This thesis describes the design and engineering of a pressurised biomass gasification test facility. A detailed examination of the major elements within the plant has been undertaken in relation to specification of equipment, evaluation of options and final construction. The retrospective project assessment was developed from consideration of relevant literature and theoretical principles. The literature review includes a discussion on legislation and applicable design codes. From this analysis, each of the necessary equipment units was reviewed and important design decisions and procedures highlighted and explored. Particular emphasis was placed on examination of the stringent demands of the ASME VIII design codes. The inter-relationship of functional units was investigated and areas of deficiency, such as biomass feeders and gas cleaning, have been commented upon. Finally, plant costing was summarized in relation to the plant design and proposed experimental programme. The main conclusion drawn from the study is that pressurised gasification of biomass is far more difficult and expensive to support than atmospheric gasification. A number of recommendations have been made regarding future work in this area.


Creation of new knowledge in teams requires collaboration among its team members. Although individual creativity is important, no single individual possesses all the skills and knowledge necessary to deal with complexity in knowledge work.  Therefore, team cohesion is considered a prerequisite in innovation. However, in this study we argue that team cohesion could be a double edged sword. It could even be detrimental to innovation at high levels of team cohesion. The findings of this study with 56 software projects quantitatively support this premise. These findings have useful implications for practitioners engaged in knowledge work


Objective-comparative evaluation of different surgical methods of vesicoureteral reflux induction in rabbits.
Design- Elective experimental study.
Animals- sixteen healthy male rabbits.
Procedures- sixteen healthy New Zealand White male rabbits were randomly divided in four equal groups. All rabbits were preoperatively evaluated with retrograde cystography for the presence or absence of congenital or acquired vesicoureteral reflux. Rabbits of group1 (control) without any manipulation were kept for comparing with other three experimental groups. Rabbits of group 2, 3 and 4 undergone open surgeries with unroofing the ureter with surgical blade incision of 3-5mm in length. In group two incised ureter left without suturing ureteral mucosa, in group three incised ureter sutured with nylon material 5-0 and in group four ureter was incised with electrosurgical cutting blade without suturing mucosal layer to the bladder roof. Postoperatively on days 7th, 15th and 30th all animals in different groups undergone cystography for presence or absence of vesicoureteral reflux.
Results- All the animals of group 1, 2 and 4 didn't show any reflux in double contrast cystography but in group 3 reflux in the form of bilateral and unilateral were observed clearly.
Conclusion and Clinical Relevance- Unroofing the ureter with surgical blade incision and suturing the incised margins can induce the successful vesicoureteral reflux for undergoing an experimental study of vesicoureteral reflux treatment.


Heterogeneous multiprocessors that combine multiple CPUs and GPUs on a single die are posed to become commonplace in the market. As seen recently from the high performance computing community, leveraging a GPU can yield performance increases of several orders of magnitude. We propose using GPU acceleration to greatly speed up cloud management tasks in VMMs. This is only becoming possible now that the GPU is moving on-chip, since the latency across the PCIe bus was too great to make fast, informed decisions about the state of a system at any given point. We explore various examples of cloud management tasks that can greatly benefit from GPU acceleration. We also tackle tough questions of how to manage this hardware in a multi-tenant system. Finally, we present a case study that explores a common cloud operation, memory deduplication, and show that GPU acceleration can improve the performance of its hashing component by a factor of over 80.


BACKGROUND
 Hearing impairment is the most frequent sensory deficit in humans, affecting more than 360 million people worldwide. In fact, hearing impairment is not merely a health problem, but it also has a great impact on the educational performance, economic income, and quality of life. Hearing impairment is therefore an important social concern.

 OBJECTIVE
 We aimed to evaluate and compare the accuracy of self-perception, Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening (HHIE-S) questionnaire, free-field voice test, and smartphone-based audiometry as tests for screening moderate hearing impairment in older adults in China.

 METHODS
 In this study, 41 patients were recruited through a single otology practice. All patients were older than 65 years. Patients with otorrhea and cognitive impairment were excluded. Moderate hearing impairment was defined as mean hearing thresholds at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz >40 dB hearing loss (pure-tone average > 40 dB hearing loss). All patients completed 5 hearing tests, namely, the self-perception test, HHIE-S questionnaire test, free-field voice test, smartphone-based audiometry test, and standard pure-tone audiometry by the same audiologist. We compared the results of these tests to the standard audiogram in the better-hearing ear.

 RESULTS
 The sensitivity and the specificity of the self-perception test were 0.58 (95% CI 0.29-0.84) and 0.34 (95% CI 0.19-0.54), respectively. The sensitivity and the specificity of the HHIE-S questionnaire test were 0.67 (95% CI 0.35-0.89) and 0.31 (95% CI 0.316-0.51), respectively. The sensitivity and the specificity of the free-field voice test were 0.83 (95% CI 0.51-0.97) and 0.41 (95% CI 0.24-0.61), respectively. The sensitivity and the specificity of the smartphone-based audiometry test were 0.92 (95% CI 0.60-0.99) and 0.76 (95% CI 0.56-0.89), respectively. Smartphone-based audiometry correctly diagnosed the presence of hearing loss with high sensitivity and high specificity.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Smartphone-based audiometry may be a dependable screening test to rule out moderate hearing impairment in the older population.


Review of and commentary on: Animal Evolution. Interrelationships of the Living Phyla, by Claus Nielsen. Oxford University Press, 2001, x + 563 pp., ISBN 0-19-850682-1 (Pbk). My initial browsing of the new edition of Claus Nielsen's Animal Evolution could scarcely have produced a bigger surprise. Opening the book from the back I first read the last line of the last chapter on molecular phylogeny: "The evolutionary scenario pictured in fig. 57.2 [a molecular cladogram based on 18S rDNA sequences] is fully compatible with the phylogeny proposed on morphological evidence in this book..." (p. 519). Imagine the surprise! Anyone even marginally familiar with recent developments in higher-level animal phylogenetics will be aware of some major conflicting phylogenetic signals lurking below the surface of morphological and molecular data sets. Certainly, many may agree with Balter's (1997) observation that "morphologists learn to live with molecular upstarts," but in view of Nielsen's less than enthusiastic embrace of molecular phylogenetic evidence in previous publications (Nielsen, 1997a, b) he appears particularly unlikely to serve as a candidate molecular convert. However, a glance at Nielsen's molecular 'tree' offers immediate clarification. It resembles a three-layered terrace overgrown with a phylogenetic grass reminiscent of the massively polyphyletic scheme advocated a decade ago by Willmer(1990), which enjoyed some notoriety as the then most recent pictorial incarnation of phylogenetic ignorance. Nielsen's rendition of IBS rDNA sequence data merely yields three phylogenetic plateaus representing the ascending organizational levels of Metazoa, Bilateria, and Deuterostomia forming the substrates of three successive Precambrian radiations. Unsurprisingly, the complete lack of resolution in the molecular phylogeny-guarantees compatibility with any morphological tree. Needless to say, others have reached rather different conclusions about the degree of phylogenetic resolution that 18S data can offer. In fact, where most phylogeneticists (including myself) are prepared to defend more resolution for inter-phylum relationships, Nielsen's molecular cladogram offers resolution where 18S data do not provide it, namely for the monophyly of several of the individual phyla. Nielsen's fig. 57.1 nicely illustrates this shortcoming of IBS data to support the monophyly of even the morphologically bestdefined phyla such as Mollusca. Nielsen very briefly touches upon some other issues with molecular phylogenetics that have attracted widespread attention in the recent literature, such as the difficulty of estimating divergence times, and the conflict or congruence between phylogenetic estimates based on different molecules. A short section on evolutionary developmental biology is also provided, but readers who are seriously interested in molecular phylogenetics are best advised to consult the extensive primary literature as Nielsen himself candidly recommends.


The dynamic heave responses of the semi-submerged axisymmetric buoy of two different geometries to the excitations equivalent to impulse excitation technique were represented by mechanical single-degree-of-freedom models. Founded on linear and 2-dimensional potential flow theory, the fluid-structure interactions were modeled and simulated with finite element approach. The numerical results obtained in transient harmonic oscillations were implemented with the frequency analysis tools and scaled by the input force spectrum. The records of the frequency response receptance were used in the assessment of hydrodynamic added mass and damping coefficients at the apparent linear resonance frequency. The buoyancy stiffness was calculated with relation to the hydrostatic pressure. Comparison with the experimental and analytical results lent validity to the numerical models.


Komatiites are reported for the first time in the northern part of the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. These rocks, dated at 89.7 ± 1.4 Ma (Turonian) by 40 Ar/ 39 Ar methods, occur as a large, elongated (14 km long, 1.5 km wide) N60°W striking body in the ophiolitic Nicoya Complex. These lavas have high MgO (26%–29%), Ni, and Cr, have high CaO/Al 2 O 3 (0.98–1.08) and moderate Al 2 O 3 /TiO 2 (5.55–8.44) ratios, and are depleted in Al 2 O 3 (4%–5.5%), K 2 O (0.02%–0.37%), and TiO 2 (0.59%–0.9%). Although these lavas are cumulates, their geochemical composition indicates an origin from a primary komatiitic magma, with a melting temperature of 1700 °C at a depth of 150 km. Similarities in the petrology and age (88–90 Ma) of Gorgona, Curaiao, and Nicoya-Tortugal mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks suggest that these rocks had a common origin. These occurrences suggest a single hotspot center over a large area of the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Mesozoic region due to a major thermal anomaly in the mantle, such as a hot, rising, convective plume.


Radio-on-free space optical (RoFSO) communication systems are rapidly gaining popularity as an efficient and cost-effective means of transferring high data rates and radio frequency (RF) signals with the same capacity as optical fiber. However, the performance of those systems depends strongly on the atmospheric conditions and the nonlinear characteristics of the optical link. In this paper, we introduce an analytical model for the transmission of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based signals over freespace optics (FSO) links. Further, we derive a closed-form bit error probability (BEP) and outage probability expressions, taking into account the optical noises, the laser diode nonlinear distortion, and the atmospheric turbulence effect on the FSO channel modeled by the gamma-gamma distribution. This paper reports the most significant parameters that degrade the transmission performance of the OFDM signal over FSO links and indicates the cases that provide the optimal operating conditions for the link. The obtained results can be useful for designing, predicting, and evaluating the RoFSO system's ability to transmit wireless services over turbulent FSO links under actual conditions.


Although rapid law firm growth has been with us since the 1980s, the acceleration of this trend over the last decade by means of mergers is puzzling. Why would normally conservative law firms embark on a merger strategy which appears to encompass significant risk and uncertain benefits? And is this trend a peculiarly American (or Anglo-American) phenomenon? Most of the popular explanations for law firm mergers focus on a single factor; law firms everywhere cite strikingly similar reasons based on a presumed client demand for "one-stop shopping." This article contributes to providing a more robust, multi-causal explanation for law firm behavior through a comparative study of reputational competition among elite law firms in selected jurisdictions - the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Japan. It posits that industry consolidation and changing market conditions have intensified law firm competition, and that since firm quality is hard to measure law firms compete largely on the basis of reputation. Many law firms are thus paradoxically driven to engage in (defensive) mergers to meet the competition due to their risk averse nature and the fear of losing existing clients. The study considers circumstances which are likely to lead to mergers through an examination of reputational competition, particularly the elements of reputational signaling, herd behavior and reputational status as "first-tier" law firms. It identifies "rules of the game" for firm behavior with respect to international mergers. It finds that the impact of a strategic decision, such as a merger, by a first-tier firm is of far greater significance than a similar action by another elite firm; it is much more likely to lead to defensive actions, such as mergers, by competitor firms. Thus, which firms engage in merger activity in a given market is an important factor in explaining and predicting both the reaction of competitors and whether mergers will become widespread in that market. This study further suggests that the common phenomenon of law firm mergers is likely a result of law firms reacting to similar types of changes in their operating environment (i.e., a parallel development), rather than convergence to an "Anglo-American" model of the law firm.


Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos is the perfect text for students of filmmaking who would like to make a documentary. Barry Hampe, who has made more than 150 documentary films and videos, traces the two main approaches to documentary--recording behavior and re-creating past events—and shows students how to do both effectively. Covering all the steps, from conceptualization to completion, the book includes chapters on visual evidence; documentary ethics; why reality is not enough; budgeting; and casting, crew, and equipment selection.


People perceive different types of radiation risks in very different ways. Surveys of the general public in the United States and elsewhere have consistently shown that people perceive nuclear power and nuclear waste as having high risk, but perceive other sources of radioactivity—such as medical x-rays and naturally occurring radon gas—as posing much lower risk. The majority of radiation experts see things quite differently, rating nuclear power and nuclear waste as less risky than the general public does, and perceiving medical x-rays and radon as more risky than generally believed. This perception gap demonstrates that acceptance of risk is conditioned by a number of factors, such as trust in the managers of the technology and appreciation for the direct personal benefits of the technology. Risk-communication strategies that help people place the risks of nuclear power and nuclear waste in perspective by comparing them with other risks can help reduce fears of radiation. Education about radiation can also affect risk perceptions and attitudes. Although differences between the perceptions of laypersons and those of experts cannot be attributed in any simple way to degree of knowledge, it is clear that better information about radiation and its consequences is needed. There is a particularly urgent need to develop plans and materials for communicating with the public in the event of a radiological disaster. The fear, anger, and distrust following the accident at Fukushima shows that communication is still a major problem.


This paper introduces a new neural structure called FusionNet, which extends existing attention approaches from three perspectives. First, it puts forward a novel concept of "history of word" to characterize attention information from the lowest word-level embedding up to the highest semantic-level representation. Second, it introduces an improved attention scoring function that better utilizes the "history of word" concept. Third, it proposes a fully-aware multi-level attention mechanism to capture the complete information in one text (such as a question) and exploit it in its counterpart (such as context or passage) layer by layer. We apply FusionNet to the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD) and it achieves the first position for both single and ensemble model on the official SQuAD leaderboard at the time of writing (Oct. 4th, 2017). Meanwhile, we verify the generalization of FusionNet with two adversarial SQuAD datasets and it sets up the new state-of-the-art on both datasets: on AddSent, FusionNet increases the best F1 metric from 46.6% to 51.4%; on AddOneSent, FusionNet boosts the best F1 metric from 56.0% to 60.7%.


The Paris Agreement has emerged as one of the world's most important international treaties. Many believe that it offers a new approach to the problem of climate change, can contribute significantly to the goal of reducing emissions, and may hold lessons for how to govern other cross‐border issues. As a result, it has been the focus of considerable debate among scholars and policy makers. But how precisely does Paris seek to govern global warming and is it likely to work in practice? We address this question by contrasting the Paris 'model' of climate governance with earlier ones associated with the Kyoto Protocol and Copenhagen Accord. These models have taken different approaches to the problem of governing climate change, each with attendant advantages and limitations. The Paris model advances upon earlier efforts in certain respects, but also blends elements from earlier models. We then lay out the central axes of the debate that has emerged about the future of the Paris model, and discuss research illuminating how it may operate in practice. The agreement's success will depend on how the agreement is implemented, and on how the UNFCCC process interacts with the complementary approaches to climate governance appearing beyond it.


Regulatory T (T reg) cells exert powerful down-modulatory effects on immune responses, but it is not known how they act in vivo. Using intravital two-photon laser scanning microscopy we determined that, in the absence of T reg cells, the locomotion of autoantigen-specific T cells inside lymph nodes is decreased, and the contacts between T cells and antigen-loaded dendritic cells (DCs) are of longer duration. Thus, T reg cells can exert an early effect on immune responses by attenuating the establishment of stable contacts during priming of naive T cells by DCs.


Background: According to the actual guidelines regarding severe aortic valve stenosis (AS), symptoms are the most important trigger for aortic valve replacement (AVR). However, the objective analysis of cardiological clinic can be confused, considering the aging population this disease affects and the comorbidities. Objectives: Looking for an objective marker of disease, useful for scheduling the correct AVR, we researched the relation between some biochemical markers of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and its global longitudinal strain. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 74 consecutive patients (82 ± 4 years) with severe AS. We identified 61 patients with symptoms (angina, dyspnea, and syncope) and 13 asymptomatic patients. The clinical and echocardiographic parameters were compared between these two groups. LV ejection fraction (LVEF), LV global longitudinal strain (LVGLS), NT-pro-B-type brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), troponin T (TNT), creatine kinase-MB (CPK-MB), and myoglobin were determined at the time of evaluation. Results: Compared with the asymptomatic group, patients in the symptomatic group had a lower LVGLS (P = 0.002) and an increased pro-BNP (P = 0.0002). LVGLS showed a good correlation with pro-BNP as a marker of myocardial damage, with a linear increase of pro-BNP in patients with a linear decrease of LVGLS (r = 0.43). Despite the normal value of LVEF > 50% in asymptomatic patients, some of them (46%) have an early dysfunction of LVGLS. No other statistically significant difference emerged from the biochemical analysis, in TNT (P = 0.29), CPK-MB (P = 0.36), and myoglobin (P = 0.38). Conclusions: Pro-BNP and LVGLS can be considered an objective marker of clinical severity of AS disease, useful for management and scheduling of AVR, especially in asymptomatic patients.


Wildcards have become an important part of Java's type system since their introduction 7 years ago. Yet there are still many open problems with Java's wildcards. For example, there are no known sound and complete algorithms for subtyping (and consequently type checking) Java wildcards, and in fact subtyping is suspected to be undecidable because wildcards are a form of bounded existential types. Furthermore, some Java types with wildcards have no joins, making inference of type arguments for generic methods particularly difficult. Although there has been progress on these fronts, we have identified significant shortcomings of the current state of the art, along with new problems that have not been addressed. In this paper, we illustrate how these shortcomings reflect the subtle complexity of the problem domain, and then present major improvements to the current algorithms for wildcards by making slight restrictions on the usage of wildcards. Our survey of existing Java programs suggests that realistic code should already satisfy our restrictions without any modifications. We present a simple algorithm for subtyping which is both sound and complete with our restrictions, an algorithm for lazily joining types with wildcards which addresses some of the shortcomings of prior work, and techniques for improving the Java type system as a whole. Lastly, we describe various extensions to wildcards that would be compatible with our algorithms.


OBJECTIVE
Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) consist of dysplastic blood vessels with direct arteriovenous shunts that can hemorrhage spontaneously. In children, a higher lifetime hemorrhage risk must be balanced with treatment-related morbidity. The authors describe a collaborative, multimodal strategy resulting in effective and safe treatment of pediatric AVMs.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database was performed in children with treated and nontreated pediatric AVMs at the University of California, San Francisco, from 1998 to 2017. Inclusion criteria were age ≤ 18 years at time of diagnosis and an AVM confirmed by a catheter angiogram.

RESULTS
The authors evaluated 189 pediatric patients with AVMs over the study period, including 119 ruptured (63%) and 70 unruptured (37%) AVMs. The mean age at diagnosis was 11.6 ± 4.3 years. With respect to Spetzler-Martin (SM) grade, there were 38 (20.1%) grade I, 40 (21.2%) grade II, 62 (32.8%) grade III, 40 (21.2%) grade IV, and 9 (4.8%) grade V lesions. Six patients were managed conservatively, and 183 patients underwent treatment, including 120 resections, 82 stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and 37 endovascular embolizations. Forty-four of 49 (89.8%) high-grade AVMs (SM grade IV or V) were treated. Multiple treatment modalities were used in 29.5% of low-grade and 27.3% of high-grade AVMs. Complete angiographic obliteration was obtained in 73.4% of low-grade lesions (SM grade I-III) and in 45.2% of high-grade lesions. A periprocedural stroke occurred in a single patient (0.5%), and there was 1 treatment-related death. The mean clinical follow-up for the cohort was 4.1 ± 4.6 years, and 96.6% and 84.3% of patients neurologically improved or remained unchanged in the ruptured and unruptured AVM groups following treatment, respectively. There were 16 bleeding events following initiation of AVM treatment (annual rate: 0.02 events per person-year).

CONCLUSIONS
Coordinated multidisciplinary evaluation and individualized planning can result in safe and effective treatment of children with AVMs. In particular, it is possible to treat the majority of high-grade AVMs with an acceptable safety profile. Judicious use of multimodality therapy should be limited to appropriately selected patients after thorough team-based discussions to avoid additive morbidity. Future multicenter studies are required to better design predictive models to aid with patient selection for multimodal pediatric care, especially with high-grade AVMs.


To ensure the structural health of bridges and their compliance with normative regulations, e.g. Eurocodes, it is important to know their displacements and their vibration characteristics including natural frequencies and amplitudes. Until recently, geodetic sensors were not capable to measure bridge vibrations due to the low measurement rate of the sensors. This changed within the last years. We therefore compare different state-of-the-art techniques for geodetic bridge monitoring, including total stations, radar systems, image-based approaches and GNSS sensors. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/58


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease which results from increases in mean pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance. If untreated it leads to right ventricular failure and death. 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) has been implicated in the disease process and is thought to promote both vasoconstriction and remodelling of the pulmonary vasculature. The activity of potassium ion (K+) channels plays a major role in influencing pulmonary artery tone by regulating resting membrane potential, intracellular Ca2+ concentration and contraction of vascular smooth muscle. This study aimed to investigate possible interactions between 5-HT and K+ channels in the development of PAH in the mouse.

The actions of 5-HT and a range of K+ channel blockers were investigated on isolated intralobar pulmonary arteries (IPA) from wild type (WT) mice and mice over-expressing the serotonin transporter (5HTT), which spontaneously develop PAH. Both 5-HT and linopirdine, a KCNQ K+ channel inhibitor, were found to induce contraction of IPA, but were more potent in IPA from WT mice than 5-HTT+ mice. The 5-HT induced vasoconstriction was found to involve influx of Ca2+ from the extracellular space, Ca2+ release from the sacroplasmic reticulum and a rho kinase–dependent increase in the sensitivity of the contractile machinery of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) to intracellular Ca2+. Ca2+ entered the cell via both voltage operated calcium channels (VOCC), activated by membrane depolarisation, and a separate Ca2+ entry pathway, the latter appearing to contribute more in 5-HTT+ mice. The effects of linopirdine were shown to be due entirely to the entry of Ca2+ through VOCC in both WT and 5-HTT+ mice IPA. The difference in vasoconstrictor potency between WT and 5HTT+ mice was not seen with any other K+ channel blocker, suggesting a selective loss of KCNQ channels and/or VOCC in PAH resulting from 5HTT over expression.

KCNQ channel activity was further investigated using the KCNQ channel openers, flupirtine and retigabine. These agents were more potent in dilating IPA from WT mice compared to 5-HTT+ mice, consistent with the loss of expression or activity of KCNQ channels in 5-HTT+ mice. Despite this, orally administered flupirtine was shown to reverse two indices of established PAH in the 5HTT+ mice; right ventricular pressure and right ventricular hypertrophy. This action of flupirtine was also seen in chronic hypoxic mice, where it prevented the development of PAH.

In conclusion, this study provides evidence of an interaction between KCNQ channels and the 5-HT system in the development of PAH. By showing that a KCNQ channel opener can attenuate PAH, both in the developing and established disease situation, this study proposes a new potential therapeutic target in the treatment of PAH.


This paper is an anthropological attempt to shed some light on the notion of the authenticity of popular music through a comparison and contrast of the practice of recording cover versions in the music industry in Japan and Hong Kong. Both Japan and Hong Kong have a long history of covering foreign music with localized lyrics. However, cover versions enjoy completely different social status and likewise receive different responses in the two places. In Japan, the cover version has been severely criticized as an act of pakuri (plagiarism or copycatting) and thus carries negative connotations. In Hong Kong, the tradition of using foreign, especially Japanese, melodies to record cover versions is as old as the Cantopop recording industry itself. Thus, cover recording is an accepted practice within the industry. This article argues that the different status of cover versions in Japan and Hong Kong has much to do with the respective local musical traditions. It will be shown that the severe criticism of cover versions in Japan is closely related to the neo-nationalism of the 1980s and most importantly with a notion of music authenticity which believes there is a pure Japanese music and cover versions therefore are not regarded as "authentic" Japanese pop music. By contrast, the cultural openness displayed by Cantopop has its historical roots in Cantonese opera where adaptation of foreign melodies has been a normal mode of music production. In short, the contrast between the status of the cover versions and local response in Japan and Hong Kong provide a unique opportunity to look into the differences of Japan and Hong Kong with regard to the definition of music authenticity and its relationship with musical tradition. We can have a better understanding of J-pop and Cantopop than when they are studied individually.


Thyristor based multilevel current reinjection (MLCR) current source converter (CSC) provides self-commutation capability to thyristors. It also has high quality line current waveform by accurately shaping the DC bus current using an auxiliary reinjection bridge. However the theoretical and PSCAD/ETDC simulation analysis do not take into account the inevitable stray capacitances and inductances which may influence the thyristor turn-on/off and the simulation switching model may not represent the switching characteristics of the main bridge thyristors fully or accurately. Questions have been raised about the ability to achieve self-commutation with thyristors and the possibility of operating thyristors with negative firing angles. Therefore, it is necessary to experimentally verify whether neglecting the real-world artefacts actually impedes the performance of thyristor based MLCR CSC. The experimental results presented in this paper prove that the auxiliary reinjection circuit can force the thyristor to commutate independently from their respective line-to-line voltages and thyristor converter can operate with a negative firing angle.


Chinese face is an important cultural concept deeply rooted in Chinese society. Face plays a significant role in Chinese peoples' social interactions. As the Chinese economy grows, there is much opportunity arising from a related growing Chinese outbound tourism market. Subsequently, there is also opportunity for Norwegian tourism personals to explore the Chinese outbound tourism market. By analyzing Chinese face, this thesis aims to promote Norwegian tourism to Chinese tourists and improve service satisfaction. Twenty-six Chinese tourists traveling to Norway in groups were interviewed. Content analysis was used to code collected data into three themes: facedriven motivation and face earning, factors influencing face loss, and effective face saving strategies. Research findings in this thesis identified a changing trend in motivations for visiting Norway; factors that make Chinese tourists sensitive to face loss during an outbound trip; and main points that can effectively save Chinese tourists' face. This study is conducive to understanding Chinese tourists better with the purpose of attracting more Chinese tourists.


Sectoral responses to oil price shocks help determine how these shocks are transmitted through the economy. Textbook treatments of oil price shocks often emphasize negative supply effects on oil importing countries. By contrast, the seminal contribution of Lee and Ni (2002) has shown that almost all U.S. industries experience oil price shocks largely through a reduction in their respective demands. Only industries with very high oil intensities face a supply-driven reduction. In this paper, we re-examine this seminal findings using two additional decades of data. Further, we apply updated empirical methods, including structural factor-augmented vector autoregressions, that take into account how industries are linked among themselves and with the remainder of the macro-economy. Our results confirm the original finding of Lee and Ni that demand effects of oil price shocks dominate in all but a handful of U.S. industries.


We consider the diffraction of a time-harmonic wave incident upon a grating (or periodic) structure. We study mathematical issues that arise in the direct modeling, inverse, and optimal design problems. Particular attention is paid to the variational approach and to finite-element methods. For the direct problem various results on existence, uniqueness, and numerical approximations of solutions are presented. Convergence properties of the variational method and sensitivity to TM polarization are examined. Our recent research on inverse diffraction problems and optimal design problems is also discussed.


Different issues will be raised and highlighted by emerging distributed generations (DGs) into modern power systems in which the islanding detection is the most important. In the islanding situation, a part of the system which consists of at least one DG, passive grid, and local load, becomes fully separated from the main grid. Several detection methods of islanding have been proposed in recent researches based on measured electrical parameters of the system. However, islanding detection based on local measurements suffers from the non-detection zone (NDZ) and undesirable detection during grid-connected events. This paper proposes a passive islanding detection algorithm for all types of DGs by appropriate combining the measured frequency, voltage, current, and phase angle and their rate of changes at the point of common coupling (PCC). The proposed algorithm detects the islanding situation, even with the exact zero power mismatches. Proposed algorithm discriminates between the islanding situation and non-islanding disturbances, such as short circuit faults, capacitor faults, and load switching in a proper time and without mal-operation. In addition, the performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated under different scenarios by performing the algorithm on the IEEE 13-bus distribution system.


The recent adoption of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs, namely mobile phones and radios) in rural areas of Sub- Saharan Africa has brought new evidence that an updated and reliable flow of information can have direct benefits for farmers' welfare. However, if correct market information can benefit the users, incorrect information can be costly. In this study we explore the diffusion (quantity) and the accuracy (quality) of price information among farmers in northern Ghana, with a focus on the role of ICTs.


This article offers a close-reading of geniwate's and Deena Larsen's satirical, ludic Flash fiction The Princess Murderer, with a specific focus on how the text implements second person narration and other forms of the textual "you" in juxtaposition with other narrational stances. We aim to explore the extent to which print-based narratological theories of the textual you apply to the text under investigation, and to outline new directions for research arising from the text's distinct (inter-)medial, literary/reflexive, and ludic qualities. Of particular interest will be the ways in which the reader and his/her role in the cybernetic feedback loop are constructed textually and interactionally. Specifically, we argue that current approaches to the "you" in digital fiction need to be expanded, particularly with respect to its metafictional potential.


Let $W$ be a finite reflection group associated with a root system $R$ in $\mathbb R^d$. Let $C_+$ denote a positive Weyl chamber. Consider an open subset $\Omega$ of $\mathbb R^d$, symmetric with respect to reflections from $W$. Let $\Omega_+=\Omega\cap C_+$ be the positive part of $\Omega$. We define a family $\{-\Delta_{\eta}^+\}$ of self-adjoint extensions of the Laplacian $-\Delta_{\Omega_+}$, labeled by homomorphisms $\eta\colon W\to \{1,-1\}$. In the construction of these $\eta$-Laplacians $\eta$-symmetrization of functions on $\Omega$ is involved. The Neumann Laplacian $-\Delta_{N,\Omega_+}$ is included and corresponds to $\eta\equiv1$. If $H^{1}(\Omega)=H^{1}_0(\Omega)$, then the Dirichlet Laplacian $-\Delta_{D,\Omega_+}$ is either included and corresponds to $\eta={\rm sgn}$; otherwise the Dirichlet Laplacian is considered separately. Applying the spectral functional calculus we consider the pairs of operators $\Psi(-\Delta_{N,\Omega})$ and $\Psi(-\Delta_{\eta}^+)$, or $\Psi(-\Delta_{D,\Omega})$ and $\Psi(-\Delta_{D,\Omega_+})$, where $\Psi$ is a Borel function on $[0,\infty)$. We prove relations between the integral kernels for the operators in these pairs, which are given in terms of symmetries governed by $W$.


The horseshoe prior is frequently employed in Bayesian analysis of high-dimensional models, and has been shown to achieve minimax optimal risk properties when the truth is sparse. While optimization-based algorithms for the extremely popular Lasso and elastic net procedures can scale to dimension in the hundreds of thousands, algorithms for the horseshoe that use Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for computation are limited to problems an order of magnitude smaller. This is due to high computational cost per step and growth of the variance of time-averaging estimators as a function of dimension. We propose two new MCMC algorithms for computation in these models that have improved performance compared to existing alternatives. One of the algorithms also approximates an expensive matrix product to give orders of magnitude speedup in high-dimensional applications. We prove that the exact algorithm is geometrically ergodic, and give guarantees for the accuracy of the approximate algorithm using perturbation theory. Versions of the approximation algorithm that gradually decrease the approximation error as the chain extends are shown to be exact. The scalability of the algorithm is illustrated in simulations with problem size as large as $N=5,000$ observations and $p=50,000$ predictors, and an application to a genome-wide association study with $N=2,267$ and $p=98,385$. The empirical results also show that the new algorithm yields estimates with lower mean squared error, intervals with better coverage, and elucidates features of the posterior that were often missed by previous algorithms in high dimensions, including bimodality of posterior marginals indicating uncertainty about which covariates belong in the model.


Adversarial training (AT) has shown strong regularization effects on deep learning algorithms by introducing small input perturbations to improve model robustness. In language tasks, adversarial training brings word-level robustness by adding input noise, which is beneficial for text classification. However, it lacks sufficient contextual information enhancement and thus is less useful for sequence labelling tasks such as chunking and named entity recognition (NER). To address this limitation, we propose masked adversarial training (MAT) to improve robustness from contextual information in sequence labelling. MAT masks or replaces some words in the sentence when computing adversarial loss from perturbed inputs and consequently enhances model robustness using more context-level information. In our experiments, our method shows significant improvements on accuracy and robustness of sequence labelling. By further incorporating with ELMo embeddings, our model achieves better or comparable results to state-of-the-art on CoNLL 2000 and 2003 benchmarks using much less parameters.


This paper presents the simultaneous application of fast-response pressure transducers and unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (unsteady PSP) for the precise determination of pressure amplitudes and phases up to 3000 Hz. These experiments have been carried out on a low-pressure turbine blade cascade under engine-relevant conditions (Re, Ma, and Tu) in the high-speed cascade wind tunnel. Periodic blade/vane interactions were simulated at the inlet to the cascade using a wake generator operating at a constant perturbation frequency of 500 Hz. The main goal of this paper is the detailed comparison of amplitude and phase distributions between both flow sensing techniques at least up to the second harmonic of the wake generator's fundamental perturbation frequency (i.e., 1000 Hz). Therefore, a careful assessment of the key drivers for relative deviations between measurement results as well as a detailed discussion of the data processing is presented for both measurement techniques. This discussion outlines the mandatory steps which were essential to achieve the quality as presented down to pressure amplitudes of several Pascal even under challenging experimental conditions. Apart from the remarkable consistency of the results, this paper reveals the potential of (unsteady) PSP as a future key flow sensing technique in turbomachinery research, especially for cascade testing. The results demonstrate that PSP was able to successfully sense pressure dynamics with very low fluctuation amplitudes down to 8 Pa.


Sound policy-making about migration –how to distribute responsibility for asylum seekers, how to deal with the issue of secondary movement (when asylum seekers move from one state to another within the EU) and whether migrants are welcome or not – needs to be based on solid evidence. On 16 November 2015, EUROSTAT published comprehensive statistics on the issue of first-residence permits by member states. This CEPS Essay closely examines these data and reports some surprising findings, some of which vary considerably from the impression promoted by the European media.


Teacher Professional Development: Issues and Trends, Charalambos Vrasidas and Gene V. Glass. Online Conferences for Professional Development, Terry Anderson and Jo-An Christiansen. Developing Teacher Knowledge and Pedagogy in a Large-Scale, Electronic Conference Environment for Professional Development, Jenny Leach, Bob McCormick, Bob Moon, and David Harrison. A Computer-Mediated Community of Learners in Teacher Education, Carol Greene and Susan Magliaro. Faculty Incentives and Development for Online Learning, Susan Haag, Leach Folkestad, and Suzanne Dietrich. Online Professional Development: Science Inquiry in the Online Environment, Wynne Harlen and Susan Doubler. Emerging and Experienced Professional Selves in Cyber Discourse, Irit Kupferberg and Miriam Ben Peretz. The MEPP Faculty Experience, Greg Kearsley. Using Web-Based Pedagogical Tools to Support Student Self-Regulation: What do Teachers Need to Know?, Anastasia Kitsantas and Nada Dabbagh. Technology Enhancements across Cultures in Higher Education, Madeline Burgess, Jan Currie, and Dorit Maor. Online Professional Development of Teachers through the Schools Around the World (SAW) Program, May-hung Cheng, Carol Stoel, and Erma Anderson. Preparing Teachers for e-Teaching via e-Learning, Michal Zellermayer, Nili Mor, and Ida Heilweil. Opportunities with e-Learning: Changing Teachers' Pedagogies, Dorit Maor. Design for Success: Applying Progressive Educational Principles Online, Carla Payne. They Understand What It Takes: A Pioneers' View on Teachers' Professional Development, Sanne Akkerman, Ineke Lam, and Wilfried Admiraal. Sustaining Teachers' Efforts in Technology Integration: A Peer-Learning Community Model for Professional Development, Xun Ge and Scoi McAdoo. Shifting the Teaching Paradigm: Professional Development in Online Teaching and Learning, Rigmor George, Denise Wood, and Dale Wache. Understanding Cognitive Transactions in Teaching and Learning within Virtual Communities, Neil Schwartz and Maria Beatrice Ligorio. Developing Online Teacher Video Cases for Learning Technology Integration, Wilhelmina Savenye, Thomas Brush, James Middleton, Ann Igoe, and Terri Kurz. Index.


The United Kingdom Combined Code is today the most fundamental corporate governance code applicable in United Kingdom. The nation of United Kingdom encourages governance practices by implementing the Directive 2006/46/EC on a voluntary basis before being mandatory. While corporate governance is applicable to many corporations, pension providers may be seen as one of the ideal market sector for governing, since they act as institutional investors representing a major shareholder group. Institutional investors may even improve corporate governance practices as they represent a major part of public sector capital. Owning large amount of shares, their function is to supervise in the firms' corporate governance activities in order to monitor the transparency and disclosure procedures. To be able to monitor other companies' activities, pension providers must set up an example for enforcing corporate governance practices themselves and follow them respectively. This descriptive case study observes the corporate governance structures represented in annual reports of five large chosen pension providers during the years 2007 to 2009 capturing the financial crisis occurring in 2008, in United Kingdom. The purpose of the study is to examine if strong corporate governance is incorporated in the following pension providers, Aberdeen Asset Management plc, Aviva plc, Prudential plc, Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited and Standard Life plc. The focus is on board composition and established committees. The scope of this study answers the following research question: How do the five pension providers, Aberdeen, Prudential, Royal London, Standard Life and Aviva, comply with or explain deviations found in their respectively annual reports from 2007-2009 in accordance with the Combined Code 2008 and the Annotated Combined Code 2005? Fundamental for pension providers is to work on a long-term basis with value creation as goal. Still the core focus of corporate governance remains, to create a system offering protection for all stakeholders. As the result shows, all of the five chosen corporations strongly implement national corporate governance practices throughout 2007-2009 on both board composition and established committees. Still, they suffered short-term negative fluctuations from the United Kingdom financial crises in 2008, but recovered shortly afterwards. Even though these fluctuations occurred, all of the corporations have long-term value as one of their main objectives. The long-term value can partly be sustained by strong corporate governance practices as it a main objective in corporate governance.


The epilepsies are common neurologic disorders characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures. Boys, girls, men, and women of all ages are affected by epilepsy and, in many cases, by associated comorbidities as well. The primary courses of treatment are pharmacological, dietary, and/or surgical, depending on several factors, including the areas of the brain affected and the severity of the epilepsy. There is a growing appreciation that sex differences in underlying brain function and in the neurobiology of epilepsy are important factors that should be accounted for in the design and development of new therapies. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge on sex differences in epilepsy and associated comorbidities, with emphasis on those aspects most informative for the development of new pharmacotherapies. Particular focus is placed on sex differences in the prevalence and presentation of various focal and generalized epilepsies; psychiatric, cognitive, and physiologic comorbidities; catamenial epilepsy in women; sex differences in brain development; the neural actions of sex and stress hormones and their metabolites; and cellular mechanisms, including brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling and neuronal-glial interactions. Further attention placed on potential sex differences in epilepsies, comorbidities, and drug effects will enhance therapeutic options and efficacy for all patients with epilepsy. Significance Statement Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that often presents together with various comorbidities. The features of epilepsy and seizure activity as well as comorbid afflictions can vary between men and women. In this review, we discuss sex differences in types of epilepsies, associated comorbidities, pathophysiological mechanisms, and antiepileptic drug efficacy in both clinical patient populations and preclinical animal models.


Violent extremism is one of the major challenges Europe is currently facing. The threat is both external as well as internal as indicated by the rise in home-grown Islamist terrorists, as well as of nationalistic and anti-immigrant movements and far-right aggression. An accurate picture of the spread, nature and trends in the extremist and terrorist activity and actors is paramount to formulating strategic policy approaches and effectively allocating available resources. This publication provides a methodological framework for the establishment of a viable mechanism for monitoring and assessment of the state and developments over time in extremist acts and actors on the national level. The situational assessment is an instrument for systematic collection and analysis of statistical data, open source data and intelligence information pertaining to extremist actors and activities, for the purposes of developing regular situational reports of the spread, nature and trends in extremism and violent radicalisms. Following the application of the situational assessment tool, the publication presents main findings on extremist trends and monitoring capacities in three countries from Central and Southeast Europe: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Greece.


In this paper, we present "k-means+ID3", a method to cascade k-means clustering and the ID3 decision tree learning methods for classifying anomalous and normal activities in a computer network, an active electronic circuit, and a mechanical mass-beam system. The k-means clustering method first partitions the training instances into k clusters using Euclidean distance similarity. On each cluster, representing a density region of normal or anomaly instances, we build an ID3 decision tree. The decision tree on each cluster refines the decision boundaries by learning the subgroups within the cluster. To obtain a final decision on classification, the decisions of the k-means and ID3 methods are combined using two rules: 1) the nearest-neighbor rule and 2) the nearest-consensus rule. We perform experiments on three data sets: 1) network anomaly data (NAD), 2) Duffing equation data (DED), and 3) mechanical system data (MSD), which contain measurements from three distinct application domains of computer networks, an electronic circuit implementing a forced Duffing equation, and a mechanical system, respectively. Results show that the detection accuracy of the k-means+ID3 method is as high as 96.24 percent at a false-positive-rate of 0.03 percent on NAD; the total accuracy is as high as 80.01 percent on MSD and 79.9 percent on DED


1. While the natriuretic peptides (atrial, brain and C-type) mediate potent endothelium-independent vasorelaxing actions in vitro, the role of the endogenous natriuretic peptide system in vascular regulation in vivo remains unclear. 2. HS-142-1 is a novel natriuretic peptide receptor antagonist derived from a fungus named Aureobasidium sp. which selectively blocks particulate guanylate cyclase-linked natriuretic peptide A and B receptors that bind atrial, brain and C-type natriuretic peptide, and thus attenuates the generation of cGMP. 3. To characterize the vascular actions of the endogenous natriuretic peptide system in the control of basal coronary and systemic haemodynamics, six normal male mongrel anaesthetized dogs were studied while a second group of five dogs served as a control. HS-142-1 was given as an intravenous bolus at 3 mg/kg and was studied over five 20 min periods. 4. No significant difference after HS-142-1 was observed in mean arterial pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, right atrial pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure or systemic vascular resistance compared with control. In contrast, a significant increase in coronary vascular resistance and decrease in coronary blood flow were observed which were different from the baseline values and the responses of the control group. 5. These studies demonstrate that HS-142-1 produces vasoconstriction in the coronary circulation. We conclude that the endogenous natriuretic peptide system, which is of cardiac and endothelial cell origin, is an important regulator of basal coronary vascular tone.


While orthokeratology (OK) has shown effective to slow the progression of myopia, it remains unknown how spatially distributed structural stress/tension applying to different regions affects the change of corneal geometry, and consecutive the outcome of myopia control, at fine-grained detail. Acknowledging that the underlying working mechanism of OK lens is essentially mechanics induced refractive parameter reshaping, in this study, we develop a novel mechanics rule guided deep image-to-image learning framework, which densely predicts patient's corneal topography change according to treatment parameters (lens geometry, wearing time, physiological parameters, etc.), and consecutively predicts the influence on eye axial length change after OK treatment. Encapsulated in a U-shaped multi-resolution map-to-map architecture, the proposed model features two major components. First, geometric and wearing parameters of OK lens are spatially encoded with convolutions to form a multi-channel input volume/tensor for latent encodings of external stress/tension applied to different regions of cornea. Second, these external latent force maps are progressively down-sampled and injected into this multi-scale architecture for predicting the change of corneal topography map. At each feature learning layer, we formally derive a mathematic framework that simulates the physical process of corneal deformation induced by lens-to-cornea interaction and corneal internal tension, which is reformulated into parameter learnable cross-attention/self-attention modules in the context of transformer architecture. A total of 1854 eyes of myopia patients are included in the study and the results show that the proposed model precisely predicts corneal topography change with a high PSNR as 28.45dB, as well as a significant accuracy gain for axial elongation prediction (i.e., 0.0276 in MSE). It is also demonstrated that our method provides interpretable associations between various OK treatment parameters and the final control effect.


In United States v. Mead Corp., the Supreme Court limited the reach of its Chevron standard of judicial review for agency statutory interpretations, both by identifying congressional delegation as the premise guiding chevron's scope and by unequivocally resurrecting the standard of review articulated in Skidmore v. Swift & Co. as the alternative where Chevron does not apply. Yet for many courts and commentators, Mead has proven just as confusing and controversial as Chevron, largely because the Court itself has been inconsistent in its rhetoric regarding Mead. Written for a symposium entitled Chevron at 30, this essay attempts to bring some order to the madness by examining three different approaches to Mead, Chevron, and Skidmore reflected in the Court's post-Mead jurisprudence, and also by exploring the circuit courts' handling of the Court's rhetorical inconsistency.


Intelligent techniques to solve the problem of decision-making in project management, apart from the methods of operations research, the choice was made on one of the algorithms of crowd intelligence represented by the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm (ACO)to solve the matter of finding the optimal critical path for the enterprise business network because the business network is more Networks tradition the behavior of the ant colony system to find the optimal critical path for the Critical Path Network(CPN) as. You own a project beginning contract (the first event) equivalent to an ant hill.The project end contract (the last event) is equivalent to the food site.The matter of finding the optimal critical path for the project is equivalent to the search process to find an optimal (the shortest) path between the nest and the food site. The program ANTOCPN, written in Matlab language on a virtual business network. The program is featuring by its efficiency, accuracy of results, and the possibility of applying it to any business network, regard of the degree of complexity in terms of the number of paths (activities), whether real or imaginary, smoothly and easily. Also, the results of the ANTOCPN algorithm program were compared with the results of the genetic algorithm program for the same question GAOCPN for previous research, and the ant algorithm proved its worth in terms of speed in obtaining the optimal solution.


Representationalism is the position that the phenomenal character of an experience is either identical with, or supervenes on, the content of that experience. Many representationalists hold that the relevant content of experience is nonconceptual. I propose a counter-example to this form of representationalism that arises from the phenomenon of Gestalt switching, which occurs when viewing ambiguous figures. First, I argue that one does not need to appeal to the conceptual content of experience or to judgements to account for Gestalt switching. I then argue that experiences of certain ambiguous figures are problematic because they have different phenomenal characters but that no difference in the nonconceptual content of these experiences can be identified. I consider three solutions to this problem that have been proposed by both philosophers and psychologists and conclude that none can account for all the ambiguous figures that pose the problem. I conclude that the onus is on representationalists to specify the relevant difference in content or to abandon their position.


Objective: Depression is a dilapidating disorder, which may occur during pregnancy. Citalopram is an antidepressant drug often prescribed to pregnant women. The purpose of the present study is to determine whether maternal administration of citalopram affects fetal liver histology. Materials and Methods: Pregnant Wistar albino rats were treated with citalopram (10 or 20 mg/kg/day). A control group received no treatment. Rat fetal liver samples were obtained on day 18 of gestation and evaluated morphologically and histologically. Results: Statistical evaluation of data showed that there were no differences in liver weight and relative liver weight between control and citalopram treatment groups. Liver histology changes (such as increases in the number of Kupffer cells and lymphocytes) were seen in the fetuses of the group receiving a high dose of citalopram during gestation. Degeneration of hepatocytes was not seen and the megakaryocyte number did not change significantly in the citalopram treated groups. Conclusion: This study showed that citalopram administration during gestation may have some adverse effects on the phagocytic cell population in the fetal liver of rats.


This article is a case study of how English teachers in England have coped with the paradigm shift from print to digital literacy. It reviews a large scale national initiative that was intended to upskill all teachers, considers its weak impact and explores the author's involvement in the evaluation of the project's direct value to English teachers. It explores how this latter evaluation revealed how best practice in English using ICT was developing in a variable manner. It then reports on a recent small scale research project that investigated how very good teachers have adapted ICT successfully into their teaching. It focuses on how the English teachers studied in the project are developing a powerful new pedagogy situated in the life worlds of their students and suggests that this model may be of benefit to many teachers. The issues this article reports on have resonance in all English speaking countries. This article is also a personal story of the author's close involvement with ICT and English over 20 years, and provides evidence for his conviction that digital technologies will eventually transform English teaching.


Crises are likely to be new normal for developing and transition economies. In designing programs to protect the poor against crises, governments face two uncertainties— uncertainty of crisis type and uncertainty of crisis timing. In the face of these uncertainties, I propose three lines of action for governments and for the international community: (i) Conduct a Social Protection Assessment Program which "stress tests" the collection of social protection interventions against a range of possible crises to reveal gaps and vulnerabilities, (ii) Over the medium term, finance improvements in design to addressing these gaps and vulnerabilities, and (iii) offer a pre-qualified line of assistance for social protection which goes into action automatically when crisis triggers are breached.


The perennial question of efficient markets is whether investors respond rationally to new information. If they "overreact" or "underreact" to a news release, is it a simple error or systematic bias? A major problem in testing this is the need to be clear on what "news" is and when investors learn it. This is especially hard because evaluating new information is inherently subjective and may have its largest impact on what is typically called investor sentiment. In this article, the author focuses on news about the macroeconomy, using textual analysis on news items carried by Thomson Reuters to explore the impact of positive and negative news on implied volatilities (IVs) from SPX options. What should move the market is a change in sentiment, which the author measures by the change in the incidence of positive and negative words in relevant news items. Coefficient estimates across moneyness and maturity are uniformly negative for positive sentiment (good news makes IVs go down) and positive for negative sentiment. Differences show up between puts and calls and across moneyness. Interestingly, the impact is significant in most cases for positive but not negative news. Short maturity out-of-the-money put IVs are particularly sensitive to positive macro information, while negative news affects both calls and puts at the money.


Made by the Keiskamma Art Project in Hamburg in the Eastern Cape, the Keiskamma Altarpiece (2005) speaks of a community negotiating the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS virus. The work is modelled after the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), which was commissioned by the order of St Anthony to provide hope and comfort to victims of ergotism, a gangrenous skin condition, and which (prior to being disassembled) comprised two sets of folding wings with oil paintings by Matthias Grunewald and a central "shrine" with sculptures by Nikolaus Hagenauer. The Keiskamma Altarpiece substitutes the oil paint and limewood carvings of the Renaissance source with embroidery, beadwork and digital photographs.
In this article, I use the idea of "pointure" as the starting point for suggesting how the choice and treatment of materials in the Keiskamma Altarpiece might be read in associative terms. Drawing on the theories of Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger along with work by Norman Bryson, I also explore how the treatment of materials affects the ways in which the work may be comprehended, and propose that a series of visual devices are used which encourage the beholder to experience a sense of being invited into a nurturing milieu associated with a process of healing, which is orchestrated and managed by women.


The research described in this thesis concerns presence of asymptomatic vaginal Candida and vulvovaginal candidiasis. Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is an infection caused by abnormal growth of yeasts in the mucosa of the female genital tract. Acute vulvar pruritus and vaginal discharge are the usual presenting complaints, and vulvovaginal examination frequently reveals epithelial erythema and swelling of the labia and vulva together with adherent whitish discharge. However, due to lack of specificity of signs and symptoms, all patients with symptomatic vaginitis should be diagnosed on the basis of microscopic examination of their vaginal secretions. In the first chapters of this thesis, we examined how general practitioners (GPs) in The Netherlands diagnose and treat vaginal candidiasis, by sending questionnaires to 1160 Dutch GPs and by checking the microscopy performed by 324 Dutch GPs on stained vaginal smears of patients with symptomatic vaginitis. The questionnaires revealed that only 61 (16.1%) Dutch GPs always or often performs microscopy when diagnosing candidiasis, while 143 (37.6%) GPs never use a microscope to confirm their diagnosis. In addition, sensitivity and specificity of the microscopic diagnoses of the clinicians was only 52% and 89% respectively. This suggests that GPs often diagnose 'vulvovaginal candidiasis' in their practices, without (adequately) performing the laboratory examinations required to confirm their putative diagnosis, which could lead to wrong diagnoses and maltreatment. However, Candida (pseudo)hyphae and/or blastospores are also often discovered in cervical smears of asymptomatic women during their childbearing years. Since 1996 all women in the Netherlands between the ages of 30 and 60 receive an invitation once every five years to have a cervical smear taken. These smears are coded according to the Dutch national coding system for cervical cytology (KOPAC). KOPAC is an acronym, in which the O-category stands for ontsteking (inflammation) and the P-category reflects the status of the plaveiselcellen (squamous epithelium). The research described in this thesis involves cervical smears that were taken as part of the national screening program in the western region of The Netherlands and examined by the Leiden Cytology and Pathology Laboratory. The Leiden database, containing the results of the smears of almost 500,000 women, was used to study possible relationships between presence of asymptomatic Candida, immigrant status, (pre)neoplasia, and the incidence of acquiring other vaginal infections in time, by the cytological identification of Candida and other elements of the vaginal flora in smears. This research showed that presence of vaginal Candida is not associated with an increased risk for (pre)neoplastic cells in the same smear and in follow-up smears and does not predispose to an increased susceptibility for Trichomonas vaginalis, Gardnerella vaginalis and Actinomyces. In the last chapter of this thesis we evaluated the association between the bacterial flora and Candida overgrowth in symptomatic women. We noted that recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis is associated with presence of lactobacilli and polymorphonuclear neutrophils in the vaginal smear, but with absence of Gardnerella. Future research should therefore focus on the effect of Candida on the vaginal ecosystem.


Growing literature has documented varying toxic potencies of source- or site-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5), as opposed to the practice that treats particle toxicities as independent of composition given the incomplete understanding of the toxicity of the constituents. Quantifying component-specific contribution is the key to unlocking the geographical disparities of particle toxicity from a mixture perspective. In this study, we performed integrated mixture-toxicity experiments and modeling to quantify the contribution of metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), two default culprit component groups of PM2.5 toxicity, to in vitro oxidative stress caused by wintertime PM2.5 from Beijing and Guangzhou, two megacities in China. PM2.5 from Beijing exhibited greater toxic potencies at equal mass concentrations. The targeted chemical analysis revealed higher burden of metals and PAHs per unit mass of PM2.5 in Beijing. These chemicals together explained 38 and 24% on average of PM2.5-induced reactive oxygen species in Beijing and Guangzhou, respectively, while >60% of the effects remained to be resolved in terms of contributing chemicals. PAHs contributed approximately twice the share of the PM2.5 mixture effects as metals. Fe, Cu, and Mn were the dominant metals, constituting >80% of the metal-shared proportion of the PM2.5 effects. Dibenzo[ a, l]pyrene alone explained >65% of the PAH-shared proportion of the PM2.5 toxicity effects. The significant contribution from coal combustion and vehicular emissions in Beijing suggested the major source disparities of toxicologically active PAHs between the two cities. Our study provided novel quantitative insights into the role of varying toxic component profiles in shaping the differential toxic potencies of city-specific PM2.5 pollution.


Radio is a valuable resource for wireless/mobile communication systems. In this paper, we present an ef-ficient algorithm using a novel triangle communication model to synchronize processes effectively by searching for free channels for wireless mobile communication systems. A geographical area controlled by a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) is divided into many small hexagonal regions called cells. Each cell in a sub-cluster can effectively collect channel information from the first tier of co-channel cells through the triangle communication model. The performance of the communication model is characterized in terms of message complexity, response time and failure locality. For fair evaluation, we introduce a novel metric, which is called Accumulated Failure Locality (AFL). The triangle communication model improves message complexity,response time and AFL of the algorithm. With AFL, we examine our algorithm, and produce an AFL vectr. We discuss the algorithm and prove its correctness. We also show that the algorithm requires at most O(Nsc) messages,where Nsc is the number of cells in a sub-cluster.This is compared to the algorithms [3] which requires O((Ng)2), where Ng is the number of channel groups in the large bandwidth allocated to the system.


Radical sceptical possibilities challenge the anti-realist view that truth consists in ideal rational acceptability. Putnam, as part of his defence of an anti-realist view, subjected the case of the brain in a vat to a semantic externalist treatment, which aimed to maintain the desired connection between truth and ideal rational acceptability. It is argued here that self-consciousness poses special problems for this externalist strategy. It is shown how, on a standard model of first-person reference, Putnam's brain in a vat will be mistaken in its rational self-ascription of externalist predicates. The natural response, which employs an alternative model of first-person reference, is shown to have the equally realist consequence that there are enquiry-transcendent truths about the self. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


By the 1990s, the average speed of trips across London was below that at the beginning of the twentieth century -- before the car was introduced -- and by the end of that decade, public concern over levels of traffic congestion was high. In early 2003, London imposed a congestion charge -- a daily charge for driving or parking a vehicle on public roads within central London between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on workdays. Traffic congestion has declined substantially, and the program is largely popular. This article describes the origins of the London congestion charge, how it overcame practical and theoretical difficulties, and what effects it has had. The introduction of the London congestion charge is, in important respects, a triumph of economics. It represents a high-profile public and political recognition of congestion as a distorting externality and of road pricing as an appropriate policy response.


The supply voltage (V dd) and threshold voltage (V th) are two significant design variables that directly impact the performance and power consumption of circuits. The scaling of these voltages has become a popular option to satisfy performance and low power requirements. Subthreshold operation is a compelling approach for energy-constrained applications where processor speed is less important. However, subthreshold designs show dramatically increased sensitivity to process variations due to the exponential relationship of subthreshold drive current with V th variation and drastically growing leakage power. If there is uncertainty in the value of the threshold or supply voltage, the power advantages of this very low-voltage operation diminishes. This paper presents a statistical methodology for choosing the optimum V dd and V th under manufacturing uncertainties and different operating conditions to minimize energy for a given frequency in subthreshold operation while ensuring yield maximality. Unlike the traditional energy optimization, to find the optimal values for the voltages, we have considered the following factors to make the optimization technique more acceptable: the application-dependent design constraints, variations in the design variables due to manufacturing uncertainty, device sizing, activity factor of the circuit, and power reduction techniques. To maximize the yield, a two-level optimization is employed. First, the design metric is carefully chosen and deterministically optimized to the optimum point in the feasible region. At the second level, a tolerance box is moved over the design space to find the best location in order to maximize the yield. The feasible region, which is application dependent, is constrained by the minimum performance and the maximum ratio of leakage to total power in the V dd -V th plane. The center of the tolerance box provides the nominal design values for V dd and V th such that the design has a maximum immunity to the variations and maximizes the yield. The yield is estimated directly using the joint cumulative distribution function over the tolerance box requiring no numerical integration and saving considerable computational complexity for multidimensional problems. The optimal designs, verified by Monte Carlo and SPECTRE simulations, demonstrate significant increase in yield. By using this methodology, yield is found to be strongly dependent on the design metrics, circuit switching activity, transistor sizing, and the given constraints.


Interdisciplinary approaches are useful because they help to clarify and overcome the blind spots inescapable in any scientific theory. Combining psychoanalytic and evolutionary accounts of the human psychic system can therefore have interesting outcomes. It is important in any interdisciplinary approach, however, to investigate the metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions that serve as background to the theories in question, and to investigate the potential for compatibility on that level. In this paper the metaphysical backgrounds of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis and neo-Darwinian theory of evolution are analysed and tested as to their compatibility. It is argued that evolutionary psychology, in so far as it finds its inspiration in neo-Darwinian theory, is not compatible with psychoanalysis where it is inspired by the theory of complexly organized dynamical systems. One one side, there is a black-boxing of the structural and developmental conditions of psychic systems, and on the other, there is a focus on the ultimate causes, as distinguished from the proximate causes. Taking into account these incompatibilities, it is highly unlikely that evolutionary psychology will prove of much use to psychoanalysis, either in theory or in practice.


This article draws out some of the implications of the fact that what anthropologists claim to know, or want to say, is unavoidably and in complicated ways bound by the ethics of involvement, detachment, and institutional location. I will first consider the increasingly common practice of circulating the output of anthropological research within the social context of its fieldwork, among the various research participants and interlocutors. Second, I will try to account for the sometimes negative reception of ethnographic accounts, especially where the research has focused on organizations (e.g., NGOs), activists, or others professionally concerned with public representations of their work. Third, I will reconsider the notion of "speaking truth to power" by pointing to the unacknowledged power of ethnographic description. Finally, I will suggest that ethical concerns are generated as much by thetheoretical framing of research as by fieldwork practice, and that these are matters of choice rather than inherent in the ethnographic method.


Magnetic amidoximated nanocomposites based on a combination of chitosan and magnetic laponite RD were prepared and examined for the removal of Cu$^{2+}$ from aqueous solutions. Magnetic laponite RD was prepared by an in situ method. In order to prepare magnetic amidoximated nanocomposites, acrylonitrile was grafted to chitosan in the presence of magnetic laponite RD. Then the nitrile pendants on magnetic chitosan-g-polyacrylonitrile/laponite RD (mChtioPANLap) were converted to amidoxime groups. We developed a polyamidoximated magnetic nanocomposite based on a mixture of chitosan/laponite RD, possessing a high adsorption capacity for Cu$^{2+}$. By introducing magnetic laponite RD the adsorption capacity of nanocomposites for Cu$^{2+}$ was significantly improved. The effects of contact time, initial concentration of Cu$^{2+}$, initial pH of Cu$^{2+}$ solutions, and temperature on adsorption process were investigated. Studying adsorption kinetics showed that the experimental data are described better by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption of Cu$^{2+}$ on nanocomposites followed the Langmuir isotherm model well. Additionally, the fitting of isotherm data by the Dubinin-Radushkevich model showed that the adsorption process occurred by physisorption mechanism. The thermodynamic data indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic.


Globally, the number of adults hospitalized with dengue has increased markedly in recent years. It has been suggested that hepatic dysfunction is more significant in this group than among children. We describe the spectrum and evolution of disease manifestations among 644 adults with dengue who were prospectively recruited on admission to a major infectious disease hospital in southern Vietnam and compare them with a group of patients with similar illnesses not caused by dengue. Transaminase levels increased in virtually all dengue patients and correlated with other markers of disease severity. However, peak enzyme values usually occurred later than other complications. Clinically severe liver involvement was infrequent and idiosyncratic, but usually resulted in severe bleeding. Chronic co-infection with hepatitis B was associated with modestly but significantly increased levels of alanine aminotransferase, but did not otherwise impact the clinical picture.


The geometry of arterial bifurcations appears to play a significant role in the development of vascular disease. We have investigated the changes in bifurcation geometry with changes in distending pressure over the range 0.0 to 190.0 mm Hg. Five cerebral arterial bifurcations from human subjects were studied. The investigation focussed on the shape and on changes in the shape of the leading edge of the flow divider (internal apical curve). The curve outline at each transmural pressure increment (each 10.0 mm Hg) was photographed and digitized. The curves were plotted serially on an expanded scale. Visual comparison of the curves indicated flattening in the central region and broadening of the shoulders of the curves with increasing transmural pressure. Regression analysis using second order polynomials was used to obtain coefficients for equations defining short, overlapping segments of each curve. Twenty-four coordinates were used for each successive regression. Each curve was characterized by 85 to 100 digitized coordinates. The regression equations for each curve were used to calculate the curvature parameter, K, and the radius of curvature, R. Three of the five bifurcations demonstrated a negative correlation of K with increasing transmural pressure (p less than .001). This result supports the visual observation that the internal apical curve flattens with increasing transmural pressure. Flattening of the internal apical curve together with thinning of the arterial wall with increasing transmural pressure would contribute to a stress concentration at the apex of a cerebral bifurcation. This stress concentration would be more pronounced in the presence of a medial gap at the apex of the bifurcation. It is on or near this region of stress concentration that aneurysms develop.


Ionic complexes of azobenzenes and dendritic structures are shown to exhibit efficient light-induced mass transport upon irradiation with a light interference pattern. Surface-relief gratings (SRGs) with modulation depths of up to 550 nm were successfully inscribed. We compare the SRG formation in three generations of supramolecular dendrons, dendrimers, and dendronized polymers and demonstrate that the grating formation process is destructed by the existence of self-assembled structures as well as by overly large size of the dendronic complexes.


We employed an instrumental case study of a multisystem hydroelectric power producer, a high-reliability organization (HRO), to explore how new knowledge is created in a context in which errors may result in destruction, catastrophic consequences, and even loss of human life. The findings indicate that knowledge creation is multilevel, nested within three levels of paradox: paradox of knowing, paradox of practice, and paradox of organizing. The combination of the lack of opportunity for errors with the dynamism of the HRO context necessitates that individuals work through multiple paradoxes to generate and formalize new knowledge. The findings contribute to the literature on knowledge creation in context by explicating the work practices associated with issue recognition, resolution, and refinement, and the formalization of knowledge in failure-intolerant organizations.


This article reports on a scenario workshop (SW) for water resources management at the island of Naxos, Greece. The workshop was part of a European research project studying the advantages and limitations of different participatory methods in the context of the Water Framework Directive. It involved policy makers, scientists, business representatives, and citizens from different parts of the island. On the first day, participants worked to envision a sustainable development future for the island and its water resources. Discussion was inspired by four alternative water development scenarios prepared by the organizers. Participants' vision statements emphasized a diversified development path and balanced water solutions. On the second day, participants worked to plan the actions needed to realize their common vision. The SW turned out to be a good method to initiate a multipartner dialogue, to include new stakeholders in the water policy debate, and to a certain extent, to promote learning between participants. On the other hand, it did not appear well suited to resolve conflicts and aid decisions in the face of scientific complexity and uncertainty. SW seems to be a good method for the "upstream," preparatory, capacity‐building tasks of a planning process but not for the production of substantive decision outputs such as consensual agreements or action plans. The Naxos experiment also raised the centrality of framing, participant selection, and facilitation in participatory processes.


Beginning Java 8 Fundamentals provides a comprehensive approach to learning the Java programming language, especially the object-oriented fundamentals necessary at all levels of Java development. Author Kishori Sharan provides over 90 diagrams and 240 complete programs to help beginners and intermediate level programmers learn the topics faster. Starting with basic programming concepts, the author walks you through writing your first Java program step-by-step. Armed with that practical experience, you'll be ready to learn the core of the Java language. The book continues with a series of foundation topics, including using data types, working with operators, and writing statements in Java. These basics lead onto the heart of the Java language: object-oriented programming. By learning topics such as classes, objects, interfaces, and inheritance you'll have a good understanding of Java's object-oriented model. The final collection of topics takes what you've learned and turns you into a real Java programmer. You'll see how to take the power of object-oriented programming and write programs that can handle errors and exceptions, process strings and dates, format data, and work with arrays to manipulate data. What youll learn How to write your first Java programs with an emphasis on learning object-oriented programming in Java What are data types, operators, statements, classes and objects How to do exception handling, assertions, strings and dates, and object formatting What are regular expressions and how to use them How to work with arrays, interfaces, enums,and inheritance How to deploy Java applications on memory-constrained devices using compact profiles Who this book is for This book is for those who are new to Java programming, who may have some or even no prior programming experience.


This paper presents the results of the development and application of the shape optimization method of a high pressure steam turbine stage, which takes into account the nature of the flow around the turbine profiles and leakages through the radial seals. Computational fluid dynamic methods (ANSYS CFX) were used to calculate the stage flow characteristics. A comprehensive three-step verification of the computational model was carried out before its optimization. As a result of the optimization a new stage with an efficiency increase of 0.48 % compared to the original design was obtained. The reasons leading to this performance boost were analyzed and are presented here.


According to the World Health Organization, "commercial sex" is the exchange of money or goods for sexual services, and this term can be applied to both consensual and nonconsensual exchanges. Some nonconsensual exchanges qualify as human trafficking. Whether the form of commercial sex that is also known as prostitution should be decriminalized is being debated contentiously around the world, in part because the percentage of commercial sex exchanges that are consensual as opposed to nonconsensual, or trafficked, is unknown. This paper explores the question of decriminalization of commercial sex with reference to the bioethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and respect for autonomy. It concludes that though there is no perfect policy solution to the various ethical problems associated with commercial sex that can arise under either criminalized or decriminalized conditions, the Nordic model offers several potential advantages. This model criminalizes the buying of sex and third-party brokering of sex (i.e., pimping) but exempts sex sellers (i.e., prostitutes, sex workers) from criminal penalties. However, ongoing support for this type of policy should be contingent upon positive results over time.


Courts and commentators have assumed that the Erie doctrine, while originating in diversity cases, applies in all cases whatever the basis for federal jurisdiction. Thus, when a federal court asserts jurisdiction over pendent state law claims through the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction in a federal question case, courts regularly apply the Erie doctrine to resolve conflict between federal and state law. This Article shows why this common wisdom is wrong.
To understand why, it is necessary to return to Erie's goals, elaborated over time by the U.S. Supreme Court. Erie and its progeny are steeped in diversity-driven policy concerns: concerns about unequal treatment based on state citizenship and forum shopping figure most prominently. The first concern, while salient in any diversity of citizenship case, simply has no application in cases in which subject matter jurisdiction is founded upon "arising under" jurisdiction. And the second Erie-derived principle, avoiding forum shopping, while relevant to federal question cases, has a different federalism timbre in diversity cases. In diversity cases, forum shopping for certain substantive rules may deprive state courts of the opportunity to adjudicate claims that involve state law through and through. In jurisdiction founded on a federal question, by contrast, litigants are encouraged to resort to the uniformity, experience, and solicitude of federal courts; certain kinds of forum shopping are overtly welcomed, if not encouraged. Thus, this Article shows that Erie applies, but differently, in cases founded on federal question jurisdiction. In so doing, it provides a new framework — what I call, borrowing from administrative law scholarship, "Erie Step Zero" — for considering Erie questions in their proper jurisdictional context, ensuring that federal law is not unnecessarily displaced by a reflexive application of Erie in any case in which a state law claim is presented.


Ozone (O 3 ) profiles recorded over Beijing from 1995 to 2005 by the Measurement of Ozone and Water Vapor by Airbus In-Service Aircraft (MOZAIC) program were analyzed to provide a first climatology of tropospheric O 3 over Beijing and the North China Plains (NCPs), one of the most populated and polluted regions in China. A pooled method was adopted in the data analysis to reduce the influence of irregular sampling frequency. The tropospheric O 3 over Beijing shows a seasonal and vertical distribution typical of mid-latitude locations in the Northern Hemisphere, but has higher daytime concentrations in the lower troposphere, when compared to New York City, Tokyo, and Paris at similar latitude. The tropospheric O 3 over Beijing exhibits a common summer maximum and a winter minimum, with a broad summer maximum in the middle troposphere and a narrower early summer (June) peak in the lower troposphere. Examination of meteorological and satellite data suggests that the lower tropospheric O 3 maximum in June is a result of strong photochemical production, transport of regional pollution, and possibly also more intense burnings of biomass in Central-Eastern China. Trajectory analysis indicates that in summer the regional pollution from the NCPs, maybe mixed with urban plumes from Beijing, played important roles on the high O 3 concentrations in the boundary layer, but had limited impact on the O 3 concentrations in the middle troposphere. A comparison of the data recorded before and after 2000 reveals that O 3 in the lower troposphere over Beijing had a strong positive trend (approximately 2% per year from 1995 to 2005) in contrast to a flat or a decreasing trend over Tokyo, New York City, and Paris, indicating worsening photochemical pollution in Beijing and the NCPs.


A Research Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master of Education (Special Education) in the School Of Education and Human Resource Development of Kenyatta University, March 2007


This study was a quantitative test of Pampering Theory. I predicted that those who have experienced role performance anxiety throughout their lifetime will be more likely than those who have not to use alcohol and drugs to overcome situations which cause role performance anxiety along with experimentation with cocaine hydrochloride. Using the National Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (N= 43, 093), I performed logistic regressions examining the significance of role performance anxiety in predicting subsequent alcohol and drug use and experimentation. The prediction of higher levels of cocaine hydrochloride experimentation by those suffering from role performance anxiety throughout their lifetime was only weakly shown. Results indicated a contemporaneous significant relationship between role performance anxiety and experimentation with hallucinogens and amphetamines. The discussion provides a theoretical grounding for the findings of my study and suggestions for future examination of lesser mental health problems and comorbid alcohol and


The average weight of employees in the United States workforce is increasing. Importantly, relatively heavier employees are often subject to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination based solely on their weight. These biases may be further influenced by factors such as employee gender and the specific nature of the job. Thus, we employ the stereotype content model (SCM) to examine the multiplicative effects of weight and gender and argue that perceptions of employee warmth are more salient than perceptions of employee competence in customer service contexts. In support of our hypotheses, we found that weight and gender interacted to influence warmth, such that heavy women were perceived to be higher in warmth relative to less heavy women (with no effect for men). Furthermore, perceptions of warmth predicted service satisfaction, whereas perceptions of competence did not. Finally, perceptions of warmth (but not competence) explained the relations between weight and gender and service satisfaction for female (but not male) customer service agents. We end with a discussion of the theoretical implications related to the SCM along with practical implications for service industry organizations and employees.


In books, television programs, and films, Jewish men are often depicted as erudite, comedic, malleable, and non-threatening - somewhere between Clark Kent and the early Woody Allen. Yet as Warren Rosenberg shows in this illuminating study, this widespread cultural image is not only overly simplistic, it is at odds with a legacy of Jewish male violence that goes back to the first chapters of Genesis when Cain slew Abel. From Biblical depictions of heroic wariors like King David to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem (a fierce man of clay created by Cabalistic magic) to the fictional Alexander Portnoy, Jewish ideas of manhood reflect a simultaneous resistance and attraction to violence. According to Rosenberg, it is an ambivalence shaped by millennia of oppression as well as by the clash of Western ideas of masculinity with Eastern European rabbirical injunctions against violent action. The result has been not only gender confusion, but a suppressed rage evident in a broad range of texts created by Jewish men, from nineteenth-century Yiddish stories to contemporary Hollywood films. Isaac Babel, Henry Roth, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, David Mamet, Barry Levinson, and Steven Spielberg are just some of the writers and filmmakers whose lives and works are marked by this legacy of rage. Yet if the need to affirm masculinity through violence remains an unacknowledged aspect of Jewish male identity, Rosenberg argues, it is not a historical inevitability. As the work of Cynthia Ozick and Tony Kushner suggests, it is possible to construct new ideas of Jewish manhood by exposing the hidden fallacies of the old.


This paper examines the Mach-US operating system, its unique architecture, and the lessons demonstrated through its implementation.

Mach-US is an object-oriented multi-server OS which runs on the Mach3.0 kernel. Mach-US has a set of separate servers supplying orthogonal OS services and a library which is loaded into each user process. This library uses the services to generate the semantics of the Mach2.5/4.3BSD application programmers interface (API). This architecture makes Mach-US a flexible research platform and a powerful tool for developing and examining various OS service options.

We will briefly describe Mach-US, the motivations for its design choices, and its demonstrated strengths and weaknesses. We will then discuss the insights that we've acquired in the areas of multi-server architecture, OS remote method invocation, Object Oriented technology for OS implementation, API independent OS services, UNIX API re-implementation, and smart user-space API emulation libraries.


A pulsar in orbit with two other stars—the first trio of its kind ever discovered—could soon be used to put the general theory of relativity, Einstein9s theory of gravity, to an unprecedented test. Astronomers at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia announced the discovery of the exotic stellar system this week. A pulsar is a spinning neutron star, the superdense leftover core of a supernova. As it whirls, it emits a beam of radio waves that sweeps the sky as steadily as the ticking of an atomic clock. By tracking tiny variations in the flashing, astronomers can tell the masses and motions of other bodies in orbit around it. Researchers hope to use that information to see whether Einstein correctly described the nature of mass, a basic tenet of general relativity.