Fluorescence molecular tomography in the near-infrared region is becoming a powerful modality for mapping the three-dimensional quantitative distributions of fluorochromes in live small animals. However, wider application of fluorescence molecular tomography still requires more accurate and stable reconstruction tools. We propose a shape-based reconstruction method that uses spherical harmonics parameterization, where fluorophores are assumed to be distributed as piecewise constants inside disjointed subdomains and the remaining background. The inverse problem is then formulated as a constrained nonlinear least-squares problem with respect to shape parameters, which decreases ill-posedness because of the significantly reduced number of unknowns. Since different shape parameters contribute differently to the boundary measurements, a two-step and modified block coordinate descent optimization algorithm is introduced to stabilize the reconstruction. We first evaluated our method using numerical simulations under various conditions for the noise level and fluorescent background; it showed significant superiority over conventional voxel-based methods in terms of the spatial resolution, reconstruction accuracy with regard to the morphology and intensity, and robustness against the initial estimated distribution. In our phantom experiment, our method again showed better spatial resolution and more accurate intensity reconstruction. Finally, the results of an in vivo experiment demonstrated its applicability to the imaging of mice.


Shaping policy for environmental sustainability depends upon decision-makers conceptualizing problems in ways that are either shared or similar enough to communicate about, diagnose, and act. The quality of this shared mental model of a social–ecological system (SES) is paramount to its effectiveness. Fundamentally, the mental model must integrate multiple kinds of knowledge about the system. If the decision-making body's assumptions about, description of, and solution for a problem do not to reflect the many ways stakeholders know a system, then the products of that decision-making process are viewed as illegitimate. Sustainability policy must fit the often subtle social order of the communities expected to implement it. In this essay, we discuss how a systems-based perspective can be a versatile tool for tackling these challenges of knowledge integration and decision-making in the context of a complex SES. Using social theory of Pierre Bourdieu, we construct a conceptual model that illustrates a route for integrating locally known social complexities (power, influence) gleaned from stakeholder interviews (N = 57). Stakeholders and end-user groups may dismiss any model that they perceive fails to satisfactorily account for specific, locally salient social nuances. Our approach leverages the overlapping notion of "capital" in social and ecological theory to demonstrate how reciprocal interactions between human and ecological systems can be adopted into tools for reaching viable solutions to SES problems. Keywords: Sustainability science, Social capital, Power, Boundary object, Water resources management, Floodplain development, Riparian ecology


This thesis examines the packaging of high-temperature SiC power electronic devices. Current-voltage measurements were conducted on as-received and packaged SiC power devices. The planar structure was introduced and developed as a substitution for traditional wire-bonding vertical structure. The planar structure was applied to a high temperature (>250C) SiC power device. Based on the current-voltage (I-V) measurements, the packaging structures were improved, materials were selected, and processes were tightly controlled. This study applies two types of planar structures, the direct bond and the bump bond, to the high-temperature packaging of high-temperature SiC diode. A drop in the reverse breakdown voltage was discovered in the packaging using a direct bond. The root cause for the drop in the breakdown voltage was identified and corrective solutions were evaluated. A few effective methods were suggested for solving the breakdown issue. The forward I-V curve of the planar packaging using direct bond showed excellent results due to the excellent electrical and thermal properties of sintered nanosilver. The packaging using a bump bond as an improved structure was processed and proved to possess desirable forward and reverse I-V behavior. The cross-sections of both planar structures were inspected. High-temperature packaging materials, including nano-silver paste, high-lead solder ball and paste, adhesive epoxy, and encapsulant, were introduced and evaluated. The processes such as stencil printing, low-temperature sintering, solder reflowing, epoxy curing, sputtering deposition, electroplating, and patterning of direct-bond copper (DBC) were tightly controlled to ensure high-quality packaging with improved performance. Finally, the planar packaging of the high temperature power device was evaluated and summarized, and the future work was recommended.


The use of trusts in the context of matrimonial proceedings is not a new phenomenon. In recent articles in Family Law the question of trusts has centred on existing trusts and how to vary or change the terms of the trust to benefit a non-beneficiary of the trust or on establishing the extent of the parties' interests in a trust so as to treat this as a resource of a party to the proceedings. A current hot topic in the private client arena, and which is considered in this article, is the suitability of trusts where a relationship breaks down between married or unmarried parents, to provide a home, (whether it is the former matrimonial home or the purchase of another property) for the carer or occupying parent and for children during their minority or until they reach independence (usually when they turn 18 or complete full time education). Increasingly, in an era where the former home is the main asset of the family, the party giving away the asset (most commonly the father) would want to safeguard the asset so that the home will pass to the children of the relationship rather than to the mother outright or her future partner or spouse. Traditionally, a trust was created to implement this and also to provide a fund for the related expenditure and maintenance. However, alternative arrangements might be more advantageous not only from a tax planning perspective but also to address non-tax considerations (for example the balance of power), while still protecting the interests of the dependant children and addressing the needs of the occupying parent. These considerations and the alternative options are explored in more detail below in the context of providing accommodation but are equally relevant when considering the suitability of trusts to provide for other types of assets (such as shares in a family company) and related financial arrangements.


The Voluntary Act Requirement ("VAR") is the fundamental predicate for imposing legal punishment. Punishing solely on the basis of evil thoughts or a villainous character is impermissible. The VAR also embodies the notion that we must not punish someone for conduct over which she lacked sufficient control. But why not punish someone for conduct that was not within her control? One answer is retributivist—it would be unjust to do so because that defendant could not have been morally responsible for, and therefore could not deserve punishment for, what she did. Agent causalism is a contentious view about how criminal defendants voluntarily act according to which the defendants themselves cause their free, morally responsible actions, as opposed to events or states of affairs involving them, their brains, their circumstances, and so forth. This article argues that for retributivist justifications of the VAR to be plausible, agent causalism must be true. Agent causalism might be false, and if it is, then retributivism could not play any role in justifying our fundamental legal precondition for ever imposing any criminal liability upon anyone. This article does not argue that agent causalism is false, however. It elaborates and renders plausible an agent causalist position, and it shows how that position could handle types of cases that notoriously pose challenges to the VAR—cases involving complex unconscious conduct, cases involving crimes of omission, and cases involving habitual conduct.


In treating this theme, the author divides his study in two sections; the ecumenical dialogue and participation. The items dealt with in the first section are: the recognition of the ecclesiality and of the organised groups of non-Catholic Christians; legitimacy of their juridical order; admission of non-Catholics to full communion with the Catholic Church. The items treated in the second section are: participation in profane or civil affairs; participation in spiritual affairs; participation in sacred places; participation in sacred meetings; spiritual assistance to non-Catholic Christians; funeral service of a non-Catholic Christian; participation in sacred functions; participation in the sacraments.


Internet‐based science learning has been advocated by many science educators for more than a decade. This review examines relevant research on this topic. Sixty‐five papers are included in the review. The review consists of the following two major categories: (1) the role of demographics and learners' characteristics in Internet‐based science learning, such as demographic background, prior knowledge, and self‐efficacy; and (2) the learning outcomes derived from Internet‐based science learning, such as attitude, motivation, conceptual understanding, and conceptual change. Some important conclusions are drawn from the review. For example, Internet‐based science learning is equally favorable, or in some cases more so, to learning for female students compared to male students. The learner's control is essential for enhancing students' attitudes and motivation toward learning in Internet‐based science learning environments. Nevertheless, appropriate guidance from teachers, moderators, or the Internet‐based learning environment itself is still quite crucial in Internet‐based science learning. Recommendations for future research related to the effects of Internet‐based science learning on students' metacognitive reflections, epistemological development, and worldviews are suggested.


Divorce is the dissolution of a social tie, but it is also possible that attitudes about divorce flow across social ties. The Researcher find that divorce can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers, and there are clusters of divorcees that extend two degrees of separation in the network. We also find that popular people are less likely to get divorced, divorcees have denser social networks, and they are much more likely to remarry other divorcees. Interestingly, we do not find that the presence of children influences the likelihood of divorce, but we do find that each child reduces the susceptibility to being influenced by peers who get divorced. Overall, the results suggest that attending to the health of one's friends' marriages serves to support and enhance the durability of one's own relationship, and that, from a policy perspective, divorce should be understood as a collective phenomenon that extends far beyond those directly affected.


The piece is concerned with the general problem of the relationship between property constructs on the one hand and trademark and right of publicity law on the other. More specifically, it deals with the need to establish workable boundaries for trademark law and related right of publicity claims. The issue is seen most clearly in connection with merchandising of the trademark or image itself. The approach to merchandising rights with respect both to trademarks and celebrity images has been needlessly complex and demands simplification. The Supreme Court' recent series of trademark opinions, with their strong admonition to restore and recognize the balance among the different intellectual property constructs, have provided the broad framework within which such simplification can be realized. Recognizing that trademark rights are essentially appurtenant, conditional rights, rather than self-sustaining property rights leads to the conclusion that trademark law cannot be the vehicle for enforcing claims arising out of the merchandising of the mark itself. In the same vein, the right of publicity, if properly understood and bounded, similarly is an appurtenant right, rather than an absolute exclusionary right in a name or image; that recognition accordingly precludes a publicity claim based solely on exploitation of the image itself without association with the user of the image. A focus on the fundamental nature of the underlying legal constructs of trademark law and of the cognate right of publicity allows application of a conceptual occam's razor, a simplification that sets the proper boundaries and balance.


This paper develops modes of analysis for three major issues in the study of trade unions as organizations. These are, first, their distinctiveness as a discrete type of organization; secondly, the nature of their membership attachment; and thirdly, their twin rationales of representation and administration. The integration of these analyses within a new framework is then pursued. This framework serves to suggest propositions requiring empirical investigation and reference is made to some results from a preliminary study.


Polymer clay nanocomposites (NCs) show remarkable potential in the field of drug delivery due to their enhanced barrier properties. It is hypothesised that well dispersed clay particles within the polymer matrix create a tortuous pathway for diffusing therapeutic molecules, thereby resulting in more sustained release of the drug. As coatings for medical devices, these materials can simultaneously modulate drug release and improve the mechanical performance of an existing polymer system without introducing additional materials with new chemistries that can lead to regulatory concerns. In this study, polyurethane organosilicate nanocomposites (PUNCs) coated onto stainless steel wires were evaluated for their feasibility as blood compatible coatings and as drug delivery systems. Heparin was selected as the model drug to examine the impact of silicate loading and modifier chain length in modulating release. Findings revealed that better dispersion was achieved from samples with lower clay loadings and longer alkyl chains. The blood compatibility of PUNCs as assessed by thrombin generation assays showed that the addition of silicate particles did not significantly decrease the thrombin generation lag time (TGT, p = 0.659) or the peak thrombin (p = 0.999) of polyurethane (PU). PUNC coatings fabricated in this research were not cytotoxic as examined by the cell growth inhibition assay and were uniformly intact, but had slightly higher growth inhibition compared to PU possibly due to the presence of organic modifiers (OM). The addition of heparin into PUNCs prolonged the TGT, indicating that heparin was still active after the coating process. Cumulative heparin release profiles showed that the majority of heparin released was from loosely attached residues on the surface of coils. The addition of heparin further prolonged the TGT as compared to coatings without added heparin, but a slight decrease in heparin activity was observed in the NCs. This was thought to be from competitive interactions between clay-heparin that influenced the formation of the ternary complex between heparin, ATIII thrombin. In summary, the feasibility of using PUNC as drug delivery coatings was shown by the good uniformity in the coating, absence of by-products from the coating process, and the release of active molecules without significantly interfering with their activity.


The objective of this study was to develop a rapid, calf-side test to determine serum IgG concentration using caprylic acid (CA) fractionation followed by refractometry of the IgG-rich supernatant and compare the accuracy of this method with results obtained using refractometry of whole serum. Serum samples (n = 200) were obtained from 1 d old calves, frozen and shipped to the laboratory. Samples were allowed to sit at room temperature to thaw. Fractionation with CA was conducted by adding 1 ml of serum to a tube containing CA and 0.5, 1 or 1.5 mL 0.06 M acetic acid. The tube was shaken and allowed to react for 1 min and centrifuged for 0, 10 or 20 min. Refractive index of the fractionated supernatant (nDf) was determined using a digital refractometer. Whole, non-fractionated, serum was analyzed for IgG by radial immunodiffusion (RID) and refractive index (nDw) . The nDf and nDw were compared to serum IgG concentration. Mean serum IgG concentration was 19.0 mg/ml (SD = 9.7) with a range of 3.5 to 47.0 mg/ml. Serum nDw was positively correlated with IgG concentration (r = 0.86, n = 185). Fractionated samples treated with 1 ml 0.6 M AcO and 60 µl CA and not centrifuged prior to analysis resulted in a strong relationship between nDf and IgG (r = 0.80, n = 45). These results suggest that refractometry of whole calf serum provides a strong estimate of IgG concentration that can be used to determine if adequate passive transfer has occurred in 1 d old calves.


Abstract Practical methods to clean ITER's diagnostic mirrors will be essential to ITER's plasma operations. We report on laser cleaning of candidate ITER single-crystal molybdenum mirrors that were plasma coated with either carbon or beryllium films 150 to 420 nm thick. A pulsed Nd laser beam was focused to 1 to 2 J/cm2 and scanned at various speeds across the surface of a mirror. The cleaning effect was measured with a novel method that combined microscopic imaging and reflectivity measurements in the red, green, and blue spectral regions and at the H-alpha and H-beta wavelengths. No damage of the molybdenum mirror substrates was observed at the range of laser intensities used. For carbon-coated mirrors, complete removal of the film and restoration of the reflectivity were measured in some conditions. For the beryllium-coated mirrors, restoration of reflectivity has so far been incomplete. Heat transfer calculations suggest a shorter, ∼5-ns laser pulse would be optimal.


Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, edited by Wu Hung, with the assistance of Peggy Wang. New York: The Museum of Modem Art, New York, 2010. xvi + 455 pp. US$40.00 (paperback). Western understandings of the trajectory of Chinese art following Mao's death in 1976 have been hampered by several factors. A persistent element, of course, is the propensity of Western art historians and critics to impose Western historical patterns, esthetic standards and critical methods to the analysis of Chinese art, its production and expression. This tendency was exacerbated by China's closing to the West after 1949, which discouraged scholarship and Chinese language study, resulting in a 30-year hiatus in scholarly communications and firsthand knowledge - a situation that invited imagination and speculation skewed by an obsessive preference in the West for art that could be satisfyingly interpreted as politically subversive. When China opened in the 1980s, scholars of contemporary Chinese art faced the further problem of trying to make sense of an anarchic disarray of theories and practices rushing in to fill the vacuum afforded by the collapse of Marxism-Leninism-Mao-Zedong ideology. The prolific but scattered writings and publications by Chinese artists, critics and theorists were accessible only to those few who already possessed a high level of Chinese language facility, including the specially nuanced vocabulary of the art world, as well as a wide-ranging and balanced network of personal contacts. Addressing the need for wider access to Chinese sources by readers of English, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, edited by Wu Hung (University of Chicago) and published by New York's Museum of Modern Art, presents a meaty and comprehensive chronologically arranged potpourri of English translations of writings published between 1979 and 2008 by Chinese artists, curators, critics, theorists and art historians. The selections are divided overall between "Contemporary Art as Domestic Movement, 1976-89" and "Globalization and a Domestic Tum, 1990-2000", with a final nod to the New Millennium (2000-09). Within these divisions, texts are further subdivided by time and dominant theme, accompanied by brief introductory commentaries and occasionally including even official government declarations. The selections range from brief to lengthy, from well-known to obscure authors, from direct and analytical discourse to convoluted and nuanced ruminations - but nearly all were written and published in China by Chinese authors for Chinese intellectuals. One of the delights, then, of exploring this collection is that of becoming privy to just how divergent were the views, how passionate the motives and how discerning the analyses by Chinese artists processing events in their world as they were happening. Wu Hung thus invites the reader to view the continuing search for new paradigms, for new language, through a window not yet beclouded by retrospection or devolution into simple explanations - we need no longer be hostage to a jumble of critical commentaries strewn across art journals or selectively sheltered in exhibition catalogs, but instead are empowered to construct more complex and holistic understandings. …


This study examines the concepts of social style and gender to determine if a relationship exists between the two constructs. The hypotheses suggested a direct relationship between the categories of the BSRI (masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated) and the Social Style Analysis (driver, amiable, expressive, and analytical). Ninety-four participants completed two self-report surveys. Chi-square analysis performed on the data found a significant relationship between feminine and amiable as well as androgynous and expressive. While the analysis suggested that masculine/driver and undifferentiated/analytical were not independent, the relationship found was not significant.


This work presents a design space in which personal devices are used as a means to facilitate "socially safe", ad-hoc interaction with large public displays. Unlike most existing work that focuses on facilitating content placement and transfer, this approach aims at minimizing the effort required to initiate, sustain, and withdraw from interaction with a large public display, and to communicate these capabilities to passersby. We identify barriers hindering this process, and offer advice on overcoming them based on existing work and our own experiences with these displays. We illustrate how this design concept can be applied, and motivate applications in other domains.


The concept of intellectual property (IP) has been variously criticized as incompatible with natural rights and detrimental to the dissemination of innovations. In this paper I argue that it can be criticized on an even more fundamental level—namely as a praxeological impossibility. More specifically, it is suggested that since ideas are not economic goods, but preconditions of action, and since physical goods transformed by ideas become as heterogeneous (and thus as intellectually unique) as the individuals who enact such transformations, no economic goods can be meaningfully designated as appropriable in virtue of embodying the objectively definable value of one's intellectual labor. In view of the above, I subsequently suggest that IP protection laws constitute an exceptionally arbitrary and thus exceptionally disruptive form of interventionism directed against the very essence of the entrepreneurial market process.


A strong and effective primary care capacity has been demonstrated to be crucial for controlling costs, improving outcomes, and ultimately enhancing the performance and sustainability of healthcare systems. However, current challenges are such that the future of primary care is unlikely to be an extension of the current dominant model. Profound environmental challenges are accumulating and are likely to drive significant transformation in the field. In this article we build upon the concept of "disruptive innovations" to analyze data from two separate research projects conducted in Quebec (Canada). Results from both projects suggest that introducing nurse practitioners into primary care teams has the potential to disrupt the status quo. We propose three scenarios for the future of primary eform care and for nurse practitioners' potential contribution to reforming primary care delivery models. In conclusion, we suggest that, like the canary in the coal mine, nurse practitioners' place in primary care will be an indicator of the extent to which healthcare system reforms have actually occurred.


Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. By Victor M. Rios. New York: New York University Press, 2011. 218 pp. $20.00 paper.Punitive strategies such as "tough on crime" and "zero tolerance" policies that have traditionally been restricted to the field of criminal justice are currently being implemented in mainstream institutions that serve youthful populations, such as schools and civic centers. While examinations of punitive discourses and practices, poverty, and youth crime are widely documented within the current sociological, criminological, and legal literature, studies often fail to take into account the lived experiences of the youth themselves. Through life history interviews and observations, Victor Rios's book, Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, provides a voice for marginalized young men in Oakland and elucidates the processes through which these young men are shrouded in a culture of punishment that shapes their life experiences and trajectories. Moreover, Rios's work is a timely contribution given the current social and political debates regarding punitive policies.Rios's study demonstrates how criminalization, as a systemic form of punitive social control, is a dominant and omnipresent phenomenon in the lives of young males in Oakland that systematically governs and limits their life choices and trajectories. Within this community, young men of color are marginalized through constant surveillance, harassment, and discipline. Rios refers to this phenomenon as the "youth control complex" in which young people's everyday behaviors are perceived and responded to as criminal by mainstream social actors.Rios argues that while criminalization is often portrayed as a mechanism to protect certain populations, such as increasing prison sentences to seemingly protect victims from violent criminals, its social and political utility becomes visible when examining the consequences of criminalizing young men of color. While many youth reactions to the "youth control complex" in Rios's study are perceived as negative, such as resisting mainstream institutions by establishing youth subcultures and creating hypermasculine behaviors, others are positive. For example, by resisting the system, some young men created a sense of self-respect and empowerment in their own lives that was often denied by institutional authority figures. As a result, some of the boys were capable of engaging in critical analyses of the systematic oppression they encounter within their own communities. Thus, while many acts of resistance by the boys were perceived as illogical by mainstream standards, they often played a functional role in the boys' personal responses to the omnipresent punitive strategies they encountered in their everyday lives. …


Negotiating the delicate balance between practice and theory is complex as time constraints and definitions of what constitutes research impact upon our ability to practice our craft and how this may be viewed within an academic setting. This paper will take the viewer on a journey of a design practice that was initially dismissed as a hobby but which later, came to define what it meant to be a sustainable fashion designer and educator. In particular it will explore the practice of recycling and how thoughts and theories derived from an academic setting have been translated into practical applications. These have included a number of outputs such as a collection made from recycled clothes, the establishment of a social enterprise and a series of workshops aimed at community development initiatives as a means of social inclusion. The paper will highlight the difficulties in holding down a full-time job in higher education (HE) and a design studio in the inner city, and the problems that arise with justifying and qualifying academic rigor and research methodologies. Transcending the space between formal and informal education, the research will demonstrate commonalities of practice as well as raise questions relating to the need for educators to practice what they preach, especially as it relates to design, manufacture and consumption practices. It will draw on approximately 20 years of both education and manufacturing practice and will provide a critique of specific academic contexts that have sought to belittle the practice and push it off course. At its root will be the contention, that to fully explore how fashion theory and practice may be changing within a contemporary setting there is a need for engagement with the realities of daily life and a rethinking of what constitutes fashion theory. Images of the authors design work and personal reflections will form the background to the discussion and will be contextualized within the lens of relevant academic theories and methodologies.

Keywords: Research-led practice, recycling, fashion research discourse


This paper explores gendering in political journalism – the perceived imprint of gender on the media portrayal of politics and politicians, as well as the processes whereby gendered media representations materialize. Gendering here is understood as an ambiguous process, which can be either discriminatory or promoting, depending on its manifestations (e.g. gender stereotypes or counter-stereotypes, gender-spotlighting or gender-aware story). Moreover, this paper suggests to study this phenomena from intersectionality perspective (Davis 2008, McCall 2005) in order to understand gendering in the framework of other discriminatory and promoting mechanisms in political news.The paper is based on forty semi-structured interviews with political journalists working for the quality press in Russia and Sweden. The choice of the countries is driven by the wish to explore the difficulties and similarities of the journalists' conceptualizations of gendering in two very different political and cultural contexts. The paper shows that the journalists in both countries highlight the importance of not only gender mainstreaming, but diversity in the content in general as a democratic value, where gender stands in the same row with other difference-making categories (such as ethnicity, sexuality etc.). The paper highlights the difficulties and contradictions the Russian and Swedish political journalists face trying to achieve their diversity ideal. As such, the paper discusses the reasons for the "double othering" of foreign women politicians in the Russian press and the ridiculing of Russian male politicians in the Swedish press, the attempts of the Russian journalists to remain gender-neutral in the current homophobic context and their Swedish colleagues' striving for keeping gender as an issue on the media agenda when it is being replaced from the political agenda by the discussions of race and ethnicity issues.


Wastewater drainage systems asset management decisions, in particular regarding rehabilitation interventions, are largely dependent on close-circuit television (CCTV) inspection results. However, the results of CCTV inspections are affected by several sources of uncertainty. Within the present communication, the inspector's uncertainty is quantified by comparing periodic inspection reports from three trunk sewers of a Portuguese sewer system. The inspections were carried out by the same experienced inspector using the same equipment. Therefore, the uncertainties from the lack of experience and the difference of the inspector and equipment were ruled out. The protocol uncertainty is also quantified comparing the results obtained with the Water Research Center (WRc) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) protocols condition ratings. Both operational and structural condition rating were analysed, but emphasis was given to the later since it dictates the repair and replacement interventions.


The 7.4 SR earthquake which occurred in The Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi on September 28th 2018 was a shallow earthquake due to the Palukoro fault activity.  The impact of the quake's shaking created pressure on the rock and soil masses of 77 hilly locations in the Palu, Sigi, and Donggala, causing several landslides and the increasing the potential of more. One of the slopes of at risk of  landslides which can trigger debris flow is found on the hills of Poi Village, Dolo Selatan District, Sigi Regency. The estimated volume of lose material which could fall in a landslide is 4.8 million m3. Rainfall in the area is predicted to trigger debris flow with the potential to bury settlements and block the flow of the Palu tributary located downstream. For this reason, it is necessary to conduct a study of the lose material deposits in the Poi River channel which can trigger debris flows during the rainy season. The problem-solving method in this study used is a rationalistic and descriptive qualitative approach. In predicting the distribution direction, propagation and hydrograph of the debris flow ths study applies the numerical modelling SIMLAR 2.1. This debris disaster risk management effort uses Sabo technology physically and non-physically. Keywords: earthquakes, landslides, debris flow, debris disaster management, Sabo technology physically and non-physically.


We discuss the numerical evaluation of single and double layer heat potentials in two dimensions on stationary and moving boundaries. One of the principal difficulties in designing high order methods concerns the local behavior of the heat kernel, which is both weakly singular in time and rapidly decaying in space. We show that standard quadrature schemes suffer from a poorly recognized form of inaccuracy, which we refer to as "geometrically induced stiffness," but that rules based on product integration of the full heat kernel in time are robust. When combined with previously developed fast algorithms for the evolution of the "history part" of layer potentials, diffusion processes in complex, moving geometries can be computed accurately and in nearly optimal time.


Objective To measure Irish opinion on a range of assisted human reproduction (AHR) treatments. Methods A nationally representative sample of Irish adults (n=1,003) were anonymously sampled by telephone survey. Results Most participants (77%) agreed that any fertility services offered internationally should also be available in Ireland, although only a small minority of the general Irish population had personal familiarity with AHR or infertility. This sample finds substantial agreement (63%) that the Government of Ireland should introduce legislation covering AHR. The range of support for gamete donation in Ireland ranged from 53% to 83%, depending on how donor privacy and disclosure policies are presented. For example, donation where the donor agrees to be contacted by the child born following donation, and anonymous donation where donor privacy is completely protected by law were supported by 68% and 66%, respectively. The least popular (53%) donor gamete treatment type appeared to be donation where the donor consents to be involved in the future life of any child born as a result of donor fertility treatment. Respondents in social class ABC1 (58%), age 18 to 24 (62%), age 25 to 34 (60%), or without children (61%) were more likely to favour this donor treatment policy in our sample. Conclusion This is the first nationwide assessment of Irish public opinion on the advanced reproductive technologies since 2005. Access to a wide range of AHR treatment was supported by all subgroups studied. Public opinion concerning specific types of AHR treatment varied, yet general support for the need for national AHR legislation was reported by 63% of this national sample. Contemporary views on AHR remain largely consistent with the Commission for Assisted Human Reproduction recommendations from 2005, although further research is needed to clarify exactly how popular opinion on these issues has changed. It appears that legislation allowing for the full range of donation options (and not mandating disclosure of donor identity at a stipulated age) would better align with current Irish public opinion.


OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to determine whether gamma cameras can be substituted for well-type scintillation counters in measuring blood radioactivity counts to be used as an input function for the quantitative measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF).

METHODS
Twelve different aqueous 123I solutions were prepared by serial dilution of the original concentration of 281.9 kBq/ml, and the radioactivity count of each dilution was measured with a gamma camera with the collimator removed, and with a well-type scintillation counter. When measuring the radioactivity counts with a gamma camera, static images were acquired using a 128 x 128 matrix for 5 min, and the regions of interest with 14 x 14 pixels (21 mm x 21 mm) were defined.

RESULTS
There was a good correlation between the results obtained by these two procedures in the range of concentration between 0.008 kBq/ml and 281.9 kBq/ml (y = 4.245x-2.549, r = 1.0, n = 12, s.e.e. = 7.217 kcpm). There was good agreement between the CBF values (ml/100 g/min) obtained using the cross-calibration factor (CCF) and blood radioactivity counts measured with the two procedures (y = 0.990x + 0.552, r = 0.990, n = 231, s.e.e. = 1.340 ml/100 g/min).

CONCLUSION
The results suggest that gamma cameras can be substituted for well-type scintillation counters in the quantitative measurement of CBF, and make it unnecessary to measure CCF after routine calibration of a SPECT apparatus.


BACKGROUND
There is good evidence that combining two different analgesics in fixed doses in a single tablet can provide better pain relief in acute pain and headache than either drug alone, and that the drug-specific effects are essentially additive. This appears to be broadly true in postoperative pain and migraine headache across a range of different drug combinations and when tested in the same and different trials. Some combinations of ibuprofen and codeine are available without prescription (but usually only from a pharmacy) where the dose of codeine is lower, and with a prescription when the dose of codeine is higher.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the analgesic efficacy and adverse effects of a single oral dose of ibuprofen plus codeine for moderate to severe postoperative pain. We compared ibuprofen plus codeine with placebo and with the same dose of ibuprofen alone.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Oxford Pain Database, ClinicalTrials.gov, and reference lists of articles. The date of the most recent search was 30 September 2012.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised, double-blind, placebo- or active-controlled clinical trials of single dose oral ibuprofen plus codeine for acute postoperative pain in adults.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently considered trials for inclusion in the review, assessed quality, and extracted data. We used the area under the pain relief versus time curve to derive the proportion of participants prescribed ibuprofen plus codeine, placebo, or the same dose of ibuprofen alone with at least 50% pain relief over six hours, using validated equations. We calculated the relative risk (RR) and number needed to treat to benefit (NNT). We used information on the use of rescue medication to calculate the proportion of participants requiring rescue medication and the weighted mean of the median time to use. We also collected information on adverse effects. Analyses were planned for different doses of ibuprofen and codeine, but especially for codeine where we set criteria for low (< 10 mg), medium (10 to 20 mg), and high (> 20 mg) doses.

MAIN RESULTS
Information was available from six studies with 1342 participants, with a variety of doses of ibuprofen and codeine. In four studies (443 participants) using ibuprofen 400 mg plus codeine 25.6 to 60 mg (high dose codeine) 64% of participants had at least 50% maximum pain relief with the combination compared to 18% with placebo. The NNT was 2.2 (95% CI 1.8 to 2.6). In three studies (204 participants) ibuprofen plus codeine (any dose) was better than the same dose of ibuprofen (69% versus 55%) but the result was barely significant with a relative benefit of 1.3 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.6). In two studies (159 participants) ibuprofen plus codeine appeared to be better than the same dose of codeine alone (69% versus 33%), but no analysis was done. There was no difference between the combination and placebo in the reporting of adverse events in these acute studies.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The combination of ibuprofen 400 mg plus codeine 25.6 to 60 mg demonstrates good analgesic efficacy. Very limited data suggest that the combination is better than the same dose of either drug alone. Use of combination analgesics that contain codeine has been a source of some concern because of misuse from over-the-counter preparations.


Background: The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers amyloid-β 1–42 (Aβ42), total and phosphorylated tau (t-tau, p-tau) are increasingly used to assist in the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, CSF biomarker levels can be affected by confounding factors. Objective: To investigate the association of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) present in the brain with AD CSF biomarker levels. Methods: We included CSF biomarker and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 172 subjects (52 controls, 72 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 48 AD patients) from 9 European Memory Clinics. A computer aided detection system for standardized automated segmentation of WMHs was used on MRI scans to determine WMH volumes. Association of WMH volume with AD CSF biomarkers was determined using linear regression analysis. Results: A small, negative association of CSF Aβ42, but not p-tau and t-tau, levels with WMH volume was observed in the AD (r2 = 0.084, p = 0.046), but not the MCI and control groups, which was slightly increased when including the distance of WMHs to the ventricles in the analysis (r2 = 0.105, p = 0.025). Three global patterns of WMH distribution, either with 1) a low, 2) a peak close to the ventricles, or 3) a high, broadly-distributed WMH volume could be observed in brains of subjects in each diagnostic group. Conclusion: Despite an association of WMH volume with CSF Aβ42 levels in AD patients, the occurrence of WMHs is not accompanied by excess release of cellular proteins in the CSF, suggesting that WMHs are no major confounder for AD CSF biomarker assessment.


Shortly after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Germany's government started preparing legislation that would close the country's last nuclear power plant by 2022. But this wasn't an entirely new development: Germany had been planning to leave nuclear energy behind for decades, and to understand its nuclear phase-out requires a close look at the past. Several projects and events mark the beginnings of the German anti-nuclear power movement: Among them are the huge protests over the Brokdorf reactor, which began in 1976 and led to civil war-like confrontations with police, and the controversy over the Kalkar fast-neutron reactor in the mid-1970s. Because of these and subsequent developments—including the 1986 Chernobyl accident—by the 1990s, no one in German political life seriously entertained the idea of new reactor construction. This tacit policy consensus led to energy forecasts and scenarios that focused on energy efficiency, demand reduction, and renewable energy sources. By the time of the Fukushima accidents, many of these new energy priorities had already begun to be implemented and to show effect. Replacing nuclear power in Germany with other energy sources on an accelerated schedule is likely to come with a price tag, but, at the same time, Germany's nuclear phase-out could provide a proof-of-concept, demonstrating the political and technical feasibility of abandoning a controversial high-risk technology. Germany's nuclear phase-out, successful or not, may well become a game changer for nuclear energy worldwide.


In this study we have applied new dual-porosity flow diagnostics to a recently discovered offshore fractured carbonate reservoir undergoing charactersiation studies. Carbonate reservoirs are typically highly hetrogeneous, naturally fractured and often mixed to oil wet, all of these factors are uncertain and can negatively impact upon recovery. With few wells drilled at the time of this study significant uncertainty hinders robust decision making.
A robust multi-realisation approach is rendered impractical as the run time for a single realisation of the dual-porosity model is in excess of several days. Instead of using brute force we have utilised grid based flow diagnostics as a fast screening tool to select reservoir models for further full-physics simulations. The CPU time of flow diagnostics is almost negligable. Flow diagnostics are numerical tests perfomed on the static model that provide the time-of-flight, tracer partitions, drained/swept volumes and well pairs. In addition, dual-porosity metrics link the advective flow in the fractures to transfer from the matrix, indicating regions where flow and transfer are unbalanced and hence at risk of early breakthrough.
Over 30 flow diagnostic tests were performed in under 10 minutes, the equivalent screening would take weeks using simulation. Results have shown that the fracture intensity and wettability are the most signifcant uncertainties that impact upon transfer and recovery, this effect would be missed by an equivalent single-porosity model. Well placement in this reservoir is very sensitive; the results show the proposed placement is effective for the assumed yet uncertain facies distribution. This broad sensitity screening has guided the ongoing modelling strategy, in partcular pinpointing the need for detailed characterisation of the fracture and facies distributions. Flow diagnostics are hence an excellent way to complement production forecasting workflows by providing a tool for quickly ranking and selecting scenarios for further detailed full-physics simulation, allowing us to focus more computational resources on reservoir models that are of particular interest.


The debate between rhetoricians and philosophers goes back to the origins of the understanding of what philosophy is, which we can trace to Plato and the immediate Platonic tradition. I suggest that this tradition was not a disinterested one. Its concern was to carve out and develop a particular kind of discourse (i.e., what it takes to be the philosophical enterprise) for its own purposes (i.e., to marginalise its competitors). It did this in a particularly successful way, to the extent that it is difficult for us even to consider what the alternatives might have been. However, there are residual problems in the way that it conceives of the philosophical project, and this question is related to the widespread tendency of contemporary thinkers to view rhetoric as pompous vacuousness or mere trickery. Despite the theoretical questions posed, this thesis focuses primarily on concrete works, especially those of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Renaissance thinkers, Hobbes, and Locke. I analyse the rhetorical discourse in some of rhetoric's staunchest opponents, and some of its most well-known advocates for a very specific purpose. First, I am trying to show that all these philosophers, whether pro or against the art of rhetoric, recognise the danger of 'sophistic tricks', and acknowledge (more or less reluctantly) that rhetoric potentially represents a dangerous threat to the moral basis of political life, but follow different paths. Next, and this is a fundamental part of my argument, that in the works of philosophers who are widely regarded as some of rhetoric's staunchest opponents, we can find clear evidence, not only of the use of rhetoric to fight rhetoric, but allusions to what they see as a 'true' or legitimate rhetoric. In other words, echoing Plato, two forms of persuasion are alluded to in their works: (i) a rhetoric that produces persuasion for belief in the absence of knowledge, and (ii) a genuine or 'true' art of rhetoric, the sort of that produces knowledge (episteme) in the privileged sense. So in the Phaedrus, Plato suggests that the philosopher is the true rhetorician; for Hobbes the only 'true' rhetorician is, of course, the sovereign; and for Locke, any truly free and rational individual can, at least in theory, be a good rhetorician. At a more general level, and this constitutes the underlying theme of the thesis, I hope to show that philosophy itself, like all discourses, does not exist in a linguistic vacuum. Philosophy, like rhetoric and history, is deeply implicated in the social and political order that produces it.


OBJECTIVE
To determine hip, stifle, and tarsal joint ranges of motion (ROM) and angular velocities during swimming and walking in healthy dogs and dogs with surgically corrected cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture.

DESIGN
Prospective clinical study.

ANIMALS
13 healthy dogs and 7 dogs with CCL rupture.

PROCEDURE
Dogs with CCL rupture were enrolled in a postoperative aquatic rehabilitation program and evaluated 21 to 35 days after surgery. Dogs were filmed while swimming in a pool and while walking at a fast (1.3 m/s) or slow (0.9 m/s) pace on a treadmill. Maximal angles of extension and flexion, ROM, and angular velocities were calculated.

RESULTS
In healthy dogs, swimming resulted in a significantly greater ROM in the hip joint than did walking, but in dogs with CCL rupture, ROM of the hip joint did not vary with swimming versus walking. For dogs in both groups, swimming resulted in significantly greater ROM of the stifle and tarsal joints than did walking, primarily because of greater joint flexion. Stifle joint ROM was significantly lower in dogs with CCL rupture than in healthy dogs, regardless of whether dogs were swimming or walking.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that following surgical management of a ruptured CCL in dogs, swimming resulted in greater ROM of the stifle and tarsal joints than did walking. This suggests that if ROM is a factor in the rate or extent of return to function in these dogs, then aquatic rehabilitation would likely result in a better overall outcome than walking alone.


Abstract A computational approach to optimal multivariate designs with respect to stratification and allocation is investigated under the assumptions of fixed total allocation, known number of strata, and the availability of administrative data correlated with thevariables of interest under coefficient-of-variation constraints. This approach uses a penalized objective function that is optimized by simulated annealing through exchanging sampling units and sample allocations among strata. Computational speed is improved through the use of a computationally efficient machine learning method such as K-means to create an initial stratification close to the optimal stratification. The numeric stability of the algorithm has been investigated and parallel processing has been employed where appropriate. Results are presented for both simulated data and USDA's June Agricultural Survey. An R package has also been made available for evaluation.


Abstract In 1997 a 121 m ice core was retrieved from Lomonosovfonna, the highest ice field in Spitsbergen, Svalbard (1250 m a.s.l.). Radar measurements indicate an ice depth of 126.5 m, and borehole temperature measurements show that the ice is below the melting point. High-resolution sampling of major ions, oxygen isotopes and deuterium has been performed on the core, and the results from the uppermost 36 m suggest that quasi-annual signals are preserved. The 1963 radioactive layer is situated at 18.5–18.95 m, giving a mean annual accumulation of 0.36 m w.e. for the period 1963–96. The upper 36 m of the ice core was dated back to 1920 by counting layers provided by the seasonal variations of the ions in addition to using a constant accumulation rate, with thinning by pure shear according to Nye (1963). The stratigraphy does not seem to have been obliterated by meltwater percolation, in contrast to most previous core sites on Svalbard. The anthropogenic influence on the Svalbard environment is illustrated by increased levels of sulphate, nitrate and acidity. Both nitrate and sulphate levels started to increase in the late 1940s, remained high until the late 1980s and have decreased during the last 15 years. The records of δ 18O, MSA (methane-sulphonic acid), and melt features along the core agree with the temperature record from Longyearbyen and the sea-ice record from the Barents Sea at a multi-year resolution, suggesting that this ice core reflects local climatic conditions.


Heritage protection becomes an ever-greater challenge due to constant and numerous threats by natural elements and the sole passage of time. This deterioration is increased by other stress circumstances such as economic, social and development pressures, climate change, war, social and religious conflicts, and a number of other factors related to heritage use. Heritage and historical landscapes should be preserved not only because of their role as an important testimony to bygone times and the source of a spirit of place, but because heritage and culture are important factors of territorial and economic development. Moreover, tourism is one of the sectors of economy that could improve the conservation of heritage and maintenance of cultural diversity. The study will facilitate an author review to complete the picture of the current situation and to find gaps; a documental analysis in order to capture the main concepts, compile the risks and opportunities from selected international and European documents as well as interviews with selected heritage stakeholders and professionals in relevant fields.


When JUnit was first introduced a decade ago by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma, the Agile movement was in its infancy, "Test Driven Development" was unknown, and unit testing was just starting to move into the typical developer's vocabulary. Today, most developers acknowledge the benefits of unit testing and rely on the increasingly sophisticated tools now available. The recently released JUnit 4.5 represents the state of the art in unit testing frameworks, and provides significant new features to improve the Java development process. JUnit in Action, Second Edition is an up-to-date guide to unit testing Java applications (including Java EE applications) using the JUnit framework and its extensions. This book provides techniques for solving real-world problems such as testing AJAX applications, using mocks to achieve testing isolation, in-container testing for Java EE and database applications, and test automation. Written to help readers exploit JUnit 4.5, the book covers recent innovations such as the new annotations that simplify test writing, improved exception handling, and the new assertion methods. You'll also discover how to use JUnit extensions to test new application styles and frameworks including Ajax, OSGi, and HTML-based presentation layers. Using a sample-driven approach, various unit testing strategies are covered, such as how to unit test EJBs, database applications, and web applications. Also addressed are testing strategies using freely available open source frameworks and tools, and how to unit test in isolation with Mock Objects. The book will also bring you up to speed on the latest thinking in TDD, BDD, Continuous Integration, and other practices related to unit testing.


IntroductionAlmost half of Australian women assaulted by their partner have children in their care. Evidence suggests a link between children's exposure to violence, and subsequent maltreatment allegations. However, this evidence is limited by small sample sizes. Linked administrative data present an opportunity to further investigate this sensitive topic.
Objectives and ApproachThis study investigated the relationship between assaults on mothers and subsequent child maltreatment allegations. The sample included all live births in Western Australia from 1990 to 2009 (N=524,534) and their parents, with follow up to 2013. Linked administrative data on child maltreatment allegations and mothers' assault-related hospital admissions were obtained. Multivariate Cox regression estimated the risk of maltreatment allegation following maternal assault admission. Adjusted and unadjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95\% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for the risk of maltreatment allegation, and time (in months) between assault admission and the first maltreatment allegation.
ResultsOne in five children whose mother had an assault admission had a subsequent maltreatment allegation, increasing to more than one in three children when restricted to assault admissions in the prenatal period. More than half of the children who had a maltreatment allegation after their mother was admitted for assault were Aboriginal. After adjusting for covariates, children whose mother had an assault admission had two-fold increased risk of having a maltreatment allegation. The risk of maltreatment allegation was greatest in young children, 5.5-year-old (SD=4.6), when restricted to maternal assault admissions in the prenatal period the children were younger at 4-year-old (SD=4.1). The time from maternal assault admission to maltreatment allegation was around 12 months longer for Aboriginal children than for non-Aboriginal children.
Conclusion/ImplicationsChildren of mothers who have been assaulted are at higher risk of child maltreatment allegation. Targeted early intervention is required for families with young children, and pregnant women experiencing violence. The time to maltreatment allegation for Aboriginal children warrants community developed culturally-safe partnerships between Aboriginal communities and government services.


Over the last two decades, there have been a number of important theoretical developments in the area of sexual offending. While some theoreticians have focused on the identification of specific causal factors, others have presented integrated models which include a range of variables. The common goal among these theoretical explorations is to increase our understanding of the various factors that drive sexual offending so that interventions can be optimised. However, theory development to date has largely focused on sexual offending, in general, while the area of recidivism has been largely neglected. Thus, this article seeks to bring together two disparate bodies of literature, namely, theories of sexual offending and risk factors for recidivism with the aim of identifying a common ground which will ultimately lead to development of a theory of sexual reoffending.


The Problem Following the theologian and physicist Ian Barbour, David H. Smith characterizes the ideal relationship between theology and the natural sciences in terms of dialogue.1 With this characterization, Smith suggests (among other things) that each field has sufficient integrity on its own to warrant a respectful treatment by participants in the other, but not enough to justify compartmentalizing or isolating one from the other. Said differently, Smith claims that each field has its own contribution to make to the dialogue, but that each ought to be open to input and critique from the other. I accept this characterization, but want to explore some implications of it for Christian theology and ethics that Smith does not pursue. For when Christians engage in a genuine dialogue with the natural sciences in the sense that Barbour and Smith understand it, questions can be raised concerning whether and, if so, how and to what extent, the findings of these sciences affect our fundamental conceptions of God and God's purposes for creation and humankind. My motivation for raising such questions arises from observing how Christians too often evaluate developments in the natural sciencesthey do so exactly as Barbour and Smith suggest we ought not. That is, Christians too often evaluate the findings in the natural sciences solely in terms of their own, prior faith-commitments, holding these normatively constant as it were, and appropriating only those scientific findings that do not directly challenge these prior commitments. However, if a genuine dialogue is to take place between participants in these fields, Christians must be willing to consider how the findings of the natural sciences might lead them to re-evaluate their commitments, perhaps even to the point of reconceptualizing or relinquishing some of their most fundamental and cherished beliefs. Given the limitations of space for this article, I will here simply try to illustrate how such questions arise as a problem internal to Christian theology, and then sketch some implications of them for theology and ethics. To do this, I will utilize one of several possible issues arising with our current understanding of evolutionary theory, namely, the mechanism of genetic mutation. In the end, I suggest that such implications drive us to reconsider what has traditionally been called "natural theology." How the Problem Arises Smith correctly points outs that the three traditional sources of authority for Christians generally, and Anglicans particularly, are scripture, tradition, and what he calls the "standards of rational or coherent thought." The third source is often characterized in terms of human experience understood in its broadest sense. It can thus include not only the widely accepted standards of rationality that Smith discusses, but also the widely accepted empirical and theoretical findings of the natural sciences as well .2 In this way, then, the findings of the natural sciences can be viewed as one authoritative source (among others) for Christian theology, and this because knowledge of the natural or "created" world presumably permits us to infer something about God as Creator and about God's purposes as Creator and Sustainer for creation and humankind. Of course, just what substantively the natural sciences permit us to infer about God and God's purposes have been and continue to be matters of much debate. I take up this issue momentarily. Here, I want to suggest that we not overlook the importance of this claim. For the claim that the findings of the natural sciences permit us to infer something about God and God's purposes for creation and humankind suggests (in principle, at least) that the findings of these sciences can be viewed as a concern internal to Christian theology. This view is in contrast (perhaps since Copernicus) to the way the sciences have too often been viewed by Christians, namely, as a concern external to theology and one that raises questions from which Christian beliefs must be insulated. …


The Fourth Edition of this pioneering casebook includes a comprehensive mix of materials that is adaptable to a survey course, a policy-oriented seminar, or a more specialized J.D.-level tax class. Every major topic is accompanied by a skillfully developed set of problems, and is enriched by lively author's notes and questions, and bibliographic references. Highlights of the Fourth Edition include: Coverage of all significant developments since the last edition, including best practices and reform proposals for nonprofit governance; new investment and donor stewardship standards under UPMIFA; emergence of the social enterprise movement; heightened Congressional scrutiny of hospitals and universities; changes to the public charity support tests and ruling procedures; and the many tax code "reforms" in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. A comprehensive new Revenue Ruling on political campaign activities of i?? 501(c)(3) public charities. An updated chapter on commerciality, with more streamlined coverage of the impact of commercial activities on exempt status, the unrelated business income tax, and complex structures such as joint ventures. Major revisions to the chapter on private foundations, emphasizing basic concepts and including an overview of the new regulatory regime for supporting organizations and donor-advised funds. An up-to-date survey of the ongoing Congressional scrutiny of nonprofit sector abuses and pending charitable tax reform legislation. Pruning of dated materials and technical minutia, and more tightly-edited cases, notes, and problems.


Prairie fires have always been a spectacular and dangerous part of the Great Plains. Nineteenth-century settlers sometimes lost their lives to uncontrolled blazes, and today ranchers such as those in the Flint Hills of Kansas manage the grasslands through controlled burning. Even small fires, overlooked by history, changed lives--destroyed someone's property, threatened someone's safety, or simply made someone's breath catch because of their astounding beauty. Julie Courtwright, who was born and raised in the tallgrass prairie of Butler County, Kansas, knows prairie fires well. In this first comprehensive environmental history of her subject, Courtwright vividly recounts how fire--setting it, fighting it, watching it, fearing it--has bound Plains people to each other and to the prairies themselves for centuries. She traces the history of both natural and intentional fires from Native American practices to the current use of controlled burns as an effective land management tool, along the way sharing the personal accounts of people whose lives have been touched by fire. The book ranges from Texas to the Dakotas and from the 1500s to modern times. It tells how Native Americans learned how to replicate the effects of natural lightning fires, thus maintaining the prairie ecosystem. Native peoples fired the prairie to aid in the hunt, and also as a weapon in war. White settlers learned from them that burns renewed the grasslands for grazing; but as more towns developed, settlers began to suppress fires--now viewed as a threat to their property and safety. Fire suppression had as dramatic an environmental impact as fire application. Suppression allowed the growth of water-wasting trees and caused a thick growth of old grass to build up over time, creating a dangerous environment for accidental fires. Courtwright calls on a wide range of sources: diary entries and oral histories from survivors, colorful newspaper accounts, military weather records, and artifacts of popular culture from Gene Autry stories to country song lyrics to Little House on the Prairie . Through this multiplicity of voices, she shows us how prairie fires have always been a significant part of the Great Plains experience--and how each fire that burned across the prairies over hundreds of years is part of someone's life story. By unfolding these personal narratives while looking at the bigger environmental picture, Courtwright blends poetic prose with careful scholarship to fashion a thoughtful paean to prairie fire. It will enlighten environmental and Western historians and renew a sense of wonder in the people of the Plains.


The Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea), a common cetacean species in India, has a diverse vocal repertoire, which to date has not been described in detail. This study focused on analyzing their whistle vocalizations. Humpback dolphins were recorded off the Sindhudurg coast of Maharashtra, India, and 2,260 whistles were analyzed for their acoustic characteristics. Whistles spanned a wide frequency range between 2.3 kHz and 33.0 kHz, with durations ranging from 0.01 s to 1.60 s. Whistles were categorized into seven contour classes based on their qualitative properties. A classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to quantify variability between the seven contour classes using the measured acoustic features. Based on the CART analysis, frequency gradient, minimum slope, maximum slope, beginning and ending slope accounted for most variability between whistle types. CART resulted in an overall classification accuracy of 89.5%. This study provides a detailed description of acoustic features and qualitative properties of humpback dolphin whistles from the northwestern coast of India. Further comparisons of acoustic data from Sousa populations along the Indian coast are necessary to determine possible geographic variations in whistle characteristics and whether the variations are driven by environmental or genetic factors or a combination of both.


Since the 1970s the characteristics of international business cycles have changed and deeper economic integration has modified the features of cross-country comovement. We formally test for correlation shifts in measures of real economic activity and economic/financial integration. In Europe we find some statistically significant evidence of higher correlations following the creation of the EMU in 1999 for several subgroups of countries. We detect significantly more pronounced correlations between Mexico and the US and between Mexico and Canada in North America after the enforcement of the NAFTA in 1994. Results are derived from an econometric framework based on nonparametric iterated stationary bootstrap methods, whose statistical reliability and performance we assess through Monte Carlo simulations.


This article illustrates how drawings can be implemented in narrative family therapy with children. This work primarily draws upon the narrative family therapy framework, but other family therapy ideas are also integrated. It will be argued in this article that non-verbal media, more specifically drawings, can contribute to alternative story development and the co-creation of joint family actions, whereby the family can achieve their preferred ways of living. First I explain how drawings can assist externalising conversations. This is followed by a detailed description of the stance I take as a family therapist, questions I ask, and how I focus on relationships and interactions during the co-creation of drawings. I also describe how positively implicating family members and enabling their active participation during this drawing process reinforces the change process. If family members have experienced problems similar to the ones the child is now struggling with, intergenerational and sibling alliances can also be created. Finally I put theory into practice by providing the reader with a case example.


The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of sagitta otolith microchemistry (Sr:Ca, Ba:Ca ratios) as habitat indicator of Anchoa tricolor between the estuary and the adjacent continental shelf. We analyzed 162 specimens of A. tricolor in the Paranagua Estuarine Complex (Brazil), and salinity and rainfall data. The biological and environmental data were grouped into sectors (internal, intermediate, and external) and periods (early and late wet, and dry periods). The concentrations of Ca, Ba and Sr were determined using an ICP-OES. The Sr:Ca ratio indicated the existence of two groups, probably from different origins, that use the estuary at the same time, but occupying different sectors of the estuary. The Ba:Ca ratio did not differentiate the groups as to the use of estuary, but rather revealed low values, suggesting that this species does not use freshwater environments. However, this ratio showed a high variation in the wet period, indicating a greater availability of barium in the estuarine regions affected by the river discharge. Considering our results, it is possible to classify A . tricolor as an estuarine migrant species. Also, the Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca ratios can be indicative of the habitat use in a subtropical estuary.


The obvious recent advances in areas such as video compression and network architectures allow for the deployment of novel video distribution applications. These have the potential to provide ubiquitous media access to end users. In recent years, applications based on audio and video streaming have turned out to be immensely popular and the Internet has become the most widely used vector for media content distribution, due to its high availability and connectivity. However, the nature of the Internet infrastructure is not adapted to the specific characteristics of multimedia traffic, which presents a certain tolerance to losses, but strict delay and high bandwidth requirements. In this thesis, our goal is to improve the efficiency of media delivery over the existing network architecture. In order to do so we consider the delivery of scalable video in three main delivery scenarios, namely one-to-one client server architectures, one-to-many broadcasting architectures, and many-to-one distributed streaming architectures. First, we propose a distributed media-friendly rate allocation algorithm for the delivery of both finely and coarsely scalable video streams. Unlike existing solutions, our algorithm explicitly takes the characteristics of media streams into consideration. As a result, it provides rate allocations that better fit the heterogeneous characteristics of media streams. We outline an implementation that is robust to random feedback delays and that permits a scalable deployment of the algorithm. The rate allocation that is computed by our algorithm achieves network stability and high bandwidth utilization. It moreover allows to maximize the average received quality for all streams that are delivered in the network. While considering the transmission of coarsely layered streams, we derive conditions on the encoding rates of the video layers. These conditions depend on the allowed end-to-end delay and on the rate allocation algorithm that controls the sending rates. They allow us to take full advantage of the allocated transmission rates. Second, we investigate the problem of jointly addressing the needs of multiple receivers that consume different versions of a layered media stream in a broadcasting scenario. We provide optimal scheduling algorithms that jointly optimize the playback delay and the buffer occupancy at all of these receivers when the used channel is known. Furthermore we analyze low complexity heuristics based optimization techniques, which provide close to optimal results when only limited channel knowledge is available. Finally, we explore the possibility to exploit the inherent network diversity that is provided by the Internet infrastructure. In particular, we consider media delivery schemes where multiple senders are available for the transmission of a scalable video stream to a single client. Such an architecture is referred to as a distributed streaming architecture. It has the benefit of aggregating multiple unreliable channels into a single more robust channel with high availability. Through the use of Fountain codes, we are able to transform the distributed streaming problem into a rate allocation problem of lower complexity. The solution to this problem is shown to depend not only on the average packet loss rate, but also on the average length of packet loss bursts that are observed on each of the available channels. The coding scheme that we suggest enables our system to adapt the streamed content to the network characteristics, as well as to the needs of the receiving client.


Learning analytics offers higher education valuable insights that can inform strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation for educational excellence. Research demonstrates that learning management systems (LMSs) can increase student sense of community, support learning communities and enhance student engagement and success, and LMSs have therefore become core enterprise component in many universities. We were invited to undertake a current state analysis of enterprise LMS use in a large research-intensive university, to provide data to inform and guide an LMS review and strategic planning process. Using a new e-learning analytics platform, combined with data visualization and participant observation, we prepared a detailed snapshot of current LMS use patterns and trends and their relationship to student learning outcomes. This paper presents selected data from this "current state analysis" and comments on what it reveals about the comparative effectiveness of this institution's LMS integration in the service of learning and teaching. More critically, it discusses the reality that the institutional planning process was nonetheless dominated by technical concerns, and made little use of the intelligence revealed by the analytics process. To explain this phenomenon we consider theories of change management and resistance to innovation, and argue that to have meaningful impact, learning analytics proponents must also delve into the socio-technical sphere to ensure that learning analytics data are presented to those involved in strategic institutional planning in ways that have the power to motivate organizational adoption and cultural change.


Urbanization is happening fast in the developing world and especially so in sub-Saharan Africa where growth rates of cities are among the highest in the world. While cities and, in particular, secondary towns, where most of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa resides, affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands, this relationship is not well understood. To fill this gap, we develop a conceptual model to analyze how farmers' proximity to cities of different sizes affects agricultural prices and intensification of farming. We then test these predictions using large-scale survey data from producers of teff, a major staple crop in Ethiopia, relying on unique data on transport costs and road networks and implementing an array of econometric models. We find that agricultural price behavior and intensification is determined by proximity to a city and the type of city. While proximity to cities has a strong positive effect on agricultural output prices and on uptake of modern inputs and yields on farms, the effects on prices and intensification measures are lower for farmers in the rural hinterlands of secondary towns compared to primate cities.


Two estimators for volume at time 1 for use with permanent horizontal point samples are evaluated. One estimator, used traditionally, uses only the trees sampled at time 1, while the second estimator, originally presented by Roesch and coauthors (F.A. Roesch, Jr., E.J. Green, and C.T. Scott. 1989. For. Sci. 35(2): 281–293), takes advantage of additional sample information that becomes available at time 2. In this test the Roesch etal. estimator was always lower in sum of squared differences and sum of absolute differences for board foot and cubic foot volume than the traditional estimator. In addition a simulation revealed no discernible bias for the Roesch etal. estimator over the traditional estimator.


Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be utilized for the education sector. Education includes online, distance and part time education. There are unlimited applications of ICT in the real world. In his paper emphasis is on the education field. Traditional Non-formal education system process includes activities like admission, Personal Contact Programmes, Exam for any course in a University or Institution. In this process ICT can play a great role in all the activities by providing a lot of benefits to students, teachers, parents and Universities itself. ICT can be used for providing education to the people who are not able to come to school due to various constraints. ICT can play great role in formal and non formal forms of education. The paper examines certain important issues related with the effective implementation of ICTs in all levels of education and provides suggestions to address certain challenges that would help in the implementation of ICTs in education and simultaneously increasing Quality of education.


Modern society demands renewed attention on the competencies required to best equip students for a dynamic and uncertain future. We present exploratory work based on the premise that metacognitive and reflective competencies are essential for this task. Bringing the concepts of metacognition and reflection together into a conceptual model within which we conceived of them as both a set of similar features, and as a spectrum ranging from the unconscious inner-self through to the conscious external social self. This model was used to guide exploratory computational analysis of 6090 instances of reflective writing authored by undergraduate students. We found the conceptual model to be useful in informing the computational analysis, which in turn showed potential for automating the discovery of metacognitive activity in reflective writing, an approach that holds promise for the generation of formative feedback for students as they work towards developing core 21st century competencies.


This quarterly, which comes in an attractive three-ring binder, is exactly what its subtitle says it is, namely a directory. It has been produced to help the user or software developer locate sources of existing software systems and programs that might fully or partially suffice to perform a specific systems or applications function. The emphasis has been on listing software for small computer systems, and most of the software listings carry a warranty on the content and operation of the software products; those which have no warranty are usually very low in price and thus pose limited risks. The editor states that his staff has spent over two man-years searching, soliciting, collecting, reviewing, and organizing the content of this quarterly. They have covered, and continue to cover with their updates, every known source of working minicomputer software including individuals, educational units, software firms, minicomputer firms, turnkey venders, users, etc.


Fast-paced construction within a dense urban environment like New York City has several distinctive rationales, approaches, constraints, and requirements that necessitate careful coordination. The fundamental principle that drives the need for speed in construction is economic. The sooner a new building is completed and put into operation, the lower are the carried financing costs and the sooner the project can recapture generated revenue streams. There are numerous approaches and structural systems that can speed up the construction process. This article focuses on characteristics of flat plate concrete systems which, when floor plates are repetitious and identical, can achieve fast superstructure builds by using a 2-day concrete placement cycle. However, in tight urban locations, spatial constraints for staging, installation, material, and labor, as well as complexity of architectural/design coordination, can potentially interrupt the cycle and cause delays. Instant communication and in-the-field coordination are keys to maintaining the fast paced schedule and to minimizing mistakes. The structural engineer needs to be fully immersed in the day-to-day construction process to ensure successful and timely completion of the project. Three projects in New York City are presented to illustrate coordination issues that are particular to this type of construction: Avalon West Chelsea, 41-42 24th Street (aka "QLIC"), and 150 Charles Street. These developments are primarily multi-family residential, but also feature street-level retail, atand below-grade parking, and amenity features at upper levels including planted green roofs and terraces. Both Avalon West Chelsea and QLIC are rental buildings that required high-speed construction. In contrast, 150 Charles Street is a luxury condominium development.


The action of wind on the ocean surface results in the formation of Ekman spirals, as proposed by V.W. Ekman in 1905. The spirals display exponential decay of current speed and anticyclonic rotation with increasing depth. Observations of Ekman spirals are extremely rare, and there are few studies that test Ekman theory against observations. Here we present a unique array of velocity profiles from EM-APEX profiling floats, which we use to examine the nature of Ekman spirals in the Southern Ocean and test how well they are described by theory.
Classical Ekman theory assumes the momentum mixing within the upper ocean is set by a constant eddy viscosity. However, previous observational studies have found Ekman spirals to be compressed, with different viscosities estimated from current speed and rotation. This behaviour has been linked to surface trapping of Ekman currents (Price et al. 1987) or could arise due to a failure to consider depth varying geostrophic currents (Polton et al. 2013). We use 1400 profiles of velocity from EM-APEX floats, collected at the northern Kerguelen Plateau as part of the Southern Ocean FINE-structure (SOFINE) expedition during the Austral summer of 2008-9, to investigate whether a constant viscosity parameterization is the best way to represent momentum mixing in the upper ocean, or whether other methods such as a depth-varying viscosity or a mixing scheme linked with stratification (e.g. Price et al., 1986) are more effective. Previous studies of Ekman layer observations have examined either the raw observations, or models of momentum input in the spectral domain or in the time domain. In this study we use all three approaches to build a robust picture of Ekman spirals in the Southern Ocean and their response to wind forcing.
Ekman velocities were isolated from inertial and geostrophic currents in the absolute velocity profiles. Estimates of eddy viscosity and Ekman layer depth were separately obtained from profiles of current speed and heading. Assuming a vertically-uniform geostrophic current the Ekman layer depths from current heading were approximately twice as large as those from current speed decay. This degree of spiral compression has been observed in prior studies. Assuming a linear geostrophic shear, constant viscosity estimates from current heading and speed decay converged towards a common value, implying a significant reduction in the compression of the Ekman spirals. Including geostrophic shear through the Ekman layer also increased the number of EM-APEX profiles displaying Ekman spiral-like behaviour from 224 to 441, and reduced the RMS velocity residual between fitted and observed spirals. There was no clear relationship between the observed viscosities and mixed layer depth or strength of stratification. This suggests that the compressed spirals observed in previous studies are due to aliasing the geostrophic current into the Ekman spiral (Polton et al. 2013), rather than surface trapping of Ekman currents associated with stratification.
Nine conceptual Ekman models were fitted to the observations in the spectral domain using the method of Elipot and Gille (2009). Application of the spectral technique to shipboard ADCP and in situ wind data indicated a constant viscosity model with a finite boundary layer depth (BLD) was the best performing model. Eddy viscosities agreed with Elipot's results for the same latitude bands but the optimal BLD was found to be deeper for the SOFINE region. Examination of Elipot's results indicate that within the latitude band of our study bootstrap, estimates of summer BLDs displayed a greater range of variability than the year round or winter BLDs. This suggests that the deeper BLDs observed in our study were principally due to the timing of SOFINE. A similar analysis using EM-APEX float data and blended reanalysis-scatterometer winds was inconclusive.
To test for the effects of time-varying wind forcing and stratification in the mixed layer, we ran linear and stratified Ekman models with the Price Weller and Pinkel (1986) mixing scheme, forced by both in situ shipboard winds and a variety of reanalysis wind data. Model time mean skill was analysed by comparing the correlation between the simulated and observed mean current profiles. Time varying performance was assessed using a two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and quantile-quantile plots. For the model runs with the shipboard winds, the classical linear time-varying Ekman model offered the best performance. Model runs using 6 hourly reanalysis winds interpolated onto the float tracks performed poorly, preventing a proper assessment of skill of the stratified models relative to the linear Ekman models.
The combined evidence in this thesis suggests that the classical constant viscosity Ekman model offers an adequate representation of the near surface response to wind forcing with a minimal number of parameters.


The impact of ICT in the supply chain has been given much attention in recent literature. Although ICT generally leads to performance gains, it is still unclear which specific aspects of ICT affect which specific aspects of supply chain performance. Therefore, this paper investigates the role of three subsequent ICT stages an organization can employ. It was expected that higher stages yield more benefits than lower stages. Moreover, the concept of technological uncertainty was expected to moderate these relationships. Industries with high uncertainty would benefit from the highest stage of ICT by attaining a competitive advantage, whilst firms performing in low technological uncertainty should employ lower stages. An empirical survey-based research was conducted amongst Chinese manufacturers. A supplier perspective was used and questions were related to the key buyer of the firm. Therefore, performance was measured on a dyadic level. The results show that all ICT stages lead to increased service performance, whilst no effect was found for cost performance. Additionally, a moderating effect was found between the highest stage of ICT and both types of performance. These findings confirm the positive impact of ICT and imply it has different effects on different types of performance. Moreover, ICT capability should be employed when the technological uncertainty is high, as it does not pay off in industries with low uncertainty.


In a transaction-oriented Web site, the user executes a series of activities in order to carry out a specific task (e.g., purchase an airplane ticket). The manner in which the activities can be executed is a consequence of the transaction design, partially influenced by the constraints implied by the business model underlying the Web application. Unfortunately, many Web sites are constructed with the transaction design hidden in the overall system implementation. The result is a system with unpredictable workflow, which can make evolution difficult. This paper presents a technique for Web site evolution via transaction reengineering. The reengineering process consists of the recovery of the "as-is" design model of a Web application transaction, an analysis of the result to determine desirable restructuring options, and a redesign of the transaction model based on this analysis. The reengineering process relies on formalism that is a user-centered extension of the transaction design model of the ubiquitous Web applications (UWA) framework. The goal of the reengineering process is to emerge with a transaction design that better reflects the user experience and also facilitates disciplined evolution of the Web-based application. An example from the travel industry is used to illustrate the process.


Objective To assess the cost-effectiveness of strategies to increase cervical cancer screening uptake at first invitation (STRATEGIC trial). Methods We performed an economic analysis alongside the STRATEGIC trial, comparing each of seven novel interventions for improving cervical screening uptake with control general practices in Greater Manchester and Grampian (United Kingdom). A template was developed to measure the intervention costs. Trial estimates of screening uptake were combined with data from the literature to estimate healthcare costs of each intervention. The added lifetime costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) of attending cervical screening were estimated by a systematic literature review, with relevant results pooled and weighted by study quality. Trial results and estimated lifetime costs and benefits of screening were then combined in a decision analytic model, giving an incremental cost per QALY gained for each intervention. Uncertainty was addressed in probabilistic and univariate sensitivity analyses. Results Intervention costs per screening round per woman attending varied from about £1.20 (2014 UK) for the nurse navigator intervention to £62 for the unrequested HPV self-sampler kit. The meta-analysis revealed a lifetime discounted benefit from screening of 0.043 QALYs per woman attending, at an additional lifetime discounted cost of £234. The incremental cost per QALY gained in all interventions was below £13,000. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses suggested that only unrequested self-sampling and timed appointments have a high probability of being cost-effective. Conclusions Unrequested self-sampling and timed appointments are likely to be cost-effective interventions. Further research is required on the duration of effects and on implementing combinations of interventions.


Eosinophilia in cancer is rare, but well characterized.1 Paraneoplastic eosinophilia is most often associated with hematologic malignancies, but has also been reported in solid tumors.1 This association usually reflects an aggressive course and poor prognosis.1 Eosinophilic pneumonia (EP) has many causes, but is extremely rare in the context of cancer.2–5 We report a case in a 53year-old male smoker working at a paint factory. The patient had hypertension under treatment with an angiotensin-convertingenzyme inhibitor, but no other relevant medical or surgical history. He had a 1-month history of dry cough, dyspnea on moderate exertion, and constitutional symptoms (weight loss, 5 kg). Physical examination revealed inspiratory crackles in the lower lungs and diffuse wheezing. Initial blood tests showed leukocytosis with eosinophilia (47.3%; 6.20 × 109/L) and elevated C-reactive protein (93.9 mg/dL). Chest radiography showed diffuse, heterogeneous infiltrates, and moderate hypoxemia (PaO2, 64 mmHg) was detected. Sputum cultures for bacteria and staining for mycobacteria were negative. A chest high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scan showed areas of subpleural ground-glass opacities, mainly in the upper lobes, areas of interlobular septal thickening in the lower lobes, and several enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (Fig. 1). No endobronchial lesions were detected by bronchoscopy. Bronchoalveolar lavage total and differential cell counts revealed intense eosinophilic alveolitis (39%), but no microorganisms or malignant cells. Adenocarcinoma cells were detected on endobronchial ultrasonography with transbronchial biopsy of the mediastinal lymph nodes. All possible causes of EP were excluded. Meanwhile, an abdominopelvic CT scan revealed a neoplastic mass at the hepatic flexure of the colon, in addition to several hepatic metastatic lesions. Despite high corticosteroid doses and chemotherapy with FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil, and irinotecan), the patient continued to deteriorate, with respiratory failure and progression of radiological lesions, and died just 2 months after the diagnosis.


In this work, the effect of Cu2+ on the structural and magnetic properties of samples of magnetite is addressed. Samples
of magnetite, both pure and Cu2+ doped, Fe3-xCuxO4, with x = 0, 5, 10 and 20 atm.% were synthesized hydrothermally. The two-lattice method was employed to measure the M?ssbauer recoilless fraction of magnetite relative to hematite (fmag/fhem)
of the samples, looking for evidence of substitution of Fe2+ by Cu2+. The relative recoilless fraction measurements were performed by taking room temperature M?ssbauer spectra of mixtures of each sample with analytical grade hematite. The M?ssbauer measurements were complemented with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The analyses by AAS and EDS showed that the copper concentration in the final products
increases with increasing the content of Cu2+ in the starting solutions. The M?ssbauer analyses showed a linear decrease trend of the relative M?ssbauer recoilless fraction with increasing concentration of Cu2+in the samples, as well as a reduction in the hyperfine magnetic field, which was more significant in the octahedral sites than tetrahedral sites. The broadening of the M?ssbauer spectral lines was more significant for the octahedral sub spectrum than for the tetrahedral sub spectrum. Our study points that Cu2+ occupies preferentially the octahedral sites, where it substitutes Fe2+ species, generating broadening in the lines of the octahedral sub spectrum and a reduction in the probability of having nuclear resonant absorption of M?ssbauer gamma rays in the samples.


Machine learning is the investigation of getting PCs to act without being unequivocally changed. In the previous decade, machine learning has given us self-driving vehicles, pragmatic discourse acknowledgment, viable web search, and an unfathomably improved comprehension of the human genome. Machine learning is so unavoidable today that you most likely use it many times each day without knowing it. Numerous specialists likewise think it is the most ideal approach to machine learning ground towards human-level machine learning. Along with numerous different controls, machine learning strategies have been broadly utilized in bioinformatics. The challenges and cost of organic investigations have prompted the improvement of refined machine learning approaches for this application zone. This paper will state the different machine learning applications expected to run the machine learning ventures. The fundamental limitation is the primary methodologies and contextual investigations of utilizing machine learning for determining in various zones. In this paper, we try to provide an overview of ML techniques from all perspectives.