RIETI conducted the Survey of Big Data Use and Innovation in Japanese Manufacturing Firms in 2015. This paper uses this survey data, linked with TSR data of inter-firm transactions, to examine the relationship between supplier and customer (business partner) network structures and the data sharing with these business partners. It is found that, in general, the number of suppliers is positively correlated with the likelihood of internal use of data and data sharing with suppliers, customers, and other third-party firms. On the contrary, the number of customers is negatively correlated with data use and sharing, especially with customers. The analysis results also show that long-term relationships with suppliers contribute negatively to data sharing, but contribute positively to data sharing with customers. Interestingly, the more customers a firm's suppliers have, or the more suppliers a firm's customers have in their transaction networks, the less likely it is that the firm shares big data with other third-party firms. We find that data sharing has a positive and significant impact on firm productivity. However, we find no positive contribution of data sharing to attracting new customers or suppliers. We do not find any significant effect of data sharing on the extensive margin of transactions.


As the number of non-native speakers of English studying at universities in the United Kingdom (UK) has grown, so has the need to provide pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses. One of the challenges facing the organisers of such courses is deciding how to determine whether students have completed them successfully and whether they are ready to enter their academic departments. This paper reviews research into assessment on pre-sessional and other EAP support courses, and summarises the results of a survey of practice in a number of universities in the UK and other countries. It describes how assessment on pre-sessional courses has evolved at one British institution (Lancaster University), and outlines some of the problems that have led to changes in recent years. Explanations will be given of the methods used to pilot and refine a new assessment procedure and of the attempts that have been made to investigate its validity.


Radiologic Procedure Rating Comments RRL* X-ray sacroiliac joints 9 ☢ ☢ X-ray spine 9 Complementary examination to x-ray of the sacroiliac joints. ☢ ☢ ☢ CT sacroiliac joints without IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ CT sacroiliac joints with IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ CT sacroiliac joints without and with IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ ☢ CT spine without IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ CT spine with IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ CT spine without and with IV contrast 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ ☢ MRI sacroiliac joints without and with IV contrast 1 O MRI sacroiliac joints without IV contrast 1 O MRI spine without and with IV contrast 1 O MRI spine without IV contrast 1 O Tc-99m bone scan with SPECT spine 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ FDG-PET CT whole body 1 ☢ ☢ ☢ ☢ US sacroiliac joints 1 O


This article examines Saudi Arabia's introduction of the Internet, and the manner in which the Kingdom has sought to balance the communications, business, and economic advantages of the Information Revolution with the country's conservative form of Islam. The article also examines the use of the Internet by the Saudi opposition abroad and the government's efforts to filter these sites and other sites the government deems objectionable. Thus the government seeks to use the Internet for modernization and business uses, but to prevent globalization from affecting the traditional mores of the Kingdom. Despite efforts at centralization and control, the nature of the Internet has meant that control is not absolute. Since its founding in 1902, the modern Saudi state has struggled to centralize and bring its traditional, tribal, and decentralized society under its cultural, ideological, and religious hegemony. Over the years, various social groups have challenged the state's centralizing policies. For example, The military-tribal group known as the Ikhwan had to be confronted and was suppressed in 1930, and a radical Islamic trend raised its head in the late 1970s and mid-1990s. Both tried to confront the Saudi Royal Family's monopoly on government and Islam. The Al Sa'ud have been largely successful in this centralizing process. Yet, in the past few years, a new challenge has arisen in the form of the Internet, and it is a decentralizating juggernaut. The Saudis, however, seem well-prepared for this latest test. On the face of it, the Internet offers wondrous possibilities for business, education, culture, and the general increase of the flow of information across boundaries. But benefiting from the Internet seems to require the openness of society. For the New York Times' Tom Friedman, author of the best-selling The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, those countries that are not open enough to allow the free flow of information will be left behind, in a process that he calls "creative destruction." Friedman is a globalization guru, and the book is not without its critics, but few argue with his contention that societies that buck the globalization trend will be unable to participate in the economic benefits of this mega-force. Friedman admits, however, that globalization and the Internet are also "producing a powerful backlash from those brutalized or left behind by the system."' Moreover, the Internet, according to Friedman, is homogenizing, and this means, to a large degree, Americanizing. Such cultural domination is opposed by many societies, who fear that their own culture and its values will be swallowed up by the American colossus. Finally, the Internet can be challenging to the policy of governments as they try to control the free flow of information they oppose. The 1997 Nobel Prize for Peace was granted to Jody Williams, an American woman who has campaigned to ban landmines. The Big Five powers opposed the treaty to ban landmines, but she persisted in her fight. Her secret weapon, she was asked? "E-mail."'2 The Internet, therefore, is both a blessing and a curse. It is natural to want to reap the touted benefits of a globalized world, but if a society is not enamored of a system seemingly run under an American hegemony, or if a government has political, social, or religious objections to the free flow of information, then globalization and its vehicle, the Internet, pose serious problems.' SAUDI ARABIA AND THE INTERNET THE DEBATE It is a truism that Saudi Arabia is a very conservative society. Unlike any other state in the region, its founding raison d'etre is Islam. Its founders sought to project an image of selfless devotion to the establishmnent of a purely Islamic state in the land of Islam's birth, the land of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia considers Islam to be its constitution and to be run entirely according to Islamic law, the shari'a, as determined by the men of religion, the Vama'. …


Experts emphasize routines as a paramount practice in successful child rearing (Fiese, 2002). Only recently, however, has empirical evidence begun to corroborate this theory. While many researchers and clinicians have documented the use of daily child routines in their parenting packages and treatment studies, none has measured the effects of child routines directly. The emergence of The Child Routines Questionnaire offered ample evidence of the importance of child routines in school-age children. Significant findings link a lack of routines to child behavior problems, poor parenting practices, and parental psychopathology (Sytsma et al., 2001; Sytsma-Jordan, Kelley, & Henderson, 2002; Jordan, 2003). These data have offered insightful correlation between routines and overall child adjustment, and parental well-being.
The present study aimed to contribute to this literature by extending the CRQ to children ages one to five years through development and validation of the Child Routines Questionnaire: Preschool. An initial item pool yielded 62 items categorically grouped for expert review. After reducing the item pool to 42 items, the initial version of the scale was administered to a moderately large heterogeneous sample of mothers (n = 337). After further item elimination, a final scale of 35 items was administered to a new diverse sample of mothers (n = 175), as well as fathers (n = 51), to explore validity and additional reliability.
The CRQ: P established good internal consistency, adequate test-retest reliability, and good inter-rater reliability, as well as moderate evidence of concurrent validity. As expected, the CRQ: P demonstrated a positive relationship with measures of solid family routines and positive parenting practices. Conversely, results indicated an inverse relationship between daily child routines and child behavior problems, poor child adaptability, parental stress, parent-child dysfunction, and maternal depression.
The current study offered preliminary psychometric properties of the CRQ: P.
Additional data are needed to further evaluate evidence of validity and reliability of the scale. The CRQ: P presents as a promising assessment tool to contribute to our general understanding of child routines in early development for both researchers and clinicians alike.


Teachers play an important role in the success of inclusive practices for diverse learners in regular classrooms. It is, therefore, important to examine their beliefs and preparation to teach in inclusive classrooms. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the attitude of active Chilean teachers (n = 569) towards inclusion, their self-efficacy regarding inclusive practices, and their intention to teach in inclusive classrooms. Our secondary objectives were to explore the relationship between their attitudes and self-efficacy and to determine the influence of demographic and professional variables on these two constructs. A positive and significant relationship between teachers' attitude and self-efficacy was found. Teacher qualification was not significantly related to attitudes towards inclusion but was negatively associated with their self-efficacy beliefs concerning inclusive practices. Secondary education teachers reported lower teaching efficacy beliefs for inclusion than pre-school, primary, and special education teachers. The type of school emerged as a significant predictor of teachers' attitude and self-efficacy beliefs. The implications of this research and need for additional teacher and in-service training to improve educators' attitudes and self-efficacy are discussed.


A three-dimensional (3D) tongue model has been developed using MR images of a reference subject producing 44 artificially sustained Swedish articulations. Based on the difference in tongue shape between the articulations and a reference, the six linear parameters jaw height, tongue body, tongue dorsum, tongue tip, tongue advance and tongue width were determined using an ordered linear factor analysis controlled by articulatory measures. The first five factors explained 88% of the tongue data variance in the midsagittal plane and 78% in the 3D analysis. The six-parameter model is able to reconstruct the modelled articulations with an overall mean reconstruction error of 0.13 cm, and it specifically handles lateral differences and asymmetries in tongue shape. In order to correct articulations that were hyperarticulated due to the artificial sustaining in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition, the parameter values in the tongue model were readjusted based on a comparison of virtual and natural linguopalatal contact patterns, collected with electropalatography (EPG). Electromagnetic articulography (EMA) data was collected to control the kinematics of the tongue model for vowel-fricative sequences and an algorithm to handle surface contacts has been implemented, preventing the tongue from protruding through the palate and teeth.


Despite the proclaimed crisis of the university, lecture halls attracted unprecedented attention from social movements in Poland in 2013. This paper presents interventions in lectures and analyses the consequences of such interventions, focusing on the learning of various actors. Our scope of interest includes protests revolving around academia, but we focus especially on interventions in lectures in Poland in 2013. We compared three cases of interventions in lectures with one from 2009, in which we participated, and upon which we had previously drawn a model of learning. As a result of this comparison, we added an external, watching subject to our model, because with the growing use of video recording, such interventions easily turn into a spectacle.


This paper studies the impact of income and payroll taxes on intensive and extensive labor supply decisions for workers ages 55-74 using the Health and Retirement Study. The literature provides little guidance about the responsiveness of this population to tax incentives, though the tax code is potentially an important mechanism that can alter retirement incentives. We model labor force participation decisions and labor earnings as functions of taxes, and we use the intensive margin to inform estimation of the extensive margin equation. Our method accounts for selection into labor force participation with a plausibly exogenous shock to employment. We use the results of our intensive labor supply estimation to predict the after-tax labor earnings of every person in our sample, including those that do not work. This method allows us to generate consistent estimates of the impact of taxes on employment and retirement. We find large compensated elasticities on the intensive margin. These results are imprecise, but they are statistically significant for women. On the extensive margin, we find significant effects on labor force participation and, for men, retirement decisions. Our estimates suggest that an age-targeted tax reform that eliminates payroll taxes for older workers would decrease the percentage of workers dropping out of the labor force by 1 percentage point, a 4% decrease.


Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business and Proven Tactics That Really Work By Timothy L Keinmgham, Terry G Vavra, Lerzan Aksoy, Henri Wallard Wiley, New York, 2005; Pages: 254; Price : US$ 31.99; ISBN: 10-0-471-74315-1 Customer loyalty is a concept that has enjoyed wide attention in the marketing literature for many years. In spite of its importance not much of literature exists on the measurement of customer loyalty. Generally, loyalty something, which consumers exhibit to brands, services, stores, product categorie and activities. Customer loyalty is feature of people rather than something inherent in brands. The competition for customer retention is intensifying day by day. But most of the businesses are not taking full advantage of customer loyalty as one of the strategies to retain their customers. Managers all over the world are slowly realizing the fact that the customer loyalty strategies which they were using for so long are not easily getting translated into business success. The goal of authors in this book is to help) the managers to devise their owri customer loyalty programs, implement them and monitor them on a regular basis. In the book the authors have identified fifty-three most accepted notions about customer loyalty and criticized all of them with real world examples. They have also put forward certain strategies in the name of "Loyalty Truths" to put businesses back on track. The book seems to be clearly divided into two parts. The first part consisting of six chapters debunks the fifty-three common loyalty myths held by businesses for a long time. The second part, comprising two chapters, deals with "the foundations of customer loyalty" and "the right way to manage for customer loyalty." Each of the six chapters contains various loyalty myths based on their common themes viz. "Loyalty Myths That Subvert Company Goals," "Loyalty Myths Concerning Loyalty Programs," "Loyalty Myths Regarding Employees," etc. Each and every myth has been dismantled with examples from the business world. Some examples from the book are the following: Loyalty Myth 1: The number one goal of any firm should be customer loyalty. But the authors state that many broke-butbeloved companies have gone bankrupt. The example put forward by the authors is that of Apple Computer which always had stronger customer loyalty than Microsoft and Intel, but lost the computer battle. The fact is that the fundamental purpose of a business is to identify and satisfy customer needs at a profit. Loyalty Myth 2: Firms should emphasize retention efforts rather than acquisition activities. The most obvious flaw in this misconception is its complete disregard for the product life cycle. In the early years of a product, customer acquisition is critical and in the later stages of the lifecycle customer retention becomes more important. Loyalty Myth 3: Companies should strive to make all of their customers attitudinally and/or behaviorally loyal. The underlying assumption in this myth is that all customers are or can be made profitable for a firm. But a close examination of customer profitability reveals that some of the customers are highly profitable while others are highly unprofitable. It is suicidal for a firm to retain the unprofitable customers. …


To promote understanding of lithospheric-atmospheric interactions during seismic activity, this study investigated the spatial and temporal variations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) associated with eight recent strong earthquakes (EQs; M w > 8.0) with focal depths of less than 30 km. All EQs occurred after 2009 and therefore have AQUA satellite moderate - resolution imaging spectroradiometer data for the EQ-af-fected areas. This study aims to extract aerosol anomalies before and after large EQs along the coastline. Spatially, AOD anomalies occurred around the EQ epicenters at a monthly scale with longer duration prior to the EQ compared to that after EQ, which may be related to the ground stress variation. Generally, AOD spatial variations increased, then decreased, and finally increased again before returning to normal levels over an 8-day time frame around each event. Temporally, at an annual scale, high anomalous AOD values (> 3.0) appeared before all eight strong EQs with high frequencies of anomalous AOD values occurring both prior to and after EQs. Compared with the control values, AOD values within the affected areas showed an abnormal uplift and downtrend before each EQ event. The AOD values over the control pixels were significantly lower than those over the selected AOD anomaly pixels during the same periods. To eliminate the potential bias from satellites, the result of AERONET daily average AOD data at 500 nm showed that a sudden increase of AOD appeared before and after EQs. AOD anomalies occurred before, during, and after each of the eight strong EQs in offshore regions, partially because of the release of surface latent heat and related atmospheric reactions that increased aerosol concentrations, excluding the effects of the wind field near the earth. The mechanisms behind these AOD anomalies still need to be identified.


We report on a comparative study of online search behavior and the traditional industrial era media of metropolitan newspapers and primetime broadcast television. Does the public sphere look any different when viewed through a typical search engine? From data collected in 2006 and 2007 we find that online search has a surprisingly large component of information seeking about specific commercial products and services. We compare the character of this search behavior with the traditional categories of displayoriented push advertising in traditional media and banner ads and pop-ups online.A typical search also has a large component of attention to celebrity, sports and gossip, but not surprisingly so does a typical newspaper and television schedule. A preliminary analysis of content categories reveals a reasonably similar picture for push and pull patterns with the possible exception of international news which, paradoxically, given the global character of the Internet, appears to be relatively neglected in typical American search behavior.We review the limitations of extrapolating from a small sample, a modest content analytic coding scheme and a single point in a fast-moving historical process. We review the ramifications for theory building and further research on understanding the dynamics of new media adoption and use.


This paper discusses the history of irrigation development and related land allocation in the Bagre area in the South of Burkina Faso. It specifically analyses current processes at play as part of the recent Bagre Growth Pole Project implemented by the government of Burkina Faso with support of the World Bank. The paper stresses the efforts made to put in place a fair and equitable compensation mechanism for the people being affected by the extension of the irrigated area downstream of the Bagre dam. The practicalities and thresholds considered in the compensation scheme are partly driven by the need to free some rainfed land to allow agro-entrepreneurs to settle in the area, financially contribute to the infrastructural costs of developing irrigation, and develop intensive and profitable irrigated production systems. This leads to socially constructing land scarcity, and thre atens the future viability of smallholder farming. This happens even though the expressions of interests received to date by Bagrepole from agro-entrepreneurs appear little likely to trigger the virtuous development circle hoped for. (Resume d'auteur)


Wearable technology (wearable gadgets) means electronics that can be worn on the body using an invasive (implants) or non-invasive (external accessories) method. Both invasive and non-invasive wearable devices share the mobility, power autonomy and wireless connectivity required for the continuous exchange, recording and analysis of data over the Internet of Things (IoT). Indeed, the wearable technology is linked to ubiquitous/pervasive computing on wearable computers. In this context, the digital revolution and the continued growth of mobile networks have played a crucial role in the development of the wearable technology. Some wearable technologies, such as Bluetooth headsets, smart watches and web-enabled glasses, allow people to access data over Wi-Fi networks. Beyond home automation and monitoring, software companies are already developing applications for a wide range of end users, covering areas such as health and sports. Wearable technologies mean new opportunities in businesses development for new markets and data analytics. Personal data management, privacy by design in the IoT era and cloud computing virtualization will guide how companies will use the data collected from wearable devices.


Purpose: A new technique of post‐lumpectomy breast cancerbrachytherapy using beta‐emitting therapeutic radionuclides, rhenium‐188 (Re‐188) and rhenium‐186 (Re‐186), carried within lipidnanoparticles(liposomes) was investigated. This therapy strategy is advantageous regarding: 1) mm‐range focal radiation by beta‐particles ensures localized brachytherapy; 2) sustained high local retention within the lumpectomy cavity and accumulation in associated lymph nodes enables simultaneous cavity and lymph node focal radiation therapy; and 3) ease and flexibility of this modality to treat various locations and cavity shapes in the breast with minimal invasiveness. Method and Materials: Breast cancer surgical model in nude rats, gamma camera imaging, and animal organ dissection were used to study local and lymph node retention of radioactive liposomes. EGSnrc Monte Carlo code system was used to compare dose point kernels (DPK) for Re‐188 and Re‐186 in breast tissue, water, and other soft tissues. The DPK were then used for dose calculations of uniformly distributed liposomal Re‐188 or Re‐186 injected to the lumpectomy site within ellipsoid and spherical cavities. The dose calculation for lymph nodes modeled as a disk shape with exponentially decreased activity from the cortex was also performed. Results: High and sustained intracavitary retention of radioactive liposomes accompanied by lymph node accumulation was observed. Different human tissues showed very similar dose curves for Re‐188 and Re‐186. The therapeutic ranges in the cavity could be about 5 and 2.5 mm with Re‐188 and Re‐186, respectively, while radiationdoses beyond 1 cm sharply dropped to minimal. Also, the entire lymph node could receive therapeuticdose.Conclusion: The promise of a new post‐lumpectomy breast cancerbrachytherapy technique is presented. A rapid fall‐off in radiationdose with distance allows this treatment modality to spare substantial healthy tissue with reduced complications. It is also favorable through simultaneous focal treatment of microscopic tumor cells spreading to downstream lymphatics.


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There is surprisingly little research on how innovators in small high-technological companies come up with their innovative ideas. This paper is based on the results of both qualitative and quantitative interviews which were conducted with twenty four winners of the U.K. Government sponsored Small Firms Merit Award for Research and Technology (SMART). This research explored the perceptions of SMART winners on: the nature of invention and innovation as a creative process; the sources of innovative ideas and their importance for commercial outcomes; the conditions responsible for the commercial success of innovative projects. An interesting finding from this research is that having good ideas is often not a problem to the award winners. As one participant said the hardest thing is to say no to ideas. The big question is which ideas have market potential, not whether you have an idea.


A POSCE was developed and administered in 2015 to assess six professional attributes for the Family Medicine (FM) residents, University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMP), Vietnam. This study aims at exploring inter-rater reliability in FM POSCE developed in this context when analytic rubrics were applied. Background: Past POSCEs showed ratersr variability on applying the global marking items and holistic rating. Using analytic rubrics, unlike holistic type, will provide more rationale for assigning a certain score might influence ratersr variability. Nonetheless, it is little known to what extent switching to this rubric type might influence the inter-rater reliability of POSCE. n Methods: nBefore the FM professionalism module (pretest) and after this module (posttest), 36 and 42 FM residents took the POSCE respectively. The raters in the pretest included 12 teachers of FM training center. Four faculty members from different faculties were belatedly added to the post-test together with the 12 former raters. nRatersr training occurred in two different times, the former took place only for the 12 FM raters before the pretest and the latter was before the posttest for the 4 belatedly-recruited. During the POSCE, one pair of raters observed all performances per station. Inter-rater reliability was measured by the differences in total scores between raters per pair using paired t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. n Results: In POSCE pretest, no significant difference was found between ratersr scores in most pairs of raters, contrasting with that in the posttest. Most differences were noticed in the pairs of raters, in which one of the raters was the belatedly-recruited. In the pretest, moderate to strong positive correlation between ratersr mean scores were found (r=0.55-0.85), similar range was seen in the post-test (r=0.47-0.87), however, the correlation slightly weakened.n n Discussion and conclusion: The FM POSCE has high inter-rater reliability on the utilization of analytic grading rubrics. An analytic rubric might help minimize the discrepancies among raters. Moreover, training raters might have been an alternative influential factor on the ratersr consensus.


Navigating a vocabulary consisting of thousands of entries in order to select appropriate words for building communication is challenging for individuals with lexical access disorders like those caused by aphasia. Most existing assistive communication vocabularies have a lexical organization scheme based on a simple list of words. Some word collections are organized in hierarchies which often leads to deep and confusing searches; others are simply a list of arbitrary categories which causes excessive scrolling and a sense of disorganization. Ineffective vocabulary organization and navigation hurt the usability and adoption of assistive communication tools and ultimately fail to help users build functional communication.
We argue that to provide effective word-finding, an assistive vocabulary needs to adapt to individual user's word usage patterns and to the semantic associations present in a speaker's mental lexicon, where words are stored and organized in ways that allow efficient access and retrieval. To test our thesis, we employ a mixed-initiative approach to the design of the Visual Vocabulary for Aphasia (ViVA). ViVA is adaptive in that it automatically models an individual user's mental lexicon according to psycholinguistic theories that propose a semantic network structure of the lexicon and spreading activation as supported by semantic priming. The vocabulary is also adaptable and can be customized to reflect user preferences. ViVA compensates for some of the impaired links in a user's mental lexicon by building a dynamic network where words are linked based on semantic association measures, human judgments of semantic similarity and past vocabulary usage. Thus, the tool tailors the vocabulary organization according to both user-specific information and general knowledge of human semantic memory.
We evaluated how our system performs compared to a widely used vocabulary access system in which words are organized hierarchically into common categories and subcategories. The results indicate that word retrieval is significantly better with ViVA. In addition, we present results from a longitudinal single-case study with an aphasic participant which illustrates the importance of personal associations for creating an effective assistive vocabulary such as ViVA.


A small number of free-living viruses have been found to be obligately vertically transmitted, but it remains uncertain how widespread vertically transmitted viruses are and how quickly they can spread through host populations. Recent metagenomic studies have found several insects to be infected with sigma viruses (Rhabdoviridae). Here, we report that sigma viruses that infect Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata), Drosophila immigrans, and speckled wood butterflies (Pararge aegeria) are all vertically transmitted. We find patterns of vertical transmission that are consistent with those seen in Drosophila sigma viruses, with high rates of maternal transmission, and lower rates of paternal transmission. This mode of transmission allows them to spread rapidly in populations, and using viral sequence data we found the viruses in D. immigrans and C. capitata had both recently swept through host populations. The viruses were common in nature, with mean prevalences of 12% in C. capitata, 38% in D. immigrans and 74% in P. aegeria. We conclude that vertically transmitted rhabdoviruses may be widespread in insects, and that these viruses can have dynamic interactions with their hosts.


There has been much recent interest in the origin of silicic magmas at spreading centres away from any possible influence of continental crust. Here we present major and trace element data for 29 glasses (and 55 whole-rocks) sampled from a 40 km segment of the South East Rift in the Manus Basin that span the full compositional continuum from basalt to rhyolite (50‐75 wt % SiO2). The glass data are accompanied by Sr‐Nd‐Pb, O and U‐Th‐Ra isotope data for selected samples. These overlap the ranges for published data from this part of the Manus Basin. Limited increases in Cl/K ratios with increasing SiO2, La‐SiO2 and Yb‐SiO2 relationships, and the oxygen isotope data rule out models in which the more silicic lavas result from partial melting of altered oceanic crust or altered oceanic gabbros. Rather, the data form a coherent array that is suggestive of closed-system fractional crystallization and this is well simulated by MELTS models run at 0� 2 GPa and QFM (quartz‐fayalite‐magnetite buffer) with 1 wt % H2O, using a parental magma chosen from the basaltic glasses. Although some assimilation of altered oceanic crust or gabbro cannot be completely ruled out, there is no evidence that this plays an important role in the origin of the silicic lavas. The U-series disequilibria are dominated by 238 Ua nd 226 Ra excesses that limit the timescale of differentiation to less than a few millennia. Overall, the data point to rapid evolution in relatively small magma lenses located near the base of thick oceanic crust; we speculate that this was coupled with relatively low rates of basaltic recharge. A similar model may be applicable to the generation of silicic magmas elsewhere in the ocean basins.


Sinus node inhibitors reduce the heart rate presumably by blocking the pacemaker current If in the cardiac conduction system. This pacemaker current is carried by four hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gated cation (HCN) channels. We tested the potential subtype-specificity of the sinus node inhibitors cilobradine, ivabradine, and zatebradine using cloned HCN channels. All three substances blocked the slow inward current through human HCN1, HCN2, HCN3, and HCN4 channels. There was no subtype-specificity for the steady-state block, with mean IC50 values of 0.99, 2.25, and 1.96 μM for cilobradine, ivabradine, and zatebradine, respectively. Native If, recorded from mouse sinoatrial node cells, was slightly more efficiently blocked by cilobradine (IC50 value of 0.62 μM) than were the HCN currents. The block of If in sinoatrial node cells resulted in slower and dysrhythmic spontaneous action potentials. The in vivo action of these blockers was analyzed using telemetric ECG recordings in mice. Each compound reduced the heart rate dose-dependently from 600 to 200 bpm with ED50 values of 1.2, 4.7, and 1.8 mg/kg for cilobradine, ivabradine, and zatebradine, respectively. β-Adrenergic stimulation or forced physical activity only partly reversed this bradycardia. In addition to bradycardia, all three drugs induced increasing arrhythmia at concentrations greater than 5 mg/kg for cilobradine, greater than 10 mg/kg for zatebradine, or greater than 15 mg/kg for ivabradine. This dysrhythmic heart rate is characterized by periodic fluctuations of the duration between the T and P wave, resembling a form of sick sinus syndrome in humans. Hence, all available sinus node inhibitors possess an as-yet-unrecognized proarrhythmic potential.


Mere belief is hostile to the whole idea of thinking. To wear credulity as one's badge of intellect is not to be a thinker as such --n+1, "A Regressive Avant-Garde" (2004) And yet, the best of Jameson's work has felt mind-blowing in the way of LSD or mushrooms: here before you is the world you'd always known you were living in, but apprehended as if for the first time in the freshness of its beauty and horror. --Benjamin Kunkel, "Into the Tent" (2009) Toward the middle of Benjamin Kunkel's Indecision (2005), Dwight B. Wilmerding tells his sister Alice, "I feel like I'm evens proof: That's one idea for a major problem I must have" (141) Reflecting on the end of the Cold War, Dwight explains that, "The Wall came down, whole world changed, now we're not going to die in a nuclear holocaust anymore. But it really didn't feel like anything was happening--not to me. I feel like I have a certain resistance to events. (140). What Kunkel's narrator means when he describes himself as "event proof" would seem to be an inability to "feel" history, and this is confirmed later, when, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he recalls being "amazed ... that I continued living my life, doing everything I did, despite the confusion involved, like it was somehow regular and automatic" (183). Thus, if Dwight feels as if "events don't always seem to happen, even when they do" (149), then his "major problem" is that this "resistance to events" prevents him not from knowing history but from experiencing it. In indecision, then, the fact that Dwight cannot experience history is also conceived as the source of his abulia, a condition that not only leaves him with a chronic inability to make any decision, no matter how trivial, but also incapable of conceptualizing historical change: "I couldn't think of the future," Dwight says, "until I arrived there" (3). But while this unique condition animates an almost exaggerated form of self-consciousness that contributes to what a number of critics have described as the novel's equally unique narrative voice, it is this same "resistance to events" that will lead his Argentine-Belgian love interest, Brigid, to complain, "Nothing can happen to you. You are that type" (175). (1) indecision nonetheless is, as Dwight affirms in its opening pages, a "narrative of life-changing events" (3), in which a fruit conjured up in the jungles of Ecuador comes to embody the solution to his "major problem": "When you eat from this fruit," Brigid tells Dwight, "then whenever you put your hand on a product, a commodity, an article, then, at the moment of your touch, how this commodity came into your hands becomes plainly evident to you" (216). This solution, then, will not only allow Dwight to "feel" history in a strangely literal sense, but also alerts ' us to the novels marked interest in a distinctly postmodern predicament. For what Indecision evokes here is nothing other than the possibility of overcoming what Fredric Jameson first described in 1984 as the "waning of our historicity, of our lived possibility of experiencing history in some active way" ("Postmodernism" 68). Indeed, one cannot help but think of the subject Jameson identifies as having "lost its capacity to organize its past and future into coherent experience" (71), when, for example, Dwight recounts living "from day to day as if ... on a bridge saying in the wind while both sides of the canyon ... past and future ... disappeared in foggy weather" (19). Which is to say that if Dwight is, in Brigid's words, a "type," he is one that will recall Jameson's subject of postmodernism in rather explicit ways. And if Kunkel's novel can be best understood as an attempt to dramatize what Jameson calls a "weakening of historicity" ("Postmodernism" 58), it is perhaps not surprising that the possibility of overcoming what Dwight recognizes as an inability to experience history is also imagined in the novel as having decisively political consequences; consequences which, in taking the form of a political awakening, will speak directly to both our understanding of postmodernism then, and the possibility of imagining something like an after-postmodernism now. …


"1. The exception proves the rule; Knowledge Based Automatic Concrete Design
 From the early 80 till the second half of 1990 the software Matrix developed for structural engineers was based on the MsDOS platform. In those years the codechecking distinguished itself by an extremely enforced integrated approach. A complete structural design including the generation of drawings could be realized at once, with one press on the button. In this concept there was no room for the intervening interaction of civil engineers. They had little or no influence on unforeseen situations or shortcomings in the automatic analysis of boundary conditions or the automatic design.
 The fact that we were secured of the cooperation of civil engineers (experts) concerning improvements makes it possible for us to make our knowledge based system even more complete.

 2. The exception becomes the rule; Interactive Concrete Engineering
 A disadvantage of a full automatic structural design is the existence of exceptional cases. Every case needs to be programmed which leads to a huge programming effort. In order to complete the last 20% you need a programming effort of 80% of the total period. Another disadvantage is the different approach by the government for using software for code checking.
 The new Windows software is based on a structure very close related to the level of code checking. All the relevant parameters can be manipulated. The link to the code is absolutely clear by the visualization of the applied code article as well as the provided value and the required value.

 3. The 80-20 rule; The concept of hierarchical levels
 80% of his time a civil engineer is using only 20% of the functionality of his software for structural analysis. A program doesn't need to be too complex for daily use. When you think in different levels you can manage the 80% for daily use, as well as the 20% for the advanced topics in 1 program.
 The computer, using generative processes, without intervening interactions can work out 80% of all calculations. When you think in levels it is possible to work out the other 20% by the same program.

 4. Ruling by exception; Computer Aided Learning system
 10 years ago the TU-Delft developed a CAD exercise. During this period more than 1500 students used these exercises for their training. This CAD exercise was developed in order to support students in dimensioning, analyzing and detailing concrete structures, after the introductory lecture in designing and constructing concrete in their third academic year.
 EUROCADCRETE is a continuation of the CAD exercise mentioned above and is based on the educational version of MatrixFrame 2D-Frame and on the experience of the TU-Delft during the lessons of the CAD Concrete exercise. Students at home can define the structural analysis part of the exercise. Then the prepared job can be worked out according to the EuroCode in the EUROCADCRETE environment. The last part of the exercise gives the student the opportunity to perform parametric studies. By means of exercises and by providing interactive tools students gain a clear insight in the nature of reinforced concrete, which is the aim of this job. A learning system like EUROCADCRETE is a combination of, on the one side, a Graphical User Interface based on the lowest level, and a check mechanism and parametric study on the other side, which is based on the advanced level within the concept of hierarchical levels."


Background The pre-Jurassic record of terrestrial wood borings is poorly resolved, despite body fossil evidence of insect diversification among xylophilic clades starting in the late Paleozoic. Detailed analysis of borings in petrified wood provides direct evidence of wood utilization by invertebrate animals, which typically comprises feeding behaviors. Methodology/Principal Findings We describe a U-shaped boring in petrified wood from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of southern Utah that demonstrates a strong linkage between insect ontogeny and conifer wood resources. Xylokrypta durossi new ichnogenus and ichnospecies is a large excavation in wood that is backfilled with partially digested xylem, creating a secluded chamber. The tracemaker exited the chamber by way of a small vertical shaft. This sequence of behaviors is most consistent with the entrance of a larva followed by pupal quiescence and adult emergence — hallmarks of holometabolous insect ontogeny. Among the known body fossil record of Triassic insects, cupedid beetles (Coleoptera: Archostemata) are deemed the most plausible tracemakers of Xylokrypta, based on their body size and modern xylobiotic lifestyle. Conclusions/Significance This oldest record of pupation in fossil wood provides an alternative interpretation to borings once regarded as evidence for Triassic bees. Instead Xylokrypta suggests that early archostematan beetles were leaders in exploiting wood substrates well before modern clades of xylophages arose in the late Mesozoic.


Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) encodes a dUTPase which has been shown to be dispensable for normal viral replication in cultured cells (S. J. Caradonna and Y. Cheng, J. Biol. Chem. 256:9834-9837, 1981; F. B. Fisher and V. G. Preston, Virology 148:190-197, 1986). However, the importance of this enzyme in vivo has not been determined. In this report, HSV-1 strain 17 syn+ and two isogenic engineered dUTPase-negative mutants were characterized in the mouse model. Both mutants replicated with wild-type kinetics and achieved wild-type titers in cultured cells. The mutants were 10-fold less neurovirulent than 17 syn+ following intracranial inoculation and more than 1,000-fold less virulent following footpad inoculation. The dUTPase- mutants replicated with wild-type kinetics in the footpad and entered and replicated efficiently in the peripheral nervous system of the mouse. However, their replication in the central nervous system was significantly reduced. The dUTPase- strains established latent infections but displayed a greatly reduced reactivation frequency in vivo. Neurovirulence, neuroinvasiveness, and reactivation frequency were all restored by recombination with wild-type dUTPase sequences. These results have important implications with regard to anti-herpesvirus therapeutic strategies.


The Ru(II) polypyridine complexes SA22 and SA25 consisting of anchoring and light harvesting moieties and possessing broad light absorption spectra were used to fabricate and optimize dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The highly efficient Z960 electrolyte was used as redox-mediator, and the J-V characteristics and incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) data were measured. The solar cells based on these dyes and electrolyte yielded power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 7% using SA22 and 5% with SA25. The higher-performance sensitizer SA22 was selected to build solar-cell devices, using either the high-thermal-stability Z946 electrolyte or a gel-electrolyte composed of Z946 electrolyte and 2wt% low-molecular-mass organogelator (LMOG) NME-5. The quasi-solid-state electrolyte produced a DSSC with a PCE of 4.7%, whereas that made using Z946 showed 5% efficiency. The quasi-solid-state DSSC was sealed and a stability study was performed using accelerated thermal aging conditions at 70 degrees C for 7days, by which the cell parameters (including PCE, J(sc), V-oc, and FF) retained more than 90% of their original values.


For the past thirty years, a select group of CEOs and world leaders have met during the last week in January on a mountaintop in Switzerland to do what they presumed they were the only ones entitled to do, or capable of doing: determine how the global economy should be governed. We were cheering because it was, in fact, the last week of January, and this wasn't the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was the first annual World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. And even though we weren't CEOs or world leaders, we were still going to spend the week talking about how the global economy should be governed. Many people said that they felt history being made in that room. What I felt was something more intangible: the end of The End of History. Fittingly, 'Another World Is Possible' was the event's official slogan. After a year and a half of global protests against the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Word Economic Forum, both major US political parties, and Britain's Labour Party--to name just a few--the World Social Forum was billed as an opportunity for an emerging movement to stop screaming about what it is against and start articulating what it is for.


The thesis presents enhancements for automated and manual multiple sequence alignment: existing alignment algorithms are made more easily accessible and new algorithms are designed for difficult cases.
Firstly, we introduce the QAlign framework, a graphical user interface for multiple sequence alignment. It comprises several state-of-the-art algorithms and supports their parameters by convenient dialogs. An alignment viewer with guided editing functionality can also highlight or print regions of the alignment. Also phylogenetic features are provided, e.g., distance-based tree reconstruction methods, corrections for multiple substitutions and a tree viewer. The modular concept and the platform-independent implementation guarantee an easy extensibility.
Further, we develop a constrained version of the divide-and-conquer alignment such that it can be restricted by anchors found earlier with local alignments. It can be shown that this method shares attributes of both, local and global aligners, in the quality of results as well as in the computation time. We further modify the local alignment step to work on bipartite (or even multipartite) sets for sequences where repeats overshadow valuable sequence information. In the end a technique is established that can accurately align sequences containing eventually repeated motifs.
Finally, another algorithm is presented that allows to compare tandem repeat sequences by aligning them with respect to their possible repeat histories. We describe an evolutionary model including tandem duplications and excisions, and give an exact algorithm to compare two sequences under this model.


PURPOSE We sought to project the number of primary care physicians required to meet US health care utilization needs through 2025 after passage of the Affordable Care Act. METHODS In this projection of workforce needs, we used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to calculate the use of office-based primary care in 2008. We used US Census Bureau projections to account for demographic changes and the American Medical Association's Masterfile to calculate the number of primary care physicians and determine the number of visits per physician. The main outcomes were the projected number of primary care visits through 2025 and the number of primary care physicians needed to conduct those visits. RESULTS Driven by population growth and aging, the total number of office visits to primary care physicians is projected to increase from 462 million in 2008 to 565 million in 2025. After incorporating insurance expansion, the United States will require nearly 52,000 additional primary care physicians by 2025. Population growth will be the largest driver, accounting for 33,000 additional physicians, while 10,000 additional physicians will be needed to accommodate population aging. Insurance expansion will require more than 8,000 additional physicians, a 3% increase in the current workforce. CONCLUSIONS Population growth will be the greatest driver of expected increases in primary care utilization. Aging and insurance expansion will also contribute to utilization, but to a smaller extent.


There have been repeated government promises to establish a nationally consistent assessment system for overseas trained doctors (OTDs). No such assessment has been put in place. As a result, each year, thousands of OTDs are being appointed to practice medicine in Australia without a preliminary systematic test of their medical knowledge and clinical skills calibrated to Australian standards. This article explores why the medical authorities, including the Australian Medical Council and the state Medical Registration Boards allow this situation to continue. It also examines some of the consequences for medical service provision in Australia.


Distribution is one of the essential features characterizing multi-agent systems (MASs), giving developers the opportunity to seamlessly conceive and then engineer a physically distributed application as a MAS spread among different network nodes. Nevertheless, the current support given by state-of-the-art Agent Programming Languages (APLs) and related platforms for programming distributed multi-agent systems as well as for handling distribution when deploying, running, debugging the distributed MAS is still quite primitive. In this paper we tackle this problem by introducing simpAL, a new agent-oriented programming language and platform which has been conceived from the beginning to provide a more comprehensive support for programming, deploying and executing physically distributed MASs.


In this paper, we present the implementation and silicon measurements results of a 64bit processor fabricated in 0.18mum technology. The processor employs a delay-error detection and correction scheme called Razor to eliminate voltage safety margins and scale voltage 120mV below the first failure point. It achieves 44% energy savings over the worst case operating conditions for a 0.1% targeted error rate at a fixed frequency of 120MHz


A series of Glare 4B specimens with and without artificial circular delaminations to represent manufacturing defects or damage after impact (bird strike, tool drop) were tested under compression to examine their buckling and postbuckling behaviour and hence the effect of such defects on performance. Tests were monitored using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) for visualisation of full-field displacements whilst Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring enabled the detection and location of damage propagation. Results for specimens incorporating delaminations inserted in the first Aluminium/GFRP interface and pristine specimens are presented here. Tests have been modelled using a bi-linear cohesive zone model (CZM) implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit to perform dynamic nonlinear analyses incorporating load eccentricity and geometrical initial imperfection. Good correlation is observed between test results and model predictions.
Introduction FML's including Glare are manufactured from alternating metallic sheets and fibre reinforced composite layers. Glare offers a 10% reduction in specific weight compared with aluminium and has advantages over CFRP's including improved impact, fire and corrosion resistance; and increased damage tolerance leading to its increased commercial use, with applications including the A380 fuselage, the ECOS3 blast-resistant Unit Load Device (a freight container designed to contain explosion and fire), the Learjet 45, the cargo floors of the Boeing 737, and the cargo doors of the latest models of the C-17 Globemaster III [1, 2]. Despite its advantages however, the use of Glare brings additional challenges in terms of understanding damage mechanisms. This paper examines the effects of potential damage arising from the manufacturing process or impact, specifically from artificial circular delaminations.


Paleoecological records are replete with exam- ples of biotic responses to past climate change and human impact, but how can we use these records in the conserva- tion of current and future biodiversity? A recently published list of (One Hundred Questions of Importance to the Con- servation of Global Biological Diversity) (Sutherland et al., 2009) highlights a number of key research questions that need a temporal perspective. Many of these questions are related to the determination of ecological processes in order to assess ecosystem function and services, climate change- integrated conservation strategies, and ecosystem manage- ment and restoration. However, it is noticeable that not a sin- gle contributor to this list was from the paleo-research com- munity and that extremely few paleo-records are ever used in the development of terrestrial conservation management plans. This lack of dialogue between conservationists and the paleo-community is partially driven by a perception that the data provided by paleoecological records are purely descrip- tive and not of relevance to the day-to-day management and conservation of biological diversity. This paper illustrates, through a series of case-studies, how long-term ecological records (>50 years) can provide a test of predictions and as- sumptions of ecological processes that are directly relevant to management strategies necessary to retain biological di- versity in a changing climate. This discussion paper includes information on diversity baselines, thresholds, resilience, and restoration of ecological processes.


ABSTRACT Bullying prevention programs in the United States are being implemented in schools from kindergarten through high school to reduce rates of bullying behaviors. The bully prevention in positive behavior support (PBIS) model is an evidence-based, whole school intervention program. The PBIS model trains teachers, school staff, and administrators to model and provide positive reinforcement for children to decrease bullying amongst peers. This article addresses gaps in the current bullying prevention research by exploring challenges and potential modifications to the PBIS model based on staff perspectives of specific student needs. Utilizing focus group methodology, administrators, teachers, and support staff in a northeastern urban elementary school identified challenges experienced by students who were English language learners, impulsive, shy or sensitive, and female. The findings highlight the critical nature of school–parent relationships in addressing student, family, and cultural factors that influence the successful implementation of bullying prevention programs.


The recombination of fragments resulting from the photodissociation of (fluorinated) alkyl iodides in helium nanodroplets at a wavelength of 266 nm has been investigated by means of ion imaging techniques. It is found that in the case of CH3I an appreciable fraction of the fragments recombine in the aftermath of the photolysis. The proposed mechanism involves a complete translational relaxation of both photofragments inside the nanodroplets followed by geminate recombination of the fragments. In contrast with CH3I, no recombination is observed for CF3I. This is attributed to the larger masses and the different initial kinetic energies of the fragments produced by the photolysis of CF3I, which strongly diminishes the fragment thermalization efficiency.


Due to the contribution to earnings from foreign exchange and the total labour force which stands at 70 and 75 percent, agriculture ranks high as one of the main sources of income for the Gambia. However, her agricultural exports majorly groundnuts, cashew nuts and fisheries have been subjected to quantity, price fluctuations and consequently low competitiveness in the international market. For this reason, this study assessed agricultural export performance of the Gambia with data from the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS), the Ministry of Trade Industries and Employment of The Gambia (MoTIE) and other literature. The study concluded that in the Gambia, economic growth and agricultural performance are related and move in the same direction with output level, trade openness, competitive of produce in international market among the key factors that determine agricultural export performance in the Gambia.


This progress report outlines the main principles for the development of a simple conceptual rainfall-runoff model at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.

The HBV-2 Model is based on lumped-parameter approximations to the physical laws governing infiltration, percolation and runoff formation.

The time interval is one day. The model structure includes a soil moisture storage, an upper zone storage and a lower zone storage. A procedure for evaluating the parameter values is described.

Examples of applications to several test catchments in various hydrologic settings are included.


Bayelsa State – the heartland of the Ijaw ethnic group – is arguably the most important of the core states of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in terms of the oil industry; and where incidences of both state and non-state violence were occurring regularly at the time of research. This paper seeks to empirically examine the role of contextual variables, like the mobilised Ijaw ethnic group, who are embedded in conflict in an area of Nigeria rich with oil resources.  I argue that the role of Ijaw ethnic group could not be ignored, but that it changed the emphasis from 'elite-led' campaigns to the more popular and local level violent anti-state and anti-oil company agitations. Following on from this, I argue that post-2000 oil resource-related conflict and state responses resulted in serious human rights violations and a humanitarian disaster for the most vulnerable members of the population of the region, notably women and children.


The spatial distribution of surface and subsurface soil attributes is an important input to environmental modeling. Soil attributes represent an important input to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which influence the accuracy of the modeling outputs. An ArcGIS-based tool was developed to predict soil attributes and provide inputs to SWAT. The essential inputs are digital elevation model and field observations. Legacy soil data/maps can be used to derive observations when recent field surveys are not available. Additional layers, such as satellite images and auxiliary data, improve the prediction accuracy. The model contains a series of steps (menus) to facilitate iterative analysis. The steps are summarized in deriving many terrain attributes to characterize each pixel based on local attributes as well as the characteristics of the contributing area. The model then subdivides the entire watershed into smaller facets (subdivisions of subwatersheds) and classifies these into groups. A linear regression model to predict soil attributes from terrain attributes and auxiliary data are established for each class and implemented to predict soil attributes for each pixel within the class and then merged for the entire watershed or study area. SLEEP (Soil–Landscape Estimation and Evaluation Program) utilizes Pedo-transfer functions to provide the spatial distribution of the necessary unmapped soil data needed for SWAT prediction. An application of the tool demonstrated acceptable accuracy and better spatial distribution of soil attributes compared with two spatial interpolation techniques. The analysis indicated low sensitivity of SWAT prediction to the number of field observations when SLEEP is used to provide the soil layer. This demonstrates the potential of SLEEP to support SWAT modeling where soil data is scarce.
Keywords: GIS, remote sensing, terrain analyses, watershed, SWAT, inverse distance weighted, Kriging
DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20150803.1270 Online first on [2015-03-17]

Citation: Ziadat F M, Dhanesh Y, Shoemate D, Srinivasan R, Narasimhan B, Tech J. Soil-Landscape Estimation and Evaluation Program (SLEEP) to predict spatial distribution of soil attributes for environmental modeling. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2015; 8(3): 158-172.


The tutorial covers an emerging topic of wide interest: Crowdsourcing. Specifically, we cover areas of crowdsourcing related to managing structured and unstructured data in a web-related content. Many researchers and practitioners today see the great opportunity that becomes available through easily-available crowdsourcing platforms. However, most newcomers face the same questions: How can we manage the (noisy) crowds to generate high quality output? How to estimate the quality of the contributors? How can we best structure the tasks? How can we get results in small amounts of time and minimizing the necessary resources? How to setup the incentives? How should such crowdsourcing markets be setup? Their presented material will cover topics from a variety of fields, including computer science, statistics, economics, and psychology. Furthermore, the material will include real-life examples and case studies from years of experience in running and managing crowdsourcing applications in business settings.


Background: Some studies have proven that a conventional visual brain computer interface (BCI) based on overt attention cannot be used effectively when eye movement control is not possible. To solve this problem, a novel visual-based BCI system based on covert attention and feature attention has been proposed and was called the gaze-independent BCI. Color and shape difference between stimuli and backgrounds have generally been used in examples of gaze-independent BCIs. Recently, a new paradigm based on facial expression changes has been presented, and obtained high performance. However, some facial expressions were so similar that users couldn't tell them apart, especially when they were presented at the same position in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. Consequently, the performance of the BCI is reduced. New Method: In this paper, we combined facial expressions and colors to optimize the stimuli presentation in the gaze-independent BCI. This optimized paradigm was called the colored dummy face pattern. It is suggested that different colors and facial expressions could help users to locate the target and evoke larger event-related potentials (ERPs). In order to evaluate the performance of this new paradigm, two other paradigms were presented, called the gray dummy face pattern and the colored ball pattern. Comparison with Existing Method(s): The key point that determined the value of the colored dummy faces stimuli in BCI systems was whether the dummy face stimuli could obtain higher performance than gray faces or colored balls stimuli. Ten healthy participants (seven male, aged 21–26 years, mean 24.5 ± 1.25) participated in our experiment. Online and offline results of four different paradigms were obtained and comparatively analyzed. Results: The results showed that the colored dummy face pattern could evoke higher P300 and N400 ERP amplitudes, compared with the gray dummy face pattern and the colored ball pattern. Online results showed that the colored dummy face pattern had a significant advantage in terms of classification accuracy (p < 0.05) and information transfer rate (p < 0.05) compared to the other two patterns. Conclusions: The stimuli used in the colored dummy face paradigm combined color and facial expressions. This had a significant advantage in terms of the evoked P300 and N400 amplitudes and resulted in high classification accuracies and information transfer rates. It was compared with colored ball and gray dummy face stimuli.


Previous research has indicated that alcohol consumption increases the perceived attractiveness of opposite-sex faces. This may contribute to the known effects of alcohol on risky sexual behaviours. We investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on the perception of opposite-sex faces, whilst controlling for alcohol expectancy. In a balanced placebo design, males and females were allocated to one of the four groups: (1) told they would receive alcohol and did; (2) told they would receive alcohol but did not; (3) told they would not receive alcohol but did; (4) told they would not receive alcohol and did not. They then rated opposite-sex faces and neutral stimuli for 'attractiveness'. Roughly three-quarters of the sample were classified as hazardous or harmful drinkers by the AUDIT questionnaire. No significant differences between groups in ratings of attractiveness for either set of stimuli were found. Findings remained the same in a reduced sample for whom the experimental manipulation was successful (as assessed by post-test questioning). Thus, we did not find that alcohol ingestion enhanced ratings of opposite-sex faces. Nor did we find that, in the overall sample, the expectation of receiving an alcoholic drink influenced opposite-sex face ratings. Possible explanations for these null findings are discussed.


This study examines familial relationships in two novels published by Ferdinand Oyono and Mongo Beti shortly before Cameroon's independence in 1960, making use of three levels of analysis. The first shows the impact of colonization on familial and social structures, in particular the ways in which the weakening of the traditional hierarchy leads to the flight of young men from their families and villages. The second looks at the two novels as showing the relationship of France (who was often represented as a kindly parent to its colonies), the colonized countries, and their citizens: the unpredictable and brutal father can be seen as representing the French, the helpless and brutalized mother the colonized country, and the protagonist the colonized person "orphaned" by colonialism. The third level of analysis makes use of Lacanian theory, in particular Lacan's theorization of the accession to the Symbolic order, to examine the place of language and what could be described as the Law of the Father in these texts. These different levels of analysis show the ways in which these writers were addressing the problems of colonies moving toward independence after having been crippled—socially, economically, politically, and psychologically—by years of foreign domination. This article is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol27/iss2/3 Violent Fathers and Runaway Sons: Colonial Relationships in Une vie de boy and Mission terminee


In this important study of the meaning of the Grail, one of Europe's greatest esoteric philosophers discloses the pre-Christian and initiatic sourcesof this symbolic motif that is so central to Western mythology and culture.He demonstrates how the main features of the legend are are from an older tradition analogous to the great heroic sagas and cycles of the North,and that the Grail itself is a symbol of initiation. Evola uncovers the hidden meaning in the often surreal adventures of the knights who searched for the Grail, interpreting them as inner experiences and tests for theseeker. He also explores the history of the myth in the Middle Ages, its use by the Knights Templar and the Cathars, its legacy during the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, and its links with Rosicrucianism, alchemy, andMasonry.This excursion into the realm of the Grail throws new light on an endlessly fascinating subject.


This report summarizes the main findings of a two-wave pilot for the SHP conducted in 2017 and 2018, designed to test the consequences of including web as a main mode in the data collection in terms of data quality and comparability between modes. The pilot had two main goals: to test the feasibility of starting a new sample using web and the inclusion of web on the individual level only versus on both the household and the individual level. The study compared three design groups: two treatment groups with web as main survey modes and one control group with the usual design of the SHP and telephone as main mode. We analysed overall response rates, sample composition and representativeness, item nonresponse and measurement differences between the telephone and web mode. We found that the response rates in the first wave, hence at recruitment into the panel, were highest in the usual design and lowest in a full web design, whereas modes mattered less in the second wave, once households had been recruited into the panel already. Switching modes between the household and the individual level decreased individual response rates, whereas switching from telephone in Wave 1 to web in Wave 2 on the household level did not have any negative impact on response rates. We assessed the sample composition by comparing characteristics of respondents with those of the full sample. We found that most of the bias emerged in the first wave, with selection effects getting smaller in the second wave. Some of the sociodemographic characteristics were biased in all designs, whereas others were more specific for each design, suggesting that the choice of mode affects the composition of the sample recruited into the panel in the first wave. For both waves, item nonresponse was considerably higher in the web mode. Although for many variables, we found no indication of measurement differences by mode, a few clear exceptions emerged that suggest a social desirability effect in telephone interviews: web respondents were more likely to report health problems and negative emotions. Also, satisfaction scores were consistently lower in the web mode.


Abstract Despite an established positive link between social wealth, health, and social capability among older adults, the effect and mechanisms among these factors are understudied. This paper uses the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) data and a mediation analysis method, combing social capital theory and a social capabilities approach, to provide new evidence on the effects of financial resource, physical function, and cognitive function on the social capabilities of older adults (aged 55 and above) in China and the possible mediating role of social network in this relationship. The descriptive analysis results show that urban older adults (n=5,274), on average, had lower freedom of expression, lower sense of living safety, and less frequent community participation, while having better self-perceived health, higher physical and cognitive functions, more household income, and higher educational background than their rural peers (n=5,270). The Baron and Kenny's mediation analysis results show that social networks accounted for a substantial proportion of the effects of wealth and health on social capabilities, but wealth and health still had strong, positive direct effects of its own. Higher mediating effects of social networks were found in the association between functions and social capabilities of freedom of expression (9.46%) and sense of safety (36.33%) among rural older adults. Results of this study urge for further social policies and intervention programs to enhance older adults' social capabilities, including social cohesion, sense of trust and safety, physical and mental functioning, and subjective well-being.


We use hedonic prices and purchase quantities to consider what can be learned about household willingness to pay for baskets of organic products and how this varies across households. We use rich scanner data on food purchases by a large number of households to compute household specific lower and upper bounds on willingness to pay for various baskets of organic products. These bounds provide information about willingness to pay for organic without imposing restrictive assumptions on preferences. We show that the reasons households are willing to pay vary, with quality being the most important, health concerns coming second, and environmental concerns lagging far behind. We also show how these methods can be used for example by stores to provide robust upper bounds on the revenue implication of introducing a new line of organic products.


The objective of this work was to determine how some wastewater acids could be used to prevent the decomposition of urea into ammonia during storage. The effect of storing human urine with olive oil mill wastewaters (OOMW) or water bubbled with CO2 (BW), was studied. Moreover, the application of two levels of urine dissolved in water OOMW, has been studied in relation to the properties of two soils (loam and silty-clay loam). Our data provide evidence that human urine dissolved in OOMW significantly reduced the release of ammonium-N. Moreover, OOMW and CO2 significantly lowered the pH. A dosage higher 10% OOMW dissolved in fresh urine in volume could inhibit the hydrolysis of the urea for more than 6 months. Moreover, urine-N dissolved in OOMW significantly reduced the emission of nitrates from soils for 3 months, increasing K and P values. The application of urine with BW raised the soil pH and lowered the EC, but had no effect on nutrient contents. Thus, urine dissolved in OOMW and applied to soils could act as NPK-fertilizer. However, the impact of fertilization with human urine–OOMW–CO2 requires further investigation with respect to crop production and pollution.


Abstract The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England's largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors – with enhanced powers – remains firmly on the policy agenda. Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors' analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England. Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors' analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England.


The contribution of this thesis is in understanding the origins in developing countries of differences in labour wage and household consumption vis-a-vis educational abilities (and by extension employment statuses). This thesis adds to the labour market literature in developing countries by investigating the nature of employment and its consequences for labour wage and household consumption in a developing country. It utilizes multinomial probit, blinder-oaxaca, Heckman and quantile regressions to examine one human capital indicator: educational attainment; and two welfare proxies: labour wage and household consumption, in a developing country, Nigeria. It finds that, empirically, the self-employed are a heterogeneous group of individuals made up of a few highly educated individuals, and a significant majority of 'not so educated' individuals who mostly earn less than paid workers. It also finds that a significant number of employers enjoy labour wage premiums; and having a higher proportion of employers in the household has a positive relationship with household consumption. The thesis furthermore discovers an upper educational threshold for women employers not found for men. Interestingly, the thesis also finds that there is indeed an ordering of labour wages into low-income self-employment (which seems to be found mainly in "own account" self-employment), medium-income paid employment, and high-income self-employment (which seems to be found mainly among employers), and that this corresponds to a similar ordering of low human capital, medium human capital and high human capital among labour market participants, as expressed through educational attainments. These show that as a whole, employers can largely be classed as experiencing pulled self-employment, as they appear to be advantaged in all three criteria (educational attainments, labour wage and household consumption). A minority of self-employed "own account" workers (specifically those at the upper end of the income distribution who are well educated), can also be classed as experiencing pulled self-employment. The rest of the significant majority of self-employed "own account" workers in this study can be classed as experiencing pushed self-employment in terms of the indicators used.


Abstract
 Introduction
 Tonsillitis is widespread among children and has serious poststreptococcal complications, and both the patients and the otolaryngology surgeon have to face the question on what is the role and benefit of using long-acting penicillin and whether it is an alternative method of treatment to surgery? This study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of tonsillectomy compared with long-acting penicillin in the treatment of recurrent tonsillitis, comparing their effects on the levels of the antistreptolysin O titer (ASOT) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).

 Patients and methods
 A total of 200 patients aged 4–15 years with recurrent tonsillitis and signs of chronic tonsillitis, after exclusion of patients with bleeding diathesis, anemia, chronic illness, and criteria of rheumatic fever, who were attending the Ismailia General Hospital were included in this study; they were divided to two groups comprising 100 patients each. The first group was treated by tonsillectomy, whereas the second group was treated using long-acting penicillin monthly for 6 months. They were clinically evaluated; ESR and ASOT levels were recorded for all patients before management, after 3 months, and after 6 months.

 Results
 The mean ESR readings before management, after 3 months, and after 6 months for the first group treated by tonsillectomy were 45.28, 22.36, and 7.4 ml/h, respectively (P-value<0.0021); for the second group treated with penicillin, they were 45.39, 14.98, and 6.48 ml/h, respectively (P-value<0.020). The mean ASOT readings for the tonsillectomy group were 518.29, 253.28, and 117.13 IU/ml, respectively (P-value<0.004), whereas for the penicillin group, they were 526.70, 413.39, and 262.98 IU/ml, respectively (P-value<0.072).

 Conclusion
 This study demonstrates that the first line of treatment of recurrent chronic tonsillitis is tonsillectomy, as it is both clinically effective and cost-effective for children and that the second line of treatment is long-acting penicillin with a long-term follow-up, and in patients, have contraindications for surgery such as bleeding diathesis.


The quasielastic (e,e$^\prime$p) reaction was studied on targets of deuterium, carbon, and iron up to a value of momentum transfer $Q^2$ of 8.1 (GeV/c)$^2$. A nuclear transparency was determined by comparing the data to calculations in the Plane-Wave Impulse Approximation. The dependence of the nuclear transparency on $Q^2$ and the mass number $A$ was investigated in a search for the onset of the Color Transparency phenomenon. We find no evidence for the onset of Color Transparency within our range of $Q^2$. A fit to the world's nuclear transparency data reflects the energy dependence of the free proton-nucleon cross section.


We propose the combining of region connection calculi with nested hierarchical grids for representing spatial region data in the context of knowledge graphs, thereby avoiding reliance on vector representations. We present a resulting region calculus, and provide qualitative and formal evidence that this representation can be favorable with large data volumes in the context of knowledge graphs; in particular we study means of efficiently choosing which triples to store to minimize space requirements when data is represented this way, and we provide an algorithm for finding the smallest possible set of triples for this purpose including an asymptotic measure of the size of this set for a special case. We prove that a known constraint calculus is adequate for the reconstruction of all triples describing a region from such a pruned representation, but problematic for reasoning with hierarchical grids in general.


Current meter data from three study sites are used to describe a clockwise re-circulation of near- shore waters in the lower Florida Keys. An 11-month record from Northwest Channel, the main channel connecting gulf and Atlantic waters just west of Key West, indicates a long-term net Atlantic-to-gulf flow that averaged 4.5 cm s -1 . Tidal cooscillations dominated the instantaneous current in the channel, accounting for 95% of the total variance in a longchannel flow. By comparison, low-frequency fluctuations through the channel were generally 5- 20 cm s -1 over time scales of several days. Data from a study site in the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Content Keys indicate that tidal and low-frequency along-isobath motions dominated across -isobath flow, but resulted in little net along-shelf displacement during a 5-month study. By comparison, the direction of the weaker across- isobath current was more consistent and resulted in a net shore ward near-bottom flow that averaged about 1 cm s -1 . Results from a 13-month study in Atlantic shelf waters just south of Bahia Honda Key showed a long-term net along-isobath flow to the southwest, toward Key West, that averaged 3.5 cm s -1 . Across-isobath currents were significantly weaker, but showed a net seaward movement of 1.8 cm s -1 . Spectral analysis indicates that winds from the eastern quadrant were most responsible for driving water past all three study sites, and accounted for the long-term flow observed in Hawk Channel and Northwest Channel. Long-term shoreward near-bottom flow north of the Content Keys was generally up wind.


Increasingly stringent vehicle exhaust laws require increasingly powerful exhaust treatment technologies. In diesel engines, the main emissions are soot particles and nitrogen oxide (NOx), which can be significantly reduced by additional exhaust treatment systems. MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG has developed a controlled continuously regenerating trap (CCRT) system that can cut particle emissions by up to 90%. To develop the CCRT system, we successfully used TargetLink, the production code generation software from dSPACE.


OBJECTIVE
Temporary parent vessel occlusion performed to establish a high-flow interpositional bypass carries the risk of infarcts. The authors investigated the feasibility of a novel technique to establish a high-flow bypass without temporary parent vessel occlusion in order to lower the risk of ischemic complications.

METHODS
In 10 New Zealand white rabbits, a carotid artery side-to-end anastomosis was performed under parent artery patency with a novel endovascular balloon device. Intraoperative angiography, postoperative neurological assessments, and postoperative MRI/MRA were performed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of the novel technique.

RESULTS
A patent anastomosis was established in 10 of 10 animals; 3 procedure-related complications occurred. No postoperative focal neurological deficits were observed. The MRI/MRA findings include no infarcts and bypass patency in 50% of the animals.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors demonstrated the feasibility of an endovascular assisted, nonocclusive high-flow bypass. Future refinement of the device and technique in an animal model is necessary to lower the complication rate and increase patency rates.


Traditional lecture-based teaching methods are being replaced or supplemented by approaches which call for reframing the roles and identities of teachers and learners. Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) is one such approach. This paper reports on a study investigating the perceptions of staff and students (N=25) involved in an EBL capacity building project in the north-west of England. Q methodology was used to investigate the subjectivities of the participants. The findings are discussed using sociocultural learning concepts relating to activity theory and communities of practice. The paper concludes that EBL may improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, but careful consideration should be given to the dynamics of the specific context in which it is introduced.


BACKGROUND
Hip fracture trials often suffer substantial loss to follow-up due to difficulties locating and communicating with participants or when participants, or their family members, withdraw their consent. We aimed to determine which factors were associated with being unable to contact FAITH and HEALTH participants for their 24-month follow-up and to also determine which factors were associated with their withdrawal of consent.

METHODS
We conducted 2 multivariable logistic regression analyses to determine which factors were predictive of being unable to contact participants at 24 months postfracture and withdrawal of consent within 24 months of their fracture. Results were reported as odds ratios, 95% confidence intervals, and associated P-values. All tests were 2-tailed with alpha = 0.05.

RESULTS
We were unable to contact 123 of 2520 participants (4.9%) for their 24-month follow-up visits and 124 (4.9%) withdrew their consent from the trial. Being non-White (P = 0.003), enrolled from a non-European hospital (P < 0.001), and treated with arthroplasty (P < 0.001) were associated with an increased odds of not completing the 24-month follow-up visit. Being enrolled from a hospital in the United States (P = 0.02), from a hospital in Oceania, India, or South Africa (P < 0.001) as compared to a European hospital, and treated with arthroplasty (P < 0.001) were associated with an increased odds of consent withdrawal.

DISCUSSION
Certain factors may be predictive of loss to follow-up in hip fracture trials. We suggest that the identification of such factors may be used to inform and improve retention strategies in future orthopaedic hip fracture trials.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


The impact of international trade on a firm's degree of specialization and income distribution is studied in a general equilibrium framework in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. International trade increases a firm's degree of specialization, but the number of goods a country produces may not change. Trade may lower the welfare of the scarce factor of production. Sufficient conditions for a country's welfare to increase with trade are provided.


Parasitic nematodes of the species Cosmocercoides variabilis were stained with silver nitrate and examined with backscattered electron imaging (BEI). Sensory papillae were selectively highlighted in backscatter images. Silver stain deposited on papillae was located on the papillary surface as well as on the underlying dendritic process. Portions of the body cuticle were also stained. Some cuticular staining was attributed to non-specific deposition of silver but, consistent patterns of cuticular staining were noted in the anterior and posterior regions. This observation suggests that some staining of the cuticle was specific. Results of this preliminary work suggest that BEI is a technique useful to the study of nematode form.


The timely activation of homologous recombination is essential for the maintenance of genome stability, in which the RAD51 recombinase plays a central role. Biochemically, human RAD51 binds to both single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) with similar affinities, raising a key conceptual question: how does it discriminate between them? In this study, we tackled this problem by systematically assessing RAD51 binding kinetics on ssDNA and dsDNA differing in length and flexibility using surface plasmon resonance. By fitting detailed polymerisation models informed by our experimental datasets, we show that RAD51 is a mechanosensor that exhibits a larger polymerisation rate constant on flexible ssDNA compared to rigid ssDNA or dsDNA. This model presents a new general framework suggesting that the flexibility of DNA, which may increase locally as a result of DNA damage, plays an important role in recruiting repair factors that multimerise at sites of DNA damage.


1. When sea-urchin eggs are fertilized an acid, the fertilization acid, diffuses out of them into the surrounding sea water. A claim has recently been made that the fertilization acid may be lactic acid, which is oxidized shortly after its production. 2. There is no significant difference between the amounts of lactic acid produced by unfertilized and just-fertilized eggs of Echinus esculentus . 3. The amount of lactic acid produced by fertilized eggs of this species is too small to explain the evolution of CO 2 observed when the eggs are fertilized in manometer vessels. 4. The sea water round just-fertilized eggs was found to contain markedly less bicarbonate than the sea water round unfertilized eggs, confirming that an acid diffuses out of the eggs after fertilization. 5. There is some evidence that the small quantities of lactic acid produced by unfertilized and just-fertilized eggs of this species do not diffuse into the surrounding sea water. 6. It is concluded that the fertilization acid is not lactic acid.


Extracted from text ... ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr John Dzimba is the director of Academic Affairs at the Lesotho Institute
of Public Administration and Management (LIPAM). Before assuming this
position, he was principal consultant and head of the Academic Planning,
Research and Consultancy Division of LIPAM. Dr Dzimba holds a BA degree
in Philosophy from Urbanianum University, an MA in Political Science from
University College Dublin, and a PhD in International Relations from Keele
University. He has previously worked as a consultant for the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), the Institute of Development Management
Lesotho (IDM), and the Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and ..


For successful eukaryotic mitosis, sister chromatid pairs remain linked after replication until their kinetochores have been attached to opposite spindle poles by microtubules. This linkage is broken at the metaphase-anaphase transition and the sisters separate. In budding yeast, this sister chromatid cohesion requires a multi-protein complex called cohesin. A key component of cohesin is Scc1/Mcd1 (Rad21 in fission yeast). Disruption of the chicken orthologue of Scc1 by gene targeting in DT40 cells causes premature sister chromatid separation. Cohesion between sister chromatids is likely to provide a substrate for post-replicative DNA repair by homologous recombination. In keeping with this role of cohesion, Scc1 mutants also show defects in the repair of spontaneous and induced DNA damage. Scc1-deficient cells frequently fail to complete metaphase chromosome alignment and show chromosome segregation defects, suggesting aberrant kinetochore function. Consistent with this, the chromosomal passenger protein, INCENP (inner centromere protein) fails to localize to centromeres. Survivin, another passenger protein and one which interacts with INCENP, also fails to localize to centromeres in Scc1-deficient cells. These results show that cohesin maintains genomic stability by ensuring appropriate DNA repair and equal chromosome segregation at mitosis.


Application service providers (ASPs) provide access to application software over wide area networks and have been viewed as a means of making the benefits of outsourcing available to small businesses. However, many enterprise ASPs get the majority of their revenue from very large businesses while many vertical niche ASPs get their revenue from small businesses. We analyze this seeming anomaly from a risk management perspective. ASPs present a greater risk management problem to would-be customers than traditional outsourcing. We analyze the nature of the risk differences and then propose a model of how would-be customers process those risks. In our model, prospects first assess whether they can tolerate the worst case scenario and if they are able to do due diligence on the likely outcome. They consider benefits only if one of the previous assertions is true. The worst case scenario for enterprise applications is truly dire and only technologically sophisticated businesses are better able to identify the true risk profile. For vertical niche ASPs the worst case scenario is relatively mild, but economies of scale make the benefits relatively more appealing to small businesses.


This paper describes a Bayesian Network model to diagnose the causes of low effectiveness of certain schools. Our aim is to build tools to assist policymakers in education to think through a policy, evaluate various scenarios, and choose among competing policy options. These tools would help decision makers to make their tacit knowledge more explicit, and assimilate and systematize information from other sources. The model we describe has two potential uses: the explanation of learning outcomes in terms of conditions and processes within schools that are difficult to observe directly; and the estimation of the probability that a given intervention will affect those conditions and processes and hence learning outcomes. We believe that models of this kind can be effective aids in making decisions, and in learning from them.


Although model predictions of thermal energy storage (TES) performance have been explored in previous investigations, relevant test data that enable experimental validation of performance models have been limited. This is particularly true for high-performance TES designs that facilitate fast input and extraction of energy. In this paper, we present a summary of experimental tests of a high-performance TES unit using lithium nitrate trihydrate phase change material as a storage medium. Performance data are presented for complete dual-mode cycles consisting of extraction (melting) followed by charging (freezing). These tests simulate the cyclic operation of a TES unit for asynchronous cooling in a variety of applications. The model analysis is found to agree reasonably well, within 10%, with the experimental data except for conditions very near the initiation of freezing, a consequence of subcooling that is required to initiate solidification.


This paper describes a type system for extensible records and variants with first-class labels; labels are polymorphic and can be passed as arguments. This increases the expressiveness of conventional record calculi significantly, and we show how we can encode intersection types, closed-world overloading, type case, label selective calculi, and first-class messages. We formally motivate the need for row equality predicates to express type constraints in the presence of polymorphic labels. This naturally leads to an orthogonal treatment of unrestricted row polymorphism that can be used to express first-class patterns. Based on the theory of qualified types, we present an effective type inference algorithm and efficient compilation method. The type inference algorithm, including the discussed extensions, is fully implemented in the experimental Morrow compiler.