Guided by the formalist perspective, this article presents an evaluation of Mma-Tau, the woman character in Time of the Butcherbird (1979), the novel by the South African writer, Alex La Guma. It examines the political role that she plays as well as how she is depicted to play this role, such that there is harmony between her role and her characterization. Her positive description as a huge, energetic woman wearing a mixture of male and female clothing delineates as it enhances her courageous political stand as the attire suggests a union between male and female in the struggle both against grinding poverty in the segregated city and against forced removal from her ancestral village. Her comparison to dark wood symbolises her unwavering unity with fellow villagers who the government wants to uproot from their ancestral land. As a result of her role as she leads the villagers in their resistance against relocation to a desolate strange land, Mma-Tau is the butcherbird of the title of the novel, which describes her as a ferocious woman whose ferocity is usually associated with the lioness, which, like the butcherbird, is a hunter. In her determination, focus and will lies a conviction that, being a human creation, a political order is changeable by human beings. In the process, she demonstrates La Guma's deftness in fusing her political role with her aesthetic nature, even as she embodies an aesthetic ideal of a humane society that runs through his fictional world.


We investigate the problem of reconstructing the 3D shape of an object, given a set of 2D landmarks in a single image. To alleviate the reconstruction ambiguity, a widely-used approach is to confine the unknown 3D shape within a shape space built upon existing shapes. While this approach has proven to be successful in various applications, a challenging issue remains, i.e., the joint estimation of shape parameters and camera-pose parameters requires to solve a nonconvex optimization problem. The existing methods often adopt an alternating minimization scheme to locally update the parameters, and consequently the solution is sensitive to initialization. In this paper, we propose a convex formulation to address this problem and develop an efficient algorithm to solve the proposed convex program. We demonstrate the exact recovery property of the proposed method, its merits compared to the alternative methods, and the applicability in human pose, car, and face reconstruction.


Cavitation damage often may be avoided by not allowing cavities to form. Where boundaries are not deeply submerged, their shape must be exactly correct, irregularities must be very small, and velocities must be moderate. When cavitation-free design is not possible, damage may be avoided or mitigated by (a) inventing a flow configuration that prevents cavities from collapsing against solid boundaries; (b) using damage-resistant materials when cavity-producing flows are infrequent; (c) arranging that water next to boundaries where cavities will form contain entrained air. Air bubbles influence cavity growth and collapse and eliminate or reduce damage to metals and concrete.


Maximum entropy inference can be used to find equations for the critical currents (Jc) in a type II superconductor as a function of temperature, applied magnetic field, and angle of the applied field, θ or φ . This approach provides an understanding of how the macroscopic critical currents arise from averaging over different sources of vortex pinning. The dependence of critical currents on temperature and magnetic field can be derived with logarithmic constraints and accord with expressions which have been widely used with empirical justification since the first development of technical superconductors. In this paper we provide a physical interpretation of the constraints leading to the distributions for Jc(T) and Jc(B), and discuss the implications for experimental data analysis. We expand the maximum entropy analysis of angular Jc data to encompass samples which have correlated defects at arbitrary angles to the crystal axes giving both symmetric and asymmetric peaks and samples which show vortex channeling behavior. The distributions for angular data are derived using combinations of first, second or fourth order constraints on cot θ or cot φ . We discuss why these distributions apply whether or not correlated defects are aligned with the crystal axes and thereby provide a unified description of critical currents in superconductors. For J//B we discuss what the maximum entropy equations imply about the vortex geometry.


. A case study, written in a tutorial manner, is presented where a comprehensive computer simulation is developed to determine the driving factors contributing to spacecraft pointing accuracy and stability. Models for major system components are described. Among them are spacecraft bus, attitude controller, reaction wheel assembly, star-tracker unit, inertial reference unit, and gyro drift estimators (Kalman filter). The predicted spacecraft performance is analyzed for a variety of input com- mands and system disturbances. The primary deterministic inputs are the desired attitude angles and rate set points. The stochastic inputs include random torque disturbances acting on the spacecraft, random gyro bias noise, gyro random walk, and star-tracker noise. These inputs are varied over a wide range to determine their effects on pointing accuracy and stability. The results are presented in the form of trade-off curves designed to facilitate the proper selection of subsystems so that overall spacecraft pointing accuracy and stability requirements are met.


Abstract This study evaluates the nature and internal complexity of high-frequency fluvial aggradational cycles and linked paleosols that were previously not recognized in nonmarine sequences of the Turonian Ferron Notom Delta in Central Utah. Detailed facies analysis of the ∼ 33-meter-thick youngest nonmarine sequence (Sequence 1) reveals 11 depositional facies that build 33 fluvial aggradational cycles, 9 fluvial aggradation cycles sets, and 3 sequences, in what was previously classified as a single 100 ka, 4th- or 5th-order sequence. Fluvial aggradation cycles in the succession are either simple floodplain bedsets or single channel stories that are bounded by paleosols or erosional surfaces. They represent depositional events that likely do not span more than 2 ka. Depositional periods are followed by short hiati (10 to < 400 a) characterized by subaerial exposure, and soil development, possibly reflecting floodplain abandonment or short-term river avulsions. Fluvial aggradational cycle sets show systematic stacking of fluvial aggradational cycles, and are analogous to parasequence sets. They are represented by either compound floodplain bedsets or multi-story channel sandstones, bounded by relatively mature paleosols or erosionally top-truncated. They represent multiple small-scale depositional events that span not more than 14 ka followed by relatively long (100 a to < 1 ka) hiati, characterized by subaerial exposure and soil development, which suggest a relationship to longer-term floodplain abandonment, due to either longer-term avulsion or fluvial entrenchment during base-level falls. Fluvial aggradational cycle sets are often capped by coals and carbonaceous strata. Marine trace fossils and dinocysts above coal beds suggest marine transgression due to compactional subsidence or sea-level rise. The scale of cyclicity of the fluvial aggradation cycle sets (14 ka) is similar to underlying marine parasequences (10 to 15 ka) and suggests that nonmarine and marine cycles have a similar control. Fluvial sequences are aggregates of fluvial aggradational cycle sets that are bounded by unconformities or their correlative conformities that represent longer periods (1 to 5 ka) of subaerial exposure and pedogenic development. Cyclicity on the sequence scale in this succession is attributed to high-frequency Milankovitch-scale (∼ 20 ka, 40 ka) rises and falls in sea level.


Abstract Nest depredation is the leading cause of waterfowl nest failures in much of the Prairie Pothole Region, USA. In 2006 and 2007, spatial and temporal patterns of nest depredation were evaluated on 248 waterfowl nests and 88 simulated waterfowl nests in North Dakota, USA. The hypothesis that predators are able to locate adjacent nests using an area-restricted search once they find the first nest and that ducks will space their nests apart to reduce this from happening was tested. However, no evidence was found to support either part of this hypothesis or that density-dependent depredation was occurring. This lack of support, along with no relationship between nest density and nest success, indicate that density-dependent depredation may not have been a problem in our study area. Artificial nests were used to test the hypothesis that meteorological conditions impact nest depredation rates. Artificial nests were more likely to be depredated when either temperature or dew point was high. It was hypothesized that these meteorological conditions increase the evaporation rate of odorants, and thereby improve the ability of predators to locate food sources by using olfaction. These meteorological conditions could also increase odor release from the surfaces of nests or incubating hens, although additional studies are necessary to determine if the relationship between evaporation rates and foraging efficiency of olfactory predators holds for natural waterfowl nests.


"Chinese philosophy before our Christian era is emphasized in this nontechnical summary of Chinese thought. Professor Creel also deals with Confucianism, the ideas of Mo-tsu and Mencius, Taoism, Legalism, and their variations and adaptations. As an introduction for the general reader, this book stands among the best." "China: A Resource and Curriculum Guide" "There exists nowhere else such a well-written presentation of the main trends in Chinese thought in so brief a space. The text is not cluttered with Chinese names and the pages are not weighed down with footnotes but the references are there for those who want them, with suggestions for further readings. This is a book which can be understood by those who have never read anything else about China." "The New York Times Book Review ""


In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity in America has increased dramatically. Though it has attracted less attention, the demographic composition of the American population also changed during this period. We decompose the increase in the average body mass index of the American population over 30 years and show that demographic changes explain a statistically significant but economically marginal amount of the change. Instead, the rise in average obesity is best explained by increases in BMI within demographic groups. Furthermore, our results indicate that groups' experiences have been heterogeneous with younger women experiencing especially large gains in weight. We uncover some evidence consistent with the hypothesis that this can be at least partially attributed to increased labor force participation.


From rather humble beginnings as the Personal Home Page scripting language, PHP has found its way into almost every server, corporation, and dev shop in the world. On an average day, somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million coders do something in PHP. Even when you use a well-understood language like PHP, building a modern web application requires tools that decrease development time and cost while improving code quality. Frameworks such as Ruby-on-Rails and Django have been getting a lot of attention as a result. For PHP coders, the Zend Framework offers that same promise without the need to move away from PHP. This powerful collection of components can be used in part or as a whole to speed up the development process. Zend Framework has the backing of Zend Technologies; the driving force behind the PHP programming language in which it is written. The first production release of the Zend Framework became available in July of 2007. Zend Framework in Action is a comprehensive tutorial that shows how to use the Zend Framework to create web-based applications and web services. This book takes you on an over-the-shoulder tour of the components of the Zend Framework as you build a high quality, real-world web application. This book is organized around the techniques you'll use every day as a web developer "data handling, forms, authentication, and so forth. As you follow the running example, you'll learn to build interactive Ajax-driven features into your application without sacrificing nuts-and-bolts considerations like security and performance. This book is aimed at the competent PHP developer who wants to master framework-driven web development. Zend Framework in Action goes beyond the docs but still provides quick access to the most common topics encountered in the development of web applications.


By narrowing the size distribution of the polymer acid template, polyaniline (PANI) that is subsequently template synthesized exhibits enhanced conductivity. We used poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid), PAAMPSA, as the polymer acid and it was synthesized by both conventional free-radical polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). ATRP-derived PAAMPSA, or aPAAMPSA, has a narrower size distribution compared to conventional PAAMPSA at comparable molecular weights. In general, PANI–aPAAMPSA is two to three times as conductive as PANI–PAAMPSA. The enhanced conductivity of PANI–aPAAMPSA is strongly correlated with increases in the conjugation length and crystallinity of PANI. More surprisingly, PANI–aPAAMPSA adopts a crystal structure that is different from that of PANI–PAAMPSA, but one that is similar to that of PANI doped with a molecular acid counterpart of AAMPSA.


Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden on 5-16 June 1972, voices are increasingly raised on the need for concerted efforts to be put in place and implemented to ensure sustainable development by balancing availability of resources with the level of harvesting, and in the process ensuring that methods used are not damaging to nature – and that the benefits are shared equitably to reduce poverty and improve human well-being. The global dialogue initiated in Stockholm has continued since then and the ambitions and commitments of governments and independent actors had been defined and as needed reinforced, during major events like the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. That Conference succeeded in building consensus on actions needed and specifically, guidance was stipulated in its "Agenda 21" that provides directions with regards to marine and coastal resources. Ten years after UNCED in Rio another milestone event, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was organized in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. In addition to state leaders, participants included private sector, NGO and CSO representations. A short-coming though was the limited representation from the US Government. If the meeting in Johannesburg, due to lack of commitment from countries like the USA, had its limitations, further advances was made another ten years later when the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) was held for the second time in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The Rio+20 Conference was instrumental in initiating the process of developing what would become the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After a consultative process over three years, the SDGs were finally adopted on 25 September 2015 by the 193 UN Member States at the UN General Assembly in New York. On that occasion, then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that: "The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people, everywhere. It is a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world". Improving Fisheries Management in Southeast Asia in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals


For the first time at Mars the statistical distribution of (1‐D) electric field wave power in the magnetosphere is presented, along with the distribution of magnetic field wave power, as observed by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft from the first 14.5 months of the mission. Wave power in several different frequency bands was investigated, and the strongest wave powers were observed at the lowest frequencies. The presented statistical studies suggest that the full thermalization of ions within the magnetosheath does not appear to occur, as has been predicted by previous studies. Manual inspection of 140 periapsis passes on the dayside shows that Poynting fluxes (at 2–16 Hz) between ∼10−11 and 10−8 Wm−2 reach the upper ionosphere for all 140 cases. Wave power is not observed in the ionosphere for integrated electron densities greater than 1010.8 cm−2, corresponding to typical depths of 100–200 km. The observations presented support previous suggestions that energy from the Mars‐solar wind interaction can propagate into the upper ionosphere and may provide an ionospheric heating source. Upstream of the shock, the orientation of the solar wind interplanetary magnetic field was shown to significantly affect the statistical distribution of wave power, based on whether the spacecraft was likely magnetically connected to the shock or not—something that is predicted but has not been quantitatively shown at Mars before. In flight performance and caveats of the Langmuir Probe and Waves electric field power spectra are also discussed.


Using the GMM estimator, this paper empirically studies the bank-specific, industry specific and macroeconomics specific determinants of bank profitability of 259 commercial banks in the South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan) in the period of 1997-2012. Empirical results show a low level of profit persistency and a late-hit of the global financial crisis in the banking sector in the region. We found no evidence for the traditional SCP hypothesis in relation to banking profit but financial solvency and managerial excellence have positive affiliation. Cost of fund, liquidity, funding gap, term structure of interest rate and economic growth rate found negative influence while rate of inflation positively affect bank profit. Also to report that South Asian banks are operating with 'inefficient' manpower.


?Die Produktion von Human Security in Vormoderne und Zeitge schichte?. Since the end of the Cold War, Human Security has become an im portant approach in international politics, law, and political science. In contrast to the so-called 'Westphalian System' that knows only states as subjects and objects of security, human security aims at the security of individual human beings if failed or failing states do not protect them nor provide for their basic needs. Thereby, such heterogeneous forms of security as security from war, food security, energy security or security from crime and traffic accidents be come common problems of international politics. Developing this new concept of security, UN documents as well as some experts suggest that the extended concept of security is a recurrence of the premodern concept of security that prevailed before the clear-cut distinction between domestic and international politics and the evolution of the system of states. This introduction discusses contributions on the premodern and contemporary history of (human) security and tries to assess the heuristic potential of the concept for historical research.


Recovering the 3-dimensional (3D) structure of a scene from 2-dimensional (2D) images is a fundamental problem in computer vision. This technology has many applications in computer graphics, entertainment, robotics, transportation, manufacturing, security, etc. One application is 3D mapping. For example, Google Earth and Microsoft Bing Maps provide a 3D virtual replica of many of the Earth's cities. However, these 3D models are low-detail and lack ground-level realism. Google Street View and Bing Street Side provide high-resolution panoramas captured from the streets of many cities, but these stills cannot provide free navigation through the virtual world. In this dissertation, I will show how to automatically and efficiently create detailed 3D models of urban environments from streetlevel imagery.
A major goal of this dissertation is to model large urban areas, even entire cities, which is an enormous challenge due to the sheer scale of the problem. Even a partial data capture of the town of Chapel Hill requires millions of frames of street-level video. The methods presented in this dissertation are highly parallel and use little memory, and can therefore utilize modern graphics hardware (GPU) technology to process video at the recording frame rate. Also, the structure in urban scenes such as planarity, orthogonality, verticality, and texture regularity can be exploited to achieve 3D reconstructions with greater efficiency, higher quality, and lower complexity.
By examining the structure of an urban scene, a multiple-direction plane-sweep stereo method is performed on the GPU in real-time. An analysis of stereo precision leads to a view selection strategy that guarantees constant depth resolution and improves bounds on time complexity. Depth measurements are further improved by segmenting the scene into piecewise-planar and non-planar regions, a process which is aided by learned planar surface appearance. Finally, depth measurements are fused and the final 3D surface is recovered using a multi-layer heightmap model that produces clean, complete, and compact 3D reconstructions. The effectiveness of these methods is demonstrated by results from thousands of frames of video from a variety of urban scenes.


Variational Bayesian Inference is a popular methodology for approximating posterior distributions over Bayesian neural network weights. Recent work developing this class of methods has explored ever richer parameterizations of the approximate posterior in the hope of improving performance. In contrast, here we share a curious experimental finding that suggests instead restricting the variational distribution to a more compact parameterization. For a variety of deep Bayesian neural networks trained using Gaussian mean-field variational inference, we find that the posterior standard deviations consistently exhibit strong low-rank structure after convergence. This means that by decomposing these variational parameters into a low-rank factorization, we can make our variational approximation more compact without decreasing the models' performance. Furthermore, we find that such factorized parameterizations improve the signal-to-noise ratio of stochastic gradient estimates of the variational lower bound, resulting in faster convergence.


This lead article for the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology explores directions for research and development on electronic portfolios, which are digital containers capable of storing visual and auditory content; software for which may also be designed to support a variety of pedagogical processes and assessment purposes. The paper is organized around several key questions: What are the types and characteristics of electronic portfolios? What are the outcomes and processes that electronic portfolios support for their creators? What are the contexts in which EPs are most effective and worthwhile? Who are electronic portfolio users/viewers and how do we provide appropriate professional development to encourage correct adoption and widespread and sustained use? What do we know and need to know about technical and administrative issues? What is evidence of electronic portfolio success? How do we move forward with funding and infrastructure?


Vascular injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy can occur similar to biliary injuries and mostly represented by intraoperative bleeding. Hepatic artery system pseudoaneurysm are rare. It occurs in the early or late postoperative course. Patients present with pallor, signs of haemobillia and altered liver function. We report a case of right posterior sectoral artery pseudoaneurysm detected 2 weeks after laparoscopic cholecystectomy and successfully repaired laparoscopically. We also describe how laparoscopic pringle clamping saved the conversion. The actively bleeding right posterior sectoral artery pseudoaneurysm was diagnosed by CT angiogram. Embolisation, usually the treatment of choice, would have risked liver insufficiency as hepatic artery proper was at risk because the origin the bleeding artery was just after its bifurcation. Isolated right hepatic artery embolisation can also cause hepatic insufficiency. To our knowledge this is the first reported case of laparoscopic repair of post-laparoscopic cholecystectomy bleeding sectoral artery pseudoaneurysm.


Coesite-bearing, very high pressure rocks in the southern Dora Maira massif, western Alps, Italy, emerged from a depth of 100 km during Cretaceous time. These rocks are now covered only by a thin fraction of the synmetamorphic overburden. Tectonic contacts above the coesite-bearing rocks are retrograde ductile shear zones that operated with a normal sense of motion: they cut out thick crustal sections from within the tectonometamorphic pile and caused the condensation of the Eoalpine baric and thermal structure. The result of this was the lateral dispersion of the Eoalpine orogenic wedge and the facilitation of the unroofing of the very high P rocks. Extensional unroofing is consistent with the absence of deeply cutting Cretaceous erosion, and with pressure-temperature paths that show that the very high P rocks cooled during decompression. The very high P rocks reached relatively shallow crustal levels by ca. 40 Ma, and the attenuated sequence overthrust a more external unit. These indicate that the exhumation of the very high P rocks took place within an overall plate onvergence setting, prior to the final suturing of Europe and Adria.


The p53 protein plays key roles in regulating cell survival in response to stress, including roles in the nucleus as a transcriptional regulator, as well as transcription-independent roles outside the nucleus. One of these is activation of BAK oligomerization at the mitochondria, thereby promoting mitochondrial permeabilization and apoptosis. When p53 was stabilized by exposure of human HepG2 hepatoma cells to the MDM E3 ligase inhibitor nutlin-3, which does not cause DNA damage, an interaction between BAK and IGFBP1 was detected by affinity purification and coimmunoprecipitation and the two proteins colocalized at the mitochondria. Conditions that elevated p53, but did not inhibit RNA polymerase II (Pol II), also increased the abundance of IGFBP1 mRNA and protein, and protected cells from apoptosis. In HepG2 cells in which p53 was elevated and Pol II was inhibited, the abundance of IGFBP1 did not increase, p53 formed complexes with BAK, and the cells underwent apoptosis. Overexpression of IGFBP1 in osteosarcoma or breast carcinoma cell lines resulted in resistance to apoptosis caused by DNA damage. In isolated mitochondria from nutlin-3-treated HepG2 cells, conditions that promoted the accumulation of IGFBP1 at the mitochondria, the interaction of p53 with BAK and the formation of BAK oligomers was inhibited compared with that of mitochondria from untreated cells. The importance of IGFBP1 in vivo was confirmed with knockout mice, which were highly susceptible to liver damage caused by α-amanitin (inhibitor of Pol II) or cisplatin (DNA damage), and, in each case, mitochondrial accumulation of p53 correlated with apoptosis. As the expression of IGFBP1 is limited to liver, endometrium, and kidney, it appears that IGFBP1 may be a tissue-specific inhibitor of the mitochondrial p53 death pathway. J. I.-J. Leu, D. L. George, Hepatic IGFBP1 is a prosurvival factor that binds to BAK, protects the liver from apoptosis, and antagonizes the proapoptotic actions of p53 at the mitochondria. Genes Dev. 21, 3095-3109 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Abstract Background Metformin, the most widely administered diabetes drug, has been proposed as a candidate adjunctive host-directed therapy for tuberculosis, but little is known about its effects on human host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Methods We investigated in vitro and in vivo effects of metformin in humans. Results Metformin added to peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy volunteers enhanced in vitro cellular metabolism while inhibiting the mammalian target of rapamycin targets p70S6K and 4EBP1, with decreased cytokine production and cellular proliferation and increased phagocytosis activity. Metformin administered to healthy human volunteers led to significant downregulation of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, mammalian target of rapamycin signaling, and type I interferon response pathways, particularly following stimulation with M. tuberculosis, and upregulation of genes involved in phagocytosis and reactive oxygen species production was increased. These in vivo effects were accompanied by a metformin-induced shift in myeloid cells from classical to nonclassical monocytes. At a functional level, metformin lowered ex vivo production of tumor necrosis factor α, interferon γ, and interleukin 1β but increased phagocytosis activity and reactive oxygen species production. Conclusion Metformin has a range of potentially beneficial effects on cellular metabolism, immune function, and gene transcription involved in innate host responses to M. tuberculosis.


The European Commission has launched the Regulation Proposal on a Common European Sales Law as an optional instrument for European firms and consumers. Several critical opinions have been raised against the optional nature, characterizing it as an instrument for social dumping (i. e. lowering consumer protection standards, given that no set of rules with higher levels of protection would ever be chosen by firms), as depriving consumers of any meaningful choice, and emphasizing its futility. In this paper we present a simple model showing how these critiques present theoretical flaws, even if one does not rely on the efficiency gains that increasing cross border trade may bring in terms of having more efficient firms serving consumers in other national markets. The role of verification or compliance costs, and of the impact of legal diversity on firms' operating costs is crucial for understanding the effects of an optional instrument, and may make high levels of consumer protection, and consumer choice implementable. We also characterize how different levels of the standard may lead to complete replacement of national standards and to the joint use of European and national standards.


This paper presents an overview of the Bretton Woods experience. From an historical perspective. I analyze its performance relative to other international monetary regimes. its origins. its operation. its problems and its demise. In the survey I emphasize both issues deemed important at the time and raise questions which may be of interest for the concerns of the present. Part 2 compares the macro performance of Bretton Woods with preceding and subsequent monetary regimes. The descriptive statistics on nine key macro variables point to one startling conclusion -- the Bretton Woods system. in its full convertibility phase 1959-1971, was the most stable regime for both nominal and real variables in the past century. Part 3 surveys the origins of Bretton Woods: the perceived problems of the inter war period; the plans for a new international monetary order and the steps leading to the outcome -- the Articles of Agreement. Part 4 examines the preconvertibility period from 1946 to 1958: the problems in getting the system started including the dollar shortage and the weakness of the IMF; and how the system evolved to convertibility and the gold dollar standard. Part 5 analyzes the heyday of Bretton Woods 1959 to 1971 in the context of the gold dollar standard and the famous three problems: adjustment. liquidity, and confidence. Part 6 considers the emergence of a "de facto" dollar standard in 1968 and its collapse in the face of a massive U.S. induced inflation. Part 7 considers why Bretton Woods was so stable and yet so short-lived. It also considers the importance of adherence to credible rules in the design of an effective international monetary system.


Cryptococcal urease is believed to be important for the degradation of exogenous urea that the yeast encounters both in its natural environment and within the human host. Endogenous urea produced by the yeast's own metabolic reactions, however, may also serve as substrate for the urease enzyme. Using wild-type, urease-deletion mutant and urease-reconstituted strains of Cryptococcus neoformans H99, we studied reactions located up- and downstream from endogenous urea. We demonstrated that urease is important for cryptococcal growth and that, compared to nutrient-rich conditions at 26°C, urease activity is higher under nutrient-limited conditions at 37°C. Compared to cells with a functional urease enzyme, urease-deficient cells had significantly higher intracellular urea levels and also showed more arginase activity, which may act as a potential source of endogenous urea. Metabolic reactions linked to arginase were also affected, since urease-positive and urease-negative cells differed with respect to agmatinase activity, polyamine synthesis, as well as intracellular levels of proline and reactive oxygen species. Lastly, urease-deficient cells showed higher melanin levels at 26°C than wild-type cells, while the inverse was observed at 37°C. These results suggest that cryptococcal urease is associated with the functioning of key metabolic pathways within the yeast cell.


This article examines the extent to which children are consulted about their wishes and feelings in residence and contact disputes in three county courts in England. We found that children's preferences and feelings were included on court files in approximately one quarter of cases brought under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 applications. The reason for this low representation of children's voices appeared to relate to the age of the children involved (the younger they were the less likely they were to be consulted) and to whether parents came to an agreement before a report was ordered or before it was allowed to influence the outcome. We found that older children were more likely to influence the final outcome of a case; that children tended to be consulted in cases involving a high degree of conflict; and that children whose wishes and feelings did not coincide with the court welfare officer's conclusions often found their wishes overridden in the outcome of the case.


Isoliquiritigenin (ISL), a member of the flavonoids, is known to have anti-tumor activity in vitro and in vivo. The effect of ISL on reprogramming in cancer cells, however, remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the effect of ISL on reprogramming in human melanoma A375 cells. ISL (15 μg/ml) significantly inhibited A375 cell proliferation, anchorage independent cell proliferation and G2/M cell cycle arrest after ISL exposure for 24 h. However, there were no significant changes in apoptosis rate. Terminal differentiation indicators (melanin content, melanogenesis mRNA expression, tyrosinase (TYR) activity) were all up-regulated by ISL treatment. In ISL-treated cells, glucose uptake, lactate levels and mRNA expression levels of GLUT1 and HK2 were significantly decreased, and accompanied by an increase in O2 consumption rate (OCR) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) deficiency. Protein expression levels of mTORC2-AKT-GSK3β signaling pathway components (mTOR, p-mTOR, RICTOR, p-AKT, p-GSK3β) decreased significantly after ISL treatment. Co-treatment of ISL and the mTOR-specific inhibitor Ku-0063794 had a synergistic effect on the inhibition of proliferation, and increased melanin content and TYR activity. Glucose uptake and lactate levels decreased more significantly than treatment with ISL alone. These findings indicate that ISL induced reprogramming in A375 melanoma cells by activating mTORC2-AKT-GSK3β signaling.


Fully developed turbulent pipe flow is investigated by large eddy simulations (LES). The three-dimensional, unsteady, incompressible, filtered continuity and Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates are discretized by a finite difference method. The spatial derivatives are approximated by second order conservative schemes. This scheme eliminates the numerical generation or dissipation of energy. The pressure Poisson equation is solved by FFT method and time is advanced through a third order Runge-Kutta method. The commonly used subgrid scale (SGS) models — the Smagorinsky model and the dynamic model are implemented and simulations are performed for fully developed turbulent pipe flow at two different Reynolds numbers. The flow features in terms of mean velocity as well as higher order turbulence intensities and correlations are presented and compared to experimental and DNS data available in literature. Extensive comparisons are made for cases using different grid resolution, different streamwise domain dimension, different sub-grid scale model, and, at two different Reynolds number. For two Reynolds numbers (5,000 and 30,000) tested in this study, the fine mesh (64 × 96 × 64, circumferential × radial × longitudinal) produces better results than the coarse mesh (32 × 48 × 32), indicating the significance of the grid resolution, especially near the pipe surface. On the fine mesh for the two Reynolds numbers, the results exhibit a slight Reynolds number effect, indicating the mesh needs to be further refined at higher Reynolds number. Simulations were performed for two domain sizes, namely 6D and 12D, where D is the pipe diameter. When the streamwise grid resolution remains unchanged, the two simulations show negligible difference. This ensures that a 6D domain is adequate to include the largest eddies in a fully developed turbulent pipe flow at the current Reynolds number. When the fine mesh is used, the subgrid scale models (Smagorinsky and Dynamic) provide limited contribution to the total turbulent kinetic energy. Although the current results agree quite well with other published LES simulations, when compared with the Law of the wall, benchmark experiments and DNS results, the simulated mean velocity in the log region is higher than the experimental and DNS data. Overall, it was observed that the numerical methods work satisfactorily well for turbulent pipe flows at low and high Reynolds numbers, and, the method has capability to be used in the simulation of flows with practical interest.© 2004 ASME


We estimate the harm from smoking during pregnancy upon child birth outcomes, using a rich dataset on a cohort of mothers and their births. We exploit a fixed effects approach to disentangle the correlation between smoking and birth weight from the causal effect. We find that, despite a detailed set of controls for maternal traits, around one-third of the harm from smoking is explained by unobservable traits of the mother. Smoking tends to reduce birth weight by 1.7%, but has no significant effect on the probability of having a low birth weight child, pre-term gestation or weeks of gestation. Exploring heterogeneity in the effect on birth weight, it is mothers who smoke for the 9 months of gestation that suffer the harm, whereas there is an insignificant effect for mothers who chose to quit by month 5. Additionally, there is evidence of potential complementarity in investment of human capital, as the impact on birth weight of smoking is much greater for low educated mothers, even controlling for the quantity of cigarettes they smoke. We suggest policy should target the low educated mothers, offering a more holistic approach to improving child health, as quitting smoking is only half of the battle


The recent round of debate over China's state and private economy has fundamentally touched upon whether or not China should abandon or strengthen the socialist elements within the market economy. In this paper, we argue that the debate is, in essence, a continued class struggle in the political and ideological superstructure. Then we discuss the foreseeable future of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under current political and economic conditions. We will further propose the necessary reforms for the SOEs to move towards a truly socialist form of public ownership.


One needs to be a lunatic to become a Christian, the 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once observed. Had he lived in the 20th century he might have discerned even more of an obstacle to faith. For during the last century the human condition changed more rapidly than during any previous era, taking that condition far away from the historical circumstances in which Christianity was born. In his new book, Philip Kennedy explores the ways Christian theologians of the 20th century tried to live a productive religious life in a world overtaken by massive upheaval and innovation.The book is distinctive in a number of respects. First, it differs from other surveys of theology by adopting a biographical method, examining the lives of its subjects in historical context. Second, it is more progressive than its competitors, covering many theologians other than white male professors - especially women - who have worked outside the academy or on the margins of the churches. Third, it is international, focusing on theologians in all the continents of the world rather than just Europe or North America. Fourth, it makes no assumptions that its readers are religious or that theology is uniquely credible. There is a need for a sensitive new textbook reassessing the subject in the light of modern concerns and scepticism about religion. This book meets that need.


Since the past decades, the postal sector is undergoing profound reform (liberalization). The major motivation for such reform processes was and still is the belief that liberalization and deregulation stimulates, among others, product and process innovations, both of which are important vehicles for productivity and economic growth. Against the background of such reform processes, postal operators need to increase their performance through innovation in order to gain competitive advantage and to ensure profitability and growth. Therefore, postal companies have to adapt their innovation management to the changing environment. Until today, there is little research on the adaption of postal operator's innovation management. In this paper, we aim to describe the internal factors that influence postal operators' innovation management. The goals of this article are 1) to illustrate the internal factors that are influencing an organization's ability to manage innovation and 2) to analyze these factors for the particular setting of the postal industry.


Objectives: To determine serum levels of visfatin in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of varying duration of disease and to correlate it with serum interleukin (IL)-6 and clinical and radiological severity scores. Patients & Methods: The study included 70 patients fulfilled either four of seven ACR criteria or having morning stiffness ≥60 minutes, symmetrical arthritis and small joint arthritis for at least 6 months and 20 cross matched age and gender volunteers (Control group). Patients' data including age, gender, weight, height and calculation of body mass index (BMI) were determined. All patients underwent clinical evaluation for disease activity assessed using a 28 joint disease activity score, (DAS-28), pain using visual analogue scale (VAS) and functional disability using the Swedish version of the Stanford health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) to calculate the Disability Index (DI). Postero-anterior radiographs of hands, wrists, and forefeet were taken and joint destruction was classified according to Larsen–Dale index. Blood samples were obtained from patients and controls for ELISA estimation of Rheumatoid factor (RF) and serum IL-6 and visfatin. Results: Mean DAS-28 score was 3.9±0.8; range: 1.4-6.8, mean VAS joint pain score was 60.2±5.2; range: 51-71 and mean DI was 12.3±5.1. Erosive lesions were identified in 43 patients (61.4%), while the remaining 27 patients (38.6%). Fifty-one patients (72.9%) were RF positive; 34 had joint erosions and 17 patients were free of erosion. Estimated serum levels of IL-6 and visfatin were significantly higher in patients compared to controls with significantly higher levels in patients had erosive lesions compared to those free of erosion. There was positive significant correlation between presence of radiological evidence of presence bone erosion and patients' age, clinical data and disease severity scores and serum levels of IL-6 and visfatin. Serum levels of IL-6 and visfatin were found to be specific predictors of radiological evidence of bone erosion. Conclusion: There was a positive significant correlation between serum visfatin levels and clinical and radiological severity of RA and could be considered as specific predictor for RA radiological severity. [Khaled Amer and Waleed M. Fathy. Serum Visfatin is Specific Significant Predictor of Rheumatoid Arthritis Severity: A Comparative Study versus Interleukin-6 and Clinical Severity Scores. Life Science Journal 2012; 9(1):809-816]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 117


Correctly controlling a fuel cell system and maintaining correct operating conditions, particularly under dynamic load variations, is difficult without advanced, multivariable control systems. In order to design and implement such controllers, an appropriate fuel cell system model is required. This paper proposes such a model for a PEMFC fuel cell system running on gaseous hydrogen and a non-pressurised air supply. The model is composed of a steady-state fuel cell stack model that links the operating conditions (e.g. air flow rate, hydrogen pressure, electrical current, etc.) to the fuel cell stack's electrical voltage. This is complemented by a dynamic, steady state model for the auxiliary systems responsible for maintaining the above operating conditions as a function of the user's interaction. Combining the two models yields an overall, dynamic fuel cell system model that can be used as a basis for implementing advanced control strategies.


ABSTRACT The Earth sciences are newly marginalized in K–12 classrooms. With few high schools offering Earth science courses, students' exposure to the Earth sciences relies on the teacher's ability to incorporate Earth science material into a biology, chemistry, or physics course. "G.E.T. (Geoscience Experiences for Teachers) in the Field" is an exploratory program funded by the National Science Foundation aimed to increase teachers' geoscience interest and content knowledge. Participant teachers (n = 7) included non–Earth science teachers from underrepresented groups and/or high schools with a high percentage of students from underrepresented groups. A variety of quantitative and qualitative measures assessed changes in teachers' readiness and propensity for incorporating geoscience concepts into their current curricula. Findings are compelling, though these results are based on a small sample of teachers. In light of current politics, where Earth science is largely disregarded, professional development workshops like this one can help science teachers become knowledgeable enough to incorporate and expand on geosciences connections in biology, chemistry, and physics.


This essay dwells on George Herbert's "The Flower" and on how its speaker can love and praise God. Writing of praise and doubt, Stanley Cavell remarks that the problem of skepticism is partly a problem of finding an object that one can praise, a search that certainly occurs in "The Flower." While Herbert's speaker seeks God as that object, his own memory impedes him, making him question God's goodness and forcing him not only to abandon forms of remembering that Herbert's sources—from psalmists to theologians—employ so as to rise to praise, but also to use form in order to forget. The essay's conclusion compares Herbert's poem with another strange praise poem, Paul Celan's "Psalm." The essay claims that if Cavell sees praise as signaling a triumph over doubt, "The Flower" shows, as only verse can, how praise and doubt accompany each other, using doubt to keep praise at a distance from both psalmic theology and skeptical philosophy.


A prawn larval behavioural model was coupled to a hydrodynamic model of the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia to provide estimates of the size of the spawning area from which nursery ground populations are drawn, referred to here as the advection envelope. We have assumed that, during the first 8 d after the nauplii hatch, the larvae undergo a diel vertical migration in the water column, without spending any time on the bottom. After 8 d, larvae in waters shallower than a preset transition depth were assumed to switch to vertical migration cued by the tidal cycles-remaining on the bottom during outgoing tides, and swimming into the water column during flood tides. This tidal behaviour generated a net advection of postlarvae into the coastal zone and local estuaries. The model demonstrated that this mechanism is very efficient at accumulating larvae along the coastal zone. Changes in the timing and magnitude of the tides through the year generated a strong seasonal signal in the size and shape of the advection envelope, with typically a 2-fold difference in the size of the envelope between October and March. However, winds had little effect on the size of the advection envelopes, and interannual variation in the size and shape of the advection envelopes was small (<10%). The model also demonstrated that advection envelopes are very sensitive to the postlarval transition depth, which has not yet been adequately constrained by either field or laboratory studies. For example, changing the transition depth from 7 to 30 m typically resulted in a 2-fold increase in the size of the advection envelope. The results of the model may also have significant implications for the management of the prawn fishery. Comparisons of the advection envelopes with the distribution of tiger prawn catches indicate regions where fishing is most likely to have an impact on the spawning stock and subsequent recruitment to the fishery. The results also suggest that there are 3 discrete sub-stocks of Penaeus esculentus and P. semisulcatus in the Gulf of Carpentaria and, therefore, challenge the assumption that there is a single tiger prawn stock covering the entire region.


The use of time reversal to obtain retrodirective focusing of a diverging acoustic wave field has precedents in electromagnetic and optical literature. This history will be discussed and possible acoustic applications will be illustrated by simulated examples. Phase conjugation in underwater acoustics is distinguished by the need to obtain true, rather than approximate, time reversal and by the effects of the ocean waveguide. The remarkable invariance of time‐reversed focusing with respect to scattering by the propagation medium and deformation of the array will be discussed along with the sensitivity to time variation of these same factors. [Work supported by ONR.]


The genus Austrotinodes contains 55 species, largely distributed in the Neotropics, with a few species occurring in the Australian Region. In Brazil, 10 species have been recorded, mainly in the southern and southeastern regions. Herein, we describe 13 new species from Brazil, all of them named in memory of great Brazilian scientists: Austrotinodes absaberi sp. nov., A. adolfolutzi sp. nov., A. berthalutzae sp. nov., A. chagasi sp. nov., A. costalimai sp. nov., A. cruzi sp. nov., A. donagrazielae sp. nov., A. gusmaoi sp. nov., A. lattesi sp. nov., A. lenti sp. nov., A. santosdumonti sp. nov., A. vanzolinii sp. nov. and A. vitalbrazili sp. nov. Additionally, we give new distribution records for A. amazonensis Flint & Denning, 1989, A. longispinum Thomson & Holzenthal, 2010, A. paraguayensis Flint, 1983 and A. taquaralis Thomson & Holzenthal, 2010. We also provide new diagnoses and illustrations for A. amazonensis and A. paraguayensis , to facilitate identification of those species.


Background. Although most widely used risk adjustment systems use diagnosis data to classify patients, there is growing interest in risk adjustment based on computerized pharmacy data. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is an ideal environment in which to test the efficacy of a pharmacy-based approach. Objective. To examine the ability of RxRisk-V to predict concurrent and prospective costs of care in VHA and compare the performance of RxRisk-V to a simple age/gender model, the original RxRisk, and two leading diagnosis-based risk adjustment approaches: Adjusted Clinical Groups and Diagnostic Cost Groups/Hierarchical Condition Categories. Methods. The study population consisted of 161,202 users of VHA services in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska during fiscal years (FY) 1996 to 1998. We examined both concurrent and predictive model fit for two sequential 12-month periods (FY 98 and FY 99) with the patient-year as the unit of analysis, using split-half validation. Results. Our results show that the Diagnostic Cost Group /Hierarchical Condition Categories model performs best (R2 = 0.45) among concurrent cost models, followed by ADG (0.31), RxRisk-V (0.20), and age/sex model (0.01). However, prospective cost models other than age/sex showed comparable R2: Diagnostic Cost Group /Hierarchical Condition Categories R2 = 0.15, followed by ADG (0.12), RxRisk-V (0.12), and age/sex (0.01). Conclusions. RxRisk-V is a clinically relevant, open source risk adjustment system that is easily tailored to fit specific questions, populations, or needs. Although it does not perform better than diagnosis-based measures available on the market, it may provide a reasonable alternative to proprietary systems where accurate computerized pharmacy data are available.


Establishing diets and dietary generalism in marine top predators is critical for understanding their ecological roles and responses to environmental fluctuations. Nutrition plays a key mediatory role in species-environment interactions, yet descriptions of marine predators' diets are usually limited to the combinations of prey species consumed. Here we combined stomach contents analysis (n = 40), literature prey nutritional data and a multidimensional nutritional niche framework to establish the diet and niche breadths of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias; mean ± SD precaudal length = 187.9 ± 46.4 cm, range = 123.8–369.0 cm) caught incidentally off New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Our nutritional framework also facilitated the incorporation of existing literature diet information for South African white sharks to further evaluate nutritional niches across populations and sizes. Although teleosts including pelagic eastern Australian salmon (Arripis trutta) were the predominant prey for juvenile white sharks in NSW, the diversity of benthic and reef-associated species and batoids suggests regular benthic foraging. Despite a small sample size (n = 18 and 19 males and females, respectively), there was evidence of increased batoid consumption by males relative to females, and a potential size-based increase in shark and mammal prey consumption, corroborating established ontogenetic increases in trophic level documented elsewhere for white sharks. Estimated nutritional intakes and niche breadths did not differ among sexes. Niche breadths were also similar between juvenile white sharks from Australia and South Africa. An increase in nutritional niche breadth with shark size was detected, associated with lipid consumption, which we suggest may relate to shifting nutritional goals linked with expanding migratory ranges.


By 2030, over 30% of the Japanese population will be 65 or older, foreshadowing the demographic changes occurring elsewhere in Asia and around the world. What can we learn from a study of the aging population of Japan and how can these findings inform a path forward for the elderly, their families, and for policy makers? Based on nearly a decade of research, Aging and Loss examines how the landscape of aging is felt, understood, and embodied by older adults themselves. In detailed portraits, anthropologist Jason Danely delves into the everyday lives of older Japanese adults as they construct narratives through acts of reminiscence, social engagement and ritual practice, and reveals the pervasive cultural aesthetic of loss and of being a burden. Through first-hand accounts of rituals in homes, cemeteries, and religious centers, Danely argues that what he calls the self-in-suspense can lead to the emergence of creative participation in an economy of care. In everyday rituals for the spirits, older adults exercise agency and reinterpret concerns of social abandonment within a meaningful cultural narrative and, by reimagining themselves and their place in the family through these rituals, older adults in Japan challenge popular attitudes about eldercare. Danely's discussion of health and long-term care policy, and community welfare organizations, reveal a complex picture of Japan's aging society.


Academic medical centers (AMCs) are no strangers to operating in a challenging environment; however, the challenges have never been more significant and the future more uncertain than now largely due to the changes affected by the health care reform and the possibility of more changes stemming from the political arena. The looming threat to the triple mission of outstanding clinical care, education, and research can only be successfully thwarted by a shift in the mindset of health-care leadership to better align with winning strategies for a volatile environment. Adapting some of the proven leadership strategies in a business setting may be beneficial in navigating the challenging and changing healthcare arena. Two strategies are highlighted with examples in this review: the adaptation of a "growth" mindset over a "fixed" mindset, and application of compassionate management during challenging times, both of which have been shown to improve the overall financial performance of a company. Integration of these strategies and allocation of resources to professional growth and leadership development can equip health system managers, physicians, staff and trainees with the adaptive tools necessary for meeting the increasing demands and ensuring the continued success of an AMC. With nearly 6000 pathologists and 2200 residents working in an academic setting, an increasing emphasis on leadership development and management tools for pathology professionals is timely. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Interpersonal and communication skills, Practice-based learning and improvement, Professionalism, Systems-based practice.


IncF plasmids are diverse and of great clinical significance, often carrying genes conferring antimicrobial resistance (AMR) such as extended-spectrum β-lactamases, particularly in Enterobacteriaceae. Organising this plasmid diversity is challenging, and current knowledge is largely based on plasmids from clinical settings. Here, we present a network community analysis of a large survey of IncF plasmids from environmental (influent, effluent, and upstream/downstream waterways surrounding wastewater treatment works) and livestock settings. We use a tractable and scalable methodology to examine the relationship between plasmid metadata and network communities. This reveals how niche (sampling compartment and host genera) partition and shape plasmid diversity. We also perform pangenome-style analyses on network communities. We show that such communities define unique combinations of core genes, with limited overlap. Building plasmid phylogenies based on alignments of these core genes, we demonstrate that plasmid accessory function is closely linked to core gene content. Taken together, our results suggest that stable IncF plasmid backbone structures can persist in environmental settings while allowing dramatic variation in accessory gene content that may be linked to niche adaptation. The recent association of IncF plasmids with AMR likely reflects their suitability for rapid niche adaptation.


The Hayward Gallery's British Art Show, mounted every five years, celebrates the vitality and inventiveness of contemporary British art. "British Art Show 5 "showcases work by a cross-generational group of artists whose art has made a significant contribution in the five years prior to April 2000. The three selectors--freelance curator Pippa Coles; artist, curator, and writer Matthew Higgs; and artist Jacqui Poncelet--have embarked on an extensive program of research, looking at paintings, sculpture, film, video, installations, photography, and performance in exhibitions and studios all over Britain. This book features full-color illustrations of works in "British Art Show 5, " along with texts that explore the ideas raised by the exhibition.


Independent Component Analysis (ICA) models are very popular semiparametric models in which we observe independent copies of a random vector $X = AS$, where $A$ is a non-singular matrix and $S$ has independent components. We propose a new way of estimating the unmixing matrix $W = A^{-1}$ and the marginal distributions of the components of $S$ using nonparametric maximum likelihood. Specifically, we study the projection of the empirical distribution onto the subset of ICA distributions having log-concave marginals. We show that, from the point of view of estimating the unmixing matrix, it makes no difference whether or not the log-concavity is correctly specified. The approach is further justified by both theoretical results and a simulation study.


Abstract Madagascar is an isolated island characterized by a high degree of endemism at all taxonomic levels. Diatom assemblages of the region are still poorly known and sporadic sampling events in various habitats (e.g. lagoons, mangroves) have revealed a large number of taxa that could not be identified. This study presents detailed descriptions of two new species of Luticola: L. nosybeana and L. madagascarensis, collected from mangrove roots on Nosy Be Island. Comparisons with the described congeners showed that the density of striae in Luticola nosybeana is higher than that in L. belawanensis and proximal raphe endings terminate as irregular, shallow grooves. Luticola madagascarensis differs from L. similis in the shape of proximal raphe endings, which are short and expanded in the latter, while continue with irregular, shallow, elongated L-shaped grooves in L. madagascarensis. Luticola nosybeana and L. madagascarensis can be distinguished under a light microscope by the shape of the central area (bow-tie shaped in L. madagascarensis and deltoid in L. nosybeana) and isolated pores (robust and well visible in L. madagascarensis, poorly discernible in L. nosybeana). The two new species are unique in their habitat preferences: while all known congeners are freshwater, the new species inhabit estuarine mangroves.


We propose algorithms for tracking the boundary contour of a deforming object from an image sequence, when the nonaffine (local) deformation over consecutive frames is large and there is overlapping clutter, occlusions, low contrast, or outlier imagery. When the object is arbitrarily deforming, each, or at least most, contour points can move independently. Contour deformation then forms an infinite (in practice, very large), dimensional space. Direct application of particle filters (PF) for large dimensional problems is impractically expensive. However, in most real problems, at any given time, most of the contour deformation occurs in a small number of dimensions (¿effective basis space¿) while the residual deformation in the rest of the state space (¿residual space¿) is small. This property enables us to apply the particle filtering with mode tracking (PF-MT) idea that was proposed for such large dimensional problems in recent work. Since most contour deformation is low spatial frequency, we propose to use the space of deformation at a subsampled set of locations as the effective basis space. The resulting algorithm is called deform PF-MT. It requires significant modifications compared to the original PF-MT because the space of contours is a non-Euclidean infinite dimensional space.


Incorporating precast concrete components in bridge piers has the potential to accelerate bridge construction and reduce the negative impacts that construction operations have on traffic flow. As part of this project, methodologies were developed to design economical and safe bridge piers out of precast concrete components. This research developed force-based and displacement-based procedures for the design of both cast-in-place emulation and hybrid precast concrete piers. The design procedures were developed so that they require no nonlinear analysis making them practical for use in a design office. The expected level of damage to piers designed using the proposed procedures was estimated. The evaluation considered three types of damage to the columns of a pier: cover concrete spalling, longitudinal reinforcing bar buckling, and fracture of the longitudinal reinforcing bars. Both the force-based and displacement-based design procedures were found to produce bridge designs expected to experience an acceptable amount of damage in a design-level earthquake.


Predictions of the rainy and dry season onsets are very important in climate risk management processes, especially for the development of early warning system of land and forest fires in Kalimantan. This research aims to predict the rainy and dry season onsets in two cluster regions in Kapuas District, Central Kalimantan. The prediction models used to predict the onsets are developed by using seasonal rainfall data on September-October-November (SON) periods as predicted by five Global Climate Models (GCMs). The model uses Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) method available in the Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) software developed by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University. The results show that the predictors from HMC and POAMA models produce better canonical correlations (r = 0.72 and 0.89, respectively) compared to BCC (r=0.46), CWB (r=0.62), and GDAPS_F (r=0.67) models. In the development of models for predicting the dry season onsets, the predictors from CWB and POAMA models perform better canonical correlation results (r = 0.73 and 0.76, respectively) compared to BCC (r=0.53), GDAPS_F (r=0.64), and HMC (r=0.46) models. In general, the model validations showed that CWB, GDAPS_F, and POAMA models have better predictive skills than BCC and HMC models in predicting onsets of the rainy and dry seasons (with Pearson correlations (r) ranging between 0.30 and 0.75). Experiments on those five models for the predictions of rainy season onset in 2013 showed that the predicted onsets occurred on the range of 8 September to 22 October in Cluster 1 and on 3 to 7 October in Cluster 2. For the predictions of the dry season onsets in 2014, the models predicted the occurrences from 6 to 25 May in Cluster 1 and from 21 to 25 March in Cluster 2.


Abstract. The EOS (Earth Observing System) Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) retrieves the atmospheric HDO / H2O ratio in the mid-to-lower troposphere as well as the planetary boundary layer. TES observations of water vapor and the HDO isotopologue have been compared with nearly coincident in situ airborne measurements for direct validation of the TES products. The field measurements were made with a commercially available Picarro L1115-i isotopic water analyzer on aircraft over the Alaskan interior boreal forest during the three summers of 2011 to 2013. TES special observations were utilized in these comparisons. The TES averaging kernels and a priori constraints have been applied to the in situ data, using version 5 (V005) of the TES data. TES calculated errors are compared with the standard deviation (1σ) of scan-to-scan variability to check consistency with the TES observation error. Spatial and temporal variations are assessed from the in situ aircraft measurements. It is found that the standard deviation of scan-to-scan variability of TES δD is ±34.1‰ in the boundary layer and ± 26.5‰ in the free troposphere. This scan-to-scan variability is consistent with the TES estimated error (observation error) of 10–18‰ after accounting for the atmospheric variations along the TES track of ±16‰ in the boundary layer, increasing to ±30‰ in the free troposphere observed by the aircraft in situ measurements. We estimate that TES V005 δD is biased high by an amount that decreases with pressure: approximately +123‰ at 1000 hPa, +98‰ in the boundary layer and +37‰ in the free troposphere. The uncertainty in this bias estimate is ±20‰. A correction for this bias has been applied to the TES HDO Lite Product data set. After bias correction, we show that TES has accurate sensitivity to water vapor isotopologues in the boundary layer.


Understanding the nature and dimensions of the world food problem and the policies available to alleviate it has been the focal point of IIASA's Food and Agriculture Program (FAP) since it began in 1977.

National food systems are highly interdependent, and yet the major policy options exist at the national level. Therefore, to explore these options, it is necessary both to develop policy models for national economies and to link them together by trade and capital transfers. Over the years FAP has, with the help of a network of collaborating institutions, developed and linked national policy models of twenty countries, which together account for nearly 80 percent of important agricultural attributes such as area, production, population, exports, imports and so on. The remaining countries are represented by 14 somewhat simpler models of groups of countries.

The European Community (EC) is a major actor on the world market. An aggregate food and agriculture model of the EC, in which the EC is treated as one nation has been developed by the FAP, as part of the IIASA/FAP basic linked system.

In addition, development of a detailed model of the EC, in which the member nations of the EC are represented by separate models which interact among themselves within the framework of the common agricultural policy (CAP) of the EC, was initiated in 1978. This was begun in collaboration with the University of Goettingen, which received a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. The work on model development was transferred to IIASA in 1982, where it continued until the end of 1984, under a grant from the Centre for World Food Studies (CWFS) of the Netherlands.

In this paper, which is one of a series of papers reporting the work on the development of the detailed EC model, Erik Geyskens describes the exchange component of the model.


The effect of triptycenylene end-groups on the optoelectronic properties of aroyleneimidazoles and their performance as acceptors in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices are described. We compare three derivatives of triptycene monoaroyleneimidazoles with their planar analogues. Planar aroyleneimidazoles show rather poor performance as acceptors with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of ∼0.3–1.3%. In contrast, the triptycene end-capped congeners show improved performance with a maximum PCE of 2.3%, demonstrating the potential of triptycene-based π-systems for application as non-fullerene electron acceptors.


First Vintage explores the forgotten history of the early Australian wine industry. Few people know that vine cuttings were brought to Australia on the First Fleet and planted in Governor Arthur Phillip's garden at Circular Quay, or that botanist and champion of colonial development Joseph Banks encouraged plans to create a wine industry from the earliest years of the colony. Before the assisted migration of German vinedressers in the 1830s, any convict or free settler with a hint of vine growing or wine making expertise was quickly drafted to the cause. First Vintage reveals the people who dreamed of making Australia a wine-drinking country, including influential colonists Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, Richard Windeyer, John Macarthur and Thomas Mitchell, who all had vineyards. It shows the challenges of choosing vine stock, the battles to protect against pests and diseases, and the innovation of new technologies which assisted small scale growers, many in wine regions which vanished from the landscape and memory for much of the twentieth century.


A growing interest in urban food production has prompted many North American cities to revise their municipal policies regarding agricultural activities. In March 2011, the City Council of Burlington, VT, created the Urban Agriculture Task Force to investigate and recommend policies to provide city officials with tools to effectively govern urban agriculture. In coordination with the Task Force as a community partner, I used a governance framework and participatory action research (PAR) to analyze: (1) the needs of local stakeholders, including urban agriculture practitioners, the general Burlington community, and government officials; (2) the policy tools available to the City of Burlington, including the direct provision of services, regulation, public information, and partnerships with other organizations; (3) the actors and relationships present in Burlington's urban agriculture governance network; and (4) policy approaches used in other cities. Based on this analysis, over 50 policy recommendations were developed for the City of Burlington, ranging from ordinance revisions to the development of new urban agriculture initiatives. Key findings include that (1) a balance must be struck between stakeholder needs (e.g. practitioners desire that regulations be minimal, while municipal officials need measurable standards to ease implementation); (2) a legal basis for governing some aspects of urban agriculture, such as the humane treatment of livestock, is needed, but other aspects, such as managing neighbor conflicts or connecting people to available land, are not easily regulated and require innovative programming; and (3) the City has an opportunity to partner with other organizations that are better suited to provide technical expertise to practitioners. These recommendations lay the groundwork for the City to better govern and support current and future urban agriculture activities.


A dynamic wave flood routing computer program has been used to develop a flood forecasting model for a 5000 mi**2 watershed in lower Michigan. The modeled area covers over 200 miles of the Grand River. The dynamic wave solution for the flood routing equations is used to more accurately represent the hydrodynamics of the basin which is characterized by flat channel slopes and numerous control sections. The model can forecast at virtually any point along the river rather than the limited number of locations given by the model currently used by the National Weather Service. Runoff hydrographs needed as input at the upstream boundaries of the model are obtained from the NWSRFC via their DATACOL system. Flow conditions are monitored during the flood through contact with the dam operators and calling eight stream flow gages equipped with Telemarks. Unit hydrographs are developed for 26 subbasins to represent local runoff.


While many researchers have used Eclipse as a platform for developing software engineering and program analysis tools, Eclipse itself presents an excellent subject for analysis and study. Eclipse represents one of the biggest Java projects ever created. While surprisingly robust, Eclipse still suffers from serious bugs that lead to crashes and resource exhaustion. Eclipse is a collaborative development projects, with its core developers located across multiple continents. Furthermore, hundreds of available plugins are developed by programmers with varying levels of familiarity with the intricacies of Eclipse APIs. As a result of API misuse, complex application-specific bugs are introduced. In this paper1we describe common patterns in Eclipse code and propose lightweight analyses for finding their misuse. Bugs addressed in this paper often do not immediately exhibit themselves and are often discovered after deployment. In our experiments, we find a total of 68 likely errors in Eclipse sources that violate the coding patterns we describe. In addition to these lightweight bug checkers, we also propose the use of Eclipse templates extracted from existing Eclipse code as a way to capture important coding rules.


Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, has issued a challenge to enroll the millions of uninsured children eligible for public insurance in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This paper provides estimates of the rates at which children in the various states participated in these programs in 2008 as well as the number who were eligible for them but uninsured. According to our coverage estimates, an estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an average day in 2008, of whom 4.7 million (65 percent) were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but not enrolled. Participation rates varied across states from 55 percent to 95 percent, and ten states had participation rates close to or above 90 percent. Thirty-nine percent of eligible uninsured children (1.8 million) live in just three states--California, Texas, and Florida--and 61 percent (2.9 million) live in ten states. Meeting Secretary Sebelius's challenge means achieving success in these populous states, in part through tools and resources available under the 2009 CHIP reauthorization law.


The end of the cold war and the fall of the Soviet empire have had major consequences for Italian politics. Leonard Weinberg explores some of those consequences, focusing on the transformation of the Italian Communist party from a Leninist to a democratic party. He also discusses the relationship between the end of communism and the unfolding of the entire Italian system. "The Transformation of Italian Communism "has two objectives. First, it calls the reader's attention to the role of international developments, an important but largely overlooked area involved in the study of European party politics. Traditional texts in this area emphasize domestic factors, but Weinberg focuses on the influence of international developments on domestic party politics in Italy. The implications for other nations are transparent. The second objective of this work is to examine how Italy's Communist party, the largest such party of its kind in the Western world, reacted to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Weinberg analyzes the meaning of these events for long-tune party members in Italy'as well as for Italian political and cultural life. "The Transformation of Italian Communism "offers an original, intimate, and unique assessment of how the end of the cold war has affected Italian political culture. It will be a valuable addition to those interested in the convulsions taking place in modem Italy, as well as to political scientists and theorists of political culture.


Kettlebell exercises have become an increasingly popular form of resistance training and component of lower body rehabilitative training programs; despite a lack of scientific literature illustrating internal mechanisms and effectiveness of these approaches. Participants (n=14) performed three different styles of kettlebell swings (hip hinge, squat and double knee extension) and were assessed for medial hamstrings (MH) and biceps femoris (BF) myoelectrical activity via surface electromyography (sEMG). Bipolar pre-gelled Ag/AgCl surface electromyography (sEMG) electrodes (10mm diameter, 20mm inter-electrode distance) were placed on the participant's dominant limb after correct skin preparation. There was a main effect for swing type (p = 0.004), where the hip hinge swing elicited a greater overall MH and BF sEMG in comparison to the squat swing (mean difference = 3.92; 95% CI = 1.53 to 6.32; p = 0.002) and the double knee extension swing (mean difference = 5.32; 95% CI = 0.80 to 9.83; p = 0.020). Across all swing types, normalised percentage of MH sEMG was significantly higher compared to the BF (mean difference = 9.93; 95% CI = 1.67 to 18.19; p = 0.022). The hip hinge kettlebell swing produced the greatest amount of hamstring sEMG for the three styles of kettlebell swings assessed. These findings have implications for the application of kettlebell swing exercises in strength and conditioning, injury prevention and rehabilitation programs.


A study of 86 samples of trachyandesitic and dacitic lava and cinders from the Los Lunas volcano, central New Mexico, demonstrates the volcano consists of two overlapping but temporally and compositionally distinct eruptive edifices differing in age by 2.56 Ma. Lava compositions at Los Lunas volcano are consistent with other lavas found in the Rio Grande rift, but, based on major and trace element determinations, no simple model can be proposed to genetically link the two dominant magma compositions. Rather, the two magma batches appear to have been independently generated, consistent with the large age gap between eruptions of the two edifices. An experiment carried out as part of this study indicates that the accuracy and precision of 40Ar/39Ar dates for young mafic to intermediate lavas can be maximized by selecting samples that contain K-feldspar as a late-crystallized phase, and contain little or no glass or alteration phases. Characterization of samples was undertaken using the electron microprobe, where samples were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being most suitable for dating) based largely on whether the K in the sample could be determined to be housed in extremely fine-grained feldspar interstitial to more abundant phenocryst phases, or was in residual volcanic glass. Sample rating was downgraded if the sample showed evidence of chemical alteration. The 40Ar/39Ar results from the most highly rated samples yield an age of 3.83±0.05 Ma for the Southwest Edifice of Los Lunas volcano. This volcanic center is physically overlapped by the 1.271±0.014 Ma Main Edifice. The absolute ages agree with relative ages determined from geological mapping. Within the Main Edifice, field relationships indicate a sequence of five eruptive events. The ages of the best samples from the Main Edifice all agree within analytical error, suggesting that the entire period of eruptive activity spanned less than 100,000 years. The precision and accuracy of data in this study were much enhanced by using microprobe observations of groundmass glass and K-feldspar to aid in the sample selection process. Sample selection based only on thin section observations would have yielded lower quality data, because the degree of crystallization of residual glass would have been incompletely assessed. 203


Scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) has emerged as a powerful imaging and spectroscopic tool for investigating nanoscale heterogeneities in biology, quantum matter, and electronic and photonic devices. However, many materials are defined by a wide range of fundamental molecular and quantum states at far-infrared (FIR) resonant frequencies currently not accessible by s-SNOM. Here we show ultrabroadband FIR s-SNOM nanoimaging and spectroscopy by combining synchrotron infrared radiation with a novel fast and low-noise copper-doped germanium (Ge:Cu) photoconductive detector. This approach of FIR synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy (SINS) extends the wavelength range of s-SNOM to 31 μm (320 cm–1, 9.7 THz), exceeding conventional limits by an octave to lower energies. We demonstrate this new nanospectroscopic window by measuring elementary excitations of exemplary functional materials, including surface phonon polariton waves and optical phonons in oxides and layered ultrathin van der W...


Voters in the United States select some of the major actors in criminal justice, but not all of them. Among the major figures in the criminal courtroom, voters typically elect two of the three: the prosecutor and the judge, but not the public defender. Prosecutors in almost all the states are elected at the local level. The public defender, however, is typically not an elected official, even though the defender is a public employee with important budgetary and policymaking authority over criminal justice. Why the difference? As it happens, we have some actual experience to draw upon in answering these questions because a few jurisdictions actually do elect their public defenders. Florida, Tennessee, and a few places in California and Nebraska elect their chief public defenders at the local level, and have done so for decades. This article reviews the existing evidence about the election of criminal justice officials and presents new empirical evidence about the campaigns and outcomes in public defender elections. Voters respond to candidates for the public defender's office much in the same way that they react to candidates for the prosecutor's office: they choose the incumbent, even more often than they do for legislators and chief executives. The main difference between prosecutors and public defenders lies in the number of available controls over these two different public employees. Public defenders are bound at every turn by their professional responsibilities to their clients, the limited defenses available under criminal codes, and their limited budgets for investigations and factual development. Prosecutors, on the other hand, control many of the key outcomes in criminal justice without relying on other actors. Thus, voters directly monitor criminal justice actors when other controls over these officials are the least effective – put another way, elections are a last resort for holding criminal justice actors accountable to the public. Voters can appropriately set the general direction and priorities of the system. Elections of the public defender, on the other hand, give the voters influence over the strategies and outcomes for particular cases, such as the techniques a defense attorney can use when cross-examining police officers at trial. This is a task that we normally do not trust voters to perform.


Providing a vital link between chemistry and physics on the nanoscale, this book offers concise coverage of the entire topic in five major sections, beginning with synthesis of microgel particles and continuing with their physical properties. The phase behavior and dynamics of resulting microgel suspensions feature in the third section, followed by their mechanical properties. It concludes with detailed accounts of numerous industrial, commercial and medical applications.
Edited by David Weitz, Professor at Harvard and one of the world's pre-eminent experts in the field.


Abstract India's interest in Sudan has grown significantly in recent years. This is reflected in India's increased trade and investments in Sudan. Two factors that have generated such interest and encouraged Indian engagement are the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 and the soaring economy. However, delay in the implementation of the peace deal and conflict in western and eastern Sudan pose serious challenges to the huge Indian interest. This paper examines India's role and interest in the context of the ongoing crisis in Sudan. It argues that lack of democracy and good governance has perpetuated the conflict and made peace unsustainable. Prolongation of such a situation is not in India's interest given its economic and energy stakes in Sudan. A prudent and proactive role on the part of India is necessary in order to address Sudan's concerns and challenges and thereby advance its growing interests in Sudan and Africa.


"Expresses an infectious sense of wonder at the uniqueness of our species; it is hard not to be affected by his enthusiasm". ("Sunday Times"). What explains the staggering diversity of cultures in the world? Why are there so many languages, even within small areas? Why do we rejoice in rituals and wrap ourselves in flags? In "Wired for Culture" Mark Pagel, the world's leading expert on human development, reveals how our facility for culture is the key to what makes us who we are. Shedding light on everything from art, morality and affection to jealousy, self-interest and prejudice, Pagel shows that we developed culture - cooperating together and passing on knowledge - in order to survive. Our minds are hardwired for culture, and it still determines how we speak, who we love, why we kill and what we think today. "Human evolution may be the hottest area in popular science writing. Within this field, "Wired for Culture" stands out for both its sweeping erudition and its accessibility ...richly rewarding". ("Financial Times"). "Impressive for its detail, accuracy and vivacity". ("Guardian"). "Pioneering, vivid ...the best popular science book on culture so far". ("Nature").


Accuracy and precision of helicopter electromagneticHEM sounding are the essential parameters for HEM seaicethickness profiling. For sea-ice thickness research, thequality of HEM ice thickness estimates must be better than10 cm to detect potential climatologic thickness changes.Weintroduce and assess a direct, 1D HEM data inversion algorithmfor estimating sea-ice thickness. For synthetic qualityassessment, an analytically determined HEM sea-ice thicknesssensitivity is used to derive precision and accuracy. Precisionis related directly to random, instrumental noise, althoughaccuracy is defined by systematic bias arising fromthe data processing algorithm. For the in-phase component ofthe HEM response, sensitivity increases with frequency andcoil spacing, but decreases with flying height. For small-scaleHEM instruments used in sea-ice thickness surveys, instrumentalnoise must not exceed 5 ppm to reach ice thicknessprecision of 10 cm at 15-m nominal flying height. Comparableprecision is yielded at 30-m height for conventional explorationHEM systems with bigger coil spacings. Accuracylosses caused by approximations made for the direct inversionare negligible for brackish water and remain better than10 cm for saline water. Synthetic precision and accuracy estimatesare verified with drill-hole validated field data fromEast Antarctica, where HEM-derived level-ice thicknessagrees with drilling results to within 4%, or 2 cm.


Encouraged to explore and implement technology, many librarians create screencasts to supplement library instruction. Without a structured creation process, a number of communications issues can result, including: duplication of topics; absence of library branding; and lack of centralized availability to all screencasts. To create a more cohesive online presence, establishing a communications plan is recommended. This article is an account of the University Libraries within the State University of New York at Buffalo's early experiences with screencasting, assessment of screencasting services, and the consequent development of a coherent communications plan and best practices document regarding video and screencast production. Â


Skills, labour mobility and Information technology (IT) all rank high on the European policy agenda and feature among the key priorities of the European Commission. Better skills promote employment and growth. Enhanced labour mobility expands employment and growth opportunities by fostering more efficient allocation of resources within the EU and by attracting and retaining talented individuals. And IT expertise enhances employment and growth prospects, since IT is a high-growth sector in its own right, the largest recipient of FDI inflows and an important driver of overall productivity increases.This report aims to produce new insights into how IT professionals move from one region to another within Europe and beyond, using the sizeable collection of data amassed by the business networking site LinkedIn, aggregated by region and provided to us in anonymised and relative termsThe study looks in detail at both the quantity and quality of the global interchange of IT professionals and investigates the behaviour of recent graduates and asks to what extent are they more likely to move – and where to.The key findings can be summarised as follows:* Intra-EU flows of IT professionals follow a general pattern of mobility: from east and south to west and north. Net flows are substantial and more so for recent graduates.* The EU is losing tech skills to the US – especially those possessed by new graduates.* The EU is also losing on quality – the best educated are more likely to leave. This is also the case for intra-EU flows.* Big data sources offer great potential to inform the policy-making process – but obstacles remain on the path to achieving this potential.Based on these findings, the authors call for the following policy measures:* Ease access to visas for students who graduate from an EU university (automatic visa for, say, 6-9 months upon graduation across the EU). This would provide time for non-EU citizens to find a job after graduation.* Reform of the Blue Card Directive to allow non-EU citizens to view the EU as one common labour market.* Improve the standing and reputation of European universities in general to attract talent early on.* Pay attention to persistent net flows of talented people within the EU.* Further experiment with the use of big data sources for monitoring mobility trends, focusing on skills and return mobility.


Significance The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important regulator of social behavior and is widely considered to reduce anxiety-related behaviors. However, growing evidence suggests that sometimes oxytocin increases anxiety. How can the same molecule have such different effects on behavior? Here we provide evidence that oxytocin produced outside of the hypothalamus is necessary and sufficient for stress-induced social anxiety behaviors. This suggests that the diverse effects of oxytocin on anxiety-related behaviors are mediated by circuit-specific oxytocin action. Oxytocin increases the salience of both positive and negative social contexts and it is thought that these diverse actions on behavior are mediated in part through circuit-specific action. This hypothesis is based primarily on manipulations of oxytocin receptor function, leaving open the question of whether different populations of oxytocin neurons mediate different effects on behavior. Here we inhibited oxytocin synthesis in a stress-sensitive population of oxytocin neurons specifically within the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTmv). Oxytocin knockdown prevented social stress-induced increases in social vigilance and decreases in social approach. Viral tracing of BNSTmv oxytocin neurons revealed fibers in regions controlling defensive behaviors, including lateral hypothalamus, anterior hypothalamus, and anteromedial BNST (BNSTam). Oxytocin infusion into BNSTam in stress naïve mice increased social vigilance and reduced social approach. These results show that a population of extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons plays a key role in controlling stress-induced social anxiety behaviors.


Vision sensors whose pixels asynchronously generate informative output events are gathering increasing interest because they can reduce the data latency, rate, and redundancy, while also increasing dynamic range. This paper proposes such a dynamic vision sensor (DVS) pixel which is aimed at color vision (cDVS). The pixel combines subthreshold continuous time analog circuits with event-driven switched capacitor amplifiers and asynchronous digital outputs. The cDVS simultaneously detects separate log-intensity and wavelength change events using a single buried double junction (BDJ) photodiode. Chip measurements show that the cDVS color change pathway can detect light wavelength changes as small as 15 nm while the cDVS relative intensity change pathway detects changes as small as 10% of intensity. The circuit is characterized and improvements are proposed.


I arrived to college in my first year as a sophomore, accepted to the Seidman College of Business and with a firm Christian foundation. And I had a plan. That plan was to figure it out. The challenge for all college students is to understand what "it" is. Given the importance of a college degree and the power of habits developed during this time, the college years have a powerful impact on at least the near future of one's career, if not beyond. Unlike my initial thoughts, "it" was not an undying passion to solve some terrible problem in the world. "It" was the development of a mature worldview and a deep sense of character and purpose. "It" was not a passion, but the ability to deploy resources built during these college years. Drawing on personal experience and discussion of sources covering topics essential to developing "it" during the college years, this paper seeks to deliver a general roadmap for developing the sense of character and purpose any young person should identify in college, based on a solid worldview foundation. PURPOSE: THE KEY TO NAVIGATING COLLEGE 3


Community Question Answering (cQA) forums are very popular nowadays, as they represent effective means for communities around particular topics to share information. Unfortunately, this information is not always factual. Thus, here we explore a new dimension in the context of cQA, which has been ignored so far: checking the veracity of answers to particular questions in cQA forums. As this is a new problem, we create a specialized dataset for it. We further propose a novel multi-faceted model, which captures information from the answer content (what is said and how), from the author profile (who says it), from the rest of the community forum (where it is said), and from external authoritative sources of information (external support). Evaluation results show a MAP value of 86.54, which is 21 points absolute above the baseline.