Thermoplastic liners are commonly used to protect a wide range of oilfield tubulars offering the advantages of increased corrosion resistance, wear mitigation, and ease of tubular installation while diminishing pressure drop issues and maximizing fluid throughput capacity especially in high rate wells operating with high velocity fluids. Furthermore, they may offer a competitive advantage over corrosion resistant alloys (CRA's), plastic coatings and thermoset liner products in extending tubular life. This paper compliments a recent paper focusing on water injection and disposal applications of the same liner products The most commonly used thermoplastic liners in oil and gas production service are largely extruded from polyolefins for installation in environments up to 99°C; yet, for more demanding environments, engineering thermoplastics such as PPS are available to handle temperatures as high as 175°C. In the most extreme production environments up to 260°C, liners made of PEEK are utilized. All of these polymers are significantly more flexible and impact resistant compared to traditional thermoset materials historically used to protect injection tubing meaning that they can be practically applied in harsh field conditions and maintain a protective barrier against the tubing ID even after pulling/rerunning tubing combined with multiple wireline and coiled tubing surveys. The same liners can be used to protect costly downhole components and jewelry such as packers and tubing anchors. Examples of lined tubulars with both API and premium tubular connections will be covered. This paper will present case studies detailing the successful use of thermoplastic lined tubulars including liner products composed of HDPE, a proprietary polyolefin blend, PPS and PEEK. All of the lined tubulars in these wells are still in service today and some were installed back in 1996. A review of critical limitations of the liners such as temperature and diameter changes will also be discussed in an effort to avoid the misapplication of thermoplastic liners. Improved tubular service life, economic benefits, and enhanced flow characteristics due to the high quality surface finish of the liners will be detailed in at least sixteen specific case histories and production well environments. Furthermore, to exhibit the overall economic impact of thermoplastic lined tubulars, a review of field installation and handling procedures will be presented as well. The fundamental technical benefits of various thermoplastic lined tubulars will be covered with an emphasis on the proven extension of production tubing service life using thermoplastic liners.


Researchers and business leaders have long decried short-termism: the excessive focus of executives of publicly traded companies - along with fund managers and other investors - on short-term results. The central concern is that short-termism discourages long-term investments, threatening the performance of both individual firms and the U.S. economy.I argue that short-termism also invites institutional corruption. I define that as institutionally supported behavior that - while not necessarily unlawful - undermines a company's legitimate processes and core values, weakening its capacity to achieve espoused goals and eroding public trust. In the private sector, institutional corruption typically entails gaming society's laws and regulations, tolerating conflicts of interest, persistently violating accepted norms of fairness, and pursuing various forms of cronyism. The gaming of Securities and Exchange Commission rules by Citigroup's mortgage-banking desk in 2007 is an illuminating example of institutional corruption in the finance industry. After exploring that case, I provide a more complete definition of gaming, and explain how short-termism invites the kind of gaming and institutional corruption that occurred at Citigroup. I then examine the key drivers of short-termism in contemporary business, and their potential effects on the behavior of both executives and their organizations. I conclude by proposing mechanisms to deter the corrupting effects of short-termism, including changes in both business and public policy. While business leaders and policymakers have been cautious in implementing many of these countermeasures, we must seriously consider them if want to rein in the public and private costs of institutional corruption in the private sector.


There is no central feature of the internet that has been subject to as little formal regulation as internet interconnection. However, local public regulation is starting to emerge – be it through disclosure regulations, mandatory peering or licensing terms. Due to the networked nature of the internet, local rules may acquire a global scope. This report presents an initial overview about what kind of formal regulation networkers encounter in their professional practice and it provides insights into how this regulation affects internet connectivity.


Widely-used valuable hardcopy documents such as passports, visas, driving licenses, educational certificates, entrance-passes for entertainment events etc. are conventionally protected against counterfeiting and data tampering attacks by applying analog security technologies (e.g. KINEGRAMS®, holograms, micro-printing, UV/IR inks etc.). How-ever, easy access to high quality, low price modern desktop publishing technology has left most of these technologies ineffective, giving rise to high quality false documents. The higher price and restricted usage are other drawbacks of the analog document pro-tection techniques. Digital watermarking and high capacity storage media such as IC-chips, optical data stripes etc. are the modern technologies being used in new machine-readable identity verification documents to ensure contents integrity; however, these technologies are either expensive or do not satisfy the application needs and demand to look for more efficient document protection technologies.

In this research three different high capacity analog channels: high density data stripe (HD-DataStripe), data hiding in printed halftone images (watermarking), and super-posed constant background grayscale image (CBGI) are investigated for hidden com-munication along with their applications in smart documents. On way to develop high capacity analog channels, noise encountered from printing and scanning (PS) process is investigated with the objective to recover the digital information encoded at nearly maximum channel utilization. By utilizing noise behaviour, countermeasures against the noise are taken accordingly in data recovery process.

HD-DataStripe is a printed binary image similar to the conventional 2-D barcodes (e.g. PDF417), but it offers much higher data storage capacity and is intended for machine-readable identity verification documents. The capacity offered by the HD-DataStripe is sufficient to store high quality biometric characteristics rather than extracted templates, in addition to the conventional bearer related data contained in a smart ID-card. It also eliminates the need for central database system (except for backup record) and other ex-pensive storage media, currently being used. While developing novel data-reading tech-nique for HD-DataStripe, to count for the unavoidable geometrical distortions, registra-tion marks pattern is chosen in such a way so that it results in accurate sampling points (a necessary condition for reliable data recovery at higher data encoding-rate). For more sophisticated distortions caused by the physical dot gain effects (intersymbol interfer-ence), the countermeasures such as application of sampling theorem, adaptive binariza-tion and post-data processing, each one of these providing only a necessary condition for reliable data recovery, are given. Finally, combining the various filters correspond-ing to these countermeasures, a novel Data-Reading technique for HD-DataStripe is given. The novel data-reading technique results in superior performance than the exist-ing techniques, intended for data recovery from printed media.

In another scenario a small-size HD-DataStripe with maximum entropy is used as a copy detection pattern by utilizing information loss encountered at nearly maximum channel capacity. While considering the application of HD-DataStripe in hardcopy documents (contracts, official letters etc.), unlike existing work [Zha04], it allows one-to-one contents matching and does not depend on hash functions and OCR technology, constraints mainly imposed by the low data storage capacity offered by the existing analog media.

For printed halftone images carrying hidden information higher capacity is mainly attributed to data-reading technique for HD-DataStripe that allows data recovery at higher printing resolution, a key requirement for a high quality watermarking technique in spatial domain. Digital halftoning and data encoding techniques are the other factors that contribute to data hiding technique given in this research. While considering security aspects, the new technique allows contents integrity and authenticity verification in the present scenario in which certain amount of errors are unavoidable, restricting the usage of existing techniques given for digital contents.

Finally, a superposed constant background grayscale image, obtained by the repeated application of a specially designed small binary pattern, is used as channel for hidden communication and it allows up to 33 pages of A-4 size foreground text to be encoded in one CBGI. The higher capacity is contributed from data encoding symbols and data reading technique.


Many authors have described and modelled Keynesian effects in a Babysitting Cooperative (BSC), which has the underlying structure of a single good barter economy. We construct a simple model of the BSC economy to explore this issue, and find very surprising results. Outcomes depend on agents beliefs about the decision making process of others, as in the Keynesian beauty contest. For some structures of beliefs, money is neutral, while for others, money can have short and long run effects. The value of money can be high, low, or zero, depending purely upon expectational effects. Also, despite the fact that this is a single good economy, partial equilibrium supply and demand analysis do not work as expected. Some equilibria have excess supply, others have excess demand, and none have a match between supply and demand. Furthermore, flexible prices cannot fix this problem. An additional paradoxical property is that excessive trading can take place. Even though all trades are done with mutual consent, some of them decrease welfare, and banning certain types of trade can lead to Pareto improvements. Thus the superficially simple single good barter economy of BSC displays some subtle, complex and counter-intuitive properties.


You might be extremely knowledgeable about the software that you use, have a good understanding of your own genre, and even have a good basic understanding of music theory. However, this does not necessarily mean that you can write effective music tracks. You need another kind of knowledge as well the knowledge of composition. This friendly guide explains the basics of composing songs and music on the computer using any music using any music creation and recording program, whether you choose Reason, Live, Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Finale, Sibelius, FL Studio, SONAR, or anything else. Its not as hard as it sounds, and this book eases the learning curve so youll be making music in no time. Youll quickly learn how to program rhythm and drums, create basslines and melodic leads, and use FX and samples. Youll also learn about mixing and mastering your track and distributing it to a mass audience. Composition for Computer Musicians explains it all while showing you the basics of music theory throughout so youll be sure youre not just making noise on the computer youre using your computer to make professional-sounding music.


Marine pollution is one of the major problems in the world and in particular around the coasts of oil producing countries. The Arabian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz are of particular concern to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as they play host to a number of endangered marine species. As a Muslim state, the UAE has historically been protective of the marine environment through the teachings of the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and the Holy Quran. As a modern state with international trade connections, the UAE has signed up to a number of international conventions designed to protect the marine environment.

This thesis considers international law and its transposition into state law in the UAE. The influence of religion on the formulation of legislation to protect the marine environment is considered in this comparative study between the UAE and the UK. The main part of the thesis is an analysis of the influence of Shari'ah on legislation in the UAE to protect the marine environment. This is informed by a number of interviews with key figures in Dubai

In order to produce detailed and accurate results in the research, analytical and comparative examination is made to the actual scope of protect the marine environment in the UAE. This is achieved through studying the relevant literature as well as studying legislation and case law.

The methodology used is a comparative secondary research study supplemented by face- to face interviews. The legislation in the UAE has proved more difficult to research than the UK legislation. Moreover, a number of listings and web-sites contain partial and fragmented information.

The final conclusions include recommendations for the UAE on how to develop their protection of the marine environment. From this conclusion the most recommended concern is to develop the legislations of the UAE and develop citizen's awareness. Training is the most important point which was taken into the consideration of all people that have been interviewed.


The article is devoted to detailed aplications of TGD inspired view about Quantum Mind. Magnetic body carrying dark matter and forming an onionlike structure with layers characterized by large values of Planck constant is the key concept. Magnetic body is identified as intentional agent using biological body as sensory receptor and motor instrument. EEG is identified as a communication and control tool of the magnetic body and a fractal hierarchy of analogs of EEG is predicted. Living system is identified as a kind of Indra's net with biomolecules representing
the nodes of the net and magnetic flux tubes connections between then. The reconnection of magnetic flux tubes and phase transitions changing Planck constant and therefore the lengths of the magnetic flux tubes are identified as basic mechanisms behind DNA replication and analogous processes and also behind the phase transitions associated with the gel phase in cell interior. The model of DNA as topological quantum computer is discussed as an application.

A general model for qualia is introduced. The identification of the correlates of the fundamental qualia as quantum number increments for a subsystem is in a complete analogy with the identification of quantum numbers as characterizers of physical states. A general classification of qualia based on thermodynamical notions is discussed
and a mechanism generating sensory qualia is proposed. Also the question whether some qualia could correspond also to those of magnetic body is raised.

The capacitor model for sensory receptor based on the idea that sensory qualia are generated in the analog of di-electric breakdown introducing a flow of large number of particles with quantum numbers characterizing the quale. A model for the cell membrane as sensory receptor and as qualia chart with lipids serving as its pixels is developed. Although sensory rorgans are assumed to define the seats if the fundamental qualia, also neurons would define sensory homunculi not necessarily responsible for sensory mental images at our level of self hierarchy. Cell membrane is assumed to be a quantum critical system taken to mean that it is near to a vacuum extremal of so called K\"ahler action. This explains large parity breaking in living matter (chiral selection) very difficult to understand in standard model. The model explains the peak frequencies of visible light for photoreceptors and predicts that biophotons and bunches of EEG photons result as decay products of same dark photons with energies mostly in visible range.

The model of nerve pulse relies on the hypothesis that axonal membrane defines a Josephson junction.
The ground state of the axon corresponds to a propagating soliton sequence for the phase difference over the membrane mathematically analogous to a sequence of coupled gravitational penduli with a constant phase difference between neighboring penduli. Nerve pulse is generated as one kicks one of the oscillating penduli. The model of nerve pulse explains the generation of EEG. The resonance frequencies of EEG can be understood as sums and differences of the harmonics of cyclotron frequencies of biologically important dark ions and of Josephson frequency.


This article is devoted to the study of the anisotropic singular perturbations theory for some quasilinear parabolic problems. Describing the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions of nonlocal problems yields to show the existence of solution to some integro-differential problems. The closeness between the solutions of these two kinds of problems is established.


Extant panarthropods (euarthropods, onychophorans and tardigrades) are hallmarked by stunning morphological and taxonomic diversity, but their central nervous systems (CNS) are relatively conserved. The timing of divergences of the ground pattern CNS organization of the major panarthropod clades has been poorly constrained because of a scarcity of data from their early fossil record. Although the CNS has been documented in three-dimensional detail in insects from Cenozoic ambers, it is widely assumed that these tissues are too prone to decay to withstand other styles of fossilization or geologically older preservation. However, Cambrian Burgess Shale-type compressions have emerged as sources of fossilized brains and nerve cords. CNS in these Cambrian fossils are preserved as carbon films or as iron oxides/hydroxides after pyrite in association with carbon. Experiments with carcasses compacted in fine-grained sediment depict preservation of neural tissue for a more prolonged temporal window than anticipated by decay experiments in other media. CNS and compound eye characters in exceptionally preserved Cambrian fossils predict divergences of the mandibulate and chelicerate ground patterns by Cambrian Stage 3 (ca 518 Ma), a dating that is compatible with molecular estimates for these splits.


Eric Kaufmann's seminar at ICSR gave a brief introduction to the key issues raised in his new book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (Profile Books, 2010), which provides a counter argument to theories that posit the decline of religion and the subsequent rise of liberal secularism.

The book focuses on trends in religious demography. Mr Kaufmann uses this methodological approach to highlight the potential that religious fundamentalism has to challenge the dominance of liberalism and secularism. He explained how patterns in global population change and fertility rates among fundamentalist groups are contributing to the strengthening and expansion of fundamentalist movements, particularly in the developed world. Mr Kaufmann went on to discuss the possible implications of these developments for liberal society.


Methane emissions from natural wetlands tend to increase with temperature and therefore may lead to a positive feedback under future climate change. However, their temperature response includes confounding factors and appears to differ on different time scales. Observed methane emissions depend strongly on temperature on a seasonal basis, but if the annual mean emissions are compared between sites, there is only a small temperature effect. We hypothesize that microbial dynamics are a major driver of the seasonal cycle and that they can explain this apparent discrepancy. We introduce a relatively simple model of methanogenic growth and dormancy into a wetland methane scheme that is used in an Earth system model. We show that this addition is sufficient to reproduce the observed seasonal dynamics of methane emissions in fully saturated wetland sites, at the same time as reproducing the annual mean emissions. We find that a more complex scheme used in recent Earth system models does not add predictive power. The sites used span a range of climatic conditions, with the majority in high latitudes. The difference in apparent temperature sensitivity seasonally versus spatially cannot be recreated by the non‐microbial schemes tested. We therefore conclude that microbial dynamics are a strong candidate to be driving the seasonal cycle of wetland methane emissions. We quantify longer‐term temperature sensitivity using this scheme and show that it gives approximately a 12% increase in emissions per degree of warming globally. This is in addition to any hydrological changes, which could also impact future methane emissions.


In this paper, we consider semiparametric model averaging of the nonlinear dynamic time series system where the number of exogenous regressors is ultra large and the number of autoregressors is moderately large. In order to accurately forecast the response variable, we propose two semiparametric approaches of dimension reduction among the exogenous regressors and auto-regressors (lags of the response variable). In the first approach, we introduce a Kernel Sure Independence Screening (KSIS) technique for the nonlinear time series setting which screens out the regressors whose marginal regression (or auto-regression) functions do not make significant contribution to estimating the joint multivariate regression function and thus reduces the dimension of the regressors from a possible exponential rate to a certain polynomial rate, typically smaller than the sample size; then we consider a semiparametric method of Model Averaging MArginal Regression (MAMAR) for the regressors and auto-regressors that survive the screening procedure, and propose a penalised MAMAR method to further select the regressors which have significant effects on estimating the multivariate regression function and predicting the future values of the response variable. In the second approach, we impose an approximate factor modelling structure on the ultra-high dimensional exogenous regressors and use a well-known principal component analysis to estimate the latent common factors, and then apply the penalised MAMAR method to select the estimated common factors and lags of the response variable which are significant. Through either of the two approaches, we can finally determine the optimal combination of the significant marginal regression and auto-regression functions. Under some regularity conditions, we derive the asymptotic properties for the two semiparametric dimension-reduction approaches. Some numerical studies including simulation and an empirical application are provided to illustrate the proposed methodology.


An organisation"s ability to successfully compete in a changing market place is contingent on its ability to manage what it knows, in order to serve the objectives of the firm. While it has been argued that due to their size, knowledge management (KM) is not a concern for smaller organisations, in the current economic climate, it is expected that a more formalised approach to KM allows the company to seize opportunities as they arise, and deal with environmental uncertainty more effectively. In view of this, the objective of this study was to devise a classification of knowledge activities (KAs) which facilitates the exploration of a Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in terms of the type and extent to which knowledge is managed. Furthermore, analysis of KAs provided a greater understanding of the fit between the firm"s objectives and the KM approach pursued. In order to achieve this, five case studies were conducted. Based on the classification of KAs identified, a qualitative analysis approach was used to code each of the twenty eight interviews carried out. Both quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods were applied to facilitate data reduction and generate meaning from the significant volume of data collected. The output from this study includes a classification of KAs which provides rich insight into how SMEs are motivated to deal with knowledge as a means of achieving their organisational objectives. From a practitioner viewpoint, this study seeks to offer an improved understanding of a software SMEs" approach to KM.


Targeted sequencing has proven to be an economical means of obtaining sequence information for one or more defined regions of a larger genome. However, most target enrichment methods require amplification. Some genomic regions, such as those with extreme GC content and repetitive sequences, are recalcitrant to faithful amplification. Yet, many human genetic disorders are caused by repeat expansions, including difficult to sequence tandem repeats. We have developed a novel, amplification-free enrichment technique that employs the CRISPR-Cas9 system for specific targeting multiple genomic loci. This method, in conjunction with long reads generated through Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing and unbiased coverage, enables enrichment and sequencing of complex genomic regions that cannot be investigated with other technologies. Using human genomic DNA samples, we demonstrate successful targeting of causative loci for Huntington's disease (HTT; CAG repeat), Fragile X syndrome (FMR1; CGG repeat), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (C9orf72; GGGGCC repeat), and spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10) (ATXN10; variable ATTCT repeat). The method, amenable to multiplexing across multiple genomic loci, uses an amplification-free approach that facilitates the isolation of hundreds of individual on-target molecules in a single SMRT Cell and accurate sequencing through long repeat stretches, regardless of extreme GC percent or sequence complexity content. Our novel targeted sequencing method opens new doors to genomic analyses independent of PCR amplification that will facilitate the study of repeat expansion disorders.


Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the Western world but the factors that determine disease progression remain poorly understood. At the outset of this thesis it was recognised that tumour growth and metastases were determined by complex interactions between tumour and host. It was evident that a systemic inflammatory response was associated with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer while a strong local immune cell response conferred a favourable outcome.

This thesis investigated this topic by examining the factors responsible for activating, maintaining and regulating these inflammatory responses and drew the following conclusions:

Chapter 3 concluded that abnormal patient physiology, in particular the presence of anaemia and cardiac disease, was strongly associated with a systemic inflammatory response in patients with colorectal cancer. Targeting specific physiological parameters may therefore be a novel way to improve a patients' inflammatory status. Chapter 5 used CT image analysis to confirm a strong relationship between systemic inflammation and reduced skeletal muscle mass in patients with colorectal cancer. This offered insight into the underlying basis of cancer-related weight loss and suggested attenuation of the host inflammatory response may be a therapeutic target in cancer cachexia. Chapter 6 built on these results with a detailed examination of the relative importance of pre-, intra- and post-operative factors in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. Rather than being the cause of disease recurrence, surgical complications appeared to be a consequence of pre-existing physiological disturbance and systemic inflammation, supporting a concept whereby pre-operative status is of paramount importance to long-term cancer outcomes. Chapter 7 investigated possible links between the local and systemic inflammatory responses. The pathological feature of tumour necrosis was confirmed as both an independent prognostic indicator in colorectal cancer and the first documented link between local and systemic inflammation. A model was proposed whereby failure of local anti-tumour control leads to rapid growth, tissue hypoxia and cellular necrosis, triggering the host to initiate a systemic inflammatory response. The local inflammatory response in colorectal cancer was then considered. Chapter 8 confirmed that, while a strong local response was primarily the result of lymphocyte infiltration, the examination of individual cell types did not add prognostic value compared to an overall grade of peritumoural inflammation. Chapter 9 built on this knowledge to examine the clinical utility of the local inflammatory response in colorectal cancer. It was clear that the density of cellular infiltrate was more important than the type or location of individual immune cells. After comparing a number of methodologies, an overall grade of peritumoural inflammation, using the Klintrup-Makinen (K-M) criteria, was established as the preferred technique for assessing the local inflammatory response in colorectal cancer.


Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) historically occupied an 11-state region of the United States. We surveyed 1,900 residents (response rate 56%) of this region to understand citizen knowledge and perceptions about prairie dogs and their management. Those who have direct experience--e.g., those who live very close to prairie dog colonies or know the location of the nearest colony--have higher levels of knowledge. A significantly higher level of knowledge was documented among those who were politically active when compared with the general public. Those who found environmental issues difficult to understand were associated with lower knowledge. People with direct experience were likely to hold negative views, whereas those holding environmentalist values were likely to express positive attitudes toward the species. Although those with higher education reported more knowledge, there was no link between a person's level of knowledge and perceptions of prairie dog management.


This thesis analyses European Union foreign policy towards the Middle East peace process in the years between 1991-2002: it examines in which measure disagreement has characterised relations among Member States in the context of the formulation of a European Middle East policy, and if it's possible to detect a trend towards the attainment of a broadly speaking "European perception" of the Arab-Israeli problem and of the policy Europe should adopt. The question at the heart of the thesis is: why has the EU spent so much time on Middle East policy, to so little effect. A set of possible answers has been tested: o due to the failure in reaching a sufficiently convergent approach among EU members o the EU lacks the relevant levers and instruments to affect the Middle East peace process o strategic US interests in the Middle East and the dynamics of EU-US relations have relegated the EU to a secondary role in the Middle East peace process The thesis argues that Member States' policy differences are being watered down through the practice of discussions aimed at the elaboration of a common European foreign policy, but that at the same time the Member States have only occasionally been able to identify common interests in a number sufficient to encourage the implementation of a collective European policy, which could supposedly be more effective than 15 separate and distinct policies, and that their policy could be described as a policy of "converging parallels", i.e. a policy that can at times converge and be harmonised with that of the other Member States but remains essentially a national foreign policy, clearly distinct from, and only occasionally similar to, that of the other Member States. Furthermore, the thesis argues that the transatlantic dimension is crucial to understand European Middle East policy. It has become evident to all EU Member States that effective and autonomous policy towards the Middle East unavoidably carries with it disagreement with the USA - quite possibly involving active disapproval from the Americans. For all except France, this has been a strong disincentive to attempt to develop more than declaratory policy.


This article provides an in-depth examination of the U.S. government's role in the case of Raoul Wallenberg, the courageous Swedish envoy who died mysteriously in the Soviet Union after being arrested by Soviet occupation forces at the end of World War II for unknown reasons. The article recounts how U.S. officials, particularly the diplomat Herschel V. Johnson, tried to alleviate the plight of Hungarian Jews after German forces occupied Hungary in 1944. A key part of this policy was their effort to work with Sweden in enlisting Wallenberg's help. The U.S.-Swedish relationship was never particularly close, and the mistrust that officials in each country felt toward the other side impeded any coordinated action. The article discusses the bureaucratic impediments on the U.S. side and highlights some of the obstacles that Johnson strove to overcome. The article builds on the report produced by the Eliasson Commission documenting the Swedish government's handling of the Wallenberg case. Although the Swedish authorities bore by far the greatest amount of blame for doing nothing in the face of Soviet stonewalling, Matz argues that U.S. officials also made significant misjudgments that may have exacerbated the situation.


We experimentally and numerically demonstrate deterministic creation and manipulation of a pair of oppositely charged singly quantized vortices in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Two identical blue-detuned, focused Gaussian laser beams that pierce the BEC serve as repulsive obstacles for the superfluid atomic gas; by controlling the positions of the beams within the plane of the BEC, superfluid flow is deterministically established around each beam such that two vortices of opposite circulation are generated by the motion of the beams, with each vortex pinned to the \emph{in situ} position of a laser beam. We study the vortex creation process, and show that the vortices can be moved about within the BEC by translating the positions of the laser beams. This technique can serve as a building block in future experimental techniques to create, on-demand, deterministic arrangements of few or many vortices within a BEC for precise studies of vortex dynamics and vortex interactions.


Moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method is one of the Lagrangian methods widely used in engineering issues. This method, however, suffers from unphysical oscillations in its original form. In the present study, a modified incompressible MPS method is proposed to suppress these oscillations and is used for simulating free surface problems. To demonstrate the stability of the presented method, different kernel functions are used in the case of numerical dam break modeling as a benchmark simulation. A simple form of definition of curved wall boundaries is suggested which eliminates dummy particles and subsequently saves CPU time. Flow over an ogee spillway is simulated for the first time with the I-MPS method and as a new test case which has several curved lines in its geometry. The comparisons between theoretical solutions/experimental data and simulation results in terms of free surface and pressure show the accuracy of the method.


Objectives/Goals Alkaline batteries consist of a strict combination of different elements in order to produce energy; however the quantity of different ratios or combinations possible is near unlimited. Instead of trying to combine the numerous ratios or combinations possible, I wanted to find a screening method that could predict battery performance. Since I could not test every ratio in a battery form, I looked at the base materials# exothermic properties. The ratio with the hottest reaction would be made into a battery and compared to a battery based on a common alkaline battery. Methods/Materials 1. Calculate the different ratios for tests 1-9, 2. Measure out each amount of Zn, MnO2, and KOH according to the ratio and test all of them, 3. Find the ratio with the hottest temp, 4. Take that ratio and calculate the anode and cathode sides, 5. Do this again for the ratios of the Duracell Battery (High MnO2), 6. Make a single cell alkaline battery for both the high Zn and high MnO2 mixtures, 7. Connect the batteries through a circuit, 8. Record the voltage over time, 9. Graph the results to see which battery had the highest capacity. 1. Zn, 2. MnO2, 3. Carbon, 4. Resistor, 5. Multimeters, 6. Thermometer, 7. Calorimeter, 8. Aluminum/ copper/ nickel mesh, 9. PPE, 10. Scale, 11. Beakers and Utensils, 12. KOH Results I found that the ratio from the hottest exothermic reaction would make the most efficient battery. The highest temperature occurred during test #7 at 88.2°. The ratio from this equation was taken and made into a battery and was compared to a battery formed from ratios derived from a Duracell alkaline battery. The Zn battery put out 244% more power than the high MnO2 battery or Duracell battery. Conclusions/Discussion Yes, it is possible to enhance the performance and power output of an alkaline battery by changing the ratio of anode and cathode materials to exceed that of a commercial or common alkaline battery. Therefore, there is a correlation between exothermic reactions and the chemical energy in a battery. This experiment demonstrated that the mixture of Zn, MnO2, and KOH that had the highest exothermic property produced more energy than that of a mixture with a low exothermic reaction.


Fixed precision numerical and binomial sequential sampling plans are reported for adults of Bemisia tabaci (Strain B) on cotton. Both plans are based on whole leaf sample units from the fifth mainstem node (counted from the terminal). Numerical sampling plans allow for the efficient estimation of adult population density. Numerical sampling stop lines are presented relating the cumulative number of adults counted to the number of leaves examined for two levels of statistical precision. Binomial plans were developed to allow classification of adult population density for pest management decision -making application. These plans were devised for three action threshold levels; 5, 10 or 15 adults per leaf Binomial sampling stop lines are presented relating the cumulative number of infested leaves to the number of leaves examined as an aid for determining the need for population suppression.


This publication tells the story of the collaboration between the Inter-American Development Bank, PepsiCo, and the PepsiCo Foundation. At a February 2011 ceremony in Mexico City, a five-year Memorandum of Understanding was signed by IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi, laying the groundwork for a partnership that would go on to promote sustainable growth, access to services, and social inclusion for underserved communities. Through this partnership, PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation have leveraged the IDB's technical and financial
strengths to maximize their development impact and achieve scale, while the IDB has leveraged PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation's resources and skills for innovation to enhance its interventions and better serve those most in need.


The Supreme Court recently held that in reverse-payment settlements of drug patent disputes, anticompetitive effects can be inferred if the reverse payment exceeds the patent holder's anticipated litigation costs, absent some offsetting justification. Application of this standard is problematic because defendants usually: (1) obscure the amount of the reverse payment; and (2) claim their settlement was justified by risk aversion. Further, even if a net reverse payment can be proven, it is little help in estimating the period of delay or damages. This Essay offers another type of evidence that demonstrates and quantifies anticompetitive effects. An otherwise unexplained bump in the patent holder's stock price shows that the settlement created new future profits by extending the period without generic competition beyond what the stock market expected. The stock market test has several advantages: it rebuts the risk aversion claim (which cannot explain the stock price rise); it more effectively (though still conservatively) captures damages than the magnitude of the reverse payment; and, finally, it relies on the behavior of objective traders rather than deal makers with well-understood incentives to obscure the presence of a payment. We conduct a stock market event study on one of the early instances of a reverse-payment settlement to illustrate how the method works.


The aim of this article is to analyze the social media effects on enotourism. Two territories of similar extension and with historical coincidences in their development have been selected: the Okanagan Valley, Canada, and the region of Somontano, Spain. Methodologically, an analysis of the content on Twitter has been performed, collecting 1377 tweets. The conclusion is that wineries create sentimental and experiential links with the users, avoiding commercial communications. Specifically, Okanagan wineries establish a relevant conversation network on Twitter based on the high percentage of responses, which is 31.3%, but this is not so in the case of Somontano, which is 12.8%. The tourist attractions most used to create a bond are the wine landscape and the gastronomy in the case of both territories. The tourism sustainability variable remains a minor matter in the emission of messages on Twitter.


The 2012 SAM for the Sudan, with a special focus on agriculture, water and energy, is built using data from domestic sources in the Sudan including the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Central Bank of Sudan besides other external sources. Major data sets used include the 2012 National Accounts and Trade Statistics of the CBS, the 53rd Annual Report of the Central Bank of the Sudan, the 2011 Labor Force Survey, the 2009 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, The 2009-2012 Agricultural Production Cost Survey and the 2005 Industrial Survey. Data from external sources are used to complement national sources. These sources include IMF studies on government finances, FAO reports and data on agriculture and ILO reports on labor. The SAM distinguishes between agricultural activities based on the modes of irrigation, energy based on its major sources and water based on modes of production and types of uses. Land is divided into irrigated and non-irrigated, while natural water resources are added in a separate account. Households are categorized by state, location (rural and urban) and income quintiles. Labor accounts are differentiated based on location (rural and urban), skill level and gender.


But now space was part of the object¹ is an inquiry into whether or not a typeface can be absent in its own type specimen. Negative space becomes positive space, secondary becomes primary, reference becomes content. False protagonist Booq Alt delivers the performance of Booq—a typeface whose identity can only be imagined through the interplay of transcribed lectures from Booksfromthefuture Summer School 2015 and a pool of public domain images.

Published in parallel with The multiple lives of a blank book (Booksfromthefuture, 2015).

Publishers: Zyxt and Booksfromthefuture

Editors: Masaki Miwa, Ying Tong Tan, Yvan Martinez, Joshua Trees

Guest Editors: Krister Olsson, Esa Matinvesi
Concept and design: Masaki Miwa and Ying Tong Tan

First edition

Print on demand

388 pages

ISBN 978-1-326-40233-4


Environmental resources provide life support and livelihood to the poor. Degradation of the environment, whether caused by rich or poor, affects the poor the most. Today we have different levels of societies, viz., tribal and traditional, rural and agrarian and urban, each of which relates to the environment differently. The environment provides basic necessities such as water, fuel, food materials and other resources. Human development indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality depend on environmental indicators such as access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Environmentally friendly economic growth and industrialisation are emphasised in modern societies now. East Asian experience may be different from the European experience of the past. Alleviation of poverty is essential for the sustainability of the global environment.


ABSTRACT Background: Research has addressed the usefulness of psychosocial strategies within physiotherapy, as part of a biopsychosocial model. A lack of current research in Australia concerning the views of physiotherapists, from a range of practice areas, regarding a variety of strategies, suggests the need for broader exploration. Methods: This research employed a cross-sectional survey asking Australian physiotherapists (n = 251) to rate their perceived importance and perceived benefits of psychosocial strategies; perceived positive effects on rehabilitation outcomes and adherence; confidence in applying strategies, and perceived benefits of further training. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Crosstabs with Chi-Squared Tests of Contingencies and Spearman's Rank-Order Correlations. Results: Physiotherapists reported that having knowledge of such strategies was important and considered them beneficial for practice. Respondents rated highly their perceived knowledge about goal setting and positive reinforcement, both of which were reported as most used in practice. Approximately one quarter of physiotherapists reported using cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing. Physiotherapists communicated a lack of confidence to apply psychosocial strategies in their practice, and desired further training. Conclusion: Physiotherapists could benefit from tailored instruction regarding psychosocial strategies at a level appropriate to, and within their scope of practice. This could enhance their practice from a biopsychosocial perspective, subsequently improving outcomes for their patients.


Abstract There has been a great deal of research regard the effects of unions on union – non-union wage gap. Most of the studies regarding the impact of unions on wages have assumed that apart from the division between union and non-union workers, the labour market is relatively homogeneous. A number of economists, however, have argued that the labour market is segmented, implying that there are distinct labour markets and that some workers employment opportunities are concentrated in "bad jobs" while other workers employment opportunities are concentrated in "good jobs" which are rationed. This paper will explore whether the relative wage differential between union and non-union workers differs between the independent primary, subordinate primary and secondary labour markets. Labour market segments are defined using "job zones". "Job zones" are distinct groups defined by the level of specific vocational preparation necessary for a particular occupation, allowing for the comparison of skill levels and training for each occupation. The data on "job zones" comes from the Occupational Information Network database (O*Net). We estimate separate equations for union and non-union workers in each segment using data from the Current Population Survey and calculate union non-union differentials for each labour market segment. The findings of this paper suggest that the greatest differentials are in secondary labour markets followed by differentials in the subordinate primary labour market and that the smallest wage differentials are in the independent primary labour market.


An extended study of gender and crime in early modern England. It considers the ways in which criminal behaviour and perceptions of criminality were informed by ideas about gender and order, and explores their practical consequences for the men and women who were brought before the criminal courts. Dr Walker's innovative approach demonstrates that, contrary to received opinion, the law was often structured so as to make the treatment of women and men before the courts incommensurable. For the first time, early modern criminality is explored in terms of masculinity as well as femininity. Illuminating the interactions between gender and other categories such as class and civil war have implications not merely for the historiography of crime but for the social history of early modern England as a whole. This study therefore goes beyond conventional studies, and challenges hitherto accepted views of social interaction in the period.


The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) allows proxy servers to initiate
TCP connections or to send asynchronous UDP datagrams to User Agents
in order to deliver requests. However, in a large number of real
deployments, many practical considerations, such as the existence of
firewalls and Network Address Translators (NATs) or the use of TLS
with server-provided certificates, prevent servers from connecting to
User Agents in this way. This specification defines behaviors for User
Agents, registrars and proxy servers that allow requests to be
delivered on existing connections established by the User Agent. It
also defines keep alive behaviors needed to keep NAT bindings open and
specifies the usage of multiple connections from the User Agent to its
Registrar.


After a brief review of the current state of research on the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH), Person proposes four perspectives to move the argument forward and to gain new insights: the use of text-critical controls for redactional arguments; the contribution of the study of oral tradition to understand the composition and transmission of biblical texts in ancient Israel; arguments for the postexilic setting of the Deuteronomic school; and the use of comparative material (Udjahorresnet and Qumran) to understand scribal guilds, such as the Deuteronomic school, in ancient Israel. The results of these new perspectives challenge the most widely accepted understandings of the redaction history of DtrH and suggest that the Deuteronomic school was a scribal guild whose redactional activity spanned a long period of time from possibly as early as the pre-exilic period to the Persian period shortly before Ezra. Person's reconstruction of the social setting of the Deuteronomic school includes their return from Babylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in order to support the rebuilding of the temple with their scribal skills. This reconstruction leads to new interpretations of Deuteronomic literature (DtrH and Jeremiah).


The authors of this book contend that the civil service system, which was devised to create a uniform process for recruiting high-quality workers to government, is no longer uniform or a system. Nor does it help government find and retain the workers it needs to build a government that works. The current civil service system was designed for a government in which federal agencies directly delivered most public services. But over the last generation, privatization and devolution have increased the number and importance of government's partnerships with private companies, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. Government workers today spend much of their time managing these partnerships, not delivering services, and this trend will only accelerate in the future. The authors contend that the current system poorly develops government workers who can effectively manage these partnerships, resulting too often in a gap between promise and performance. This short, lively, and bipartisan volume, authored by the nation's leading experts on government management, describes what the government of the future will look like, what it will need to work well, and how in particular the nation can build the next generation of workers required to lead it.


We demonstrate a 30-W all-fiberized laser in a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) structure with a central wavelength of 1 950 nm. The laser is a continuous-wave (CW) operation with double-clad Tm-doped silica fiber pumped by pigtailed laser diodes with a central wavelength of 793 nm. The optical-to-optical efficiency of the MOPA system is 37.5% with respect to the total 80-W pump power. The maximal slope efficiency of the system is approximately 43%, which belongs to the main amplifier and exceeds the Stoke limit. No obvious amplified spontaneous emitting (ASE) is observed in the experiment, and the power can be scaled straightforwardly by improving the pump power.


Climate change is inextricably linked to economic inequality: it is a crisis that is driven by the greenhouse gas emissions of the 'haves' that hits the 'have-nots' the hardest. While COP21 in Paris will see a deal negotiated between governments on the basis of the total emissions produced in their territories, the real winners and losers will be their citizens. The true test of the deal will be whether it delivers something for the poorest people who are both the least responsible for and the most vulnerable to climate change, wherever they live. In this briefing Oxfam presents new data analysis that demonstrates the extent of global carbon inequality by estimating and comparing the lifestyle consumption emissions of rich and poor citizens in different countries. See also the technical briefing on the methodology and the data sets.


In2Uni's Year 12 University Preparation Program (UPP), which commenced in 2014, is an innovative program for students in their HSC year working towards an ATAR. It targets schools in UOW catchment areas, and particularly those identified as being from the 39 low-ICSEA (Index of Community and SocioEducational Advantage) areas. Students must meet eligibility criteria, one being that their academic performance is not currently on the trajectory to meet university entry requirements (In2Uni, My Way, 2016). Once accepted into UPP, students attend on-campus study sessions for two hours per week over a 20week period from April to September. The general aims of UPP are that students (a) receive tips and advice in their chosen HSC subject from undergraduate mentors who excelled in these subjects areas at HSC level; (b) glean information pertaining to successful HSC study; and (c) are provided with a 'taste' of university life as a transitioning strategy. At the culmination of UPP, students who meet requirements of attendance (80%) and task completion are guaranteed an Early Entry Admissions interview at UOW. From this point however, these students are subject to the same entry requirements as all nonUPP UOW applicants. The success of UPP may be reflected in increased enrolments from 268 in 2014 to 337 in 2015; however an 18% decrease in Early Admission offers in 2015 confirmed the timeliness of this program evaluation. The evaluation project was commissioned by In2Uni to explore the effectiveness of the program, based on data from key stakeholders: current and past students, parents, and In2Uni mentors. In consultation with UPP program coordinators, the evaluation sought to achieve the objectives of: identifying, describing and explaining the impact of UPP on the student experience; and providing In2Uni with an evidence-based understanding of the impact to enable targeted improvements.


Reduced supplies of nitrogen (N) in many soils of southern Queensland that were cropped exhaustively with cereals over many decades have been the focus of much research to avoid declines in profitability and sustainability of farming systems. A 45-month period of mixed grass (purple pigeon grass, Setaria incrassata Stapf; Rhodes grass, Chloris gayana Kunth.) and legume (lucerne, Medicago sativa L.; annual medics, M. scutellata L. Mill. and M. truncatula Gaertn.) pasture was one of several options that were compared at a fertility-depleted Vertosol at Warra, southern Queensland, to improve grain yields or increase grain protein concentration of subsequent wheat crops. Objectives of the study were to measure the productivity of a mixed grass and legume pasture grown over 45 months (cut and removed over 36 months) and its effects on yield and protein concentrations of the following wheat crops.

Pasture production (DM t/ha) and aboveground plant N yield (kg/ha) for grass, legume (including a small amount of weeds) and total components of pasture responded linearly to total rainfall over the duration of each of 3 pastures sown in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Averaged over the 3 pastures, each 100 mm of rainfall resulted in 0.52 t/ha of grass, 0.44 t/ha of legume and 0.97 t/ha of total pasture DM, there being little variation between the 3 pastures. Aboveground plant N yield of the 3 pastures ranged from 17.2 to 20.5 kg/ha per 100 mm rainfall. Aboveground legume N in response to total rainfall was similar (10.6 - 13.2 kg/ha. 100 mm rainfall) across the 3 pastures in spite of very different populations of legumes and grasses at establishment. Aboveground grass N yield was 5.2 - 7.0 kg/ha per 100mm rainfall.

In most wheat crops following pasture, wheat yields were similar to that of unfertilised wheat except in 1990 and 1994, when grain yields were significantly higher but similar to that for continuous wheat fertilised with 75 kg N/ha. In contrast, grain protein concentrations of most wheat crops following pasture responded positively, being substantially higher than unfertilised wheat but similar to that of wheat fertilised with 75 kg N/ha. Grain protein averaged over all years of assay was increased by 25 - 40% compared with that of unfertilised wheat.

Stored water supplies after pasture were < 134mm (< 55% of plant available water capacity); for most assay crops water storages were 67 - 110 mm, an equivalent wet soil depth of only 0.3 - 0.45 m. Thus, the crop assays of pasture benefits were limited by low water supply to wheat crops. Moreover, the severity of common root rot in wheat crop was not reduced by pasture - wheat rotation.


The internationalisation of higher education has accelerated in recent years. Internationalisation at most higher education institutions mainly takes the form of study abroad. This immersion in an intercultural environment is believed to foster the development of academic and non-academic skills, thus improving graduates employability. Regardless of the geographical area, higher education institutions (HEI) have therefor put student mobility at the heart of their academic projects. However, the context has changed: the Covid-19 health crisis has led to a freezing of international mobility. Alternative solutions to traditional mobility must be found. With this book, we intend to contribute to reflections on how to develop intercultural sensitivity and intercultural competences among students through Internationalisation at Home. For this purpose, in the eight chapters of the book, we present some pedagogical methods that facilitate the creation of a context conducive to interculturality and the acquisition of plural skills by students at home. Some authors examine how these competences can be assessed. Finally, we propose a framework explaining how a combination of activities within an institution can foster the development of students' intercultural competences. Regardless of the approaches chosen by the teachers observed, they answered similar questions. These questions set a framework for reflections on efficient approaches to supporting the development of students' intercultural skills in an Internationalisation at Home context. © P.I.E. PETER LANG s.a. All rights reserved.


Abstract:Within Canada, there has been increased Federal recognition and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, queer, Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2+) individuals and communities. The recognition of previous systemic discrimination helps to illustrate the unique social and historical contexts those current older adults faced as they aged as members of LGBTQ2+ communities. Addressing the diverse and unique needs of LGBTQ2+ older adults is crucial to ensuring safety and well-being within formal and informal care settings yet, due to a lack of research evidence, this remains a challenge. In order to advance research and action on LGBTQ2+ aging in Canada, stakeholders were convened at a research-policy forum to establish a community of interest and catalyze activities to support a diverse aging population. Immediate concerns that were raised included: social isolation, healthcare, education and training needs for providers, stigma and discrimination, and housing. Other knowledge gaps included dementia care and the effects of cognitive impairment on sexual and gender identity, lived realities of older LGBTQ2+ ethnic minorities, and the experiences of older Two-Spirit Canadians. Attendees highlighted the importance of showcasing success stories of aging among LGBTQ2+ communities in addition to describing experienced challenges. Considering that members of LGBTQ2+ communities who experienced systemic discrimination and in or approaching old age, action on these fronts is urgently needed.


The spread and popularity of mobile devices has led to their increased application in higher education. While studies have reviewed mobile learning initiatives in different contexts, none has explored this subject in Africa. This systematic review collates and compares studies published between 2010 and 2016 on mobile learning in higher education in the African context to explore the application, impact and challenges of mobile technology-supported learning. Findings show that mobile learning within higher education institutions in Africa increased student and lecturer collaboration and, provide dinstant communication, increased student participation and engagement, facilitating authentic learning and reflective practice, as well as fostering learning communities. A change in the lecturers' approaches to teaching also occurred. The findings also indicate significant challenges in integrating mobile learning in higher education institutions within Africa: poor technological infrastructure, lack of access to modern mobile devices, lack of mobile learning pedagogical skills among lecturers, poor attitudes among students and lecturers, and incompatibility of mobile devices with the university online management systems. Policies to guide the implementation of mobile learning were also lacking.

Large-scale studies assessing the effectiveness of mobile learning within African higher education institutions are lacking and existing studies lacked a theoretical framework. The review highlights enabling conditions for successful integration of mobile learning in African institutions addressing access, training, curriculum design, support and technical requirements. The absence of studies reporting on existing mobile learning projects reflects the limited penetration of this technology and associated pedagogies and a need to strengthen research in this emerging field.


There is an articulation gap for many students between the literacy practices developed at school and those demanded by higher education. While the school sector is often well attuned to the school-leaving assessments, it may not be as aware of the implicit quantitative literacy (QL) demands placed on students in higher education. The National Benchmark Test (NBT) in QL provides diagnostic information to inform teaching and learning. The performance of a large sample of school-leavers who wrote the NBT QL test was investigated (1) to demonstrate how school-leavers performed on this QL test, (2) to explore the relationship between performance on this test and on cognate school-leaving subjects and (3) to provide school teachers and curriculum advisors with a sense of the QL demands made on their students. Descriptive statistics were used to describe performance and linear regression to explore the relationships between performance in the NBT QL test and on the school subjects Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy. Only 13% of the NBT QL scores in the sample were classified as proficient and the majority of school-leavers would need support to cope with the QL demands of higher education. The results in neither Mathematics nor Mathematical Literacy were good predictors of performance on the NBT QL test. Examination of performance on selected individual items revealed that many students have difficulty with quantitative language and with interpreting data in tables. Given that QL is bound to context, it is important that teachers develop QL practices within their disciplinary contexts.


Real option and dynamic asset valuation techniques are becoming established as standard methods for evaluating investment decisions that are subject to quantifiable uncertainty. This has been particularly the case in natural resources industries. In the UK oil industry there is renewed interest in oilfield valuation techniques the 22nd UK Offshore Licensing Round was held in 2004 with a total of 97 licences offered to 58 companies in 2004, of which 15 were new entrants to the UK Continental Shelf. Many firms involved in these bid processes now routinely use dynamic modelling and real option valuation to assess oilfield value premiums in differing operating and taxation enviroments. Literature on PV and real option valuation is clear that models should accommodate tax effects but is unclear about its universal treatment in dynamic models. We examine the impact of the North Sea oil industry's tax regime on the valuation of shelf real options by using a sample of forty oil fields that for the period 1970 to 2001 had initial estimated reserves greater than 75 million barrels of oil. Our sample uses Wood Mackenzie primary source field data updated quarterly by analysts using bottom up field research. Our findings are that the tax enviroment of itself will cause asymmetrical movements in both free cash flow models and option values. These results are of interest to both academics and practitioners in that that tax plays an important role in the valuation process of real options in the oil and gas sector. Our results show that North Sea valuation models that treat taxation as a deterministic function systematically overstate DCF valuation results, understate volatility estimates and undervalue real options. Specifically our analysis suggests that failure to incorporate the variable nature of tax into the valuation process leads to an 18 percent over valuation of asset PV and an under valuation of the option price by 19.5 percent. The increased usage of real option techniques in assessing oil field bids highlights the need for valuation models to incorporate the country specific nature of tax terms. This is especially important for oil fields in the North Sea where field exploration block bidding interest remains high and the legacy of tax changes is long; demanding from financiers a new way of assessing bid values in the face of future cash flow uncertainty.


The present study is an attempt to understand the differences between the
child and young adult beginner in learning how to play the piano as a basis
towards improving college-level beginning piano teaching. The purpose of this
study then is three fold: (1) to examine to what extent there is a difference of
learning achievement and rate between the child and young adult beginner,
centering on psychomotor skills, the process of music reading, and elements of
interpretation in learning how to play the piano; (2) to find out factors affecting
these three elements of musical learning in two groups; and (3) to drive ways
towards improving college level beginning piano teaching.
To examine these questions, comparisons were drawn between
undergraduate non-music majors (19 - 24 years) and primary school children (8
years). The 10-week instructional period consisted of two 40-minute lessons per
week for each individual. The investigator taught all subjects individually with the
investigator-designed instructional programme focused on keyboard fluency,
music reading, and interpretation. Through the pilot study materials and
sequencing in the instructional programme were revised and a system of
categories for learning-relevant variables emerged. Hypotheses related to a basis
of differences in music learning between two groups were investigated using a
three-point achievement measurement tool designed by the investigator. Other
variables (physical capacity, intelligence, musical background, motivation to
learn, learning attitude, emotional factors) affecting musical learning were
investigated using IQ tests, the students' self-reports, investigator's reports, and
parents' reports.
The results of the principal investigation indicate that the young adult
beginners performed in all three musical learning elements better than the child
group. No evidence was found in support of stereotypical assumptions in the
beginning piano study-related literature that the young adult beginner is at
disadvantage to the child beginner in the acquisition of keyboard fluency skills. It
appears that the young adult did not have problems related to physical capacity
taught in this instruction. In addition, it appears that selection variables (physical
capacity, intelligence, and musical background) played an important role in the
musical achievement of the child beginner group compared with the young adult
group. On the other hand, in the case of the young adult group, it appears that
learning-related characteristics (motivation to learn, learning attitude, and
emotional factors) were likely to be more important factors affecting the musical
development compared with the child group.


The aim of this research is to provide the basic parameters for a model for the definition of the relation between the general competition and sector specific frameworks and rules regarding the regulation of the Internal Energy Market, especially after the Third Energy Package. The research considers the recent sector specific framework in relation to a series of recent competition law cases of the Energy Market where structural remedies were applied under the commitments procedure.Essential facilities doctrine and generally competition law tools do not seem to provide a suitable framework for effectively addressing the dynamic competition concept, treating the issue of balancing incentives to invest with open market concept and designing solutions for the stable development of Energy Market infrastructure. Competition law provides ex post and case-by-case solutions, which lack the breadth of objectives expressed by sector regulation. On the other hand, sector regulation seems to incorporate competition rules and objectives, while the application of competition law in recent decisions did not seem to take into consideration present and forthcoming sector-specific context and parameters. However, competition law has a hierarchical priority over sector-specific rules and its direct application cannot be excluded when sector regulation is insufficient or is not applied efficiently. Sector rules should have a functional priority regarding their implementation as lex specialis and constitute the context for any potential application of competition law. Furthermore, structural interventions based on competition rules will abide by the principle of proportionality, only in specific cases where market organisation and poor regulatory supervision allow the continuation of high vertical integration and anticompetitive practices. There is also a need to establish an efficient model of clear allocation of duties between Competition Authorities and Sector Regulators.The model proposed by the research emphasizes prioritization of sector-specific rules, use of competition rules as an interpretative tool, limitation of their independent application to cases where sector regulation fails and even then after taking into consideration sector specific context and acceptance of dynamic competition as an orientating framework for the regulation of the Internal Energy Market.


Sequence modelling is used for analysing newly sequenced proteins, giving indication of the 3-D structure and functionality. Current approaches to the modelling of protein families are either based on discrete or probabilistic methods. Here we present an approach for combining these two approaches in a hybrid model, where discrete patterns are used to model conserved regions and probabilistic models are used for variable regions. When hidden Markov models are used to model the variable regions, the hybrid method gives increased classification accuracy, compared to pure discrete or probabilistic models.


Background: Alcohol and tobacco use are major causes of the disease burden in most countries of the world. Mobile phone text messaging is very popular among adolescents and young adults and has the potential to deliver individualized information to large population groups at low costs. Objective: To provide a narrative review on studies testing the appropriateness and effectiveness of text messaging-based programs to reduce alcohol and tobacco use in young people. Results: Two published studies on text message-based programs for the reduction of problem drinking and two studies on programs for enhancing smoking cessation were identified. A US-American pilot experimental study tested the feasibility and initial efficacy of a text messaging-based assessment and brief intervention among young adults identified during their emergency department visit with hazardous drinking. It demonstrated the feasibility of the text messaging-based program to collect drinking data in young adults after emergency department discharge. A Swiss pre–post study tested the appropriateness and initial effectiveness of a combined, individually tailored web- and text messaging (SMS)-based program to reduce problem drinking in vocational school students. It provided evidence for the appropriateness of the intervention and initial evidence for its efficacy to reduce problem drinking. One of the two studies addressing smoking cessation was a US-American pilot randomized controlled trial. Participants were recruited via online advertisements and received text messages tailored according to their quitting stage. The intervention significantly affected self-reported quitting rates at 4 weeks but not at 3 months after the quit date. Within a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in Switzerland, smoking students were proactively recruited within vocational school classes and received text messages tailored to demographic and smoking-related variables. The program was accepted very well by the target group. It did not affect smoking abstinence rates at 6-months follow-up but resulted in significant lower cigarette consumption.


In order to determine the scope of the legality principle of taxation which is regulated in Turkish Constitution, the criteria adopted by Turkish Constitutional Court ("TCC") are important. The aim of this study is to evaluate these criteria and observe the compliance of Turkish tax legislation with them. As a result of this examination, it is determined that the criteria were not fully settled and that the current tax legislation do not comply with them sufficiently. However, taxpayers should be able to foresee which rules are regulated by laws and which are regulated by other formal sources of tax law. In its recent judgments, the Court softened its strict supervision of formal dimension of the principle, which is "no tax without law". It can be considered that the case-law of European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR") is effective on this approach. According to the case-law of ECtHR, the concept of "lawfulness" refers to the quality of the law in question.However, Article 73 of Turkish Constitution is the special provision in respect of tax law. Thus, the tax rules which are basically foreseeable by taxpayers are the rules which are regulated in the laws in both formal and material meanings.


The Hedgehog (Hh) family of secreted proteins controls cell growth and patterning during development, in part by regulating the expression of certain target genes in local areas. The effects of Hh are mediated through its receptor, Ptc, and the transcription factor Cubitus interruptus (Ci). In Drosophila wing development, full-length Ci functions as a transcriptional activator, but a cleaved form of Ci represses the expression of other target genes. It is thought that Ci is phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA) and that processing of Ci into a cleaved form involves Slimb, a protein which may specify phosphorylated targets for ubiquitin/proteosome proteolysis. Wang et al. show that in the developing Drosophila wing, phosphorylation of Ci by PKA not only signals for proteolytic processing but also blocks the ability of full-length Ci to activate transcription. Mutation of the cleavage site in Ci resulted in protein that was still phosphorylated by PKA in vivo, but whose activity was inhibited. This suggests that phosphorylation of full-length Ci by PKA may block the activator form of Ci, independent of the processing of Ci into its transcription-repressor form. The mechanisms by which phosphorylation regulates proteolysis of Ci or Ci activity remain to be determined. Wang, G., Wang, B., and Jiang, J. (1999) Protein kinase A antagonizes Hedgehog signaling by regulating both the activator and repressor forms of Cubitus interruptus. Genes Dev. 13: 2828-2837. [Abstract] [Full Text]


The aim of this project was to strengthen the Nordic seafood sector by a consumer oriented development of new fresh seafood product concepts for young adults and families with young children in order to stimulate the consumption of healthy high quality seafood at home and in out-of-home situations. The development of the seafood concepts has been carried according a structured approach via focus groups meetings with stakeholders in the seafood chain and the target consumers groups Norway, Iceland and Denmark. In the next phase ideas for new seafood products were generated within a multidisciplinary team under supervision of an innovation company. Several seafood concepts were tested among the target consumer groups via web-based questionnaires. The outcome was used to develop a preliminary prototype seafood product, based upon outcome concept "mixture of seafood species and fruit", which was tested in at-home situations of a small group of consumers in Norway. This seafood product prototype is suitable for further development by the seafood sector. In addition a study was carried out on the decision making process of evening meal (seafood versus meat) among consumers in the Nordic countries. The results show that planning was the most important phase of the evening meal decision-making sequence. Practical issues, such as convenience, pro-activeness in planning and responsibilities in the family were considered to be important but health and taste considerations, which represent the affective aspects of the decision-making sequence, were much less frequently mentioned as being important. A number of take home messages for the seafood sector are presented about future seafood product development for consumers with a low seafood consumption pattern Topic/NICe Focus Area: New Nordic Food ISSN: Language: English Pages: 21


Natural resources like oil and minerals are the largest source of unaccountable power in the world. Petrocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend resource money on weapons and oppression; militants in Iraq and in the Congo spend resource money on radicalization and ammunition. Resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists present endless crises to the West - and the source of their resource power is ultimately ordinary consumers, doing their everyday shopping at the gas station and the mall. In this sweeping new book, one of today's leading political philosophers, Leif Wenar, goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that thwarts democracy and development - and that puts shoppers into business with some of today's most dangerous men. Wenar discovers a rule that once licensed the slave trade and apartheid and genocide, a rule whose abolition has marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs-yet a rule that still enflames tyranny and war and terrorism through today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade. Blood Oil shows how the West can now lead a peaceful revolution by ending its dependence on authoritarian oil, and by getting consumers out of business with the men of blood. The book describes practical strategies for upgrading world trade: for choosing new rules that will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve pressing global problems like climate change. Blood Oil shows citizens, consumers and leaders how we can act together today to create a more united human future.


Convertible hedging remains one of the principal investment strategies in alternative investments. Practitioners as well as academics have discussed the pricing and mechanics of convertible hedging on both non–directional and directional bases. Convertible hedging is an investment discipline that seeks to profit from the movements in price of a given convertible security and, typically, the underlying common stock into which the convertible security would be convertible. In its simplest form, a convertible hedge position is established with the purchase of a convertible security and the short sale of a certain number of common shares. In this article, a case study is presented of how a portfolio manager may establish and manage a convertible hedge position.


Abstract Objective To describe the current epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Tasmania Design, setting and participants Tasmania undertakes continuous surveillance for CDI at all public hospitals. Data on cases of CDI between 2006 and 2010 were examined. All positive tests occurring within 8 weeks of a previous case, and cases occurring in children less than 2 years old were excluded, consistent with national definitions. Only cases identified at public hospitals were included in the analysis Main outcome measures The rate of CDI in Tasmanian hospitals over the study period and the ability to demonstrate the effect of variances in surveillance definitions. Results A total of 357 cases of CDI were reported over the study period – a rate of 3.08 per 10 000 patient care days (95%CI 2.90–3.27) or 0.94 per 1000 patient separations (95%CI 0.91–0.98) for hospital-identified cases of CDI. Yearly rates for the period 2006 to 2010 were 2.3, 3.2, 2.8 and 3.9 per 10 000 patient care days, respectively. The overall trend was an increase in cases over the study period. The CDI rate from 2009–10 was significantly higher than that from 2008–09. Of the total cases reported,64% were healthcare-associated, healthcare-facility onset (HCAHFO), equating to a rate of 2.1 per 10 000 patient care days over the 4-year period. Conclusion The Tasmanian rate of HCA HFO is increasing, and appears to be greater than that reported by other Australian states, but is less than many northern hemisphere regions, where hypervirulent strains of C. difficile are causing increasing morbidity and mortality. It is difficult to compare reported rates of CDI nationally and internationally owing to inconsistencies in study duration, denominator selection, testing effort and testing methodology. This study demonstrates the need for national standards for CDI testing and reporting.


High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) remains the major cause of death related to high altitude exposure with a high mortality in absence of emergency treatment. Due to the deprival of oxygen in higher altitudes, the blood vessels constricts and squeezes blood in the vessels. This makes pressure to go up which in turn forces blood into air pockets in lungs that can kill people with HAPE. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) is found in lung capillaries. It catalyses conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II which is a potent vasoconstrictor and inactivates bradykinin which is a potent vasodilator thereby causing HAPE. Tripeptides Val-Pro-Pro (VPP) and Ile-Pro-Pro (IPP) act as ACE inhibitors, that reduce vasoconstriction and facilitate vasodilation, so that they can be used in the treatment of HAPE. Enzyme-inhibitor docking is performed between Angiotensin I Converting Enzyme ACE and two natural inhibitors, tripeptides Val-Pro-Pro (VPP) and Ile-Pro-Pro (IPP) using the Patchdock Software. The docking study provided a quantitative energetic measure (Atomic Contact Energy) of 262.56 and 147.73 for ACE inhibition by VPP and IPP respectively. This ensures that the tripeptides Val-Pro-Pro (VPP) and Ile-Pro-Pro (IPP) are able to inhibit the activity of the ACE which in turn can induce decreased formation of Angiotensin II and decreased inactivation of bradykinin thereby it can alleviate HAPE.

 Key words: High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), angiotensin converting enzyme, Val-Pro-Pro, Ile-Pro-Pro, patchdock


The public interest law movement is at the end of its first generation - part of a broader changing of the guard in the legal profession. Although its roots date back to the turn of the twentieth century, public interest law's institutionalization began in earnest in the 1960s and 1970s with the establishment of the federal legal services program and the launch of the Ford Foundation's public interest law initiative. Both of these projects transformed the field, creating new opportunities for the wave of entering law students aligned with the social movements of the day and committed to using their legal training to "speak law to power." Looking back, the founding liberal wing of the movement failed to achieve its most ambitious goals, and questions remain about how much of this failure can be blamed on the limits of liberal legalism versus the power of its opposition. As the movement pivots from vanguard to new guard, there has been a resurgence of scholarly interest in charting the organization, practice, and meaning of public interest law in the contemporary era. Drawing upon this literature, this essay - based on a lecture given at the UALR Altheimer Symposium - appraises public interest law's professional inheritance, identifying four critical developments in the field - professionalization, privatization, conservatism, and globalization - and suggesting the challenges they pose for the future of public interest law.


With around 1.4 million employees and 1.1 million pensioners, one of the world's largest railway networks (over 63,332 kms of routes) running approximately 15,000 trains each day, the Indian Railways is one of the world's largest state-owned, single-management enterprises, second only to China's. This book is a case study of how the Indian Railways were transformed in three years, counter intuitively, under the leadership of Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav, the current Minister of Railways. Defining and assessing the existing policy approach to reforming large state-owned enterprises that provide economic infrastructure, the book explains in depth why the prescriptive approach to reforms was not applicable to the Indian Railways. It shows how through an unconventional, egalitarian approach the railways transformed from near bankruptcy to a US$ 5 billion annual surplus while retaining state ownership. This case study helps to distil lessons for other state-owned enterprises whereby they can improve infrastructure services in developing countries. This book will prove indispensable for policymakers, management professionals, academics, as well as general readers interested in knowing the real story behind the sea change that Indian Railways has undergone in recent years.


The TABE'A II report is a second more detailed analysis of the Arab region's World Heritage Programme based on the baseline established in the first report from 2011, as well as of the progress achieved since then. Specifically, the TABE'A report provides a strategic update on the state of conservation of the Natural World Heritage properties in the Arab region based on the various assessment tools used by IUCN; further analyses the national Tentative Lists of the States Parties in the region; presents a selection of key case studies, success stories, challenges and lessons learnt; and provides a set of specific recommendations targeting the multiple layers related to World Heritage in the Arab region.


The Telbesmi Formation, at the northern margin of the Arabian Plate, Turkey, is composed of alternating darkbrown, pinky-brown fluvial arkosic sandstone/mudstones with thin-bedded cherty limestones and channel conglomerates. The formation contains rare and poorly diversified trace fossils. The siltstone/sandstone beds of levels 1 and 2 of the formation yielded, however, a moderately diverse assemblage composed of: Cochlichnus  isp., Palaeophycus isp., Planolites beverleyensis , Teichichnus isp. and ? Treptichnus rectangularis . This assemblage, made up of traces left by deposit feeding organisms, represents the Scoyenia ichnofacies. Treptichnus rectangularis and Palaeophycus isp., of the assemblage, can be considered markers for the base of the Cambrian in southeast Turkey.


The bankruptcy of a charity represents the clash of two policy regimes: charity law's willingness to preserve assets for the public purpose determined by the donor as against bankruptcy law's desire to maximize assets for distribution to creditors. As a general rule, assets will be distributed to creditors; as the courts say, 'a man must be just before he is generous.' However, when a charitable donee goes out of existence or otherwise becomes unable to perform a charitable trust or restricted gift, the courts will try to identify those charitable assets that are restricted in such a manner that they survive the bankruptcy proceeding. These assets excluded from the bankruptcy estate are instead subject to the venerable doctrine of cy pres, regardless of whether the charity is a charitable trust or a corporate charity. Charitable trusts and restricted gifts, if they can no longer be performed as originally specified, are modified for another use by the same charity or are transferred to another charity, subject to the same or modified purpose. It is common for the cy pres proceeding to occur in state court, rather than in the federal bankruptcy proceeding. This approach views any particular charity holding a restricted gift as distinct from the contemplated beneficiaries of that gift. Despite its benefits to society, such a policy also carries negative implications for the governance of individual nonprofit organizations. Sympathy for charitable beneficiaries in bankruptcy can make it harder for all charities - including those not in financial distress - to obtain needed financing. Less obviously, but perhaps more seriously, over accommodating courts that wall off charity assets from bankruptcy creditors can further an already pervasive view that charitable property is 'public' to an inappropriate degree.


In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Deccan plateau of south-central India was home to a series of important, highly cultured Muslim kingdoms and was a nexus of international trade. Invigorated by cultural connections to Iran, Turkey, East Africa, and Europe, Deccani art is celebrated for its unmistakable, otherworldly character: in painting, a poetic lyricism; in architecture, a somber grandeur; and in the decorative arts, lively creations in inlaid metalwork and dyed textiles. This beautifully illustrated catalogue, which includes extraordinary new site photographs and lush landscape images, along with discussions of 200 of the finest Deccani works, creates the most comprehensive examination to date of this fascinating and remote world. The text not only discusses paintings, drawings, textiles, arms, manuscripts, and other decorative arts from this rich culture, but also explores the history, architecture, literature, and music of the period. Essays by prominent international authors, supplemented by informative maps, illustrated appendices, and select primary sources, make this pioneering book a key resource on the subject.


Navigation in the environment relies, in part, on the visual system to differentiate self-motion from that of other objects. Research examining the way in which the brain is able to visually disentangle forward locomotion from eye motion, for example, suggests that the brain may have an eye movement compensation mechanism. Other findings, however, question the existence of this mechanism in that the previously reported illusory shift in the focus of expansion (FOE) may be due to induced motion. Yet, this alternative hypothesis may need to be revised in order to account for the perception of straight, radial trajectories as curved. In order to understand the conditions under which this trajectory illusion exists, the current investigation examined the role of induced motion, radial speed gradient, and smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM). Results suggest that the strength of the illusion relies on induced motion and SPEMs, thereby implicating that the role of eye movements in the illusory FOE shift needs to be taken into consideration.


The paper aims to shed light on the conceptual link between international crises such as the one following September 11, 2001, and processes of identity construction through foreign policy. Crisis and identity construction are conceptualized as constant political phenomena. The political process is constituted by meaningful acts of social agents, and can thus only be grasped by analyzing meaning. Meaning is transmitted by language. Meaningful language is never reducible to individual speakers; it is a social act. The sum of articulatory practices in a social field is called discourse. Linking Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with the theory of hegemony developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, I will be able to show how hegemonic discourses serve as the nexus between the discursive construction of crises and identity change. A number of problems will be acknowledged when linking these two strands of thinking, as CDA and Laclauian theory work with tentatively different conceptions of discourse. The construction of the "war on terror" by the Bush administration between September 2001 and May 2003 is used as a case to illustrate the theoretical argument.


The Oracle Press Guide to Big Data Analytics using R Cowritten by members of the Big Data team at Oracle, this Oracle Press book focuses on analyzing data with R while making it scalable using Oracles R technologies. Using R to Unlock the Value of Big Data provides an introduction to open source R and describes issues with traditional R and database interaction. The book then offers in-depth coverage of Oracles strategic R offerings: Oracle R Enterprise, Oracle R Distribution, ROracle, and Oracle R Connector for Hadoop. You can practice your new skills using the end-of-chapter exercises.


Multidrug resistance protein 1 (MRP1) is a transporter protein that helps to protect normal cells and tumor cells against the influx of certain xenobiotics. We previously showed that Mrp1 protects against cytotoxic drugs at the testis-blood barrier, the oral epithelium, and the kidney urinary collecting duct tubules. Here, we generated Mrp1/Mdr1a/Mdr1b triple-knockout (TKO) mice, and used them together with Mdr1a/Mdr1b double-knockout (DKO) mice to study the contribution of Mrp1 to the tissue distribution and pharmacokinetics of etoposide. We observed increased toxicity in the TKO mice, which accumulated etoposide in brown adipose tissue, colon, salivary gland, heart, and the female urogenital system. Immunohistochemical staining revealed the presence of Mrp1 in the oviduct, uterus, salivary gland, and choroid plexus (CP) epithelium. To explore the transport function of Mrp1 in the CP epithelium, we used TKO and DKO mice cannulated for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We show here that the lack of Mrp1 protein causes etoposide levels to increase about 10-fold in the CSF after intravenous administration of the drug. Our results indicate that Mrp1 helps to limit tissue distribution of certain drugs and contributes to the blood-CSF drug-permeability barrier.


A simplified variety of a language may come about as an "emergency language" for communicative functions in multilingual settings where speakers with different linguistic backgrounds meet. These so-called pidginised forms emerge essentially between second-language learners for whom the input from the contact jargon is insufficient to become fluent speakers. Moreover, such contact media typically are learned by adults, usually in contexts of broader communication. Pidginisation thus results from incomplete acquisition of a grammar and lexicon, i.e. the learning of a language "in chunks". This chapter discusses the social conditions under which such processes take place, and it also analyses the linguistic outcome of this contact phenomenon, including the development of pidginised language forms into fully-fledged ("creolised") grammatical systems.


The second decade will be as exciting as the first

Evidence based medicine seeks to empower clinicians so that they can develop independent views regarding medical claims and controversies. Although many helped to lay the foundations of evidence based medicine,1 Archie Cochrane's insistence that clinical disciplines summarise evidence concerning their practices, Alvan Feinstein's role in defining the principles of quantitative clinical reasoning, and David Sackett's innovation in teaching critical appraisal all proved seminal. The term evidence based medicine,2 and the first comprehensive description of its tenets, appeared little more than a decade ago. In its original formulation, this discipline reduced the emphasis on unsystematic clinical experience and pathophysiological rationale, and promoted the examination of evidence from clinical research. Evidence based medicine therefore required new skills including efficient literature searching and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature.

Important developments in evidence based medicine over the subsequent decade included the increasing popularity of structured abstracts3 and secondary journals summarising …