This study was undertaken to examine the extent to which young South Africans are integrated into contemporary post-apartheid society. A study of the available research literature brought a disturbingly negative picture to light. In both sectors of society - that is the black majority and the white minority - reports indicate that a large percentage of the youth is being seriously marginalised. Young black people (especially secondary school youth and students in higher education) have been marginalised through a previous political dispensation that offered them inferior and irrelevant education and training. A lack of skills prevents large numbers of young black people from securing a place in the job market.
Young white people are currently subjected to a political policy of reverse discrimination. As members of a disempowered white minority they are held in low esteem by the dominant segments of society. They are demotivated by a bleak vision of the future. Research reports postulate that educational and political authorities have failed to provide the necessary guidance for young people in a new era of technological development and economic globalization. This appears to have resulted in an upsurge of crime, aggression and violence that endangers the future of the youth in the country. This article examines the personal, political, social and environmental factors in South Africa that have a detrimental effect on the education and socialisation of the youth in the country. By means of focus group interviews with young people, it also attempts to determine the degree to which present research findings represent the situation of the youth in the country.


Combining the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) measurements of atmospheric neutral and ion densities, electron temperature, and energetic electron intensity, we perform the first quantitative evaluation of local ionization balance in the nightside Martian upper atmosphere, a condition with the electron impact ionization (EI) of CO2 exactly balanced by the dissociative recombination (DR) of ambient ions. The data accumulated during two MAVEN Deep Dip (DD) campaigns are included: DD6 on the deep nightside with a periapsis solar zenith angle (SZA) of 165°, and DD3 close to the dawn terminator with a periapsis SZA of 110°. With the electron temperatures at low altitudes corrected for an instrumental effect pertaining to the MAVEN Langmuir Probe and Waves, a statistical agreement between the EI and DR rates is suggested by the data below 140 km during DD6 and below 180 km during DD3, implying that electron precipitation is responsible for the nightside Martian ionosphere under these circumstances and extra sources are not required. In contrast, a substantial enhancement in EI over DR is observed at higher altitudes during both campaigns, which we interpret as a signature of plasma escape down the tail.


A class of upwind flux splitting methods in the
Euler equations of compressible flow
is considered in this paper. Using the property that Euler flux $F(U)$
is a homogeneous function of degree one in $U$,
we reformulate the splitting fluxes with $F^{+}=A^{+} U$,
$F^{-}=A^{-} U$, and the corresponding matrices
are either symmetric or symmetrizable and keep only
non-negative and non-positive eigenvalues.
That leads to the conclusion that the first order schemes
are positive in the sense of Lax-Liu [18],
which implies that it is $L^2$-stable
in some suitable sense. Moreover, the second order scheme
is a stable perturbation of the first order scheme,
so that the positivity of the second order schemes
is also established, under
a CFL-like condition. In addition, these splitting methods preserve
the positivity of density and energy.


Abstract The eutatines are a group of fossil armadillos traditionally regarded as herbivorous due to the particular morphology of the skull and teeth. Nevertheless, they have never been the subject of a detailed morpho-functional analysis. The masticatory apparatus of Eutatus (late Pliocene–early Holocene) is analyzed and compared with other eutatines (Proeutatus and Stenotatus from the Miocene, and Doellotatus and Ringueletia from the Pliocene) and with living armadillos (Euphractus and Dasypus). The masticatory muscles were reconstructed from origin and insertion scars; the occlusal pattern and mandibular movements were determined through the study of the craniomandibular joint, the shape and arrangement of the teeth and the symphysis, and the moment arms of the lines of action of the masseter and temporalis muscles were estimated. Skull and mandible shapes were compared using the Procrustean method Resistant-Fit Theta-Rho-Analysis (RFTRA). The analysis of the masticatory apparatus of the eutatines allows us to state that Eutatus and Proeutatus exhibit the most specialized morphology known for an herbivore with an armadillo-like skull pattern. Additionally, we can identify a morphological group from the Miocene Stenotatus to the Pleistocene Eutatus, including the Pliocene Doellotatus and Ringueletia as intermediate stages of a morphological line; Proeutatus deviates from this pattern. This morphological separation may reflect an early dichotomy within the well-defined clade of eutatines.


We show that, contrary to intuition and under normal experimental conditions, the band bending at a semiconductor surface or interface does not strongly increase the linewidth of photoemission core-level peaks. The increase is smaller than the magnitude of the band bending, and in most cases negligible. Non-negligible increases are found only when the linewidth is smaller than and, simultaneously, the photoelectron escape depth larger than in a typical experiment.


This paper addresses the problem of keeping an autonomous marine vehicle in a moving triangular formation by regulating its position with respect to two leader vehicles. The follower vehicle has no prior knowledge of the path described by the leaders but has access to their heading angle and is able to measure inter-vehicle ranges. It is assumed that the distance between the leaders is constant and known. A control strategy is adopted that generates speed and heading commands so as to drive suitably defined along track and cross track errors to zero. The commands are used as input to local inner loops for yaw and speed control. The paper describes the algorithms derived for range-based control and assesses their performance in simulations using realistic models of the vehicles involved. Tests with three autonomous marine vehicles equipped with acoustic modems and ranging devices allow for the evaluation of the performance of the algorithms in a real-world situation.


Erythropoetin (EPO) signaling contributes to organ development, as well as to differentiation of erythrocytes. Previously, the abundance of EPO receptor was reported to increase following surgical removal of one lung (pneumonectomy) in postnatal dogs. Zhang et al. now report that the abundance of EPO-R appears to be regulated by both transcriptional mechanisms from the sense EPO-R transcript (sEPO-R), as well as by either the antisense transcript (asEPO-R) itself or proteins encoded within asEPO-R. Both sense and antisense transcripts of EPO-R were detected by Northern blot in normal canine lung, as well as other canine tissues and several human tissues. The abundance of sEPO-R increased modestly after pneumonectomy (23% above control), whereas the abundance of asEPO-R increased substantially (119% above control) as did the abundance of EPO-R (169%). Cloning and characterization of canine lung asEPO-R revealed two putative open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2). Both EPO-R transcripts, as well as the EPO-R protein, were detected in the same bronchiolar epithelial cells by in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence, whereas antisense transcripts for surfactant-associated protein-A were not detected. Coexpression of sEPO-R and asEPO-R increased the abundance of the EPO-R produced by transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells compared with those transfected with only sEPO-R; the effect of asEPO-R increased with increasing dose. When the start codon of ORF1 was mutated, EPO-R abundance was still elevated in the cotransfected cells, which suggests that the putative encoded protein is not important for the enhancing effect of asEPO-R. In contrast, the region near ORF2 appeared to play a more complex role in EPO-R regulation. When a long construct that included ORF2 and 300 base pairs of 5′ of the ORF2 start site were cotransfected with sEPO-R, then EPO-R production was increased compared with cells only transfected with sEPO-R. However, when the 300 extra base pairs were not included, then EPO-R abundance was not enhanced. Further complicating the effect of the ORF2 region, when the start codon of the ORF2 was mutated in the construct lacking the extra 300 base pairs, enhancement of EPO-R abundance was restored. The authors propose that the asEPO-R has several regulatory elements: The RNA itself has stimulatory effects, and the protein encoded by ORF2 is a negative regulator of EPO-R synthesis. Thus, when the ORF2 start codon is eliminated, the positive effects of the antisense RNA dominate and EPO-R production is enhanced. Q. Zhang, J. Zhang, O. W. Moe, C. C. W. Hsia, Synergistic upregulation of erythropoietin receptor (EPO-R) expression by sense and antisense EPO-R transcripts in the canine lung. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 7612-7617 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


"If Freud turns to literature to describe traumatic experience, it is because literature, like psychoanalysis, is interested in the complex relation between knowing and not knowing, and it is at this specific point at which knowing and not knowing intersect that the psychoanalytic theory of traumatic experience and the language of literature meet."-from the Introduction In Unclaimed Experience, Cathy Caruth proposes that in the "widespread and bewildering experience of trauma" in our century-both in its occurrence and in our attempt to understand it-we can recognize the possibility of a history no longer based on simple models of straightforward experience and reference. Through the notion of trauma, she contends, we come to a new understanding that permits history to arise where immediate understanding is impossible. In her wide-ranging discussion, Caruth engages Freud's theory of trauma as outlined in Moses and Monotheism and Beyond the Pleasure Principle; the notion of reference and the figure of the falling body in de Man, Kleist, and Kant; the narratives of personal catastrophe in Hiroshima mon amour; and the traumatic address in Lecompte's reinterpretation of Freud's narrative of the dream of the burning child.


The availability of more potent drugs for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has led to the development of aggressive drug regimens, including the widespread use of HIV protease inhibitors. Several reports have indicated increased bleeding complications in haemophiliac patients after starting treatment with protease inhibitors. We present two cases of exceptionally severe hemorrhagic events in HIV-positive patients with haemophilia A after starting HIV protease inhibitors, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. One patient developed a progressive paranephric pseudotumor becoming symptomatic only one month after the start of ritonavir. The second patient presented with an intracranial bleed, resulting in his death within forty-eight hours, nineteen weeks after he was started on nelfinavir. Both patients showed an excellent antiviral response to the HIV-protease inhibitors with significant decrease in their HIV-RNA titers. Potentially serious hemorrhagic complications that require emergent intervention may occur in HIV-positive haemophiliac patients undergoing therapy with protease inhibitors. Clinicians should be alert to these complications.


The aim of this study was to determine how adolescents construct their own identity during this important stage of their lifecycle. We evaluated the identity of a group of 42 adolescents between 11 and 12 years (early adolescence) and between 14 and 15 years (late adolescence), from EOMEIS-II (Extended Version of the Objective Mesure of Ego Identity Estatus created by Adams, Benion and Huh, 1989) which is part of an Ericksonian conceptualization of identity. In the results obtained we can see that students have higher scores on a global level, the most active and mature estatus (identity achieved and moratorium) in the passive and immature estatus (identity foreclosed and diffused). The boys have a higher score than girls in stating the identity moratorium on free time and political identity achieved.


Translated by Paul PerronMaupassant's short story, "Two Friends", is examined in order to test methodological tools and to hone them for their application in the analysis of narrative discourse, starting from the oral tale (Propp) and ending with the written tale instituted as literary genre. Complex procedures of textual production are identified: among which entire sequences as well as the "evenemential" level of narrative fade away in favor of its cognitive dimension. This semiotic investigation is accompanied by a challenge to certain conventions of literary criticism: dialogue, the locus of Realist stereotypes, appears laden with paradoxical truths; the description of nature, inherited from the Romantics, bristles with narrative intent, and entire sections of a valorized figurative universe unfold before us. Thematic readings are linked up with semantic analysis: the figure of Water exerts its profound fascination. A Christian symbolics is uncovered which traverses the text and invites us to read it as a new Gospel Parable. New readings complement older ones and remain as so many suspended possibilities. The tale appears somewhat as a sonnet, that is to say as a "fixed-form" genre, where the closure of the text would be a necessary condition for transcending it.


This Article is the first comprehensive analysis of the complicated voting rules of Chapter 11. Under these rules, only the debtor may propose a plan of reorganization during a lengthy exclusivity period, creditors are placed in classes wihich vote separately on the plan, voting is based on a bicameral system with both majority and supermajority requirements, and a plan may be confirned only if, among other things, every nonconsenting creditor receives at least as much as it would have if the firm were liquidated under Chapter Z Chapter 11's rules are idiosyncratic and difficult to understand, yet the literature on these rules is sparse. Several scholars have argued that it should be replaced with a system that avoids voting and relies on a more market-driven valuation process. To date however, no one has tried to understand how all of the voting rules fit together. In this aricl e Professors Kordana and Posner expand on existing bargaining models to consider bargaining with multiple creditors, paying particular attention to difficulties posed by imperfect information, and analyze all of the major voting rules in Chapter 1. The authors utilize a positive analysis to achieve an increased understanding of the existing bankruptcy system and its costs and benefits, an essential prerequisite to reform of Chapter 11.


Abstract The simple act of walking stimulates the complex, iterative process of landscape design. It supports and integrates engagement (intensively perceiving space), flow (encouraging intuition), and reflection (supporting organization). In the rhythmic, often strenuous act of walking, designers can change the landscape, as well as generate knowledge and ideas. Walking therefore has the potential to become a method for large-scale landscape design. Additionally, because perception, creative action, and reflection come together in the process of walking, it becomes an important practice of research through design. Walkers can generate knowledge, exchange ideas, and discuss their experiences with other walkers of different professional backgrounds. The article begins by describing the key processes of largescale landscape design and research. After that, the author develops three characteristic walking modes: the 'discovery mode', the 'flow mode', and the 'reflective mode'. Finally, a framework for a method of 'walking in largescale landscape design' is laid out. The findings are based on the author´s research on walking, his experiences with projects at Stein+Schultz, and by taking approximately 100 walks in areas such as, the Swiss Alps, Scottish Highlands, parts of Patagonia, and in larges cities, like Berlin and London.


As it is proved that the transition metal complexes have drug activities, hence we have synthesized heterocyclic Schiff bases. Six complexes of Co(II), Ni(II), Fe(III), Mn(II), Cr(II) and Cu(II) Schiff bases have been prepared. All ligands and its metal complexes the structures of the complexes have been proposed by analytical data, conductivity measurement, magnetic moment, IR, 1H NMR spectra and thermal studies. Analytical data confirmed 1:2 (metal:ligand) stoichiometry and the spectral data suggest that all Fe(III), Mn(II), Cr(II), Ni(II) and Co(II) complexes have octahedral geometry where as the Cu(II) metal complex shows the square planar geometry. The molar conductance values of metal complexes suggest their non electrolytic nature. The IR spectral data reveals that the ligand behaves as bidentate with O,N donor atoms sequence towards central metal ion. Antibacterial and antifungal activities of ligands and its metal complexes were performed in vitro against E.coli, S. typhi, S. aureus, B. subtilis and against various fungi like P.chrysogenum, A. niger, F. moniliformae, and A.Flavus. The complexes show more activity compare to the ligand.


Over the last decades, deliberative democracy has been pai~ increasing attention as a complement for representative democracy. Deliberative democracy is a political system based on deliberation among free and equal citizens, and deliberation is considered as a core component of democracy. Deliberation can contribute to democracy in various ways, such as giving attention to the common good and improving opinion quality. Today, the Internet is creating a new environment of deliberation. The Internet delivers great amounts of political information without any constraints in time and space. It also enables people to engage in easy and free two-way communication at an affordable cost. In addition, the Internet has the potential to liberate people from social hierarchies and power relations that exist off-line. In the literature, some limitations are recognised with respect to the impact of the Internet on deliberative democracy. While previous studies focus on the established democracies of Western countries, Asian context studies are largely limited. Existing empirical measurements for the deliberation quality focus on specific aspects of deliberation and do not reflect the depth of the theoretical discussions. Little attention is given to the deliberation quality of process and heterogeneous groups. To overcome the limitations, this study attempts to explore the potential of the Internet for deliberative democracy in the South Korean context by looking at the quality of the online deliberation process. In addition, a comprehensive set of measurements for deliberation quality is developed based on an extensive exploration of literature. Furthermore, the effects of exposure to diversity in opinion on deliberation process are examined by scrutinising the different patterns of online deliberation between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Data are collected from Nosamo and Hani, which are the most influential and busiest online bulletin boards during the 2002 Korean Presidential election campaign. The data constitute all of the messages that are posted on the bulletin boards before and after the TV debate between two major candidates: A content analysis ~s carried out to search for patterns and structuresofthe messages and then to make inferences on them. In addition, the Chi-square test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the T-test are employed to evaluate the discrepancy in the d~liberation process between the two online bulletin boards. The results of the analyses reveal that the online discussions in the two bulletin boards do not meet all the requirements of ideal democratic deliberation. The discussions in the two bulletin boards can be described, by and large, as they are 'opinion-oriented, rational and autonomous' but 'lacking in impartiality'. They also can be described, by and large, as they are 'respectful to others and sincere' but 'not very. reciprocal and lacking in corrigibility' . 'In addition, some discrepancies between the two bulletin boards are found with respect to requirements for deliberation. While, the heterogeneous group (Hani) tends more to . express opinions, the homog~neous group (Nosamo) develops a longer argument, expresses the opinions with more conviction, and shows a higher level ofjustific~tion. The homogeneous group presents a more topic relevance and a more criticism toward the conservative traditional media and regionalism. However, the homogeneous group lacks impartiality compared to the heterogeneous group. On the other hand, the messages in the homogeneous group are more interactive, corrigible and respectful than the heterogeneous group. However, pros and cons are more prevalent' in the heterogeneous group and no difference in perceived deception is found between the two groups.


We describe a statistical machine learning method for extracting databank accession numbers (DANs) from online medical journal articles. Because the DANs are sparsely-located in the articles, we take a hierarchical approach. The HTML journal articles are first segmented into zones according to text and geometric features. The zones are then classified as DAN zones or other zones by an SVM classifier. A set of heuristic rules are applied on the candidate DAN zones to extract DANs according to their edit distances to the DAN formats. An evaluation shows that the proposed method can achieve a very high recall rate (above 99%) and a significantly better precision rate compared to extraction through brute force regular expression matching.


In vivo fetal magnetic resonance imaging provides a unique approach for the study of early human brain development [1]. In utero cerebral morphometry could potentially be used as a marker of the cerebral maturation and help to distinguish between normal and abnormal development in ambiguous situations. However, this quantitative approach is a major challenge because of the movement of the fetus inside the amniotic cavity, the poor spatial resolution provided by very fast MRI sequences and the partial volume effect. Extensive efforts are made to deal with the reconstruction of high-resolution 3D fetal volumes based on several acquisitions with lower resolution [2,3,4]. Frameworks were developed for the segmentation of specific regions of the fetal brain such as posterior fossa, brainstem or germinal matrix [5,6], or for the entire brain tissue [7,8], applying the Expectation-Maximization Markov Random Field (EM-MRF) framework. However, many of these previous works focused on the young fetus (i.e. before 24 weeks) and use anatomical atlas priors to segment the different tissue or regions. As most of the gyral development takes place after the 24th week, a comprehensive and clinically meaningful study of the fetal brain should not dismiss the third trimester of gestation. To cope with the rapidly changing appearance of the developing brain, some authors proposed a dynamic atlas [8]. To our opinion, this approach however faces a risk of circularity: each brain will be analyzed / deformed using the template of its biological age, potentially biasing the effective developmental delay. Here, we expand our previous work [9] to propose post-processing pipeline without prior that allow a comprehensive set of morphometric measurement devoted to clinical application. Data set & Methods: Prenatal MR imaging was performed with a 1-T system (GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee) using single shot fast spin echo (ssFSE) sequences (TR 7000 ms, TE 180 ms, FOV 40 x 40 cm, slice thickness 5.4mm, in plane spatial resolution 1.09mm). For each fetus, 6 axial volumes shifted by 1 mm were acquired under mother's sedation (about 1min per volume). First, each volume is segmented semi-automatically using region-growing algorithms to extract fetal brain from surrounding maternal tissues. Inhomogeneity intensity correction [10] and linear intensity normalization are then performed. Brain tissues (CSF, GM and WM) are then segmented based on the low-resolution volumes as presented in [9]. A high-resolution image with isotropic voxel size of 1.09 mm is created as proposed in [2] and using B-splines for the scattered data interpolation [11]. Basal ganglia segmentation is performed using a levet set implementation on the high-resolution volume [12]. The resulting white matter image is then binarized and given as an input in FreeSurfer software (http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu) to provide topologically accurate three-dimensional reconstructions of the fetal brain according to the local intensity gradient. References: [1] Guibaud, Prenatal Diagnosis 29(4) (2009). [2] Rousseau, Acad. Rad. 13(9), 2006. [3] Jiang, IEEE TMI 2007. [4] Warfield IADB, MICCAI 2009. [5] Claude, IEEE Trans. Bio. Eng. 51(4) 2004. [6] Habas, MICCAI 2008. [7] Bertelsen, ISMRM 2009. [8] Habas, Neuroimage 53(2) 2010. [9] Bach Cuadra, IADB, MICCAI 2009. [10] Styner, IEEE TMI 19(39 (2000). [11] Lee, IEEE Trans. Visual. And Comp. Graph. 3(3), 1997. [12] Bach Cuadra, ISMRM 2010.


In Karl Kautsky's search for the origins and sustained strength of that 'colossal phenomenon' called Christianity, he delves back to make the first Marxist reconstruction of the social and economic context in which the Bible arose. His Foundations of Christianity is, in other words, a Marxist reconstruction of the economic history of ancient Israel, the Ancient Near East and early Christianity. For all its flaws, the great value of the book is that it begins what is still an unfinished project. For me, the enticement is to take that project further. In doing so, I focus not on the flaws in his reconstruction, but rather on the questions that are still important now. So I begin with the troubled use of unreliable ancient texts like the Bible for the sake of historical reconstruction, an issue that is still very much at the centre of biblical scholarship. If they are chronically unreliable sources, then what historical use (if any) do they have? Secondly, I engage critically with Kautsky's reconstruction, seeking insights that are still pertinent today. I am particularly interested in his use of the narrative of differentiation, in his discussion of modes of production, especially his argument for a slave mode of production in both the Ancient Near East and the Hellenistic world, in what a new reconstruction in Kautsky's spirit might look like (what I call 'the sacred economy'), and in the problem of transitions between modes of production. Third, I pick up an argument he shares with his sometime friend and comrade, Rosa Luxemburg: if early Christianity was a communist movement, then what sort of communism was it? Yet, Kautsky's interest was much wider than Christian communism, for one of his projects was to recover a much greater tradition of socialist thought and practice, one that predates Marx and Engels' 'modern' socialism. Christian communism becomes an important moment in this longer tradition. At this point I bring in his Thomas More and His Utopia (Kautsky 2002 [1888]) as well as Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation (Kautsky 2002 [1897]). Finally, I develop the further the argument that it was and remains a powerful political myth: it probably never existed, but that only enhances its mythical status.


This thesis explores how people's knowledge about sustainability affects participation in combined conservation and development initiatives. It focuses principally on two case studies that embody these dual objectives: the 'conservancy programme' in Namibia and the Alto Bermejo Project in Argentina. The concept of sustainability – of living in a way that meets both current and future needs – has led, on a global scale, to a re-casting of the relationship between conservation and development as one of necessary interdependence. Such is the credibility invested in the concept of sustainability that it is found underpinning policy and intervention in countries as distinct as Namibia and Argentina. These observations set up the two central questions of the thesis. First, what types of participation characterise decision-making processes within these two contexts? Second, how is having knowledge on sustainability one (though not the only) causal determinant of who participates, in what activities and on what basis? These questions pave the way for analysis of the types of participation found in two Namibian conservancies and specific components of the Alto Bermejo Project in Argentina. A key belief shaping policy and intervention in both contexts is that wider local involvement is a precondition of sustainable natural resource use. Consequently, strong efforts are made in both places to attempt to ensure that local people are key decision-makers. However, talk of local-level, grassroots participation in the Namibian or Argentine context, whilst by no means wholly misplaced, can obscure the high participation levels of NGO, government and specific private-sector actors. This is because both initiatives depend for the achievement of their objectives on a process of knowledge transfer from implementers to beneficiaries. Much of the knowledge deemed necessary for the realisation of these objectives lies with government, NGO and specific private sector actors. Having this knowledge, therefore, renders their participation indispensable. Indeed, the very access of these actors to the resources on which intervention depends is partly a function of the credibility invested in their knowledge. Access to resources is also a means through which the credibility of such knowledge is reinforced. This dynamic I call 'circularity in intervention'. 'Circularity in intervention' entails a variety of advantages and disadvantages relative to context and perspective, which this thesis neither condemns nor condones. It does, nonetheless, seek to clarify one important point. Our account of participation in the Namibian or Argentine examples is incomplete without looking at how having or not having knowledge about sustainability affects participation.


With emerging markets and expanding international cooperation, there is a requirement to support Business Intelligence (BI) applications in multiple languages, a process which we refer to as Multilingualism (ML). ML in BI is understood in this research as the ability to store descriptive content (such as descriptions of attributes in BI reports) in more than one language at Data Warehousing (DWH) level and to use this information at presentation level to provide reports, queries or dashboards in more than one language.
Design strategies for data warehouses are typically based on the assumption of a single language environment. The motivations for this research are the design and performance challenges encountered when implementing ML in a BI data warehouse environment. These include design issues, slow response times, delays in updating reports and changing languages between reports, the complexity of amending existing reports and the performance overhead. The literature review identified that the underlying cause of these problems is that existing approaches used to enable ML in BI are primarily ad-hoc workarounds which introduce dependency between elements and lead to excessive redundancy. From the literature review, it was concluded that a satisfactory solution to the challenge of ML in BI requires a design approach based on data independence the concept of immunity from changes and that such a solution does not currently exist.
This thesis presents MLED_BI (Multilingual Enabled Design for Business Intelligence). MLED_BI is a novel design approach which supports data independence and immunity from changes in the design of ML data warehouses and BI systems. MLED_BI extends existing data warehouse design approaches by revising the role of the star schema and introducing a ML design layer to support the separation of language elements. This also facilitates ML at presentation level by enabling the use of a ML content management system. Compared to existing workarounds for ML, the MLED_BI design approach has a theoretical underpinning which allows languages to be added, amended and deleted without requiring a redesign of the star schema; provides support for the manipulation of ML content; improves performance and streamlines data warehouse operations such as ETL (Extract, Transform, Load). Minor contributions include the development of a novel BI framework to address the limitations of existing BI frameworks and the development of a tool to evaluate changes to BI reporting solutions.
The MLED_BI design approach was developed based on the literature review and a mixed methods approach was used for validation. Technical elements were validated experimentally using performance metrics while end user acceptance was validated qualitatively with end users and technical users from a number of countries, reflecting the ML basis of the research. MLED_BI requires more resources at design and initial implementation stage than existing ML workarounds but this is outweighed by improved performance and by the much greater flexibility in ML made possible by the data independence approach of MLED_BI. The MLED_BI design approach enhances existing BI design approaches for use in ML environments.


The objective of this essay es mainly to define an analitic framework that permit us to identify the fields and the contents of urbanization policies when these are understood as an instrument of development. The urbanization policies mentioned are those whose goals aim at guidding the process of development of the urban system of a country or region in such a way as to maximize its contribution to the explicit objectives of society. Even if the uniqueness of these objectives, is recognized it will be stated that any policy, and certainly urbanization policies, must be evaluated by their contribution in two dimensions of any process of development, which have to be considered simultaneously. One refers to the global advances of society expressed, for example, in the per-capita averages other refers to the distribution of those advances among different social groups. The thesis that the article poses is that for the purpose of formulating urbanization policies, thus understood, its not enough to state generic relationships between urbanization and development. Furthermore, it can be dangerous to do so if such relationships are based in an abstract conceptualization of urbanization, asumedly of universal validity. The author's arguments are of two types: 1. The recognition that urbanization as an economical, social and political phenomenon has occured, or takes place, showing different profiles in depending on the time and the regions. 2. The assertion that the simple degree of urbanization is insufficient as a mesure of the transformation of the space of urban development of a society and consequently, also of its impact over the objectives of economical, social and political nature. The application of these statements will lead to the formulation of an urbanization policies framework that necessarily should consider and integrate three fields of performance. The first one refers to the aggregated analysis of the interelationships between urbanization and development. The other two refer to the patterns of urbanization at the levels of city systems, or supraurban space, and of the city or local urban space. The author affirms that the consistancy of a set of urbanization policies is based precisely in the coordination of the options taken in these three fields and in the relationships that can be demonstrated among them and with the specific social development objectives.


Grandin, M. 2017. Tribology of Metal-Graphite Composites. A Study of Sliding Electrical Contact Surfaces. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1565. 75 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0079-5. An environmentally sustainable production of electrical power is important for preserving the earth's natural resources. In order to utilize this power as efficiently as possible, it is of great importance to minimize the losses, for example in sliding electrical contacts. A sliding electrical contact is where current is transferred from one rotating to one stationary component and power is lost due to friction and contact resistance. Also in some signal applications, high performance sliding contacts are crucial to ensure stable signal transfer with low noise. Although sliding electrical contacts are primarily designed for good electrical performance, the system will benefit also from optimization of the tribological properties. The aim of this thesis is to increase the fundamental knowledge of the tribological and electrical performance of metal-graphite composite materials for sliding electrical contacts. The influence of mechanical and electrical load was investigated. Different stationary materials, from pure copper to nanocomposite coatings, were tested against copperand silver-graphites. Two complementary test setups were used, one with reciprocating and one with unidirectional sliding. Surface analysis was essential to gain deepened understanding of the influence of the interaction on the surfaces. Especially my novel imaging of cross-sections has advanced the level on knowledge in this research field. On the stationary material surface, a tribofilm forms with constituents from the metalgraphite and the surrounding atmosphere. Cross-sectioning reveals a material flow that indicates turbulence. Furthermore, the presence of oxides in the tribofilm is not necessarily detrimental for the contact resistance as long as there is also pure metal available. The presence of graphite is vital for low friction and wear. It is shown that the tribological and electrical behaviour of this system is only marginally influenced by the material selection of the stationary contact. Increasing the metal content in the composite, on the other hand, greatly reduces the contact resistance while there is no significant impact on friction and wear. The mechanical load has to be optimized to compromise between low wear (achieved with low load) and low contact resistance (achieved with high load). Pure mechanical tests show a lower friction and higher wear rate in comparison to tests with a five ampere current.


We develop a dynamic equilibrium model of complex asset markets with endogenous entry and exit in which the investment technology of investors with more expertise is subject to less asset-specific risk. The joint equilibrium distribution of financial expertise and wealth then determines risk bearing capacity. Higher expert demand lowers equilibrium required returns, reducing overall participation. In equilibrium, investor participation in more complex asset markets with more asset-specific risk is lower, despite higher market- level Sharpe ratios, provided that asset complexity and expertise are complementary. We analyze how asset complexity affects the stationary wealth distribution of complex asset investors. Because of selection, increased asset complexity reduces wealth concentration, even though the wealth distribution for more expert investors has fatter tails.


OBJECTIVE
The authors compared the efficacy and safety of three atypical antipsychotics (clozapine, olanzapine, and risperidone) with one another and with haloperidol in the treatment of patients with chronic schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

METHOD
In a double-blind trial, 157 inpatients with a history of suboptimal treatment response were randomly assigned to treatment with clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, or haloperidol for 14 weeks (an 8-week escalation and fixed-dose period followed by a 6-week variable-dose period).

RESULTS
Clozapine, risperidone, and olanzapine (but not haloperidol) resulted in statistically significant improvements in total score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Improvements seen in total and negative symptom scores with clozapine and olanzapine were superior to haloperidol. The atypical drugs, particularly olanzapine and clozapine, were associated with weight gain.

CONCLUSIONS
The effects of atypical antipsychotics in this population were statistically significant but clinically modest. The overall pattern of results suggests that clozapine and olanzapine have similar general antipsychotic efficacy and that risperidone may be somewhat less effective. Clozapine was the most effective treatment for negative symptoms. However, the differences among treatments were small.


Advanced pyrotechnic and electronic components can be fabricated from Ni-based superalloys with hermetic seals to matched thermal expansion coefficient lithium-silicate glass ceramics (LSGC). Prior studies have characterized the interfacial reactions in these systems necessary for good chemical bonding. Similar interfacial reactions occur when LSGCs are bonded to 300-series stainless steel except that these seals debond on cooling to room temperature. We have found that Cr-depletion (from {approximately}18 wt % to {approximately}5 wt %) from the steel causes an fcc-to-bcc phase transition that expands the interfacial grains and decreases their thermal expansion coefficient, putting the LSGC into tension, causing the seal to fail. Linear elastic finite element calculations performed on a microcomputer suggest that the volume expansion associated with the phase transformation has a predominant effect compared with the difference in expansion coefficients. 9 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.


The concept and practice of sustainable development as a guiding institutional principle, as a concrete policy goal, and as a focus of political mobilization remain salient in meeting the multiple challenges in the Arctic. How sustainable development is conceptualized and practiced depends very much on how it is embraced by scholars, policy makers and the people in the Arctic. Under the circumstances of climate change and political-economic globalization taking place in the Arctic, the region is receiving increasing international attention from scientists, academia and politicians. A "globalized" Arctic with potential economic prospects would add a new dimension to the nexus between the Arctic and Asia, and pave the way to facilitate further exchange and cooperation between Nordic states and China in Arctic affairs. This special issue is proposed on the basis of the China−Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium, held annually by the member institutes of the China−Nordic Arctic Cooperation Center since 2013. Its purpose is to address various aspects of sustainable development in the Arctic, including areas of environmental protection, economic growth, local community, oceans and the globalized Arctic, and to explore, from both Chinese and Nordic perspectives, how China will engage in the sustainable development of the Arctic. This special issue includes ten original papers which cover two research fields: security, environment and shipping in the Arctic and China's engagement with these topics; and China's bilateral and multilateral cooperative ties with Arctic states. We are convinced that these studies will provide a solid foundation and greater space for further co-operation between China and Northern Europe. We would like to commend the efforts of the authors and reviewers who have contributed to this special issue and acknowledge all members of the nominated editorial board for their great support. Finally, as guest editors of this special issue, we would like to extend our particular gratitude to Mr. Beixi Deng and the editorial office of the APS for their efforts in ensuring the success of this important issue.


The fundamental requirement for the design of effective and efficient fault-tolerance mechanisms in dependable real-time systems is a realistic and applicable model of potential faults, their manifestations and consequences. Fault and error models also need to be evolved based on the characteristics of the operational environments or even based on technological advances. In this paper we propose a probabilistic burst error model in lieu of the commonly used simplistic fault assumptions in the context of processor scheduling. We present a novel schedulability analysis that accounts for the worst case interference caused by error bursts on the response times of tasks scheduled under the fixed priority scheduling (FPS) policy. Further, we describe a methodology for the calculation of probabilistic schedulability guarantees as a weighted sum of the conditional probabilities of schedulability under specified error burst characteristics. Finally, we identify potential sources of pessimism in the worst case response time calculations and discuss potential means for circumventing these issues.


As a key region of the global thermohaline circulation, the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland is the pathway for the densest component of the North Atlantic Deep Water, the Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW).Since 1999, it has been probed with acoustic instruments in the SFB 460 program lead by the Institut fur Meereskunde Kiel. The data from bottom Pressure/ Inverted Echo Sounders (PIES) and ADCP current profilers, deployed in a model-optimized mooring array at the Denmark Strait sill, resolve both spatial and temporal variability of the overflow.After recovery of moorings in August 2002, the time series available have a total length of 27 months. The data allow for transport estimates based on direct ADCP measurements and integrating geostrophic PIES observations. Including model comparisons, a mean DSOW transport of 3.0 Sv is calculated with an accuracy of ±0.1 Sv. A statistical analysis with autoregressive moving average models has improved the information about integral time scales and dominant frequencies of the overflow variability.Until now, estimates of the mean DSOW throughflow have been remarkably stable. The PIES observations show a close correlation between sea surface height anomalies and the DSOW plume thickness. This opens a perspective for long term monitoring by remote sensing with relevance for climate change. First comparisons of in-situ measurements and satellite altimetry are presented.


Most randomized controlled trials (RCT) of social programs test interventions at modest scale. While the hope is that promising programs will be scaled up, we have few successful examples of this scale-up process in practice. Ideally we would like to know which programs will work at large scale before we invest the resources to take them to scale. But it would seem that the only way to tell whether a program works at scale is to test it at scale. Our goal in this paper is to propose a way out of this Catch-22. We first develop a simple model that helps clarify the type of scale-up challenge for which our method is most relevant. Most social programs rely on labor as a key input (teachers, nurses, social workers, etc.). We know people vary greatly in their skill at these jobs. So social programs, like firms, confront a search problem in the labor market that can lead to inelastically-supplied human capital. The result is that as programs scale, either average costs must increase if program quality is to be held constant, or else program quality will decline if average costs are held fixed. Our proposed method for reducing the costs of estimating program impacts at large scale combines the fact that hiring inherently involves ranking inputs with the most powerful element of the social science toolkit: randomization. We show that it is possible to operate a program at modest scale n but learn about the input supply curves facing the firm at much larger scale (S × n) by randomly sampling the inputs the provider would have hired if they operated at scale (S × n). We build a simple two-period model of social-program decision making and use a model of Bayesian learning to develop heuristics for when scale-up experiments of the sort we propose are likely to be particularly valuable. We also present a series of results to illustrate the method, including one application to a real-world tutoring program that highlights an interesting observation: The noisier the program provider's prediction of input quality, the less pronounced is the scale-up problem.


To date, the automatic or semiautomatic transformation of huge amounts of multisource multiresolution spaceborne imagery into information still remains far below reasonable expectations. The original contribution of this paper to existing knowledge on the development of operational automatic remote sensing image understanding systems (RS-IUSs) is fourfold. First, existing RS-IUS architectures are critically revised. In this review section, the two-stage stratified hierarchical RS-IUS model, originally proposed by Shackelford and Davis, is identified as a subclass of the parent class of multiagent hybrid systems for RS image understanding, which is potentially superior to the two-stage segment-based RS-IUS architecture that is currently considered the state-of-the-art in commercial RS image-processing software toolboxes. Second, this paper highlights the degree of novelty of an operational automatic near-real-time well-posed model-driven application-independent per-pixel Landsat-like spectral-rule-based decision-tree classifier (LSRC) recently presented in RS literature. Third, five original downscaled implementations of the LSRC system are proposed to be input with a multispectral image whose spectral resolution overlaps with, but is inferior to, Landsat's. These five downscaled LSRC implementations are identified as the Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre-like SRC, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-like SRC, the Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer-like SRC, the IKONOS-like SRC, and the Disaster Monitoring Constellation-like SRC, respectively. LSRC, together with its five downscaled implementations, called the integrated SRC system of systems, is eligible for use as the automatic pixel-based preliminary classification first stage of a two-stage stratified hierarchical RS-IUS instantiation. Fourth, to sustain the feasibility of the new downscaled LSRC implementations, a novel vegetation spectral index is introduced and discussed. In Part II of this paper, experimental results are presented and discussed for the entire SRC family of classifiers.


The presentation reports on the outcomes of the ESRC-funded project, Presentation of Islam and Muslims in the UK press, 1998-2009. The project used a corpus-based approach, while also being informed by moral panic theory (Cohen, 1972), and notions central to Critical Discourse Analysis (e.g. Reisigl & Wodak, 2001). The project used a corpus of 143 million words, containing over 200,000 articles published in 12 national UK newspapers and their Sunday editions between 1998 and 2009. The corpus articles were derived from the Nexis UK online database, via a query containing the terms Islam*, Muslim*, and related words (e.g. Quran). The analysis used Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al., 2004), an online corpus tool which utilises a grammatically tagged and syntactically parsed corpus to produce "word sketches", that is, the grammatical constructions that a word is frequently found in, as well as its salient collocates within these constructions. The analysis focused on the patterns of use of the word forms, Islam, Islamic, Islamist(s) and Muslim, Muslims (both as nouns and adjectives). The examination of their most salient sketches and strong collocates, as well as the most frequent nouns, adjectives and lexical verbs in the corpus lead to three interrelated observations: a) Islam is treated predominantly as an ideology, rather than a religion. b) The use of Muslim as an adjective is associated more frequently with issues of governance (e.g. politics, law) than with issues of religion. c) Irrespective of the stance towards Islam and Muslims that may be projected in particular articles or newspapers, the discussion of Islam and Muslims in the UK press is, overall, carried out within contexts of armed/social conflict and/or terrorism, and the attendant issues of social disruption, violence, destruction and death.


Trinity and Incarnation in Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought. By Barbara C. Raw. [Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, Volume 21.1 (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1997. Pp. x, 221. $59.95.) In this book, as in her previous volume in the same series, Anglo-Saxon Crucifixion Iconography and the Art of the Monastic Revival (1990), Barbara Raw explicates the meaning and function of a group of late Anglo-Saxon works of art by "relating" them to the literature of the period, something she claims "no one [so farl has attempted- (p. 2). Certainly no one has brought such a wide range and abundance of contemporary writings to bear on pre-Conquest English art as this able scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. In the present volume everything from theological treatises, liturgical texts, and homilies to private devotional works, Old English poetry, and above all the writings of Aelfric are called upon to elucidate Anglo-Saxon beliefs concerning the Trinity and Incarnation and the pictorial means artists found to express them, A short introduction briefly notes the remarkable character of the AngloSaxon images of the Trinity, all manuscript illustrations, which in number and ingenuity are unparalleled in early medieval art. It also includes a discussion of "the different, but complementary ways" in which "art and literature express religious truths" (p. 6). Analysis of the individual images is postponed, however, to the last four chapters of the book, the preceding four being devoted to theologry and the theon? of images. The first two chapters review the early development of the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, the evidence for increased devotion to the Trinity in Anglo-Saxon England, anti the nature of that devotion. The next two consider early medieval arguments regarding the validity and function of religious images and the problems of representing a God who is not only invisible and immaterial, but also three persons in a single nature. All of the sources cited on religious art are continental, except for Bede, since late Anglo-Saxon authors, including Aelfric, ignored the subject. Raw is thus left to speculate as to what the homilist's views might have been. The analysis of some thirty images of the deity in the remaining chapters is organized by pictorial type, each of which Raw associates with a different mode of divine revelation: the "portrait-image" which "implies a presence," narrative illustration which "recalls God's intervention in history," and symbolic representation which"corresponds to the indirect forms of revelation" (p. …


Software has gone from obscurity to indispensability in less than fifty years. Although other industries have followed a similar trajectory, software and its supporting industry are different. In this book the authors explain, from a variety of perspectives, how software and the software industry are different—technologically, organizationally, and socially. The growing importance of software requires professionals in all fields to deal with both its technical and social aspects; therefore, users and producers of software need a common vocabulary to discuss software issues. In Software Ecosystem, Messerschmitt and Szyperski address the overlapping and related perspectives of technologists and nontechnologists. After an introductory chapter on technology, the book is organized around six points of view: users, and what they need software to accomplish for them; software engineers and developers, who translate the user's needs into program code; managers, who must orchestrate the resources, material and human, to operate the software; industrialists, who organize companies to produce and distribute software; policy experts and lawyers, who must resolve conflicts inside and outside the industry without discouraging growth and innovation; and economists, who offer insights into how the software market works. Each chapter considers not only the issues most relevant to that perspective but also relates those issues to the other perspectives as well. Nontechnologists will appreciate the context in which technology is discussed; technical professionals will gain more understanding of the social issues that should be considered in order to make software more useful and successful.


Low-affinity nutrient transporters sense depletion earlier than high-affinity transporters, thus preparing cells for starvation. Once a cell has evolved a high-affinity transporter for nutrients like phosphate or zinc, why would it need to continue to make low-affinity transporters as well? Levy et al. address this question in yeast and show that the lower-affinity form does come in handy. When nutrients are plentiful, the low-affinity transporter is expressed and works fine. As nutrient concentrations are depleted, the low-affinity transporter begins to lose efficiency and the nutrient influx dips. This signals the cell to begin preparation for starvation—at a time earlier than it would have, if it had waited until nutrient concentrations got so low that function of the high-affinity transporter became compromised. Sensing a decrease in nutrient supply before concentrations get low enough to inhibit growth thus appears to be a key reason for expressing transporters of both low and high affinity. S. Levy, M. Kafri, M. Carmi, N. Barkai, The competitive advantage of a dual-transporter system. Science 334, 1408–1412 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Genes required for limb development have, in several instances, first been identified by studies of human diseases in which the limbs are affected. In humans, mutations in the transcription factor SALL4 results in Okihiro syndrome (OS), which is characterised by forelimb defects and the eye disorder, Duane anomaly. OS patients forelimb defects range from subtle thumb abnormalities to truncated limbs. Mutations in another gene, TBX5, cause Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS), which is defined by heart and forelimb defects. OS and HOS patients limb defects are very similar, in fact, patients that have mutations in SALL4, and thus OS, have in some cases been misdiagnosed with HOS. Studies have shown that Tbx5 performs an evolutionary conserved role in forelimb development. The similar limb phenotypes of OS and HOS patients may suggest that Tbx5 and Sall4 act in a common pathway and that Sall4 is also required for forelimb development. During my thesis work, I have investigated the function of Sall4 and I have explored the hypothetical relationship between Sall4 and Tbx5 during limb development. To perform this analysis I have used zebrafish, chick and mouse model systems. I demonstrate that in the developing zebrafish pectoral fins sall4 acts downstream of tbx5, and that sall4 is essential for pectoral fin (forelimb) development. I show that tbx5 initiates a feedforward transcriptional motif that is required to establish FGF signalling in the pectoral fin bud. My studies of sail gene family redundancy and tbx5 offer explanations for the similarity of OS and HOS patients limb defects.


The article deals with modern strategies for working with literature in the future teachers' training process, especially in work with tales. Suggested technologies make it possible to move away from traditional text analysis, to offer interesting interpretations as well as to focus on details. A text comes to life as it receives new interpretations, and visual ones complement the verbal content. This strategy helps make the reading more stimulating. It helps unleash and develop students' analytical and creative potential: interpret scientific texts, create a lapbook and scrapbook. The examples are discussed on the material of Baum's tales, "American Tales", which is a fascinating and original phenomenon of American literature for children, and it provides a considerable space for interpretation. These tales are bright, interesting, and funny and allows to suggest to play with text, details, characters. Such game is impossible without attentive reading and understanding the main ideas of the text. The authors of the given manuscript recommend the following methods of working with texts as calligrams, hero pyramid, mind mapping, six thinking hats by E. Bono, etc. As a result, students begin to read literature more carefully, pay attention to details and better memorize certain episodes. The success of applying holographic technologies in dealing with literature is proved. Thus, the following skills like reading, creative thinking, critical thinking, the ability to express thoughts have been developed as well as the fear of misinterpretation of texts has disappeared.


The Tabuaço tungsten deposit (Northern Portugal) is hosted in the Cambrian Douro Group metasediments, at the northern margin of the Beira-Tabuaço granitic complex. The hosting schisto-calcareous Lower Cambrian Bateiras Formation underwent a contact metamorphism induced by the intrusion of the granitic complex. The skarnification led to the crystallisation of scheelite (CaWO4). Two different skarn facies are encountered: 'Lower Skarn' and 'Main Skarn' both corresponding to the exoskarn. The 'Main Skarn' is mainly composed of vesuvianite (Ca10Mg2Al4(SiO4)5(Si2O7)2(OH)4), feldspars and fluorite. Zoisite, grossular, fluorapatite and scheelite are also present, as well as malayaite and cassiterite. Scheelite is disseminated and often occurs in association with fluorite, albite and vesuvianite. The 'Lower Skarn' level contains predominantly diopsidic pyroxene, quartz, zoisite, grossular and feldspars. Scheelite appears both laminated and disseminated, in association with fluorite and vesuvianite in minor proportions. The 'Main Skarn' is located in the Garnet, Pyroxene zone, while the 'Lower Skarn' corresponds to the Pyroxene, Garnet zone. Pyroxene has a global hedenbergite Hd40 composition. A major phase of albitisation destabilised fluorite, scheelite, vesuvianite, garnet and pyroxene. A late stage of chloritisation is associated with the exhumation. The processing of the Tabuaço ore has been adapted to the Ca-bearing rich paragenesis and to the scheelite mean size.


Matrix trace estimation is ubiquitous in machine learning applications and has traditionally relied on Hutchinson's method, which requires $O(\log(1/\delta)/\epsilon^2)$ matrix-vector product queries to achieve a $(1 \pm \epsilon)$-multiplicative approximation to $\text{tr}(A)$ with failure probability $\delta$ on positive-semidefinite input matrices $A$. Recently, the Hutch++ algorithm was proposed, which reduces the number of matrix-vector queries from $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ to the optimal $O(1/\epsilon)$, and the algorithm succeeds with constant probability. However, in the high probability setting, the non-adaptive Hutch++ algorithm suffers an extra $O(\sqrt{\log(1/\delta)})$ multiplicative factor in its query complexity. Non-adaptive methods are important, as they correspond to sketching algorithms, which are mergeable, highly parallelizable, and provide low-memory streaming algorithms as well as low-communication distributed protocols. In this work, we close the gap between non-adaptive and adaptive algorithms, showing that even non-adaptive algorithms can achieve $O(\sqrt{\log(1/\delta)}/\epsilon + \log(1/\delta))$ matrix-vector products. In addition, we prove matching lower bounds demonstrating that, up to a $\log \log(1/\delta)$ factor, no further improvement in the dependence on $\delta$ or $\epsilon$ is possible by any non-adaptive algorithm. Finally, our experiments demonstrate the superior performance of our sketch over the adaptive Hutch++ algorithm, which is less parallelizable, as well as over the non-adaptive Hutchinson's method.


This work set out to investigate two questions: 1) what is the state of qualitative understanding of magnetism at various stages of expertise? 2) What approaches to problem-solving are used across the spectrum of expertise? I studied three groups: ten novices (university students who had completed one introductory course in electricity and magnetism), ten experts-in-training (upper division and graduate students) and 11 experts (physics professors and researchers). Data collection involved structured interviews during which participants solved a series of non-standard problems in magnetism while thinking out loud. The problems were designed to test for conceptual understanding. The interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. None of the novices and only a few of the experts in training showed a strong understanding of inductance, magnetic energy, and magnetic pressure; and for the most part they tended not to approach problems visually. Novices frequently described gist memories of demonstrations, text book problems, and rules (heuristics). However, these fragmentary mental models were not complete enough to allow them to reason productively. Experts-in-training were able to solve problems that the novices were not able to solve, many times simply because they had greater recall of the material, and therefore more confidence in their facts. Much of their thinking was concrete, based on mentally manipulating objects. Three, however, exhibited traits of experts, albeit not consistently. The experts solved most of the problems in ways that were both effective and efficient. Part of the efficiency derived from their ability to visualize and thus reason in terms of field lines.


In the context of personalized federated learning (FL), the critical challenge is to balance local model improvement and global model tuning when the personal and global objectives may not be exactly aligned. Inspired by Bayesian hierarchical models, we develop ActPerFL, a self-aware personalized FL method where each client can automatically balance the training of its local personal model and the global model that implicitly contributes to other clients' training. Such a balance is derived from the inter-client and intra-client uncertainty quantification. Consequently, ActPerFL can adapt to the underlying clients' heterogeneity with uncertainty-driven local training and model aggregation. With experimental studies on Sent140 and Amazon Alexa audio data, we show that ActPerFL can achieve superior personalization performance compared with the existing counterparts.


One of the most acute charges against private property begins with the observation that ownership generates a trespassory duty of exclusion that far exceeds what a commitment to values such as freedom and well-being could possibly require. According to this observation, there exits a mismatch — in particular, an analytical gulf — between the form of protecting ownership and the functions that this protection may serve. In these pages, I shall develop a novel account of ownership's normativity, maintaining that, apart from the functions it may render whatever external values are deemed appropriate, the form of ownership is in itself a source of value, in virtue of the society it may engender between free and equal persons. Accordingly, the so-called arbitrary gap between the form and the function of ownership need not plague private ownership, because the functions served by ownership do not exhaust the explanation of its good. And while there is no reason to deny that ownership is partly assessed by reference to the functions it promotes, I shall insist that there is a formal core to property, and that it is a distinctively social one even in the most isolated case of trespass to property.


We have looked at all past core meltdowns (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima incidents) and postulated the fourth one might be taking place in the future most probably in a newly built reactors anywhere of the earth in any type of NPP. The probability of this observation is high considering the nature of the machine and human interaction. Operation experience is a very significant parameter as well as the safety culture of the host nation. The concerns is not just a lack of experience with industry with the new comers, but also the infrastructure and established institutions who will be dealing with the Emergencies. Lack of trained and educated Emergency Response Organizations (ERO) is a major concern. The culture on simple fire drills even makes the difference when a severe condition occurs in the industry. The study assumes the fourth event will be taking place at the Akkuyu NGS and works backwards as required by the "what went wrong " scenarios and comes up with interesting results. The differences studied in depth to determine the impact to the severe accidents. The all four design have now core catchers. We have looked at the operator errors'like in TMI); Operator errors combined with design deficiencies(like in Chernobyl) and natural disasters( like in Fukushima) and found operator errors to be more probable event on the Akkuyu's postulated next incident. With respect to experiences of the operators we do not have any data except for long and successful operating history of the Soviet design reactors up until the Chernobyl incident. Since the Akkuyu will be built, own and operated by the Russians we have found no alarming concerns at the moment. At the moment, there is no body be able to operate those units in Turkey. Turkey is planning to build the required manpower during the transition period. The resolution of the observed parameters lies to work and educate, train of the host nation and exercise together.


Perspective on the papers by Robinson et al (see page 564) and Das et al (see page 569)

Rickets has been cited as the commonest non-communicable disease of childhood worldwide. It is certainly a disease that has been well described over the last four centuries, initially by Glisson (1648), who differentiated it from infantile scurvy, Trousseau (p 38), who identified sunlight and cod liver oil as effective treatments, Mellanby (1919), who created an animal model of rickets that was cured by cod liver oil, and Hess and Unger (1921), who cured rickets in children by exposing them to sunlight on a rooftop in New York.

The epidemiology of rickets—lack of vitamin D from diet and/or the action of sunlight on exposed skin, or of the bone mineral substrates calcium and phosphate—is also well established. The contribution of such deficiencies to other human ill health problems is less clear. There is no doubt that vitamin D is important for function of the musculoskeletal and immune systems, neurological function, and possibly mental health. But how much vitamin D is necessary to support human health and should vitamin D supplementation be targeted or universal? How should vitamin D sufficiency be assessed? Are there critical periods during which attention should be concentrated? Two papers in this issue of Archives make useful contributions to the debate.

The first paper, by Robinson et al , examines the effects of vitamin D deficiency in infancy.1 This is not new territory, but the message of increasing frequency of presentation over the period of a decade in a developed country makes salutary reading. The diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency in the paper by Robinson et al depended on …


Connecting an enterprise site to multiple ISPs over IPv6 using
provider-assigned addresses is difficult without the use of some form
of Network Address Translation (NAT). Much has been written on this
topic over the last 10 to 15 years, but it still remains a problem
without a clearly defined or widely implemented solution. Any
multihoming solution without NAT requires hosts at the site to have
addresses from each ISP and to select the egress ISP by selecting a
source address for outgoing packets. It also requires routers at the
site to take into account those source addresses when forwarding
packets out towards the ISPs. This document examines currently
available mechanisms for providing a solution to this problem for a
broad range of enterprise topologies. It covers the behavior of
routers to forward traffic taking into account source address, and it
covers the behavior of hosts to select appropriate default source
addresses. It also covers any possible role that routers might play in
providing information to hosts to help them select appropriate source
addresses. In the process of exploring potential solutions, this
document also makes explicit requirements for how the solution would
be expected to behave from the perspective of an enterprise site
network administrator.


Abstract Human-wildlife conflicts around the loss and use of habitat are common reasons for species being listed as threatened. In order to reduce such conflicts it is important to have a clear understanding of the resource requirements of threatened species and the environmental factors that influence the availability and continued supply of those resources. The availability of Banksia cones and temporal patterns of their use by Carnaby 's Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris), was measured bi-monthly in proteaceous woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain, south-western Australia. Availability of Banksia cones was assessed at sites that differed in soil-types, time since last fire and occurrence ofPhytophthora cinnamomi. The mean number of available cones differed significantly in relation to P. cinnamomi presence and time since last fire. This study revealed a strong association between availability of Banksia cones and their consumption by Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo. Over 12 months, Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos handled approximately half of the available Banksia cones, and over three-quarters of those handled involved feeding. Banksia attenuata and B. sessilis produced the greatest number of cones, with consumption proportionate to cone availability. Understanding the patterns of availability and consumption of food resources by Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos provides critical pieces of information that will help implement more effective conservation and management to stem the decline of this species.


Strong, effective, local journalism is essential for the health of the wider media ecosystem and in ensuring that the information needs of communities are met. But this sector has faced multiple challenges in recent years including declining revenues, smaller newsrooms and shuttered titles. How are local news organizations responding to these challenges, and what can be done to more effectively share successes across the media and news sectors? A new report from the University of Oregon's Agora Journalism Center addresses those questions, through the lens of 10 news outlets, in the Pacific Northwest. These titles serve as a microcosm of the wider local news industry in the United States, who are similarly addressing fundamental strategic questions related to the revenue and business models, use of digital platforms and the impact of this changing journalistic practice.


An effective management is a necessary prerequisite for the economical operation of a telecommunications network or service. In particular, the quality of an offered service is an important task of the management. We refer to quality of service (QoS) as the ability to deliver services according to a set of contractual agreed parameters. All involved networks, end-systems, and to a large extent, the applications, influence end-to-end QoS. Thus, we have two quite different views on QoS: the application point of view and the network point of view. Both have to be integrated in a combined management process to enable the delivery of a guaranteed end-to-end QoS. The integrated management together with its requirements we will call the management view. In our QoS mapping process we identify four types of QoS specifications: (1) subjective end-user requirements; (2) the application's QoS view including QoS profiles and application QoS parameters; (3) objective QoS parameters, and (4) network QoS parameters used for signalling QoS through the network.


Left and right sides of an organism may develop as symmetrical, albeit mirror, images of each other, but some organs, notably our own hearts and livers, are not mirror images. Palmer reviews how this asymmetry forms the basis for intriguing insights into evolution. Genetically defined asymmetry, whereby the balance generally falls to one side, has arisen multiple times through evolution. The underlying processes suggest beginnings in genetic assimilation as well as mutations. Analysis of heart looping in vertebrates indicates which portions of the signaling cascade are more ancestral than others. A. R. Palmer, Symmetry breaking and the evolution of development. Science 306, 828-833 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


There can be little doubt about the existence of substrate effects in many cases when a whole population abandons their original language and adopts another. But there are situations in which the direction of linguistic influence remains unexplained, the causal connections are obscure, or the expected effect does not occur. We still do not know just how young children in American society manage not to acquire the foreign accent of their parents. If anything, the effect of parents' language may be in the opposite direction from that predicted by contrastive analysis. Several cases of unmistakeable but inexplicable substrate effects are discussed: the initiation of the merger of /o/ and /oh/ by Slavic-speaking coal miners in Eastern Pennsylvania; the use of later for earlier in the English of Puerto Rican Spanish speakers, and the confusion of make and let among several generations of Italian-American speakers of English.


The microstructure of GaN(Si)/AlInN multiple quantum wells grown on GaN/Al2O3 (0001) templates by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy and associated techniques. Dodecagon-shape V-defects with hexagonal apexes, which nucleate on screw-component threading dislocations, are observed at the film surface. The hexagonal apexes are bounded by {1121} planes, whereas the dodecagons are bounded by {1011} and {1121} planes, where the {1011} facets are generated from the edges between adjacent {1121} planes. Indium segregation is observed along these edges. A possible reason for formation of these defects is briefly discussed.


The rods and cones in the mouse retina, which are necessary for image formation, become responsive to light on the tenth day after birth (P10). However, another class of photoreceptors that express the photopigment melanopsin and can detect brightness--the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs)--has recently been identified, and the time course of their development is unknown. By assaying the responses of retinae loaded with a fluorescent calcium indicator, Sekaran et al. determined that about 5.4% of cells in the ganglion-cell layer responded to 470 nm light at P4 to P5, whereas about 13.7% responded at P0 to P1. The response to light was not affected by pharmacological blockade of glutamate receptors but was absent in retinae from mice that lacked melanopsin. The fraction of light-responsive cells at birth and at P4 to P5 was greater than that previously found in adults, and these differences in the fraction of responsive cells did not depend on coupling through gap junctions. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that the density of melanopsin-expressing cells was lower at P14 and in adults than earlier in development, peaking at about P4 to P5. ipRGCs project to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN, the location of the master circadian clock), and immunohistochemical analysis of light-induced Fos expression in the SCN of wild-type mice and mice lacking melanopsin indicated that functional connections from ipRGCs to the SCN were present at P0. Thus, the authors conclude that the ability to detect light substantially predates the ability to form images. S. Sekaran, D. Lupi, S. L. Jones, C. J. Sheely, S. Hattar, K.-W. Yau, R. J. Lucas, R. G. Foster, M. W. Hankins, Melanopsin-dependent photoreception provides earliest light detection in the mammalian retina. Current Biol. 15, 1099-1107 (2005). [PubMed]


Background: Cochlear Implants (CIs) restore some hearing to deaf children, although some language domains such as verbal fluency (VF) are at risk for delay. VF, the ability to efficiently retrieve words from the mental lexicon, is critically important for learning, reasoning, and memory. In this study we used a novel assessment paradigm to understand how VF develops in youth with CIs and to investigate associations between VF, speech-language, and neurocognitive functioning. We hypothesized that phonemic VF (retrieving words based on sounds) would show greater delays than semantic VF (retrieving words within category) and that VF would relate to spoken language and memory outcomes.

Methods: 28 prelingually deaf, early-implanted (<4 years), long-term (≥7 years) child and adolescent users of CIs were compared with 33 age and nonverbal IQ-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. VF measures were compared between CI and NH and were correlated with speech, language, and neurocognitive outcomes.

Results: Compared to NH peers, youth with CIs retrieved fewer words, had longer start latencies, and fewer word clusters in the phonemic VF test. Stronger phonemic VF in the CI sample was associated with better speech perception and language. Stronger VF in both samples was associated with better short-term/working memory and inhibition/concentration.

Conclusion: VF based on phonological (sound) characteristics of words is delayed in youth with CIs, whereas VF based on semantic meaning is relatively spared. Phonemic VF delays have downstream effects on speech perception and language in youth with CIs, whereas both types of VF are associated with verbal short-term/working memory and executive functioning.

Clinical Policy Impact and Implications: Study results indicate a need for assessment and intervention targeting VF (especially phonemic) in youth with CIs as a potential method for improving speech perception, language, verbal memory, and inhibition-concentration outcomes.


The objective of the paper is the presentation of a case study developed for geotechnical engineering instruction. The examined case study is suitable for undergraduate instruction and refers to the geotechnical design of a railway embankment focusing on slope stability analyses and settlement calculations. The presented geotechnical data have resulted from the geotechnical study implemented by Edafomichaniki S.A. within the framework of the project "Geotechnical Design of the New Railway Alignment between the Existing Line and Kavala's Port". The geotechnical design of a railway embankment is described thoroughly in the current paper and includes the following: a) the evaluation of the available geotechnical data encompassing the determination of soil stratigraphy and geotechnical design parameters of the encountered formations, b) the performance of geotechnical calculations regarding slope stability analyses and settlement calculations with detailed reference to consolidation theory and c) the presentation of the construction methodology of the embankment. The usefulness of the examined case study is highlighted through the achievement of a significant number of learning outcomes. The current paper is accompanied with detailed supplementary material.


Process automation and applications integration initiatives are often complex and involve significant resources in large organisations. The increasing adoption of service-based architectures to solve integration problems and the widely accepted practice of utilising patterns as a medium to reuse design knowledge motivated the definition of this work. In this work a pattern-based framework and techniques providing automation and structure to address the process and application integration problem are proposed. The framework is a layered architecture providing modelling and traceability support to different abstraction layers of the integration problem. To define new services - building blocks of the integration solution - the framework includes techniques to identify process patterns in concrete
process models. Graphs and graph morphisms provide a formal basis to represent patterns and their relation to models. A family of graph-based algorithms support automation during matching and discovery of patterns in layered process service models. The framework and techniques are demonstrated in a case study. The algorithms implementing the pattern matching and discovery techniques are investigated through a set of experiments from an empirical evaluation. Observations from conducted interviews to practitioners provide suggestions to enhance the proposed techniques and direct future work regarding analysis tasks in process integration initiatives.


ROLE OF ROK AND PKC IN PERMEABILIZED FEMORAL ARTERIAL SMOOTH MUSCLE By Lyndsay Jacquelyn Clelland, B.S. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007 Director: Paul H. Ratz, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Pediatrics Discoveries made with KCl-induced contractions have elucidated the more complex reactions involved in GPCRs signaling; once the mechanisms of smooth muscle Ca sensitization and desensitization are fully understood, then the development of advanced treatments for vascular disorders such as hypertension, cerebral and coronary vasospasm, and vascular hyporeactivity following hemorrhagic shock may be possible. Studies have shown that KCl-induced contractions induce Ca-sensitization. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that KCl induced Ca-sensitization is due to ROK activation by the increase in [Ca]i . To test this hypothesis, rabbit femoral arteries were permeabilized xii with 20μg/ml α-toxin and 1% Triton X-100 and subjected to different calcium concentrations in the presence or absence of various ROK inhibitors. For a comparison we also used various PKC and MLCK inhibitors and repeated these experiments in intact tissues. We found that either [Ca]i alone does not directly activate ROK or the permeabilization technique itself disrupts the normal ROK signaling system. Secondary findings revealed that α-toxin activates PKC pathways; in both chemically permeabilized preparations proteases also appear to be activated and MLCK is the primary kinase responsible for contraction.


The purpose of this article is to illuminate the topic of "Redlichkeit" in The Gay Science in order to provide a greater understanding of the relationship among friendship, knowledge-seeking, and overcoming in Nietzsche's GS and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In GS 14 Nietzsche formulates friendship as involving "a shared higher thirst for an ideal." Although higher friendship, for Nietzsche, involves a mutual goal, this article argues that the goal is not truth. First, the notion of the intellectual conscience and how passionate knowledge-seeking is distinguished from the standardized practices of truth that Nietzsche rejects is explained. Second, the problem of the Übermensch, or Overhuman, and its status as an ideal or goal is examined. In conclusion, the link that Nietzsche makes between becoming Overhuman and the development of Redlichkeit by the intellectual conscience in passionate knowledge-seeking friendship is explained.


Leaf area index (LAI) is an important structural parameter in terrestrial ecosystem modelling and management. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an investigation on using moderate-resolution satellite imagery to estimate and map LAI in mixed natural forests in southeastern USA. In this study, along with ground-measured LAI and Landsat TM imagery, the potential of Landsat 5 TM data for estimating LAI in a mixed natural forest ecosystem in southeastern USA was investigated and a modelling method for mapping LAI in a flooding season was developed. To do so, first, 70 ground-based LAI measurements were collected on 8 April 2008 and again on 1 August 2008 and 30 July 2009; TM data were calibrated to ground surface reflectance. Then univariate correlation and multivariate regression analyses were conducted between the LAI measurement and 13 spectral variables, including seven spectral vegetation indices (VIs) and six single TM bands. Finally, April 08 and August 08 LAI maps were made by using TM image data, a multivariate regression model and relationships between April 08 and August 08 LAI measurements. The experimental results indicate that Landsat TM imagery could be used for mapping LAI in a mixed natural forest ecosystem in southeastern USA. Furthermore, TM4 and TM3 single bands (R 2 > 0.45) and the soil adjusted vegetation index, transformed soil adjusted vegetation index and non-linear vegetation index (R 2 > 0.64) have produced the highest and second highest correlation with ground-measured LAI. A better modelling result (R 2 = 0.78, accuracy = 73%, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.66) of the 10-predictor multiple regression model was obtained for estimating and mapping April 08 LAI from TM data. With a linear model and a power model, August 08 LAI maps were successfully produced from the April 08 LAI map (accuracy = 79%, RMSE = 0.57), although only 58–65% of total variance could be accounted for by the linear and non-linear models.


The ability to capture temporal information has been critical to the development of video understanding models. While there have been numerous attempts at modeling motion in videos, an explicit analysis of the effect of temporal information for video understanding is still missing. In this work, we aim to bridge this gap and ask the following question: How important is the motion in the video for recognizing the action? To this end, we propose two novel frameworks: (i) class-agnostic temporal generator and (ii) motion-invariant frame selector to reduce/remove motion for an ablation analysis without introducing other artifacts. This isolates the analysis of motion from other aspects of the video. The proposed frameworks provide a much tighter estimate of the effect of motion (from 25% to 6% on UCF101 and 15% to 5% on Kinetics) compared to baselines in our analysis. Our analysis provides critical insights about existing models like C3D, and how it could be made to achieve comparable results with a sparser set of frames.


Motion planning is a fundamental problem in robotics. When the differential constraints of a real robot are also modelled, the produced motions can be more realistic and make better use of the hardware's capabilities. While it is not known if planning under differential constraints is a decidable problem and complete tractable algorithms are not available, sampling-based planners have been very successful at solving such problems. This thesis describes an online planning strategy which uses a sampling-based planner in a loop. Solutions for problems in static and known environments are computed incrementally through consecutive replanning steps. The robot is guided to the goal by a navigation function which is constantly updated to ensure the robot can explore all of its workspace. Experiments on various systems and workspaces show that the proposed approach can solve harder problems and produce paths of shorter duration compared to state-of-the art offline planners using only bounded memory.


The Firefly Project: Conversations about what it means to be alive, presents true dialogues about living and dying, hopes and dreams, grief and loss. These stories show human beings connecting through the old-fashioned art of letter-writing. Adults with life-threatening illnesses move beyond ideas of themselves as ill or disabled, and discover they have much to give back. Their correspondents – teenagers and medical students, none of whom have yet met their pen pals in person – discover empathy and find time to focus on others rather than exclusively their own thoughts and concerns, grappling with difficult questions about patients' experiences. The Firefly Project has become a repository of intergenerational dialogues full of rare and compassionate insights into the meaning of life, illness, and death.


This article considers using the phenomenon of the Meissner effect in superconductivity to levitate a vehicle above the ground. A model consisting of two parallel wires with opposing currents produces a magnetic field upon which the vehicle levitates. It was found that the power needed to keep the vehicle at 1.75m above the ground was 1.88TW, where 1.75m is the height which minimises the required power. This power is analogous to the overall electrical power consumption of the world, showing that this type of transportation is not feasible with our current technological achievements.


Women's sexual behavour across sexual orientations was evaluated in this thesis. Evolutionary theory has shown that women and men pursue different reproductive strategies and predicts that strategic interference results when women and men are trying to acquire mates. This study compared women who varied in sexual orientation to assess differences between lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual female scores in sociosexuality. Masculine and feminine personality traits were additionally assessed by the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Sexual fluidity was assessed via interviews. Results indicated that lesbians and heterosexual women had similar scores in sociosexuality, suggesting little effect of strategic interference on lesbian sociosexuality. Extreme Kinsey scale scores were compared (i.e. completely heterosexual and completely lesbian), lesbians reported being more restricted in sociosexuality than heterosexual women. Bisexual women were statistically significantly more unrestricted compared to lesbian and heterosexual women. Lesbians had the highest self ratings of femininity when compared to heterosexual and bisexual women.


This work addresses the question: What are the basic design considerations for creating a synthetic model of the evolution of living systems (i.e. an `arti cial life' system)? It can also be viewed as an attempt to elucidate the logical structure (in a very general sense) of biological evolution. However, with no adequate de nition of life, the experimental portion of the work concentrates on more speci c issues, and primarily on the issue of open-ended evolution. An arti cial evolutionary system called Cosmos, which provides a virtual operating system capable of simulating the parallel processing and evolution of a population of several thousand self-reproducing computer programs, is introduced. Cosmos is related to Ray's established Tierra system [Ray 91], but there are a number of signi cant di erences. A wide variety of experiments with Cosmos, which were designed to investigate its evolutionary dynamics, are reported. An analysis of the results is presented, with particular attention given to the role of contingency in determining the outcome of the runs. The results of this work, and consideration of the existing literature on arti cial evolutionary systems, leads to the conclusion that arti cial life models such as this are lacking on a number of theoretical and methodological grounds. It is emphasised that explicit theoretical considerations should guide the design of such models, if they are to be of scienti c value. An analysis of various issues relating to self-reproduction, especially in the context of evolution, is presented, including some extensions to von Neumann's analysis of self-reproduction [von Neumann 66]. This suggests ways in which the evolutionary potential of such models might be improved. In particular, a shift of focus is recommended towards a more careful consideration of the phenotypic capabilities of the reproducing individuals. Phenotypic capabilities fundamentally involve interactions with the environment (both abiotic and biotic), and it is further argued that the theoretical grounding upon which these models should be based must include consideration of the kind of environments and the kind of interactions required for open-ended evolution. A number of useful future research directions are identi ed. Finally, the relevance of such work to the original goal of modelling the evolution of living systems (as opposed to the more general goal of modelling open-ended evolution) is discussed. It is suggested that the study of open-ended evolution can lead us to a better understanding of the essential properties of life, but only if the questions being asked in these studies are phrased appropriately.


Background: Electronic loyalty (e-loyalty) has become important in the context of electronic commerce (e-commerce) in recent years. Loyal customers bring long-term revenue to companies and are known to be a valuable asset to them. However, firms lose their customers in a competitive environment on the Internet because of a lack of trust, satisfaction and loyalty.

Objectives: This study explains how e-loyalty, e-trust and e-satisfaction form in e-commerce with a focus on customer purchase intention formation.

Method: A conceptual framework was formed based upon the literature review. Data were collected from e-customers of online firms in South Africa. After data clarification, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. The structural equation modelling was applied to test the hypotheses. IBM SPSS AMOS 20 was used for this purpose.

Results: Firstly, convenience, customer benefit and enjoyment affect customer satisfaction in e-commerce. In other words, when customers do business activities easily with enjoyment and take benefit, they are satisfied and they will purchase again in future. Secondly, our study demonstrated that customer perception of security, clear shopping process and reliable payment system have a positive relationship with e-trust. Finally, e-satisfaction and e-trust have a positive and strong relationship with e-loyalty formation in e-commerce.

Conclusion: The results of the study shed light on important issues relating to e-loyalty formation from a new perspective. Online companies are interested in launching e-loyalty programmes because of the long-term benefits that come from loyal customers. To remain competitive, e-commerce companies should constantly work at enhancing customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty.