights is sufficiently flexible to be applied in high-technology areas involving antitrust and IP. In this Article, the authors explain the economics of innovation and IP protection, licensing, and compulsory licensing, with specific applications to standards development and to standard-essential patents. The authors then propose first-best approaches based on the implications of the economics that courts and agencies can apply at each stage of an antitrust inquiry, from market definition and market power to the assessment of particular business practices. The authors conclude by providing a summary of the approach applied in each major antitrust jurisdiction—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, and the United States.