COMM 2314 Oral Interpretation (3 semester credit hours) This course focuses on the analyses of texts and subtexts and the oral interpretation of literature. Students will learn and practice delivery techniques as they relate to dramatic interpretation, duo interpretation, prose interpretation, poetry interpretation and programmed oral interpretation. May be repeated for credit as topics vary (6 semester credit hours maximum). (3-0) R


We propose an improved version of the earlier developed optical arrangement for generating inhomogeneously polarized laser light modes with the aid of a diffractive optical element (DOE) with carrier frequency. By eliminating lenses from the optical arrangement, we achieve the miniaturization, reduced light losses, a smaller number of parameters being matched, and a simpler system adjustment procedure. Note that all the capabilities of the previous version, namely, the universality and simple readjustment to different polarization types, are fully retained. The numerical modeling of the polarization mode combiner has made it possible to analyze its performance and capabilities. In the experiments, the quality of the resulting beams is shown to be improved. For generating higher-order cylindrical beams, a lower-order mode at the output of the polarization mode combiner is additionally transformed with a DOE that operates in the zero diffraction order, introducing radial phase changes.


This thesis investigates the social and psychological factors that might affect Omani higher education students if computerised assessment was to be implemented. A review of the literature and the historical and cultural development in Oman suggested that a number of different variables might affect students' performance when taking computerised assessment. These factors which include gender, college of study and geographical region of residence may cause unwanted and selective differences in student performance which are riot related to the content of the assessment. In addition, the potential effects of such variables as computer experience and computer self-efRcacy on student performance were investigated. The study also explored student and academic staff attitudes towards computerised assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this study through a selection of instruments such as a test that was delivered in different modes, questionnaires, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative approaches are used to provide answers to the main study questions about student performance, and qualitative approaches are used to get deeper insights into the students' and staff members' perceptions, attitudes and values in relation to the research subject of the study. All these instruments were developed based upon the literature and also validated through a separate initial study. The main study took place after the instruments had been validated and involved over 400 students and 100 staff at three Omani Applied Sciences Colleges. Statistical analysis showed a small but significant difference between the two assessment modes in favour of the paper-and-pencil test. There was a significant difference In performance between both genders, with females outperforming males. However, the most striking finding was a differential effect of assessment mode between males and females. Males performed better in the computerized test than in the paper-based one, in contrast to females whose performance in the paper test was better. This suggests that the introduction of computerised testing may affect males and females in different ways. One possible explanation for this is that Omani males have more opportunities to use computers inside and outside homes. The questionnaire results and the qualitative information from focus groups both showed that females were more nervous and found it more difficult to read from the computer screen than males did. Also, it was obvious in the focus group discussions that females had more negative feelings towards computerised testing compared to males, both before and after experiencing computerised assessment. The study found that students' performance in the English language test had showed significant variation across colleges, and among students from different regions This variation seemed to be associated with variation in computer expenence among students at the different colleges and from different regions This may be due to regional differences or specificities, especially in terms of computer use, among the nine administrative regions in Oman Staff attitudes and perceptions towards CAA, in general, were positive and not affected by either the gender or nationality/language factor. Most of the academic staff members revealed their willingness to implement CAA but also stressed that CAA should be gradually implemented. Both students and staff members identified a number of important points such as the need for a reliable system, qualified technicians and sufficient computers if Computer Assisted Assessment was to achieve wide acceptability.


Abstract We examine the issue of definition of coordinates used for plasma shape control simulations and real-time implementations and their relation to the validity of linearized plasma shape response models. By doing a careful analysis of these simple concepts, some subtle issues are exposed. Some of the implications are not obvious and, at first, counterintuitive. It is shown that the dynamics and output equations for plasma shape and current evolution, derived using a common method for linearizing around a plasma equilibrium, are each valid in different coordinates, and therefore additional work is needed to redefine both in a common coordinate system. In particular, it is demonstrated that the set of poloidal field (PF) coil currents that defines the equilibrium about which a model is linearized often does not define a valid origin for the linearized model equations. Requirements for a valid coordinate system are determined, and procedures for constructing such a system are described. We extend this analysis to also cover both cases where the transformed coordinate system is defined relative to a constant origin and where the coordinate origin is a function of time, i.e., to the definition of time-dependent feed-forward nominal trajectories. We also explore the issue of the small signal requirement for maintaining accuracy of the linearized models. It is shown that this requirement does not apply to either coil currents or voltages, but only to certain characteristics of the plasma. In particular, use of a "perturbed" coordinate system is not actually necessary. The primary motivation for this study is to properly account for relatively large changes in PF coil currents needed to maintain plasma shape and plasma current during long pulse discharges when using "small-signal" linearized plasma models. A related objective is to determine conditions under which plasma shape and current controllers must be updated during the discharge to account for the changing plasma response.


In Newton's classical physics, space and time are treated as absolute, independent quantities and can be discussed separately. In Special Relativity, Einstein proved that space and time are relative and dependent and therefore must not be treated separately. Minkowski adopted four-dimensional space-time frames (4-d s-t frames), which indirectly revealed the dependency of space and time with the addition of a constraint for an event interval. We are not able to visualize 4-d s-t frames. Since space and time are inseparable, three-dimensional space-time frames (3-d s-t frames) can be constructed by embedding time into space to directly show the interdependency of space and time. Time contraction and length contraction can also be depicted graphically using 3-d s-t frames. We have much better understanding reality of space and time in 3-d s-t frames. This will lead to Contextual Reality for better understanding the universe.


We report for the first time the electrical transport in solid-state electrolyte nanowires. Single nanowire transport and in situ transmission electron microscopy studies show that Ag2Se nanowires can be high conducting orthorhombic β-Ag2Se or low conducting cubic α-Ag2Se. It is also the first time that α-Ag2Se is found to be stable at room temperature. A threshold switching phenomenon exists in the low conducting α-Ag2Se with an on−off ratio up to 7 order magnitude. These results provide useful new information for exploring solid-state electrolyte nanowires as resistive switching memory devices.


Personal emergency response systems and other useful, not-so-advanced technology. Advanced telecommunications technology like the Internet offers exciting immediate and future applications for older people with disabilities. Yet the overwhelming majority of frail elderly people still rely primarily on their telephone for telecommunications. There are many phone features available, and add-on assistive products, that can assist older people with various types of impairments. This paper takes a look at some of these special phone features, including personal emergency response systems. The telephone has been available to us for a relatively short time-about 100 years-and today is an essential component of almost every business and home. For older people with disabilities, many of whom live alone and infrequently leave their home, the phone provides a device for social contacts. For elders who have difficulty getting to places outside their home, the phone can be used for banking and shopping. The phone can also be used to call for help, in the event of a fall, an illness, or some other problem such as an unwanted intrusion. A recent article from the University at Buffalo's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Aging (Mann et al., 1996) suggests that a significant proportion, about Io percent, of frail elders have problems with the use of the phone they own. The types of problems they are having most typically relate directly to their impairments. People with vision impairment have difficulty reading the numbers and letters on the phone. Those who have difficulty ambulating and getting up or down from a seated position often have difficulty getting up to answer the phone before the calling party hangs up. People with fine motor impairment from conditions like arthritis have difficulty with small buttons, rotary dials, and holding the receiver. People with hearing impairment may have difficulty hearing the phone ring or hearing the person at the other end of the line. People with cognitive impairment may have difficulty remembering important numbers. For each of these impairments, and related problems, there are potential interventions, many of which rely on products readily available. FEATURES TO ADDRESS IMPAIRMENTS A recently published book, Communications Technologies for the Elderly (Lubinski and Higginbotham, 1997) describes a number of telephone features to address specific impairments faced by older people. Many of these features are commonly found in any home-an answering machine, for example, to help a person with mobility problems who has trouble getting to the phone. Other solutions are not so common, but can be obtained. Examples are a voiceactivated phone with a speaker feature that can be answered from across the room, or a cordless phone. Vision impairment in the elderly can of course be addressed with the usual large numbers, letters, symbols, and buttons with good color contrast between the background and the symbols. More high-tech solutions include cordless phones with pager buttons on base units that make it easy to find the headset and also devices that can be added to a home phone so that it "speaks" the number dialed, making it possible for the user to detect mistakes made while dialing. People with hand impairment can use phones with voice activation. People with hearing impairment have available many features including add-on devices that provide amplification for the receiver, available in portable models for travel and when amplification is required on several phones, and telecommunication devices for the deaf that include a keypad for typing out messages and a display for reading messages from the person on the other end of the line. Phone features to address memory impairment include picture telephones that display a picture of the person or place to be called (for example, the fire department) next to the memory button. PERSONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEMS Personal emergency response systems (PERS) (also referred to as medical emergency response systems) use telephone lines to signal for help in an emergency situation. …


Cyclophilin and FK506 binding protein (FKBP) accelerate cis-trans peptidyl-prolyl isomerization and bind to and mediate the effects of the immunosuppressants cyclosporin A and FK506. The normal cellular functions of these proteins, however, are unknown. We altered the active sites of FKBP12 and mitochondrial cyclophilin from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by introducing mutations previously reported to inactivate these enzymes. Surprisingly, most of these mutant enzymes were biologically active in vivo. In accord with previous reports, all of the mutant enzymes had little or no detectable prolyl isomerase activity in the standard peptide substrate-chymotrypsin coupled in vitro assay. However, in a variation of this assay in which the protease is omitted, the mutant enzymes exhibited substantial levels of prolyl isomerase activity (5-20% of wild-type), revealing that these mutations confer sensitivity to protease digestion and that the classic in vitro assay for prolyl isomerase activity may be misleading. In addition, the mutant enzymes exhibited near wild-type activity with two protein substrates, dihydrofolate reductase and ribonuclease T1, whose folding is accelerated by prolyl isomerases. Thus, a number of cyclophilin and FKBP12 "active-site" mutants previously identified are largely active but protease sensitive, in accord with our findings that these mutants display wild-type functions in vivo. One mitochondrial cyclophilin mutant (R73A), and also the wild-type human FKBP12 enzyme, catalyze protein folding in vitro but lack biological activity in vivo in yeast. Our findings provide evidence that both prolyl isomerase activity and other structural features are linked to FKBP and cyclophilin in vivo functions and suggest caution in the use of these active-site mutations to study FKBP and cyclophilin functions.


Text: Positioning, timing and navigation (PNT) with Satellite Navigation Systems like GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo are more and more widespread and used in very different types of applications including core telemetry applications. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers in Safety Critical Applications such as landing airplanes, Critical Infrastructure or Remote Sensing missions e.g. Earth Observing Satellites need to be very robust and reliable under a variety of environmental conditions, sometimes very harsh ones outside the atmosphere. Timing is critical in communication between satellite ground stations and the satellites, e.g. telemetry tracking and command, or communication protocols using Time Division Multiple Access. Thus, it is crucial to test GNSS receivers thoroughly under a variety of different conditions, also extreme conditions like very high dynamics or unhealthy GNSS satellites. For this purpose GNSS RF signal simulators are a versatile and flexible tool. The tests can be repeated as many times as necessary with identical conditions. Besides this a simulator offers complete control across the scenario, every single detail can be controlled and changed. In RF simulators comprehensive error models are available for satellite signals and clocks, satellite orbits and health flags, obscuration and multipath, atmospheric conditions, antenna characteristics, vehicle dynamics, leap seconds, jamming and aiding Inertial sensors. Each of them can be controlled individually. For some tests, like unhealthy satellites or future constellations RF, simulators are the only way for testing, as future signals, for example, are not available in live sky test. In this paper, we will introduce the capabilities of GNSS simulators with a wide range of different error conditions and show several telemetry use cases.


• Through a strong partnership with an association of district governments, Lingkar Temu Kabupaten Lestari (the Sustainable Districts Association, or LTKL), and earlier efforts to showcase the sustainability progress of subnational jurisdictions, CIFOR has continued its work on jurisdictional approaches to low-emission rural development in Indonesian districts. • The CIFOR-LTKL partnership began in 2019 but has already yielded results, like contributions to a jurisdictional approach concept note that has now been integrated into Indonesia's national development planning document, as well as the creation of the first ever district-level jurisdictional profile (in Sintang District, West Kalimantan), launched at the 2020 Global Landscapes Forum. • Together with LTKL, CIFOR co-designed the questionnaire and data collection techniques for Kerangka Daya Saing Daerah (Regional Competitiveness Framework, or KDSD), a monitoring and reporting system developed by LTKL Secretariat and its member districts to measure districts' progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CIFOR also developed training and implementation guidelines for KDSD. • The jurisdictional approach is scaling up, with more LTKL member districts showing interest in implementing the KDSD and in creating a jurisdictional profile. Sandy Nofyanza, Swetha Peteru, Tobias Thürer and Amy E Duchelle DOI: 10.17528/cifor/008049 | cifor.org No. 329, July 2021


Micro-lens arrays were adopted to homogenize the beam profile of 532-nm pumping laser for the main amplifier of an intense femtosecond, chirped pulse amplification (CPA) Ti:sapphire laser. Experimental measurements showed a great improvement of the near-field pattern of the CPA beam after the main amplifier and the size of the focal spot was improved from 2.7 times diffraction limitation (DL) to 1.6 DL. The spot size focused by an f/4 off-axis parabola (OAP) in the target chamber was measured to be 5.8 micron (full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)), and a peak intensity of 2.6*10^(20) W/cm2 was obtained at the output power of 120 TW. Peak intensity exceeding 10^(21) W/cm2 or even 10^(22) W/cm2 can be expected with smaller f-number focusing configuration and wavefront correction.


This paper examines whether the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and its subsidiary SAFE Investment Company (SIC), the sole managers of China's gargantuan official foreign exchange reserves (OFER) until 2007, have shifted their investment behaviour since the inception of China Investment Corporation (CIC). We find that external conditions such as overexposure to US dollar-denominated assets and declining value of the greenback, as well as internal conditions like the rise of CIC as a rival to manage China's OFER, have prompted SAFE-SIC to depart somewhat from their pre-2007 conservative style of investing most of China's OFER in low-yielding foreign government bonds, especially US Treasury bills. Since 2008, SAFE-SIC, in a seeming competition with CIC, have started to pursue higher-risk, higher-return investments. However, we observe that this bolder strategy of SAFE-SIC might not be sustainable for long, because: (a) it duplicates CIC's explicit mission already set by the State Council to invest in higher-risk, higher-return assets; (b) it runs against SAFE's core mission to preserve, rather than grow, China's OFER; and (c) SAFE is tied down by other core responsibilities such as the regulation of China's foreign exchange administration system, the stewardship towards full capital-account convertibility, and the gradual internationalisation of the renminbi (RMB). As such, engaging in higher-risk, higher-return investments would most likely remain a secondary priority within SAFE's overall mandate.


Prominent theories of action recognition suggest that during the recognition of actions the physical patterns of the action is associated with only one action interpretation (e.g., a person waving his arm is recognized as waving). In contrast to this view, studies examining the visual categorization of objects show that objects are recognized in multiple ways (e.g., a VW Beetle can be recognized as a car or a beetle) and that categorization performance is based on the visual and motor movement similarity between objects. Here, we studied whether we find evidence for multiple levels of categorization for social interactions (physical interactions with another person, e.g., handshakes). To do so, we compared visual categorization of objects and social interactions (Experiments 1 and 2) in a grouping task and assessed the usefulness of motor and visual cues (Experiments 3, 4, and 5) for object and social interaction categorization. Additionally, we measured recognition performance associated with recognizing objects and social interactions at different categorization levels (Experiment 6). We found that basic level object categories were associated with a clear recognition advantage compared to subordinate recognition but basic level social interaction categories provided only a little recognition advantage. Moreover, basic level object categories were more strongly associated with similar visual and motor cues than basic level social interaction categories. The results suggest that cognitive categories underlying the recognition of objects and social interactions are associated with different performances. These results are in line with the idea that the same action can be associated with several action interpretations (e.g., a person waving his arm can be recognized as waving or greeting).


Most smartphones today have a rich set of sensors that could be used to infer input (e.g., accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone); however, the primary mode of interaction is still limited to the front-facing touchscreen and several physical buttons on the case. To investigate the potential opportunities for interactions supported by built-in sensors, we present the implementation and evaluation of BeyondTouch, a family of interactions to extend and enrich the input experience of a smartphone. Using only existing sensing capabilities on a commodity smartphone, we offer the user a wide variety of additional inputs on the case and the surface adjacent to the smartphone. Although most of these interactions are implemented with machine learning methods, compact and robust rule-based detection methods can also be applied for recognizing some interactions by analyzing physical characteristics of tapping events on the phone. This article is an extended version of Zhang et al. [2015], which solely covered gestures implemented by machine learning methods. We extended our previous work by adding gestures implemented with rule-based methods, which works well with different users across devices without collecting any training data. We outline the implementation of both machine learning and rule-based methods for these interaction techniques and demonstrate empirical evidence of their effectiveness and usability. We also discuss the practicality of BeyondTouch for a variety of application scenarios and compare the two different implementation methods.


Changes in the field of central banking over the past two decades have been nothing short of dramatic. They include the importance of central bank autonomy, the desirability of low and stable inflation, and the vital role played by how central banks communicate their views and intentions to the markets and the public more generally. There remains considerable diversity nevertheless in the institutional framework affecting central banks, the manner in which the stance of monetary policy is determined and assessed, and the forces that dictate the conduct of monetary policy more generally. The global financial crisis, which began in the United States in 2007, only serves to highlight further the importance of central bank policies. The aim of this volume is to take stock of where we are in the realm of the practice of central banking and considers some of the implications arising from the ongoing crisis.


An increasing number of cultural heritage institutions publish data online. Ontologies can be used to structure published data, thereby increasing interoperability. To achieve widespread adoption of ontologies, institutions such as libraries, archives and museums have to be able to assess whether an ontology can adequately capture information about their artifacts. We identify six requirements that should be met by ontologies in the cultural heritage domain, based upon modeling challenges encountered while publishing data of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and challenges observed in related work. These challenges regard specialization, object- and event-centric approaches, temporality, representations, views and subject matter. For each challenge, we investigate common modeling approaches, by discussing two models regularly used in the museum sector: the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model and the Europeana Data Model. The outlined approaches and requirements provide insights for data modeling practices reaching beyond the cultural heritage sector.


In this paper we have proposed a room sanitation robot. The world around us is facing new threats day by day, latest being the corona virus. Social distancing, wearing masks, sanitizing the hands and disinfecting rooms are some precautionary measures to be taken against this deadly virus. Hence our project aims at disinfecting the rooms by deploying robots instead of manpower. Steriloid is a sanitizing robot which can be used to sanitize rooms, pathways, roads etc. It can be controlled in two modes manually or automatically. In the Automatic mode, the robot moves around the room with the help of two ultrasonic sensors. The sensors detect the obstacle while the robot is in motion and control the robot accordingly. In the Manual mode, complete control of the robot is in the user's hands. A mobile application is used to control the robot via a Bluetooth module. So the robot can move to any location. Sanitizer or sanitizing liquid is filled inside a reservoir and a pump is placed inside it. When the robot starts moving, the pump can be turned on from the mobile or manually and it starts sanitizing the room. Keywords—Steriloid, sanitizing robot, automatic mode, manual mode, ultrasonic sensors, Bluetooth


From the Publisher:
Imagine journeying with your students to a far-off museum. Discussing what you see with artists and museum staff. Creating your own artworks. Sharing them with children from schools around the world. And never leaving the confines of your own classroom. Learning adventures like these are already a reality for members of the global community known as the Internet. But too many teachers have been denied access to this rich and important world due to lack of time, resources, or expert guidance. This book provides all three. Written by a teacher for teachers, A Teacher's Project Guide to the Internet walks readers through the Internet, step by step, suggesting a host of creative and exciting classroom projects along the way. These ideas come complete with Web site addresses plus a disk (compatible with IBM and Macintosh System 7.5 systems) that provides direct access (through your Web browser) to all the sites noted in the appendixes. This highly practical feature will save readers countless hours of browsing time, enabling them to immediately implement projects. Both experienced "Internauts" and teachers just getting on-line will appreciate the book's straightforward organization. Crotchett begins with one of the easiest and most commonly used protocols--e mail--then gradually progresses to more sophisticated topics like newsgroups, file transfer protocol, and creating Web sites. Also included are overviews of the Internet's fundamental structure and history. While aspects of these subjects have been dealt with in periodical articles and general how-to books, until now there has been no comprehensive book specifically written for K-12 teachers that combines Internet basics, specifically identified Web sites, and high-quality Internet-based projects. Considering that most educators already have more to do than time allows, A Teacher's Project Guide to the Internet will be immensely useful.


A fundamental issue for IS academics and practitioners is how collaborative IT tools can be effectively used to improve group work. Collaborative IT tools are integrated sets of IT functionalities that facilitate communication and information sharing among interconnected entities. Integrating the literature on group support systems with recent work on IT capabilities, this paper introduces the construct of collaborative IT tools leveraging capability. It is defined as the ability of groups to effectively use a set of IT functionalities - workspace sharing, conferencing, file sharing, scheduling, chat, email - available in collaborative IT tools to facilitate group work. Collaborative IT tools leveraging capability is proposed to impact group performance. To enhance the group's effectiveness in leveraging collaborative IT tools, we propose a set of antecedents: customization of collaborative IT tools, the group's habit in using collaborative IT tools, the group's perceived usefulness and ease of use of collaborative IT tools, the group member's trust, and environmental uncertainty. Data from 365 group managers support the study's structural model with the antecedents and outcomes of collaborative IT tools leveraging capability at different levels of environmental uncertainty. The paper discusses the study's contributions to understanding the nature of collaborative IT tools leveraging capability, its impact on group work, and how it can be enhanced to facilitate group work. Implications for enhancing group work with the aid of collaborative IT tools are also discussed.


Eutypa dieback, caused by the fungus Eutypa lata, is a serious disease of grapevines that infects mainly through pruning wounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro efficacy of fungicides from various chemical groups against E. lata, as well as the in vivo efficacy of the most effective fungicides and selected bacterial and fungal antagonists of E. lata, in grapevine pruning wound protection trials. In vitro studies revealed that flusilazole, tebuconazole, benomyl, fenarimol and myclobutanil were the most effective fungicides to inhibit mycelial growth of E. lata. Two field trials were conducted, one subjected to artificial inoculation and the second to natural infection only. In the first, benomyl, flusilazole and commercially available Trichoderma harzianum-containing products and an experimental Bacillus subtilis strain were applied to fresh pruning wounds. Two Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards were pruned in August 2001 and 2002 and immediately treated and inoculated with a spore suspension of E. lata one day later. Isolations were made from the treated pruning wounds after 12 months to assess the effectiveness of the treatments. The fungicides benomyl and flusilazole were the most effective treatments, although the Trichoderma treatments T77 and Trichoseal spray caused a significant reduction in E. lata infection. In a second trial, pruning wounds of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon blanc, Red Globe and Bonheur were treated with the Trichoderma products Vinevax (= Trichoseal spray) and Eco77 (= T77) in August 2005 and 2006, subjected to natural infection only and evaluated after seven months. Vinevax and Eco77 not only reduced E. lata, but they also reduced the incidence of other grapevine trunk disease pathogens.


BACKGROUND
Although a contributory role of vitamin D levels for the development of chronic hepatitis C has been suggested, the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in combination with conventional antiviral therapy consisting of pegylated interferon-α (Peg-IFN-α) injection and oral ribavirin (RBV) remains unclear. We investigated its efficacy in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C via a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

METHODS
We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov and the bibliographies of relevant articles to locate additional publications in September 2016. Three evaluators independently reviewed and selected eligible studies based on predetermined selection criteria.

RESULTS
Of 522 articles meeting our initial criteria, a total of seven open-label, randomised controlled trials involving 548 participants, were included in the final analysis. Vitamin D supplementation in combination with Peg-IFN-α injection and oral RBV significantly increased the rate of viral response for hepatitis C at 24 weeks after treatment in a random-effects meta-analysis (relative risk = 1.30; 95% confidence interval = 1.04-1.62; I2 = 75.9%). Also, its significant efficacy was observed in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 1, which is known to be refractory to antiviral therapy.

CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we observed that additional use of vitamin D has a positive effect on sustained viral response rates of patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. However, we cannot establish the efficacy because of substantial heterogeneity, a small sample size and a low methodological quality.


Letters to the Editor should be submitted online to www.editorialmanager.com/ amsurg. (See details online under ''Instructions for Authors''.) They should be no more than 3 double-spaced pages excluding an Abstract and sub-headings with a maximum of four (4) references. If figures are included, they should be limited to two (2). The cost of printing color figures is the responsibility of the author.


In previous studies on African football migration, academies' search for talent has been understood in its macro-structural context in which uneven power relations between the global North and South shape the production and trade in African players. By focusing on macro-structural determinants of migration, this scholarship has neglected to examine how players and their families actively engage with the processes that lead to them being recruited by academies. As such, it tends to conceal the agency of various actors in the migration process, particularly the ways in which both players and their families navigate the decision-making process on internal migration to a football academy. This article explores whether moving to an academy is understood within the family context as a precursor to international migration and as such, might feature as part of a broader household livelihood strategy. Drawing on empirical data collected during nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana, the article sheds light on the experiences of young players who encounter the recruitment processes employed by academies and how these are shaped and informed by Ghanaian family arrangements and in particular the social norm of intergenerational reciprocity. It uncovers what are often conflicting perspectives of football and football academies within families and analyses how this impacts on internal football migration. In doing so, this study contributes significantly to our understanding of the processes associated with football labour migration in Ghana, and elsewhere on the continent, not least because it challenges the assumption that young players and their family members unambiguously view academies as vehicles for international migration and a chance to secure future prosperity, and that they uncritically take up any opportunity that comes their way.


1. The total hydroxyproline:creatinine ratios in random urines collected every 3 months for 1 year from twenty-six adolescent boys (11–14 years) have been compared with the observed height and weight velocities of the boys during that year. 2. There were significant correlations of both height and weight velocities over 6 and 12 month periods with the ratios in the random urines collected during the same period. 3. The ratio in most boys fell from July to April and then rose during the final 3 months of the study. Sequential changes in the ratio correlated significantly with sequential changes in growth velocity (i.e. acceleration or deceleration) but the changes in the ratio occurring throughout the year could not be wholly explained by variation in growth rate. 4. The urinary total hydroxyproline:creatinine ratio is probably most useful as an index of growth rate in comparisons between children studied over the same period of time, or in sequential studies of the same child over a short period. In long-term sequential studies allowances must be made for factors other than growth velocity so that interpretation is more difficult.


The OECD Biotechnology Statistics – 2006 edition brings together the latest available economic
and activity data on biotechnology and innovation, collected by OECD member and a number of nonmember
countries.1 The report builds on the extensive work of the OECD and national experts to
improve the comparability of biotechnology statistics. The results should provide a valuable source of
information on biotechnology for policy makers, academics and business managers.
The first OECD collection of biotechnology indicators was published in 20012 and provided data
for 21 OECD member countries and 1 observer country. However, comparable data across countries
was only available for biotechnology patents, bibliometrics, venture capital, GM crop hectares, and
GM field trials. Data were also available for up to 16 countries for employment, business R&D, and
turnover for biotechnology firms, but the comparability of these indicators was limited by the lack of
clear definitions of 'biotechnology' and a 'biotechnology firm'.


ABSTRACT This paper draws on sociological and critical educational frames, particularly Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence, in order to contest the dominant model of literacy education that is driven by the premise of a 'knowledge economy'. Instead it foregrounds the political, social, and economic factors that marginalise learners. Data from two projects: an ethnographic study in a Further Education (FE) College in England and a study of community-based literacy programmes in Scotland, are probed to show how literacy classes can offer spaces to challenge symbolic violence and facilitate learners to reclaim identities of success. These changes are illustrated from the learners' views of the contrasts between their experiences of school education and literacy programmes that use transformative and emancipatory approaches. Our research demonstrates how critical education can open up spaces for a more equitable approach based on the co-production of knowledge. It is argued that making changes to policy and practice could inform and shape the literacy curriculum and its pedagogy if adult literacy can disentangle itself from instrumental approaches driven by neoliberal fusion and instead create critical space for contextualised and emancipatory learning.


In this work a detailed investigation of the exohedral reactivity of the most important and abundant endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) is provided, that is, Sc(3)N@I(h)-C(80) and its D(5h) counterpart Sc(3)N@D(5h)-C(80) , and the (bio)chemically relevant lutetium- and gadolinium-based M(3)N@I(h)/D(5h)-C(80) EMFs (M = Sc, Lu, Gd). In particular, we analyze the thermodynamics and kinetics of the Diels-Alder cycloaddition of s-cis-1,3-butadiene on all the different bonds of the I(h)-C(80) and D(5h)-C(80) cages and their endohedral derivatives. First, we discuss the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the cycloaddition reaction on the hollow fullerenes and the two isomers of Sc(3)N@C(80). Afterwards, the effect of the nature of the metal nitride is analyzed in detail. In general, our BP86/TZP//BP86/DZP calculations indicate that [5,6] bonds are more reactive than [6,6] bonds for the two isomers. The [5,6] bond D(5h)-b, which is the most similar to the unique [5,6] bond type in the icosahedral cage, I(h)-a, is the most reactive bond in M(3)N@D(5h)-C(80) regardless of M. Sc(3)N@C(80) and Lu(3)N@C(80) give similar results; the regioselectivity is, however, significantly reduced for the larger and more electropositive M = Gd, as previously found in similar metallofullerenes. Calculations also show that the D(5h) isomer is more reactive from the kinetic point of view than the I(h) one in all cases which is in good agreement with experiments.


Unmanned ground vehicles are increasingly employing a combination of active sensors such as LIDAR with passive sensors like cameras to perform at all levels of perception, which includes detection, recognition and classification. Typical cameras measure the intensity of light at a variety of different wavelengths to classify objects in different areas of an image. A polarimetric camera not only measures intensity of light, but can also determine its state of polarization. The polarization of light is the angle the electric field of the wave of light takes as it travels. A polarimetric camera can identify the state of polarization of the light, which can be used to segment highly polarizing areas in a natural environment, such the surface of water. The polarimetric camera designed and built for this thesis was created with low cost in mind, as commercial polarimetric cameras are very expensive. It uses multiple beam splitters to split incoming light into four machine vision cameras. In front of each machine vision camera is a linear polarizing filter that is set to a specific orientation. Using the data from each camera, the Stokes vector can be calculated on a pixel by pixel basis to determine what areas of the image are more polarized. Test images of various scenes that included running water, standing water, mud, and vehicles showed promise in using polarization data to highlight and identify areas of interest. This data could be used by a UGV to make more informed decisions in an autonomous navigation mode.


Plant-based natural products research is conducted using a wide variety of source material. The plant material is often obtained directly from the wild, from cultivated plants originally obtained from the wild, or purchased in raw or processed forms. In plant science a voucher specimen usually consists of a pressed, dried herbarium specimen with detailed collection data and serves as a record of an individual plant in time and space. This review article describes why vouchering is necessary and documents actual examples of how improper vouchering can result in serious problems. The primary reason for vouchering is to have a permanent record documenting the material that was used in a particular study. If a specimen is not saved or is not made available to others, the true identity of the plant materials used in a research project may be questioned. Due to the morphological and chemical complexities of interspecific hybrids, within-species variation, and the difficulty associated with identifying species in certain plant genera, the preservation of vouchers is essential for the documentation of the identity and source of such plant material. The use of best practices in specimen preparation is critical for successful documentation. The lack of proper voucher specimens for some research projects has led to serious problems, such as the inability to reproduce critical results, the association of chemical data with the wrong genus and species, and even the complete rejection of the published research results. In cases where plant material was initially misidentified and properly prepared voucher specimens were available, the identities of the research material were eventually corrected and the data was subsequently associated with the correct species, retaining the inherent scientific value of the research.


This article addresses the policy issues and outcomes associated with the block grant option in long-term care (LTC). Block grants are being considered in a number of human service areas currently, especially in the wake of the 1980 elections. The article assumes that Medicaid and other LTC-related policies would be consolidated in a formula-based, capped block grant. The potential advantages are in the areas of responsiveness, coordination and institution-building at the state level. Potential problems include new organizational demands on the designated LTC state agency; political dislocations caused by disaffected agency and provider groups; and unequal competition for LTC resources resulting from the removal of legislative safeguards and hierarchical support. The article concludes on the note that proponents of the block grant option have not addressed a number of the major shortcomings that may accompany an LTC block grant.


The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has played, and continues to play, an important and largely unrecognized role as a lawmaking body. The OECD occupies a unique space in the international lawmaking field, in large part because it was not established with lawmaking as a priority. In a small number of cases, however, it has played a significant role in crafting the emerging architecture of global governance. Case studies of the hazardous waste trade, the Bribery Convention, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are presented to demonstrate a clear pattern. A topic of major concern arises on the international stage, such as hazardous waste trade, bribery, or corporate conduct. Efforts within the United Nations or other international organizations to draft an agreement are unsuccessful. The OECD proceeds on its own and provides an agreement that serves as the basis for future negotiations in fora with wider membership. The keys to this approach are opportunism and path dependence. The OECD serves as an advantageous forum to host negotiations, in part because of its significant technical expertise, in part because of its membership of like-minded countries, and in part because of its closed proceedings. This can be a very effective strategy to provide the tracks on which the train of international agreements proceeds. But it does not always work. A case study on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment explores the OECD's greatest failure in international lawmaking.


Just as it is in developed countries, most developing countries utilize concrete and steel in their various forms of reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete and steel, for the construction of bridges. Most of these countries do not produce cement and steel locally and have to rely on their importation. As a result, a large proportion of their hard earned foreign currency is utilized for the importation and construction of these bridges. Paradoxically, many of these countries abound in timber as a natural resource which could be utilized for the purpose. The authors have identified the bridge girder as the main constraint in the use of wood for medium span bridges and have developed a built-up timber girder to solve the problem. The paper gives the highlights of the girder for the project, discusses why the girder is appropriate to developing countries with timber as a natural resource and outlines important factors that need to be considered in the design and construction of such a girder.


Mineral particles with diameters on the scale of nanometers (nanoparticles) are important constituents of natural environments. The small size of such particles has a host of consequences for biogeochemical systems, which we will review in this chapter. We begin by briefly reviewing what is known about how and when nanoparticles form and the ways in which nanoparticles impact natural processes.

Nanoparticles form via a variety of inorganic and biological pathways and may be introduced into the environment as a consequence of human activity. They are widespread in the environment (Banfield and Navrotsky 2001; Penn et al. 2001; Kennedy et al. 2003a,b; van der Zee et al. 2003), although few quantitative studies of their abundance are available. While all crystals begin as very small particles, an important subset retain small size at the Earth's surface over relatively long time scales, because the combination of low temperature and low solubility inhibits growth. As a consequence, nanoparticles have the potential for a long lifetime in the environment, and widespread transport under certain circumstances.

Processes that result in the removal of nanoparticles from an environment include dissolution, settling from air, transport in solution, and crystal growth. Particle aggregation may be an important component of these processes because it will promote settling, limit dispersal via solution transport, and can lead to aggregation-based crystal growth.

The presence of nanoparticles can profoundly influence biological systems. Because they are frequently formed in environments that are populated by microorganisms, nanoparticles often adhere to cell surfaces or cell-associated polymers (see Fig. 1⇓ for examples). These coatings can have important consequences for metabolic activity, for example, by restricting communication between the cell and its surroundings. They may also provide protection from predators, inhibit desiccation, screen cells from ultraviolet radiation, and alter the cell buoyancy (e.g., …


With the announcement of the NLM Administrative Supplement Grant, the informationists at the Welch Medical Library found an interested and enthusiastic Principal Investigator (PI) in the Department of Radiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Although the PI had not used the services of a Welch informationist be-fore, he was eager to collaborate with an informationist on the grant "Dose-Response in Radionuclide Therapy" (Parent Grant Number: 5R01CA116477-07), and had self-identified the need for "a literature review by experts" to fulfill his funded work. Targeted radionuclide therapy is an emerging modality for cancer therapy that involves the delivery of radioactive atoms using carriers that preferentially bind to tumor cells. Such treatment is best implemented with patient-specific dosimetry calculations. This mutually beneficial partner ship brings the specialized skill set, knowledge base and expertise of an informationist to the biomedical research team to assist in accomplishing the broader work of improving RPT delivery in metastatic cancer patients. The informationist will carry out multiple tasks to produce an effective and efficient workflow that facilitates the dissemination of the information to a globally dispersed research team. This collaboration will be evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively, and the important role of the informationist in the success of this project will demonstrate the value of including an informationist in the research team. This demonstrat-ed value will assist Welch Library in continuing to promote the embedded informationist program to other interested researchers throughout the institution.


Phylogenetic diversity (PD) is a measure of species biodiversity quantified by how much of an evolutionary tree is spanned by a subset of species. In this thesis, we study optimization problems that aim to find species sets with maximum PD in different scenarios, and examine random extinction models under various assumptions to predict the PD of species that will still be present in the future. Optimizing PD with Dependencies is a combinatorial optimization problem in which species form an ecological network. Here, we are interested in selecting species sets of a given size that are ecologically viable and that maximize PD. The NP-hardness of this problem is proved and it is established which special cases of the problem are computationally easy and which are computationally hard. It is also shown that it is NP-complete to decide whether the feasible solution obtained by the greedy algorithm is optimal. We formulate the optimization problem as an integer linear program and find exact solutions to the largest food web currently in the empirical literature. In addition, we give a generalization of PD that can be used for example when we do not know the true evolutionary history. Based on this measure, an optimization problem is formulated. We discuss the complexity and the approximability properties of this problem. In the generalized field of bullets model (g-FOB), species are assumed to become extinct with possibly different probabilities, and extinction events are independent. We show that under this model the distribution of future phylogenetic diversity converges to a normal distribution as the number of species grows. When extinction probabilities are influenced by some binary character on the tree, the state-based field of bullets model (s-FOB) represents a more realistic picture. We compare the expected loss of PD under this model to that under the associated g-FOB model and find that the former is always greater than or equal to the latter. It is natural to further generalize the s-FOB model to allow more than one binary character to affect the extinction probabilities. The expected future PD obtained for the resulting trait-dependent field of bullets model (t-FOB) is compared to that for the associated g-FOB model and our previous result is generalized.


A variable expansion of a GAA repeat is present in the first intron of the frataxin gene, also termed FRDA1 or X25. Long repeat lengths (>66 repeats) are present in patients with Friedreich's ataxia, while an intermediate expansion (10-66 repeats) has recently been reported to be highly associated with type 2 diabetes. Using a polymerase chain reaction-based assay, we found that 32.4% (95%CI 29.9-34.9) of 636 Danish Caucasian type 2 diabetic patients were carriers of an intermediate expansion, whereas the frequency was 30.4% (26.4-34.4) among 224 matched glucose-tolerant control subjects (P = 0.6). In the control subjects, the values of serum insulin and C-peptide responses during an oral glucose tolerance test were similar between the 69 carriers and 155 noncarriers. Furthermore, we investigated a possible relationship between expansions of the FRDA1 gene and glucose-induced beta-cell function in 338 young Caucasians (33.7% [30.1-37.3] carriers) and in 215 glucose-tolerant subjects (31.0% [26.6-35.4] carriers) with a type 2 diabetic parent. In neither population did the carriers differ from noncarriers according to values of fasting plasma glucose, serum insulin, or C-peptide, acute serum insulin, or C-peptide responses after intravenous glucose. In conclusion, intermediate expansion of the frataxin trinucleotide repeat is not associated with type 2 diabetes or altered glucose-induced insulin secretion in Danish Caucasians.


Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems have been reduced dramatically throughout their range. Prescribed burning is considered the best way to restore and maintain plant communities associated with longleaf pine, but little is known about its effects on coarse woody debris and associated organisms. We conducted a 5-year study on the Osceola National Forest in northeastern Florida to determine how dormant-season prescribed burns at different frequencies (annual, biennial, quadrennial or unburned) applied over a 40-year period affected coarse woody debris volume, decomposition and nitrogen content, and subterranean termite (Reticulitermes spp.) activity. Burn frequency had no effect on standing dead tree or log volumes. However, freshly cut longleaf pine logs placed in the plots for four years lost significantly less mass in annually burned plots than in unburned plots. The annual exponential decay coefficient estimate from all logs was 0.14 yr −1 (SE = 0.01), with the estimated times for 50 and 95% loss being 5 and 21.4 years, respectively. Termite presence was unaffected by frequent burning, suggesting they were able to survive the fires underground or within wood, and that winter burning did not deplete their food resources.


Radiography has a limited role in the evaluation of the kidneys in foals and adult horses. Ultrasonography is the current method of choice for structural evaluation of the kidneys in horses as it provides additional information to standard serum chemistry and urinalysis evaluation. A variety of structural abnormalities have been identified in diseased equine kidneys with the use of ultrasound. Ultrasound guided renal biopsy is the preferred method for performing renal biopsy in the horse. The use of Duplex Doppler ultrasound may allow for the characterization of regional hemodynamics of the equine kidneys, but is currently an untapped method for evaluation of equine renal hemodynamics.

Radionuclide methods including scintigraphy and quantitative renal function measurement can be used to provide further information about equine renal function. Scintigraphy can provide structural and possibly functional information. Quantitative methods using radiopharmaceuticals can provide precise measurement of glomerular filtration rate and effective renal blood flow. This method is especially helpful in identifying acute renal failure and in guiding response to treatment.

All equine renal imaging techniques should be a supplement to the physical examination and standard laboratory tests. Additional diagnostic aids such as urinary tract endoscopy should also be considered in horses with hematuria, hydroureter, and suspected calculi. Taken together, all these modalities provide a through evaluation of the equine renal system and provide a basis for the clinician to select treatment options and provide prognostic information to the owner.


Belief-state ascription—determining what someone "knew," "believed," was "aware of," etc.—is central to many areas of law. In criminal law, the distinction between knowledge and recklessness, and the use of broad jury instructions concerning other belief states, presupposes a common and stable understanding of what those belief-state terms mean. But a wealth of empirical work at the intersection of philosophy and psychology—falling under the banner of "Experimental Epistemology"—reveals how laypeople's understandings of mens rea concepts differ systematically from what scholars, courts, and perhaps legislators, have assumed.As implemented, mens rea concepts are much more context-dependent and normatively evaluative than the conventional wisdom suggests, even assuming that jurors are following jury instructions to the letter. As a result, there is less difference between knowledge and recklessness than is typically assumed; jurors consistently "over"-ascribe knowledge to criminal defendants; and concepts like "belief," "awareness," and "conscious disregard" mean different things in different contexts, resulting in mens rea findings systematically responsive to aspects of the case traditionally considered irrelevant to the meaning of those terms.This Article provides the first systematic account of the factors driving jurors' ascriptions of the specific belief states criminal law invokes. After surveying mens rea jury instructions, introducing the Experimental Epistemology literature to the legal literature on mens rea, and examining the implications of that literature for criminal law, this Article considers ways to begin bridging the surprisingly large gap between mens rea theory and practice.


Ursula Huws ties together disparate economic, cultural, and political phenomena of the last few decades to form a provocative narrative about the shape of the global capitalist economy at present. She examines the way that advanced information and communications technology has opened up new fields of capital accumulation: in culture and the arts, in the privatization of public services, and in the commodification of human sociality by way of mobile devices and social networking. These trends are in turn accompanied by the dramatic restructuring of work arrangements, opening the way for new contradictions and new forms of labor solidarity and struggle around the planet. Labor in the Global Digital Economy is a forceful critique of our dizzying contemporary moment, one that goes beyond notions of mere connectedness or free-flowing information to illuminate the entrenched mechanisms of exploitation and control at the core of capitalism.


The purpose of this thesis was to examine the range of prospective memory and executive function deficits in ecstasy/polydrug users and the role of these processes in accounting for the observed prospective memory performance deficits. Using a variety of laboratory and self-report measures of prospective memory and a self-report measure of executive function, ecstasy/polydrug users were tested in laboratory settings on measures of event and time-based, short and long term prospective memory as well as on a wide range of executive function components. It was found that ecstasy/polydrug users in relation to non-users experience more general prospective memory problems as ecstasy/polydrug-related deficits were evident on both time and event-based and short and long-term prospective memory. Ecstasy/polydrug users also demonstrated deficits on executive processes suggesting that recreational drug users are impaired in a broader range of executive function and ecstasy/polydrug-related deficits are not restricted to the three-model component of executive function. It was also found that executive dysfunction is associated with poorer time-based prospective memory and perhaps some of the drug related prospective memory deficits are mediated by drug related executive function impairment. Finally, although few prospective memory or executive function performance deficits were evident among cannabis-only users a trend was evident in all investigations; ecstasy/polydrug users perform the worst, cannabis-only users at intermediate levels and drug-naive perform the best. The most striking finding of the present thesis was that the recreational use of cocaine was associated with PM deficits; an association that consistently emerged in all studies of PM performance. The outcomes of the present thesis provide a fruitful direction for future research.


DRAWING AND PAINTING SELF-TAUGHT. By Anson K. Cross, Instructor, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. With Graded Lessons by Evelyn F. Cross, Supervisor of Art, Stoneham, Massachusetts. Second Edition, Revised. Cloth. 204 pages. Published by A. K. Cross, Boothbay Harbor, Me. Mr. Cross has a remarkable device for making it possible for a student to see wherein his work is faulty, and at the same time see how he may easily improve it. It is a piece of ordinary window glass as a drawing tablet. oro this he has added a spirit level which makes the scheme scientific. The key to the success of Mr. Cross is the fact that his instruction leads to vision training and not merely to picture making. There are two lenses which enable studenta to discover mistakes in light, shade and color, as surely as the spirit-level enables them to find mistakes in perspective outline. It is possible for fourth-grade children to draw from nature with class results equal to those in other subjects.


Vibration attenuation is an important factor while designing rotating machinery since frequency lying in the range corresponding to natural modes of structures can result in resonance and ultimately failure. Damping dissipates energy in the system, which reduces the vibration level. The mitigation of vibrations can be achieved by designing the base frame with periodic air holes. The periodicity in air holes result in vibration attenuation by providing a stop band. A finite element-based approach is developed to predict the modal and frequency response. The analysis is carried out with different shapes of periodic cavities in order to study the effectiveness of periodic stop bands in attenuating vibrations. The amount of mass removed due to the periodic cavities is kept constant. It is seen that better attenuation is obtained in case of periodic cavities compared to a uniform base frame. Among the different geometries tested, rectangular cavities showed better results than circular and square cavities. As a result, it is seen that waves propagate along periodic cells only within specific frequency bands called the "Pass bands", while these waves are completely blocked within other frequency bands called the "Stopbands". The air cavities filter structural vibrations in certain frequency bands resulting in effective attenuation.


This study examines the relation between political action and political oratory, with special attention to how these were experienced in the African American community. It focuses on three special cases; Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. This work explores how presidential inaugural speeches reflect the overarching mindset of the government, and how, in the postmodern era, this mindset manifests the same sort of African American erasure that has existed since Middle Passage. In addition, I explore the rhetorical engagement black leaders use to respond to Passage. I also explore the rhetorical engagement black leaders use to respond to, prevent, or to circumvent erasure. This book examines presidential inaugural speeches, during the Civil Rights and Black Power era, from the Kennedy administration to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to prove that, most times, this type of speech is little more than epideictic formality in regard to black interests, and, perhaps, the initial step in an administration's disregard for the concerns of African Americans - or the first indication that an administration is ensnared in a dilemma of catering solely to white American interests. Correspondingly, I explore the theory that African American leaders' speeches attempt to respond to Presidential inaugural addresses.


Sustainable diets should not only respect the environment but also be healthy and affordable. However, there has been little work to assess whether real diets can encompass all three aspects. The aim of this study was to develop a framework to quantify actual diet records for health, affordability and environmental sustainability and apply this to UK food purchase survey data. We applied a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to detailed food composition data where purchased food items were disaggregated into their components with traceable environmental impact data. This novel approach is an improvement to earlier studies in which sustainability assessments were based on a limited number of "food groups", with a potentially high variation of actual food items within each group. Living Costs and Food Survey data for 2012, 2013 and 2014 were mapped into published figures for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE, taking into account processing, transport and cooking) and land use, a diet quality index (DQI) based on dietary guidelines and food cost, all standardised per household member. Households were classified as having a 'more sustainable' diet based on GHGE, cost and land use being less than the median and DQI being higher than the median. Only 16.6% of households could be described as more sustainable; this rose to 22% for those in the lowest income quintile. Increasing the DQI criteria to >80% resulted in only 100 households being selected, representing 0.8% of the sample. The framework enabled identification of more sustainable households, providing evidence of how we can move toward better diets in terms of the environment, health, and costs.


In this paper, we analyze the size of decision diagrams (DD) representing the set of all parse trees of a context-free grammar (CFG). CFG is widely used in the field of natural language processing and bioinformatics to estimate the hidden structures of sequence data. A decision diagram is a data structure that represents a Boolean function in a concise form. By using DDs to represent the set of all parse trees, we can efficiently perform many useful operations over the parse trees, such as finding trees that satisfy additional constraints and finding the best parse tree. Since the time complexity of these operations depends on DD size, selecting an appropriate DD variant is important. Experiments on a simple CFG show that the Zero-suppressed Sentential Decision Diagram (ZSDD) is better than other DDs; we also give theoretical upper bounds on ZSDD size.


We present a new approach to combine multiple NLO parton-level calculations matched to parton showers into a single inclusive event sample. The method provides a description of hard multi-jet configurations at next-to leading order in the perturbative expansion of QCD, and it is supplemented with the all-orders resummed modelling of jet fragmentation provided by the parton shower. The formal accuracy of this technique is discussed in detail, invoking the example of electron-positron annihilation into hadrons. We focus on the effect of renormalisation scale variations in particular. Comparison with experimental data from LEP underlines that this novel formalism describes data with a theoretical accuracy that has hitherto not been achieved in standard Monte Carlo event generators.


The Handbook provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for hazard and disaster research, policy making, and practice in an international and multi-disciplinary context. It offers critical reviews and appraisals of current state of the art and future development of conceptual, theoretical and practical approaches as well as empirical knowledge and available tools. Organized into five inter-related sections, this Handbook contains sixty-five contributions from leading scholars. Section one situates hazards and disasters in their broad political, cultural, economic, and environmental context. Section two contains treatments of potentially damaging natural events/phenomena organized by major earth system. Section three critically reviews progress in responding to disasters including warning, relief and recovery. Section four addresses mitigation of potential loss and prevention of disasters under two sub-headings: governance, advocacy and self-help, and communication and participation. Section five ends with a concluding chapter by the editors. The engaging international contributions reflect upon the politics and policy of how we think about and practice applied hazard research and disaster risk reduction. This Handbook provides a wealth of interdisciplinary information and will appeal to students and practitioners interested in Geography, Environment Studies and Development Studies.


Australia's major research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), will see its budget cut by 5.4% and will have to lay off up to 420 employees under an austerity budget released last week by the nation's conservative government. CSIRO's astronomy and space science programs would be hit especially hard, receiving cuts of 10% to 15%. Some researchers are warning that the spending reductions will force Australian researchers to seek work overseas and make the nation less competitive. But government officials dispute those fears and note that the government is boosting spending in some areas of science.


A civic society is distinguished by its language and its law. In this paper I suggest a theory that links these institutions via the notion of a standard contract. The theory is based upon two observations: that contracts are compiled in words, and that more common (standardized) words are easier to comprehend than less common ones. I will argue that these observations have far-reaching implications: that private contracting is restricted by past history, and that the State should play a role in the formation of contractual and legal standards.


This paper examines some previously unnoticed parallels between the book of Proverbs on the one hand and Akkadian and Sumerian writings on the other hand. Some parallels adduced derive from compositions regarded specifically as wisdom literature and included in the well-known collections (sections 3, 4, and 6). Other parallels derive from wisdom compositions not included in these collections (section 2) or from different types of writings, especially of ritual or magical nature (sections 1 and 5). Also, the parallels are of a different sort than those commonly brought, not specific borrowings of passages from this or that didactic work, but rather common ideas and images expressed in similar locutions. Specifically, the parallels adduced here concern the following sayings from the biblical book: Proverbs 6:20–35; 7:7–8; 11:22; 23:27–28; 26:14; 30:10. The examples examined here have one thing in common: they all involve the behavior of character types considered unsavory, a favorite topic of wisdom literature.


Twenty-five years ago the I.B.A. was founded on the initiative of the American Bar Association - the realisation of the aspirations of many members of the legal profession anxious to advance the administration of Justice and the Rule of Law throughout the world and to maintain the high standards of the profession. The General Council of the Bar of South Africa has been a member since 1950 and the Association of Law Societies of South Africa since 1961. South Africa has, therefore, supported the I.B.A. almost from its inception.


This paper is concerned with the, by now rather well studied, problem of integrated road geometry estimation and vehicle tracking. The main differences to the existing approaches are that we make use of an improved host vehicle model and a new dynamic model for the road. The problem is posed within a standard sensor fusion framework, allowing us to make good use of the available sensor information. The performance of the solution is evaluated using measurements from real and relevant traffic environments from public roads in Sweden. The experiments indicates that the gain in using the extended host vehicle model is most prominent when driving on country roads without any vehicles in front.


This study investigated the effects of light quality, culture density, and carbon dioxide aeration on the biomass production, lipid accumulation, elemental contents, and photosynthetic pigment production of microalgae. The microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Gloeothece membranacea were cultivated either in static (flask) or aerated and mixed (photobioreactor) cultivation modes. The highest biomass productivities in the static mode for both microalgae strains were achieved using violet luminescent filters which emitted the photosynthetic active radiation ranges. In the static mode, red wavelength ranges had a major influence on pigmentation of C.vulgaris, although they were the least efficient light condition for cultivation of G.membranacea. Red light was particularly inefficient to support growth in static cultures. Luminescent bubble column photobioreactors (PBRs) were constructed and used for the aerated mode in the blue, green, yellow, orange, and red wavelength-emitting ranges. Biomass production in both strains was enhanced in the red PBR. Lipid accumulation was significantly enhanced in high culture density groups, low light intensity, and 15% CO2 aeration conditions which all represented a form of stress to the culture. The highest biomass density of 2.12 and 2.52 g L were achieved at high light intensity in the red PBR for C.vulgaris and G.membranacea respectively. The blue PBR was the least efficient light condition for biopigment production, whilst it improved lipid accumulation. Chlorophyll production in C.vulgaris was promoted by the green PBR, although it was less influenced by the light condition or culture density in G.membranacea cultures. Phycobiliproteins were the dominant pigments in G.membranacea and red light favoured synthesis of these pigments. Compared to C.vulgaris, the G.membranacea cells showed higher tolerance to 15% CO2 aeration by growing in this condition over a period of two weeks. At the 15% CO2 aeration condition G.membranacea accumulated the highest lipid content of 36.6% in the blue PBR. However, due to their lower carbon content and biomass productivity, G.membranacea was less efficient than C.vulgaris in sequestrating carbon dioxide. C.vulgaris sequestrated carbon dioxide up to 363 mg L day in the red PBR when aerated with 15% CO2. These results have significant implications for improved photobioreactor design for cultivation of microalgae under natural light. The proposed photobioreactor design can also tailor and improve the composition of lipids and photosynthetic compounds, using variation in light.


Satellite remote sensing of the environment is a relatively young science, beginning in earnest in the 1970s. Since then, rapid developments in sensor technology, computer power and data storage capabilities have resulted in remarkable advances in what can be observed, at what resolution and with what accuracy. Here, we summarise the fundamental physical concepts and the types of sensor that have been used for observing the biosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and ice at the surface of the Earth.

Key Concepts:

Satellites can provide global, synoptic coverage of key parameters such as albedo, surface temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, primary productivity in the surface oceans, and vegetation cover.

There is a continuous time series of visible and infrared observations covering the last four decades. Much of these data are freely available.

Improvements in technology mean image resolution of less than a metre is achievable, greatly improving classification accuracy.

Radar remote sensing is proving particularly useful for observing the hydrological cycle due to its all-weather day/night capability.

Keywords:

albedo;
emissivity;
hydrology;
oceans;
cryosphere;
vegetation;
meteorology


The Incentive Theory is the most popular explanation for why the patent system is a good thing for society. According to the Incentive Theory, innovating is inherently risky and expensive and so we need to provide incentives to encourage innovation. Without incentives, no profit-driven company would invest in research and development (R&D), knowing that the output of their R&D could immediately be copied by a company that had not incurred the cost of development.


While many uses of mined software engineering data are automatic in nature, some techniques and studies either require, or can be improved, by manual methods. Unfortunately, manually inspecting, analyzing, and annotating mined data can be difficult and tedious, especially when information from multiple sources must be integrated. Oddly, while there are numerous tools and frameworks for automatically mining and analyzing data, there is a dearth of tools which facilitate manual methods. To fill this void, we have developed LINKSTER, a tool which integrates data from bug databases, source code repositories, and mailing list archives to allow manual inspection and annotation. LINKSTER has already been used successfully by an OSS project lead to obtain data for one empirical study.


Omnidirectional videos (ODV), also known as panoramic videos, are an emerging, new kind of media. ODVs are typically recorded with cameras that cover up to 360° of the recorded scene. Due to the limitation of the human vision, ODVs cannot be viewed as-is. There is a larger body of work that focuses on browsing ODVs on ordinary 2D displays, e.g. on an LCD using a desktop computer or on a smartphone. In this demonstration paper, we present a new approach for ODV browsing using an immersive, head-mounted system. The novelty of our implementation lies in decoupling navigation in time from navigation in space: navigation in time is mapped to gesture-based interactions and navigation in space is mapped to head movements. We argue that this enables more natural ways of interacting with ODVs.


Heritage values represent a common good, contributing to societal identity. Landscape is a topical issue because it represents character and identity in both a spatial and a temporal dimension, uniting natural and cultural aspects of heritage at the same time. Especially in Europe, practically all natural heritage can be considered cultural heritage as well, since it is through human action that Europe's biodiversity has evolved. Heritage perspectives on landscape and nature underline time depth, human agency and social value within landscape. Its cultural starting point does not marginalise nature, but places nature within cultural filters, thus highlighting the reciprocity of nature and culture in the creation of sustainable places. Today's changing society is transitioning towards new forms of governance dominated by collaboration and continuously shifting networks or actors. Reported examples of cultural landscapes explore heritage management approaches that benefit from combining natural and cultural heritage perceptions. In this context, commonly accessible heritage can bring people together in joint efforts to use the inherited landscape as a shared and cherished resource rather than a conserved and regulated landscape.


Prior research has frequently drawn parallels between the study of hate crimes and the study of terrorism. Yet, key differences between the two behaviors may be underappreciated in extant work. Terrorism is often an "upward crime," involving a perpetrator of lower social standing than the targeted group. By contrast, hate crimes are disproportionately "downward crimes," usually entailing perpetrators belonging to the majority or powerful group in society and minority group victims. The latter difference implies that hate crimes and terrorism are more akin to distant relatives than close cousins. These divergent perspectives provide a backdrop for the present research, which empirically investigates the association between hate crimes and terrorism. In doing so, we contribute to prior work on hate crimes and terrorism by emphasizing the temporal association between these behaviors and by empirically investigating the potential for one kind of violent event to trigger another kind of violence. Time-series analyses of weekly and daily data on terrorism and hate crimes committed in the United States between 1992 and 2008 reveal three primary conclusions. First, we find no evidence to suggest that hate crimes are a precursor to future terrorism. Second, hate crimes are often perpetrated in response to terrorist acts. Third, the latter association is particularly strong for hate crimes perpetrated against minority groups after a non-right-wing terrorist attack, particularly attacks on symbols of core American ideals, indicating that some hate crimes may essentially constitute expressions of retaliation.


In most states, child welfare hearings and records are sealed or confidential. This means that by law, court hearings and records may not be observed. The same laws and court rules also preclude those who are authorized to enter and watch from discussing anything learned or observed in a closed courtroom or from a sealed court record with anyone not involved in the case. It is the restriction on speech - on telling stories about child welfare - with which this Article is concerned. The master narrative of child welfare depicts foster care as a haven for child-victims savagely brutalized by "deviant," "monstrous" parents. Notwithstanding this shared public understanding, however, most children in foster care have experienced, or are alleged to have experienced, neglect - deprivation of food, clothing, shelter, education, or another necessity of life - not physical abuse. There is also a growing understanding that some children in foster care ought not to be there at all. In addition, research and experience indicate that many maltreated children would be better off if simply left at home - with those responsible for the maltreatment - rather than placed in foster care.This Article argues that confidentiality laws perpetuate the inaccurate master narrative, and preclude other stories from informing or influencing that narrative. Stated simply, laws prohibiting the discussion of child welfare cases silence a vast number of stories. By their terms, these laws define the stories that may not be told, and the putative storytellers who may not speak, while designating as acceptable other stories and other voices. The unchallenged dominance of the inaccurate, law-sanctioned narrative affects even those involved in child welfare as a profession, and by affecting their worldview, diminishes the quality of care provided to children. The laws that require silence outside the courtroom permit the acceptance of pervasive dysfunction in child welfare, and affect the administration of justice inside the courtroom.


Hollow nanoparticles (hNPs) are of interest because their large cavities and small thickness give rise to a large surface to volume ratio. However, in general they are not in equilibrium and far from their global energy minimum, which often makes them unstable against perturbations. In fact, a temperature increase can induce a structural collapse into a nanoparticle, and consequently a loss of their unique properties. This problem has been studied by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, but without emphasis on the speed of the temperature increase. Here we explore how the temperature variation, and the rate at which it is varied in MD simulations, determines the final conformation of the hNPs. In particular, we show how different temperature ramps determine the final shape of Pt hNPs that initially have an external radius between 0.7 and 24 nm, and an internal radius between 0.19 and 2.4 nm. In addition, we also perform the simulations of other similar metals like Ag and Au. Our results indicate that the temperature ramp strongly modifies the final hNP shape, even at ambient temperature. In fact, a rapid temperature increase leads to the formation of stacking faults and twin boundaries which are not generated by a slower temperature increase. Quantitative criteria are established and they indicate that the stacking fault energy is the dominant parameter.


Photonic crystal (PhC) cavities combine ultra-high quality (Q) factors with small mode volumes, resulting in an enhancement of the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale, which, beyond fundamental studies is advantageous for countless applications in photonics. In addition, III-nitride (III-N) semiconductors offer unique optical properties including a direct wide bandgap and tunable emission spanning the ultraviolet to near infrared (NIR) spectral region. Despite these advantages the development of III-N based PhC cavities has been hindered owing to several processing issues inherent to such hard and chemically inert materials. This work aims at investigating GaN-based PhC cavities operating at both visible and NIR frequencies. In the first part of this work a fabrication process that fulfills the low-defect requirements of PhCs, while remaining compatible with silicon for future integration prospects, was developed. It is based on the growth of GaN layers on Si(111) substrates, which are then patterned by e-beam lithography and dry etching techniques, including the substrate undercut in order to create an airgap below the PhC area, which guarantees light confinement into the resulting planar waveguide. This approach allowed achieving airgaps > 3 µm, which are essential for structures operating in the NIR, and hardly achievable by sacrificial layer techniques. The ultimate assessment of the optical quality of such nanostructures is given by the Q-factor of the cavity. In this regard, spectroscopic characterization of the fabricated samples was carried out. At visible wavelengths experimental Q-factors up to 5200 and 14000 have been ascertained in 2D PhC cavities and 1D nanobeam cavities, respectively, which represent the current state-of-the-art for both geometries at the time this dissertation was written. At IR frequencies the maximum Q which was measured amounts to 22500. Furthermore, it is important to estimate the fluctuations on both the Q-factor and the resonant wavelength of nominally identical replicas of the same cavity to account for the fabrication process reliability. This has been addressed by taking advantage of PhC cavities optimized by an effective genetic algorithm for Q-factor optimization (166000 at 1.3 µm in this case) [M.Minkov and V. Savona, Sci. Rep. 4, 5124 (2014)]. Thus, 20 groups of cavities were fabricated, to allow for lithographic tuning, that differ by 2 nm in the hole diameter from one group to another. Q-factor measurements were then carried out in a total of 60 cavities, namely 6 replicas of 10 different groups of cavities, demonstrating a high reproducibility and an average Q-factor  17000. The second part of this thesis investigates the lasing characteristics of nanobeam cavities emitting in the violet-blue spectral range featuring a single InGaN quantum well (QW). In the high-absorption QW region lasing has been observed under continuous wave (cw) optical pumping at room temperature, demonstrating low threshold power densities  740 W/cm2. The laser behavior was also analyzed by means of laser rate equations. The low cw lasing threshold is well accounted for by a large spontaneous emission coupling factor (>0.8), inherent to the nanobeam geometry. These results highlight the high potential of III-nitrides for the realization of nanophotonic devices and set a new step forward for the integration of wide bandgap semiconductors with silicon opening future prospects in biosensing and optogenetics.


One of the most pertinent issues currently confronting South Africans and perhaps people around the world is the question of how to bring about social justice for everybody regardless of 'races', 'ethnicities', cultures, religions and genders. With this in mind, this study evaluates through a critical discourse analysis model the preambles of selected public policy documents in conjunction with the issue of racial classification as prescribed in the Z83 job application form in a post-apartheid South Africa. It draws specifically on Halliday's (1978, 1989, and 2004) discourse analysis framework to evaluate the field and tenor of public discourse (what happened historically and who was involved in public policy formulations) and finally, the mode of public policy discourse (the part that language plays in the making of a new South African society). Moreover, it uses the education sector as an indicator of transformation to highlight the successes and failures of post-apartheid historical redress. It uses education as an exemplar because it 'plays' or has the potential to play a pivotal role in transformation and nation building in a post-apartheid South Africa. The study appraises particularly the impact of the notion of plurality of races as a transformation strategy; that is, its successes and failures in determining educational achievements numerically as well as nation building from 1994 to 2014. It uses close linguistic/discourse analysis to unravel the meaning(s) of 'united in our diversity' as well as associated concepts in the preambles of selected public policy documents. The reason for this is to show that the notion of different races is implicated in the concept 'diversity' in the preamble of South Africa's constitution act 108 of 1996 as well as 'designated groups' in the preambles of affirmative action and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies. Consequently, the following three questions arose:


Summary Clinicians are often presented with the scenario of what to do when one medication in a drug class has failed a therapeutic trial on a patient. We encountered a patient who developed profound resistance to glargine, aspart and regular insulin, but had a rapid and sustained response to detemir. The mechanism of the increased sensitivity to detemir is unclear, but may be related to an additional carbon chain on detemir shielding it from an antibody response. This case highlights the profound impact that subtle differences in molecular structure can have on biological activity and thus patient outcomes. Learning points Subtle differences in molecular structure can have a profound impact on biological activity, and thus patient outcomes. Poor outcomes with one medication in a drug class should not be used to rule out the efficacy of all related medications. Detemir has been shown to be less immunogenic than other insulins, and should be considered in patients with insulin resistance.


As part of the drive to develop non-oil based economy the UAE is continuing a programme of economic diversification, and is keen to develop its non-oil assets, such as its industrial mineral resources. A review of the industrial minerals sector in the UAE was carried out in 2002 to 2006 by the BGS as part of the work commissioned by the UAE federal Ministry of Energy. One of the highest priority recommendations from the review was that an evaluation of the potential for the production of industrial limestone and dolomite from resources within the UAE be carried out. It was considered that this would yield the benefit as there is potential to develop a sustainable industry that could remove the need for high-value mineral filler imports and create a lucrative export market.

Currently the limestone and dolomite resources of the UAE are mainly exploited for construction aggregate. They have an intrinsically low value. There is little production of higher value limestone and dolomite products in the UAE and such commodities are imported.

In 2008 the British Geological Survey (BGS) was commissioned by the UAE Ministry of Energy to carry out a resource assessment to identify high-purity limestone and dolomite resources that could be used for higher value applications.

An initial market survey was carried out in Dubai to determine the requirements of industry in the UAE for limestone and dolomite. In addition a review was made of the commercial applications of limestone (which industry refers to as 'calcium carbonate') and dolomite and the physical properties required for individual applications, and the market for the commodities. High purity limestone is used as a raw material for the production of paint, paper, plastic, rubber, adhesives, caulks and sealants, agricultural, sports and environmental applications, ceramics, food and pharmaceuticals, animal feed and glass. High-purity dolomite is used for agricultural lime and the production of magnesia (MgO) for the manufacture of refractories, glass, magnesium chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and magnesium metal.

The assessment project started with a desk study and evaluation of limestone and dolomite samples collected by previous work in the UAE, to identify the resources with the best potential. A reconnaissance survey collected 221 samples from the limestone resources identified by the desk study. These were analysed in BGS laboratories to determine their chemical, mineralogical and physical properties. The limestones identified as having potentially the best quality were revisited in a second phase of field work when ten bulk samples were collected. These were analysed for their suitability as mineral filler, lime and construction aggregate. The analyses are summarised on a limestone and dolomite resource map of the northern emirates which illustrated the distribution of all limestones, colour-coded in terms of their purity.

The main commercial quality criterion used to assess the purity of limestone is the calcium carbonate content and for dolomite it is the dolomite content. The magnesia, silica and iron oxide contents, and the brightness were also considered. The mineral filler properties, construction aggregate properties and lime burning properties were assessed for ten limestone occurrences.
Approximately a third of the limestone in the northern emirates of the UAE has been found to be 'high-purity'. This means it can be used to produce high-value limestone products that could be used by industry in the UAE as a substitute for the limestone they are currently importing. The resources identified to be high-purity include the Ruus al Jibal Group (undivided) and the Rus, Musandam 3, Musandam 2 and Dammam Limestone formations. In addition, 'high-purity' dolomite was also identified with the potential for industrial use.

This study has shown that the UAE has resources of high purity limestone and dolomite, the development of which has the potential to make a substantial contribution to the economic diversification of the UAE economy.

As a consequence of the assessment, the following recommendations are made:

• Undertake investment promotion activities to alert interested parties to the limestone and dolomite resources available in the UAE. This could include the production of a freely available investment brochure and attendance at trade exhibitions.
• Make more detailed assessment of the five top priority limestone resources to include more sampling and a drilling programme to increase the confidence of the resource assessment.
• Undertake further assessment of the high-purity dolomite resources including additional sampling and a drilling programme.
• Consider investigating further with companies in the UAE the end-use suitability of the limestone and dolomite resources of the UAE for the manufacture of paper, paint, rubber, plastic, ceramics and glass.
• Make an assessment of the potential industrial suitability of the fine waste produced by limestone quarries in the UAE.
• Establish an 'Industrial Minerals Industry Forum' to promote a better understanding of the needs of industry, provide information to the government and support the development of an indigenous minerals industry in the UAE.