Block and stream ciphers are widely used to protect the privacy of digital information. A variety of attacks against block and stream ciphers exist; the most recent being the algebraic attacks. These attacks reduce the cipher to a simple algebraic system which can be solved by known algebraic techniques. These attacks have been very successful against a variety of stream ciphers and major efforts (for example eSTREAM project) are underway to design and analyze new stream ciphers. These attacks have also raised some concerns about the security of popular block ciphers. In this thesis, apart from designing new stream ciphers, we focus on analyzing popular nonlinear transformations (Boolean functions and S-boxes) used in block and stream ciphers for various cryptographic properties, in particular their resistance against algebraic attacks. The main contribution of this work is the design of two new stream ciphers and a thorough analysis of the algebraic immunity of Boolean functions and S-boxes based on power mappings. First we present WG, a family of new stream ciphers designed to obtain a keystream with guaranteed randomness properties. We show how to obtain a mathematical description of a WG stream cipher for the desired randomness properties and security level, and then how to translate this description into a practical hardware design. Next we describe the design of a new RC4-like stream cipher suitable for high speed software applications. The design is compared with original RC4 stream cipher for both security and speed. The second part of this thesis closely examines the algebraic immunity of Boolean functions and S-boxes based on power mappings. We derive meaningful upper bounds on the algebraic immunity of cryptographically significant Boolean power functions and show that for large input sizes these functions have very low algebraic immunity. To analyze the algebraic immunity of S-boxes based on power mappings, we focus on calculating the bi-affine and quadratic equations they satisfy. We present two very efficient algorithms for this purpose and give new S-box constructions that guarantee zero bi-affine and quadratic equations. We also examine these S-boxes for their resistance against linear and differential attacks and provide


The integration of Internet-based collaborative tools such as Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the design process has rendered collaborative design a chaotic practice filled with controversy and uncertainty, with the inevitable risk of unintended consequences. The purpose of this study was to trace the sources of design controversy in a Web 2.0 facilitated collaborative design process. The study employed an Actor Network Theory (ANT) methodological framework to explore design controversy in five design teams comprising of 4 to 6 undergraduate engineering students. Data was constituted by following the traces left by the actors, both human and nonhumans, their actions and the associations they made and broke as they worked to provide a solution to a design problem. All of these traces were captured on a Web platform. Our position was that of non-participant observers to allow the participants to speak for themselves. In addition, some key participants (spokespersons) were interviewed to allow them to explain their actions. The findings of the study demonstrate that Web 2.0 technologies played a critical role in illuminating controversies encountered during the design process from the design group formation, design problem analysis, as well as the generation and realization of the design solution stages of the process. Web 2.0 technology enabled the tracing of the rich interactions among designers which allowed the mapping of provisional ties, and the translations that made these ties durable and seemingly irreversible.


Abstract This study focuses on the investigation of spectral characteristics of ground motions recorded from intermediate‐depth Vrancea earthquakes using Newmark–Hall‐type response spectrum. The database consists of more than 700 horizontal components recorded during 10 Vrancea earthquakes. In the first step of the analysis, the component‐to‐component variability is assessed and the corresponding influence of various parameters (earthquake magnitude, peak ground acceleration, soil class, position of the seismic station, or instrument type) is evaluated. Subsequently, the correlation between the spectral acceleration and the values of the peak ground motion parameters (acceleration, velocity, and displacement) is investigated. The analyses reveal an important influence of the magnitude and a significant influence of the soil class (in the case of large magnitude earthquakes) on the results. These findings are validated through the use of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method. The computed response amplification factors for the Newmark–Hall type spectrum are similar with those from other studies in the literature. Finally, a check of three control periods such as T B , T E , and T F of the Newmark–Hall‐type spectrum yields results somewhat different from the ones given in the Romanian seismic design code P100‐1 or in Eurocode 8.


Alan L. Gansberg. Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson. Scarecrow Press, 2004. 305 pages; $29.95. Bright Hope When Edward G. Robinson appeared in Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939, he was dramatising on film the liberal values that he expressed so vocally in life. The drama is an attack on Nazi sympathisers in the United States, specifically those in the German-American Bund, and the star of Little Caesar plays a dogged FBI agent who uses every wily trick (and a lot of schoolmasterly pipe-smoking) to bring the fascist subversives to justice. At the time, the production was a sensation, but seen today, it seems strident and even a little chilling. For this fictional FBI is so sure of its methods and cause that the viewer suspects any shift in the political temperature might turn this crusade for freedom into its oppressive opposite. In fact, as Alan Gansberg shows, something like this did happen. As the threat of Soviet Communism increased after the Second World War, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) began to bait Reds, pinks, and anyone who got in its way, Robinson discovered that not all subversives were Hitler-loving maniacs. Left-leaning men like him could be fingered, too. This is a film star biography, so it presents all the details of studio feuds and unhappy marriages, but its wider underlying theme is how melting pot America, with its belief in pluralism and free speech, almost collapsed under the political pressures of the Cold War. Robinson embodied the bright hope and its subsequent near eclipse. Born Emanuel Goldenberg in the Jewish section of Bucharest in 1893, he settled in New York as a boy and began the arduous climb towards becoming an American. Part of this process was political. While still at high school, he had discovered a passion for idealistic causes, and had campaigned for William Randolph Hearst in the New York mayoral election of 1909. (In those days, the yellow journalist was a champion of the people.) Another part involved the personal transformation inherent in acting. Young Manny loved the stage, and, after dropping out of college and attending drama school, he worked long and hard on Broadway until Warner Bros. signed him up in 1930. A year later, he played the leading role in Linle Caesar, and his portrayal of a menacing Italian gangster made him one of the most popular stars of the period. Riches and accolades followed. There was a swanky house on Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills, and the beginnings of a distinguished art collection that became the highlight of any Hollywood tour; Robinson and his wife Gladys became the social leaders of a tinseled elite. This glamour was standard film star stuff, but it had a far more earnest side. Moved to action by the Depression and the growing menace of European fascism, the on-screen tough guy became an off-screen soft guy by backing a host of liberal causes. In the 1930s, for example, he was involved in the Holly wood Anti-Nazi League; later, he was a member of the Hollywood Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (a mouthful known as HICCASP), which was designed to uphold the principles of Roosevelt's New Deal. Gansberg shows how these activities were a responsible engagement with the issues of a particular time; unfortunately, by the late Forties, right wing politicians and the FBI began to see them as indications of a certain fondness for Moscow. Gripped by paranoia (and delusion in some cases), HUAC and Hoover's G-men set out to drain America, and its film industry, of anything with the faintest tinge of red. …


This paper examines the impact of farmland readjustment projects on farmland use and structural adjustment in Niigata, Japan. We use census data of rural communities for 1990 and 2000 to conduct pooled regression, first-difference, difference-in-differences, and propensity score matching estimations. We find positive impact of farmland readjustment projects in alleviating farmland abandonment and in facilitating outsourcing of agricultural works and farmland rental. The results suggest that farmland consolidation may be an effective option to resolve farmland fragmentation and to promote structural adjustment in concentrating farmland to efficient farmers which is a premise for strengthening the agricultural sector under economies of scale.


Taiwan has become a global example of an economy that thrives on high technology. The island nation, officially known as the Republic of China, has amassed a positive trade balance of $80 billion with the U.S., and similarly impressive statistics with the European community, largely through its dominance in electronics. But in the past year, the global electronics business has had to face up to tough times. That's been particularly true of the computer industry in the U.S., where the recession has forced makers of high-quality brand-name computers, notably Compaq and IBM, to reduce prices severely. The reductions have affected Taiwan companies in two ways. First, major computer manufacturers have forced their suppliers of components to cut their own prices or lose contracts. As the country responsible for more than three-quarters of the motherboards--the guts of computers--made in the world, Taiwan has suffered particularly from this need to cut costs. Worse, the low prices of top name-brand machines have removed the major rationale for Taiwan-made computer clones, which have always appealed to customers on the basis of their giveaway prices. Not surprisingly, several Taiwanese electronics companies have closed down or moved into other businesses during the past 18 months. But others are struggling on, secure in the knowledge that the Taiwan government will continue to nurture high-technology enterprises. Such nurturing includes creating the kind of entrepreneurial environment in which even troubled small firms can thrive. $9.4 BILLION IN '92 Testifying to the success of that effort is the fact that the production value of Taiwan's information industry grew from $7.77 billion in 1991 to $9.42 billion last year despite the turmoil in the industry worldwide. The main vehicles for the nurturing are the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and the Institute for Information Industry (III). Both work closely with the Taiwan government to set up and implement technology policy. Founded as a private entity in 1973, ITRI's mission is "to undertake private research with the mission of accelerating the development of industrial technology." It does so in two ways: developing innovative technologies for the establishment of new high-technology industries, and integrating relevant technologies in such a way that existing industries can improve their manufacturing efficiency and product quality. About half of ITRI's funds come from the government, for specific projects in generic and exploratory research. The institute aims to devote at least half of its research resources to medium. and long-term research. Once projects are completed, they are transferred to the industrial sector. ITRI stays in touch with changing technology by forming new, specialized laboratories in response to perceived needs--and closing them down when those needs are no longer relevant. …


Over the last two decades, more than a thousand amici, representing hundreds of organizations, companies, and individuals, have signed onto amicus briefs in over a hundred patent cases, many of them landmark decisions. This paper turns the spotlight on these "behind-the-scenes" actors in the patent system, combining theoretical insights with an empirical study of amicus briefs filed in patent cases over the last 20 years in an examination of patent interest groups, the positions they have advocated, and the effectiveness of their advocacy. Amicus filers appear to have been instrumental in shaping the courts' agenda; the Supreme Court was seven times more ikely to grant cert, and the Federal Circuit eight times likely grant a petition for en banc rehearing, if urged to by an amicus. Thus, consistent with the affected groups theory, the courts seem to listen to, or at least agree with, their friends about which cases are important. It was harder to assess the influence of briefs on the merits. This study failed to find evidence that the courts were more likely to rule for the side supported by the greatest number of amici, but did not address or rule out other forms of influence that are harder to measure. Among individual amici, the briefs of the United States stood out as being exceptionally prescient. Over the 20 years studied, every single amicus brief authored by the United States in a Supreme Court patent case except one predicted the case outcome. That is to say, in almost all cases, the Court sided with the party the Government told it to, and in one case, dismissed cert as improvidently granted when the Government recommended doing so. In terms of who files briefs and their agenda, the results are somewhat surprising. Although debates about the patent system are usually cast as a fight between the pharmaceutical and hi-tech industries, patent lawyers, on their own and represented by professional associations, filed the most briefs of any single group.In addition, among companies, what seems largely to determine how amici advocate is their business model – non-practicing entities, for example, nearly always weighed in for the patentee and public companies, often against the patentee. These and other results have implications for those seeking to understand the patent system and those seeking to influence it.


Previous studies have indicated that volatile organic compounds specific to bladder cancer may exist in urine headspace, raising the possibility that they may be of diagnostic value for this particular cancer. To further examine this hypothesis, urine samples were collected from patients diagnosed with either bladder cancer or a non-cancerous urological disease/infection, and from healthy volunteers, from which the volatile metabolomes were analysed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The acquired data were subjected to a specifically designed pattern recognition algorithm, involving cross-model validation. The best diagnostic performance, achieved with independent test data provided by healthy volunteers and bladder cancer patients, was 89% overall accuracy (90% sensitivity and 88% specificity). Permutation tests showed that these were statistically significant, providing further evidence of the potential for volatile biomarkers to form the basis of a non-invasive diagnostic technique.


The Grass Valley orogenic gold district in the Sierra Nevada foothills province, central California, is the largest historical gold producer of the North American Cordillera. Gold mineralization is associated with shallowly dipping north-south veins hosted by the 160 Ma Grass Valley granodiorite to the southwest of the Grass Valley fault and steeply dipping east-west veins in accreted oceanic rocks to the northeast of this major fault. Quartz veins from both vein types show well-preserved primary textural relationships. Using a combination of petrographic and microanalytical techniques, the paragenetic sequence of minerals within the veins and the compositions of ore minerals were determined to constrain the mechanisms of quartz vein formation and gold deposition. The veins are composed of early quartz that formed through cooling of hydrothermal fluids derived from a geopressured reservoir at depth. The early quartz shows growth zoning in optical cathodoluminescence and contains abundant growth bands of primary inclusions. The primary inclusion assemblages and myriads of crosscutting secondary fluid inclusions have been affected by postentrapment modification, suggesting that early quartz formation was postdated by pronounced pressure fluctuations. These pressure fluctuations, presumably involving changes from lithostatic to hydrostatic conditions, may be related to fault failure of the host structure as predicted by the fault-valve model. Fluid flow associated with pressure cycling took place along microfractures and grain boundaries resulting in extensive recrystallization of the early quartz. Deposition of pyrite, arsenopyrite, and first-generation gold from these hydrothermal fluids causing recrystallization of the early quartz occurred as a result of wall-rock sulfidation. The gold forms invisible gold in the compositionally zoned pyrite or micron-sized inclusions within pyrite growth zones. The latest growth zones in euhedral quartz crystals that formed in association with this stage of the paragenesis contain very rare primary fluid inclusions that have not been affected by postentrapment modification. The hydrothermal system transitioned entirely to hydrostatic conditions immediately after formation of the latest quartz, explaining the preservation of the primary fluid inclusions. The formation of minor quartz in open spaces was followed by the deposition of second-generation native gold and telluride minerals that are commonly associated with base metal sulfides. Ore formation at this stage of the paragenesis is attributed to the rapid decompression of hydrothermal fluids escaping from the geopressured part of the crust into the overlying hydrostatic realm. There is no fluid inclusion evidence that this pressure drop resulted in fluid immiscibility of the hydrothermal fluids. Fluid inclusion evidence suggests that the north-south veins formed at a paleodepth of ~8 km, whereas the east-west veins appear to have formed at ~10 to 11 km below surface, confirming previous inferences that the NE-dipping Grass Valley reverse fault accommodated a large displacement. The findings of the study at Grass Valley have significant implications for the model for orogenic gold deposits, as the reconstruction of the paragenetic relationships provides evidence for the occurrence of two discrete events of gold introduction that occurred at different conditions during the evolution of the hydrothermal system.


This paper introduces a new formulation for discrete image labeling tasks, the Decision Tree Field (DTF), that combines and generalizes random forests and conditional random fields (CRF) which have been widely used in computer vision. In a typical CRF model the unary potentials are derived from sophisticated random forest or boosting based classifiers, however, the pairwise potentials are assumed to (1) have a simple parametric form with a pre-specified and fixed dependence on the image data, and (2) to be defined on the basis of a small and fixed neighborhood. In contrast, in DTF, local interactions between multiple variables are determined by means of decision trees evaluated on the image data, allowing the interactions to be adapted to the image content. This results in powerful graphical models which are able to represent complex label structure. Our key technical contribution is to show that the DTF model can be trained efficiently and jointly using a convex approximate likelihood function, enabling us to learn over a million free model parameters. We show experimentally that for applications which have a rich and complex label structure, our model achieves excellent results.


Biodiversity underpins ecosystem goods and services and hence protecting it is key to achieving sustainability. However, the persistence of many species is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation due to human land use and climate change. Conservation efforts are implemented under very limited economic resources, and therefore designing scalable, cost-efficient and systematic approaches for conservation planning is an important and challenging computational task. In particular, preserving landscape connectivity between good habitat has become a key conservation priority in recent years. We give an overview of landscape connectivity conservation and some of the underlying graph-theoretic optimization problems. We present a synthetic generator capable of creating families of randomized structured problems, capturing the essential features of real-world instances but allowing for a thorough typical-case performance evaluation of different solution methods. We also present two large-scale real-world datasets, including economic data on land cost, and species data for grizzly bears, wolverines and lynx.


In situ aircraft measurements obtained during the RACORO field campaign are analyzed to study the aerosol effects on different cloud regimes. The results show that with increasing cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), cloud droplet number concentration (Nd) significantly increases in stratocumulus (Sc) while remains almost unchanged in cumulus (Cu). By using a new approach to strictly constrain the dynamics in Cu, we found that neither simultaneously changing cloud dynamics nor dilution of cloud water induced by entrainment‐mixing can explain the observed insensitivity of Nd. The different degree of reduction in cloud supersaturation caused by increasing aerosols might be responsible for the observed different aerosol indirect effect between Sc and Cu. Plain Language Summary Aerosol‐cloud interactions have the largest uncertainty in assessing the anthropogenic contribution to present and future climate change. There still exist large differences in aerosol indirect radiative forcing between the satellite‐based and model‐based studies. Moreover, recent satellite‐based studies suggested that an increase of aerosols may reduce the cloud droplet number concentration over land, which is contrary to the conventional aerosol indirect effect. This discrepancy might be subject to the inherent limitations of satellite retrieval. In this study, detailed in situ measurements are employed to investigate the impacts of aerosol on continental stratocumulus and cumulus, respectively. We found that with increasing cloud condensation nuclei, cloud droplet number concentration (Nd) increases for stratocumulus, but exhibits a negligible change for cumulus. The analysis shows that neither the simultaneously changing cloud dynamics nor the entrainment‐mixing can explain the observed insensitivity of Nd in cumulus. The difference between stratocumulus and cumulus is likely caused by the different degree of reduction in cloud supersaturation caused by increasing aerosols. This finding would improve the understanding on aerosol effects on different cloud regimes, and is useful to the communities for an accurate estimates of first indirect radiative forcing from both observation and model.


Prosper has delivered a three part model for assessing and enhancing the value of tourism in regional areas. The
first part of the model uses simple indicators to provide an assessment of the economic, social, and environmental value attached to tourism. An indicators approach was adopted following extensive review of the application of more complex approaches to regional economic analysis. The review found that complex approaches are unlikely to produce results of sufficient validity and applicability to warrant their high resource costs (time, money, and skills). Complex models are also more difficult to maintain. The economic value is represented through quantitative indicators relating to employment and the number of businesses in tourism related sectors. These are all relative indicators (for example, proportion of all businesses which are businesses in the tourism sector or proportion of change in employment that can be attributed to change in tourism related employment). These indicators are drawn from national data sets which provide information for statistical local areas and/or postcode areas. This offers the opportunity to develop and deliver consistent national profiles through a vehicle such as Decipher. National standard data sets are supplemented in the model by more qualitative assessments of tourism's contribution to the local economy made by business operators through
interviews or surveys. Again, tracking the change in these assessments over time is the key to the model. Social and environmental values are substantially more difficult to assess. The Prosper case studies have included qualitative assessments derived from business and community meetings, local government and other administrative documents, media and a simplified network analysis identifying the extent to which community based organisations interact with the delivery of tourism services. Data sets have been identified which would allow a quantitative analysis of the extent to which tourism activity (visitor movements, business activity, business construction) encroaches on environmentally sensitive areas or is responsible for redevelopment or preservation of built environments. The case studies have not been able to implement this quantitative analysis.
The second part of the model conducts a 'diagnostic' assessment of the capacity in the region to harness the
value of tourism through innovation. Innovation is seen as a very important mechanism for both identifying regional issues and developing responses to those issues. Innovation is widely accepted in the literature as a driver of economic growth, and concepts such as 'systems of innovation' and 'regional systems of innovation' have become common in understanding how that innovation can be encouraged and placed within technical or geographical contexts. The diagnostic element of the Prosper model uses a series of techniques (including historical document analysis, interviews, and network analysis) to investigate the characteristics of region's human tourism resources in relation to their 'innovation potential'. Innovation potential is influenced by:
• Economic competence – the extent to which those resources include capacity to manage projects and
implement new ideas;
• Clustering of resources – the spatial relationships between tourism attractions and amenities and nontourism
amenities and resources which may be critical in the delivery of tourism product;
• Networks – the social and professional relationships between tourism attractions and amenities and nontourism
amenities and resources which may be critical in the delivery of tourism product;
• Development blocks – the existence of sufficient new resources or new ways of looking at existing resources to provide opportunities for innovation. Development blocks need also to be a source of tension or disequilibrium so that their use is contested and therefore options more likely to be scrutinized as to their viability;
• Entrepreneurship – the capacity for human resources to engage in new tasks and drive activity;
• Critical mass – the relationship between the capacity to supply tourism product, and the capacity to access sufficient and appropriate markets (including resident markets) to support ongoing supply;
• Local government – the extent to which local government considers tourism an important issue and is willing to engage in the innovation process
• Production and distribution of knowledge – the extent to which the history and current status of tourism is understood and communicated, and the degree to which stakeholders can access and apply new information for identifying the potential or need for change, assessing the viability of projects, and evaluating activities;
• Social, political and cultural capital – the strength of the social, political and cultural environments, and the degree to which those environments can be effectively harnessed to support tourism innovation.
The third part of the model uses 'visioning' techniques (drawing in part on experiences from Sustainable Tourism CRC projects on 'Gold Coast Visioning' led by Professor Bill Faulkner at Griffith University, and research by Walker, Lee, Goddard, Kelly & Pedersen, 2005) to engage stakeholders in developing strategies for identifying tourism value issues (based on the community awareness of the value of tourism, aspirations for enhancing value, and strategies for addressing deficiencies in innovation potential). A number of processes are available for applying visioning techniques. Our case studies typically involved community leaders accepting
ownership of the results of the application of the first components of the model and, in a facilitated or nonfacilitated way, delivering these results broadly through the community. In some cases, strategies emerged
entirely from within the region, while in others, the research team was further engaged to collate strategy
suggestions and summarise the arguments attached to these suggestions. In most cases, the final case study
write-up included reference to suggestions which appeared likely to be carried forward.
The Prosper model was tested in thirteen case studies, not simply to establish whether the relationships hypothesized between innovation potential and harnessing the value of tourism could be observed, but also to establish to extent to which participating regions viewed the application of the model as important and worthwhile in their attempts to move forward. The case studies were a mix of five new studies conducted using the Prosper model in a direct way and meta-analysis of eight previous case studies. The short time frame for the research (2 and ½ years) and the relatively long term nature of change made it impossible to design the research to evaluate the success of the strategies developed or any specific innovations in new case studies, so the metaanalysis studies were significant in this respect. The case studies strongly supported the second part of the model in particular, and the research served as an influential tool for many of the case study communities who were able to implement programs of value monitoring (through quantitative or qualitative means), identify ways in which their systems of innovation could be strengthened, and develop context specific mechanisms for
identifying and assessing the feasibility of tourism development proposals. The research has delivered a number of outputs which may be used in dissemination and commercialisation of the intellectual property. A stand-alone publication reviewing the applicability of various economic value assessment techniques to regional tourism has been produced. A quick guide to the Prosper model and assessing whether application of the model would assist a particular region has been drafted, and is slated for development in collaboration with Sustainable Tourism CRC. A detailed methodology specification has been prepared, and may be used as the basis of consulting services or the conduct of further case studies. The quantitative data sets (Census, Sensis, TTF employment analysis, labour force statistics etc.) may be made available through Decipher and included in a structured Decipher product which facilitates analysis and interpretation. A book containing research results of the thirteen case studies and an overview of the relationship between those case studies and the Prosper model has been edited by Dean Carson and Dr Jim Macbeth and has been submitted to the Sustainable Tourism CRC editorial team led by Professor Chris Cooper at the University of Queensland.


In this paper we consider the problem of searching for an arbitrarily smart and fast evader in a large environment with a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while providing guarantees of detection. Our emphasis is on the fast execution of efficient search strategies that minimize the number of UAVs and the search time. We present the first approach for computing fast guaranteed search strategies utilizing additional searchers to speed up the execution time and thereby enabling large scale UAV search. In order to scale to very large environments when using UAVs one would either have to overcome the energy limitations of UAVs or pay the cost of utilizing additional UAVs to speed up the search. Our approach is based on coordinating UAVs on sweep lines, covered by the UAV sensors, that move simultaneously through an environment. We present some simulation results that show a significant reduction in execution time when using multiple UAVs and a demonstration of a real system with three AR.Drone 2.0.


The paper analyses financial risk management practices and derivative usage in large Croatian and Slovenian non-financial companies and explores if the decision to use derivatives as risk management instruments in the analysed companies is a function of several firm's characteristics that have been proven as relevant in making financial risk management decisions. On the basis of the research results it can be concluded that forwards and swaps are by far the most important derivative instruments in both countries. Futures as representatives of standardised derivatives together with structured derivatives are more important in the Slovenian than in the Croatian companies, while exchange-traded and OTC options are unimportant means of financial risk management in both countries. A comparative analysis conducted to explore differences between risk management practices in Slovenian and Croatian companies has shown evidence that Slovenian companies use all types of derivatives, especially structured derivatives, more intensively than Croatian companies. The survey has revealed that the explored hedging rationales have little predictive power in explaining financial risk management decisions both in Croatian and Slovenian companies. The decision to use derivatives in Croatian non-financial companies is related only to the investment expenditures-to-assets ratio which controls for costly external financing hypothesis, while the decision to use derivatives in Slovenian companies is dependent only on the size of the company. It can be argued that the characteristics of the Croatian and Slovenian firms could be found in other South-eastern European countries and that findings of this research may act as a baseline from which to generalise. Therefore, the survey results analysed in this paper also suggest a broader comparison across countries in the region. The advantage of this work is that it provides an impetus for further research to move beyond the existing hedging rationales, which have proven inadequate in explaining financial risk management decisions in the Croatian and Slovenian companies.


The rise in the influence of sustainability principles has resulted in an almost overwhelming number of methods for defining, measuring and assessing sustainability and liveability. For such assessments to be accurate they must have a clearly defined 'sustainability and liveability space', be designed for the context in which the measurements are to be taken, evidence a clear causal chain and make explicit interdependencies. The degree to which current methods meet these criteria is varied. This paper introduces the City Analysis Methodology (CAM), an innovative urban analysis framework for holistically measuring the performance of UK cities with regard to sustainability and liveability. It demonstrates the need for, and defines the parameters for, interventions that enhance rather than compromise wellbeing and provides a model for other countries to leverage the sustainability and liveability of their cities. The paper concludes with an application of the CAM to the design of city infrastructure.


Farmer (1991) suggests that in a model in which there are multiple rational expectations (RE) equilibria agents may find it useful to coordinate their expectations in a unique RE equilibrium which is immune to the Lucas Critique. In this paper, we evaluate Lucas proof (LP) equilibrium performance in the context of the term structure of interest rates model by using post-war US data. Estimation results show that LP equilibrium exhibits some important features of the data that are not reproduced by the fundamental equilibrium. For instance, the short rate behaves as a random walk in a regime characterized by low conditional volatility, whereas the term spread Granger-causes changes in the short-rate in periods characterized by high conditional volatility.


This paper considers how some recent developments affect our understanding of the relative superiority of our mixed federal system of corporate lawmaking as compared with either a purely state system or a purely national one. The mixed federal system can potentially capture the gains of efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness from state competition, while using the threat, and occasional reality, of federal intervention to reduce the tendency to managerialism of Delaware. The paper argues that on the whole this story fits the reaction to the corporate scandals of the nineties. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act moved regulation in a less managerialist direction, and Delaware courts have responded, albeit subtly. The paper also considers evidence for counter-stories. It may be that federal intervention has gone too far, and led to a worse outcome than the states on their own would have achieved. Some claim that Sarbanes-Oxley is an example of such federal over-reach. That might be true, but the evidence to date does not clearly support such a conclusion. On the other side, the ongoing leading role of Delaware in corporate lawmaking might be inhibiting the system from reacting as well as a purely national system would. The paper considers this possibility in the context of developments in the regulation of shareholder access to corporate proxy material for making board nominations. This skirmish remains in progress, but the latest battle, the Second Circuit opinion in AFSCME v. AIG, suggests the mixed federal system is working pretty well.


In optical wireless communications, a channel-matched adaptive coherent receiver may be implemented using an array of receive apertures. After atmospheric channel fading estimation, several replicas of a message received through the atmosphere are combined. As an alternative to training-based channel estimation, we analyze the performance of sequential techniques for direct optimization of multi-aperture array receivers in free-space coherent laser communications.


Starting from the seminal works of Wynne Godley (1999; Godley and Lavoie 2005, 2007a, 2007b), the literature adopting stock-flow consistent (SFC) models for two or more countries has been flourishing, showing that consistently taking into account real and financial markets of two open economies will generate different results with respect to more traditional open economy models. However, few contributions, if any, have modeled two regions in the same country, and our paper aims at filling this gap. When considering a regional context, most of the adjustment mechanisms at work in open economy models—such as exchange rate movements, or changes in interest on public debt—are simply not present, as they are controlled by "external" authorities. So, what are the adjustment mechanisms at work? To answer this question, we adapt the framework suggested in Godley and Lavoie (2007a) to consider two regions that share the same monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policies. We loosely calibrate our model to Italian data, where the South (Mezzogiorno) has both a lower level of real income per capita and a lower growth rate than the North. We also introduce a fragmented labor market, as discouraged workers in the South will move North in hopes of finding commuting jobs. Our model replicates some key features of the Italian economy and sheds light on the interactions between financial and real markets in regional economies with "current account" imbalances.


The size distribution of debris flow deposition is extremely wide which may contain nearly all particles from clay and colloid to boulder. Particle size and composition have very important influence on the formation, transport and deposition of debris flow. Especially, the clay and colloid particles have direct relation to physical properties and structure of debris flow. For this reason, size analysis is a kind of important means and method of studying debris flow deposition. In this paper, on the foundation of lots of experiments on the size composition of debris flow deposition, till and river sedimentary samples, which were taken from Sichuan province, Yunnan province, and Gansu province in China, are compared and discussed. Their size parameters, such as: size mean value X¯, standard deviation σ φ , skewness Sk and kurtosis K, and the dispersive point graphs of the size parameters are presented. The research results above show that the size characteristics of debris flow deposition are different from till and river deposition, since they have different transport way and flow properties.


This is my report on my creative research. It is supplementary to my thesis exhibition of works of sculpture images of which are included in this report. These sculptures explore the idea of balance through articulation of focus. The idea of balance is expressed as a state of mind as well as a visual equilibrium. My work embodies this concept through the use of color geometric abstract forms and the use of permanent material.


The abundance of multimedia data on the Web presents both challenges (how to annotate, search, and mine) and opportunities (crawling the Web to create large structured multimedia data bases which can be used to do inference effectively). Because of the huge data volume, considering all semantic concepts as on the same (flat) level is not viable. In this paper, we introduce a unified STRUCTURED representation called multimedia information networks (MINets), which incorporates ontology and cross-media links, covering both content and context knowledge. Ontology and cross-media structures are constructed and expanded by automatically constructing MINets from web-scale data by state-of-the-art information extraction and knowledge-based population techniques. The resultant MINet will contain a wide range of linkages, including logical, statistical, and semantic relations among informative concept nodes, which connects proliferative ontology as well as cross-media web-scale resources together. The raw data collected in construction phase often contain much noisy, incomplete, or even conflicting information which could be detrimental to information extraction and utilization. Then, the redundant link structure can be utilized to distill MINets and improve quality of information (QoI). Moreover, advanced inference theory and system can be built upon the linked MINets, and then high-level ontological knowledge can be inferred and integrated in a logically harmonious network structure in MINets which is consistent with human cognition. Even more, as information channels, the ontology and cross-media links in MINets connect informative knowledge resources together, which makes it possible to increase the portability of information between different resources to increase information utilization levels.


Four algorithms are outlined, each of which has interesting features for predicting contaminant levels in groundwater. Artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), locally weighted projection regression (LWPR), and relevance vector machines (RVM) are utilized as surrogates for a relatively complex and time‐consuming mathematical model to simulate nitrate concentration in groundwater at specified receptors. Nitrates in the application reported in this paper are due to on‐ground nitrogen loadings from fertilizers and manures. The practicability of the four learning machines in this work is demonstrated for an agriculture‐dominated watershed where nitrate contamination of groundwater resources exceeds the maximum allowable contaminant level at many locations. Cross‐validation and bootstrapping techniques are used for both training and performance evaluation. Prediction results of the four learning machines are rigorously assessed using different efficiency measures to ensure their generalization ability. Prediction results show the ability of learning machines to build accurate models with strong predictive capabilities and hence constitute a valuable means for saving effort in groundwater contamination modeling and improving model performance.


Italy has been engaged in an ongoing fifty-year struggle to recover an ancient Greek bronze. The "Bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth" has a remarkable story. It was lost at sea in the Adriatic in antiquity; found by chance in international waters; smuggled into the Italian seaside village of Fano; hidden first in a bathtub, then a cabbage field; smuggled and hidden in Brazil; later conserved in Germany and London; and ultimately purchased by the Getty Museum only months after the death of the Trust's namesake, J. Paul Getty. Getty refused to allow his museum to purchase the statue during his lifetime without a thorough and diligent inquiry into the title history of the Bronze, a step the trustees of the Getty did not take prior to acquisition of the Bronze.The question is not whether the Bronze was illicit when the Getty trustees made the decision to acquire it. It most certainly was, and still is. The question now is whether the Getty will be able to continue to retain possession. In the press and in cultural property circles, the Bronze is considered nearly un-repatriatable given this convoluted history. But an Italian forfeiture action in Pesaro has quietly set in motion a means by which Italy might repatriate the Bronze through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. This transnational forfeiture marks the creation of a useful new tool in the struggle to repatriate looted and stolen cultural objects. And perhaps more importantly, the dispute signals a continuing trend reflecting the importance of domestic law in source nations in cultural heritage law.


This thesis concerns the production of natural compounds from plant material for pharmaceutical and food applications. It describes the production (extraction and isolation) of cannabinoids, the active components present in cannabis. Many cannabinoids have medicinal properties but not all cannabinoids are available in the (large) quantities necessary to develop new medicines, because so far, for large scale production, there are no economically and technically viable methods to extract those cannabinoids present in low quantities in the plant. Moreover, the currently used production process for the most important cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinol (?9-THC), has many drawbacks, such as the large use of the organic solvents, which is not only a burden to the environment but also to the safety of the operators, the production costs as well as the treatment of the produced waste. In this thesis, an alternative process using supercritical carbon dioxide is presented for the production of cannabinoids, including ?9-THC, cannabinol (CBN), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabidiol (CBD). One of the steps of ?9-THC production from cannabis plant material, is the decarboxylation reaction, transforming the ?9-THC-acid naturally present in the plant into the psychoactive ?9-THC. Experiments showed a pseudo first order reaction, with an activation barrier of 85 kJ.mol-1 and a pre-exponential factor of 3.7x108 s-1. Using molecular modeling, two options for an acid catalysed ?-keto acid type mechanism were identified. Each of these mechanisms might play a role, depending on the actual process conditions. Formic acid was shown to be a good model for a catalyst of such a reaction. A direct keto-enol mechanism catalyzed by formic acid seems to be the best explanation for the observed activation barrier and the pre-exponential factor of the decarboxylation of ?9-THC-acid. Evidence for this was found by performing an extraction experiment with Cannabis Flos. It revealed the presence of short chain carboxylic acids supporting this hypothesis. Then, in order to develop the supercritical fluid extraction process, the solubility of ?9-THC, CBN, CBG and CBD in supercritical carbon dioxide has been determined using an analytical method with a quasi-flow apparatus. First the solubility of ?9-THC has been determined at 315, 327, 334 and 345 K and in the pressure range from 13.2 to 25.1 MPa. The molar solubility for ?9-THC ranged from 0.20 to 2.95x10-4. Then, the solubility of CBN, CBG and CBD in supercritical carbon dioxide has been determined at 314, 327 and 334 K and in the pressure range from 11.3 to 20.6 MPa. The molar solubility of CBN, CBG and CBD ranged from 1.26 x 10-4 to 4.16 x 10-4, from 1.17 to 1.91 x 10-4 and from 0.88 to 2.69 x 10-4, respectively. These solubility data have been compared to each other. The solubility of the different cannabinoids in supercritical CO2 increases at 326 K in the following order: ?9-THC < CBG < CBD < CBN. The solubility data were correlated using the Peng-Robinson equation of state in combination with Van der Waals mixing rules. To continue, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using carbon dioxide was performed with Cannabis Sativa L. in a pilot scale set-up at 313 and 323 K in the pressure range from 18 to 23 MPa. The SFE yield of ?9-THC is at maximum 98 %, which is comparable to classical hexane extraction. CBN and CBG can be extracted in higher amounts with SFE than with hexane extraction. Waxes are co-extracted with the cannabinoids. They can be easily removed via a winterization step. The purity of the final extract after winterization was 85 % ?9-THC at the optimal experimental conditions found in these experiments. With a two-steps extraction, it is possible to selectively extract minor cannabinoids (i.e. CBN, CBD and CBG) in a first step at low pressure (~15 MPa), and ?9-THC in a second step at higher pressure (~20 MPa). The last step of the process is performed using Centrifugal Partition Chromatography. It uses a two-phase liquid system, instead of a solid stationary phase, as it is the case in High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Separation is realized by the partitioning of compounds between the two phases. With this technique, a successful separation of ?9- THC, CBN and CBG is presented using the two-phase system hexane / acetone / acetonitrile. A purity higher than 99% is achieved with ?9- THC. With CBN and CBG the best purity obtained is higher than 90%. To conclude, an economical and ecological evaluation of two production routes to obtain pure ?9-THC is presented: the current process using organic solvents is compared with the alternative process using supercritical carbon dioxide developed in this thesis. The alternative process is significantly cheaper than the current one, although the high price of the starting material cannabis dominates the ultimate cost price. From an ecological point of view, the alternative process is also more sustainable as it consumes less energy and generates less waste. Therefore, this alternative process is preferred from an economical and ecological point of view.


This paper discusses the evolution of subject-verb inversion in declarative root clauses in French. The frequent occurrence of such constructions in Medieval French is generally accounted for in terms of a V2 analysis, and their marginality in Modern French is attributed to the loss of V2. Given clear evidence against the assumed V2 status of Medieval French, subject-verb inversion is alternatively explained in terms of a differentiation of subject-verb inversions ('true' subject-verb inversion vs. 'NP-inversion') as well as in terms of the existence of a 'Focus Criterion'. It is claimed that while in (non-colloquial) Modern French, NP-inversion still exists, the highly limited instances of true subject-verb inversion constitute learnt vestiges. The loss of true subject-verb inversion is attributed to a parametric resetting of the Spell-Out condition associated with the 'Focus Criterion'.


Precautionary savings have often been analyzed with regard to its impact on current savings. This work focuses instead on the impact of uncertainty on savings under bequest form. We thus turn the focus on estimating whether and to what extent income variability does have an effect on post-mortem savings. We approximate the post-mortem savings with the closest dedicated savings, which is savings in term insurance, a lump sum inherited at the death of the subscriber. Furthermore, we test whether the intensity of the income variance or the riskiness of the job type - such as self-employment - matters more in the choice. Our results show that, even after controlling for income uncertainty, self-employment status is one of the most relevant variables affecting term insurance ownership.


Voice stress analyses could be relevant tools to detect deception in many forensic and security contexts. However, today's commercial voicebased lie-detectors are not supported by convincing scientific evidence. In addition to the scientific implausibility of their working principles, the experimental evidence invoked by the sellers is either anecdotal or drawn from methodologically flawed experiments. Nevertheless, criminal investigators, authorities and even some academics appear to be persuaded by the ungrounded claims of the aggressive propaganda from sellers of voice stress analysis gadgets, perhaps further enhanced by the portrays of "cutting-edge voice-analysis technology" in the entertainment industry. Clearly, because there is a serious threat to public justice and security if authorities adopt a naïve "open-minded" attitude towards sham lie-detection devices, this presentation will attempt to draw attention to plausibility and validity issues in connection with the claimed working principles of two commercial voice stress analyzers. The working principles will be discussed from a phonetics and speech analysis perspective and the processes that may lead naïve observers into interpreting as meaningful the spurious results generated by such commercial devices will be examined. Finally, the scope and limitations of using scientific phonetic analyses of voice to detect deception for forensic purposes will be discussed.


Background Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and associated pathologies are associated with pain and reduced quality of life. Physical impairments can be associated with worse symptoms and may be an important target of rehabilitation programmes in this patient group. Knowledge regarding physical impairments in people with symptomatic FAI is limited. Hypothesis In adults aged 18–50 years with symptomatic FAI: (1) to identify physical impairments in range of motion (ROM), hip muscle function and functional tasks; (2) to compare physical impairments with healthy controls; and (3) to evaluate the effects of interventions targeting physical impairments. Study design Systematic review. Methods A systematic review of the literature was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. The modified Downs and Black checklist was used for quality appraisal. Studies of adults aged 18–50 years with symptomatic FAI that examined ROM, hip muscle function and functional tasks were included. Standardised mean differences were calculated where possible or best evidence synthesis and study conclusions were presented. Results Twenty-two studies fulfilled all inclusion criteria. Methodological quality was varied. Results for hip joint ROM differences between people with symptomatic FAI compared and control subjects were varied. People with symptomatic FAI demonstrated some deficits in hip muscle strength and reduced balance on one leg when compared with control subjects. For hip joint ROM and hip muscle strength results for within-group differences between preintervention and postintervention time points were limited and inconclusive. No randomised controlled trials evaluated the effect of different types of interventions for symptomatic patients with symptomatic FAI. Conclusions People with symptomatic FAI demonstrate impairments in some hip muscle strength and single leg balance. This information may assist therapists in providing targeted rehabilitation programmes for people with FAI and associated pathology. Further research is needed to determine whether symptomatic FAI affects other aspects of functional performance; and to evaluate whether targeted interventions are effective in symptomatic FAI. Clinical relevance This information may assist therapists in providing targeted rehabilitation programmes for people with symptomatic FAI.


Millions of people are highly exposed to arsenic, especially via contaminated drinking water. Once entered the human body, arsenic underlies (hepatic) metabolism leading to various methylated species, until it is either accumulated in skin and other tissues, or finally excreted via the renal pathway. Common health consequences are, among others, hyperkeratosis, vascular diseases, and cancer. Especially environmentally relevant doses of arsenic exhibit a highly carcinogenic potential. Arsenic-induced lung cancer, as well as skin, kidney, and bladder cancer have been reported. Bladder cancer in general was reported to occur very frequently with a high recurrence rate; it is in fifth place of the most commonly diagnosed cancer diseases and on second place of those observed in the urogenital tract (Zimbardi et al., 2012). Thus, this study was conducted to focus on the mechanisms of arsenic-induced bladder cancer. Since carcinogenesis is a very complex process with highly species- and tissue-specific mechanisms, an in vitro test system was selected to assay molecular mechanisms during arsenic-induced bladder carcinognesis, taking advantage of an isolated cellular system instead of the complexicity of a whole living organism.
The aim of the study was to give an overview over some of the most relevant key events during arsenic-induced carcinogenesis, occurring as a consequence of short-term and chronic low-dose exposure by consolidating interdisciplinary research. To better understand the underlying mechanisms of arsenic carcinogenicity, studies were carried out to correlate arsenic metabolism and genotypic effects with epigenetic modifications and phenotypical alterations under chronic exposure conditions up to 90 weeks. Hence, it was important to detect and analyse intracellular arsenic species and their metabolic products. Therefore, the cellular uptake of arsenic species in non-methylating human urothelial cells (T24) in comparison to methylating human hepatic cells (HepG2) was investigated, and the intracellularly detected arsenic was speciated and quantified. Arsenic-induced genotoxic effects in T24 cells were measured by means of the Alkaline Comet Assay, and the malignant transformation after chronic arsenic treatment up to 90 weeks was assayed using the in vitro Mammalian Cell Transformation Assay, the Colony Formation Assay, and the Migration and Invasion Assay. MicroRNA analysis and examination of altered DNA methylation patterns were carried out to determine the arsenic-induced modulation of epigenetic regulation systems. Moreover, COX-2 protein, which is frequently reported to be increased in malignant tissues and therefore considerd to be an important molecula marker, was analysed. Since the various arsenic species emerging from the hepatic biotransformation of arsenic exhibit distinctly different toxicity, this study focussed especially on effects induced by the methylated metabolite monomethylarsonous acid (MMA(III)), which was recently shown to be one of the most cyto-and genotoxic metabolites. The present study aims to enhance the understanding of arsenic-induced toxicity and carcinogenesis in the urinary bladder epithelium.
The experiments conducted within the present study revealed a rapid cellular uptake of MMA(III) in both T24 and HepG2 cells, followed by subsequent conjugation to proteins and other cellular structures. While in HepG2 cells MMA(III) was further methylated to dimethylated arsenic due to the metabolic capacity of these cells, no such biotransformation was observed in T24 cells. Nevertheless, in both cellular systems oxidation to pentavalent species was observed, leading to the assumption that autophagy of affected cellular structures by utilising oxidative processes occurred. This was further confirmed by the presence of unconjugated trivalent arsenic species, but to a minor degree.
Genotoxicity of the trivalent arsenic species, as well as arsenate was detected already after 30 min of exposure. Longer exposure durations revealed cytotoxicity, overlapping genotoxic effects. Genotoxicity was observed to be not only dependent on the oxidation state, but also on the methylation state, as genotoxicity of trivalent arsenic species increased with the number of methyl groups. As a consequence and due to their biomethylation capacity, HepG2 cells appeared to be more sensitive towards the genotoxic potential of arsenic species when compared to T24 cells. Additionally, the study revealed that primary cells such as human urothelial epithelial cells (HUEPC) are more susceptible to arsenic-induced genotoxicity than permanent cell lines.
Furthermore, to investigate whether MMA(III) is only a genotoxic carcinogen or if it also exhibits non-genotoxic molecular changes, the epigenetic effects on T24 cells after chronic low-dose treatment were investigated. Key events such as modification of DNA methylation and miRNA profiles, as well as COX-2 protein activation were analysed. The experiment revealed that in T24 cells, under the chosen test conditions, exposure to MMA(III) led to the alteration of miR-15a, -19a, 19b, 30a-3p, -126, -128a, -139-5p, -146a, -200a, and -429; which are known to correlate with the occurrence of cancer diseases (Gregory et al., 2008; Hurst et al., 2009; Ichimi et al., 2009; Lin te al., 2009). This indicates that altered miRNA profiles might play a pivotal role in MMA(III)-induced further malignant transformation of T24 cells, which was phenotypically verified in experiments described below. In contrast, altered DNA methylation was only observed for C1QTNF6 and CDH1. Nevertheless, since T24 cells are transitional cell carcinoma cells of the urinary bladder, they show a distinctly altered DNA methylation background. Hence, it cannot conclusively be excluded that those changes overlay the effects caused by MMA(III) exposure.
Elevated COX-2 protein levels were observed throughout the chronic low-dose exposure to MMA(III). It can be assumed from the results that the regulation of the COX-2 protein is not accomplished by the amount of mRNA, but presumably by the interaction of COX-2 mRNA with miR-26a and -26b. Further experiments are necessary to confirm this and to unveil the respective mechanism.
Among the molecular effects of chronic low-dose exposure to MMA(III) also the development of altered phenotypic appearance was investigated. The determination of the in vitro Mammalian Cell Transformation Test, the Colony Formation Assay, and the Migration and Invasion Assay revealed further malignant transformatioin of T24 cells after long-term exposure to MMA(III). In addition to morphological changes, the loss of contact inhibition and anchorage dependent growth were observed. Moreover, T24 cells chronically treated with MMA(III) developed the ability of migration and invasion, which can be concluded to be the basis for metastasizing properties in vivo.
In summary, MMA(III) was shown to be rapidly taken up and to exhibit both genotoxicity, as well as tumour progression (i.e. non-genotoxic carcinogenic activities such as COX-2 protein activation, altered miRNA expression profiles, and altered DNA methylation), which resulted in a further malignant transformation of T24 carcinoma cells after chronic low-dose exposure up to 90 weeks. This study indicated various molecular modes of action of MMA(III) in vitro, which only could be analysed and correlated to each other by consolidating interdisciplinary research. Nevertheless, the results must be further confirmed in vivo to be conclusively correlated to the MMA(III)-induced development of bladder cancer.


Checkpoint and recovery are important fault-tolerance techniques for distributed systems. The two categories of existing strategies incur unacceptable performance cost either at run time or upon failure recovery, when applied to large-scale distributed systems. In particular, the large number of messages and processes in these systems causes either considerable checkpoint as well as logging overhead, or catastrophic global-wise recovery effect. This thesis proposes a locality-driven strategy for efficiently checkpointing and recovering such systems with both affordable runtime cost and controllable failure recoverability. Messages establish dependencies between distributed processes, which can be either preserved by coordinated checkpoints or removed via logging. Existing strategies enforce a uniform handling policy for all message dependencies, and hence gains advantage at one end but bears disadvantage at the other. In this thesis, a generic theory of Quasi-Atomic Recovery has been formulated to accommodate message handling requirements of both kinds, and to allow using different message handling methods together. Quasi-atomicity of recovery blocks implies proper confinement of recoveries, and thus enables localization of checkpointing and recovery around such a block and consequently a hybrid strategy with combined advantages from both ends. A strategy of group checkpointing with selective logging has been proposed, based on the observation of message localization around 'locality regions' in distributed systems. In essence, a group-wise coordinated checkpoint is created around such a region and only the few inter-region messages are logged subsequently. Runtime overhead is optimized due to largely reduced logging efforts, and recovery spread is as localized as region-wise. Various protocols have been developed to provide trade-offs between flexibility and performance. Also proposed is the idea of process clone that can be used to effectively remove program-order recovery dependencies among successive group checkpoints and thus to stop inter-group recovery spread. Distributed executions exhibit locality of message interactions. Such locality originates from resolving distributed dependency localization via message passing, and appears as a hierarchical 'region-transition' pattern. A bottom-up approach has been proposed to identify those regions, by detecting popular recurrence patterns from individual processes as 'locality intervals', and then composing them into 'locality regions' based on their tight message coupling relations between each other. Experiments conducted on real-life applications have shown the existence of hierarchical locality regions and have justified the feasibility of this approach. Performance optimization of group checkpoint strategies has to do with their uses of locality. An abstract performance measure has been-proposed to properly integrate both runtime overhead and failure recoverability in a region-wise marner. Taking this measure as the optimization objective, a greedy heuristic has been introduced to decompose a given distributed execution into optimized regions. Analysis implies that an execution pattern with good locality leads to good optimized performance, and the locality pattern itself can serve as a good candidate for the optimal decomposition. Consequently, checkpoint protocols have been developed to efficiently identify optimized regions in such an execution, with assistance of either design-time or runtime knowledge.


Tuberosity fractures of the fifth metatarsal are common. The majority of these fractures are treated nonoperatively with good outcome. Surgery is indicated for nonunions, delayed unions, comminuted fractures, and displaced fractures. The surgical modalities include screw fixation, suture anchor fixation, Kirschner wires, tension band wiring, and locking plates. We report a case of a symptomatic nonunion of a displaced fracture of the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal in a young patient treated with a tension band suture fixation that to our knowledge has not been described before.


Wine is first and foremost associated with pleasure; and not only in ancient Greece, where this survey is focused on. As it is commonly known, it accompanied the famous symposia of men, where it played the primary role and it's not by chance that symposia received their name exactly from the drinking session of them, which actually contained only one kind of drink, i.e. wine (of course, mixed with water, the so-called οἶνος κεκραμένος, since it was offered to mortals and not to gods). Wine had (and still has) the property of bringing the person who drinks it in a state of joy and delight, relaxation and relief. But it was not only the comrade of men during their "convivia". It's also detected in Greeks' offerings to their gods – mainly to the heavenward, not the chthonic ones; these offerings (i.e. to the Olympian gods) were called spondae (σπονδαί) and contained a variety of liquids, such as honey, olive oil and milk, but wine was in a way the protagonist among them, since it was its absence from (most of) the choae (χοαί) (the offerings to the chthonic gods), which differentiated the one kind of offerings from the other. 1


This paper provides a theoretical background, based on legal and political fields, which we adapt to explain political interference in accounting in the "public interest", at a critical moment —the last financial crisis. This framework goes beyond the positive accounting theory, and in particular the political cost hypothesis, to explain politicians' influence on financial reporting. We examine the behavior of the newly elected Spanish government, which issued accounting impairment rules for banks in spite of IFRS being in place. The paper considers a highly politically connected financial entity —Bankia— as a case under study, where the political interference might have impacted the accounting practices as well. The analysis shows how after applying the new rules, the financial industry impairment trend was completely unrelated with the evolution of delinquency, as one could expect if IAS 39 were followed. Regarding Bankia, our analysis suggests that its bankruptcy was orchestrated as a means to justify the immediate government request of EU funding. We argue that the government intervention, which implied non-compliance with IFRS, was in line with its economic goals, led to the financial sector bailout, and avoided the rescue of the entire country. This is what we call "breaking rules to achieve public interest". Our research provides a new angle to consider the political motivations to intervene in accounting, and highlights the long-term unintended consequences of governmental interference for the globalization of accounting standards


We examined the evidence for non-surgical interventions and for economic costs for mild traumatic brain injury patients by a systematic search of the literature and a best-evidence synthesis. After screening 38,806 abstracts, we critically reviewed 45 articles on intervention and accepted 16 (36%). We reviewed 16 articles on economic costs and accepted 7 (44%). We found some evidence that early educational information can reduce long-term complaints and that this early intervention need not be intensive. Most cost studies were performed more than a decade ago. Indirect costs are probably higher than direct costs. Studies comparing costs for routine hospitalized observation vs the use of computerized tomography scan examination for selective hospital admission indicate that the latter policy reduces costs, but comparable clinical outcome of these policies has not been demonstrated. The sparse scientific literature in these areas reflects both conceptual confusion and limited knowledge of the natural history of mild traumatic brain injury.


We present a novel approach for the measurement and estimation of network traffic utilization between network nodes in heterogeneous environment. This research investigates performance evaluation of network interface port on heterogeneous services and technologies environment. We propose an enhanced equation to evaluate the performance of network interface port via Little Law and Queuing theories to improve the evaluation algorithm. To get accuracy results on the performance of simulation model, we measure (verify and validate) data from lab experiment and real network environment. We use network management tool to capture those data and Fluke Optiview device to generate traffic. As a result, this simulation model can provide a good approximation of the real traffic observed in the real network environment. Through laboratory and field experiments, it shows that the model via simulation is capable of approximating the performance of network utilization and traffic over heterogeneous services and techniques within a minimum error range.


A parameterized linear mathematical model of the longitudinal dynamics of an airship is undergoing development. This model is intended to be used in designing control systems for future airships that would operate in the atmospheres of Earth and remote planets. Heretofore, the development of linearized models of the longitudinal dynamics of airships has been costly in that it has been necessary to perform extensive flight testing and to use system-identification techniques to construct models that fit the flight-test data. The present model is a generic one that can be relatively easily specialized to approximate the dynamics of specific airships at specific operating points, without need for further system identification, and with significantly less flight testing. The approach taken in the present development is to merge the linearized dynamical equations of an airship with techniques for estimation of aircraft stability derivatives, and to thereby make it possible to construct a linearized dynamical model of the longitudinal dynamics of a specific airship from geometric and aerodynamic data pertaining to that airship. (It is also planned to develop a model of the lateral dynamics by use of the same methods.) All of the aerodynamic data needed to construct the model of a specific airship can be obtained from wind-tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics


[Excerpt] Labor Relations and the Litigation Explosion is a very readable book that is easily accessible to nonspecialists. (The author has presented more technical treatments of the material elsewhere; see Flanagan 1986a, 1986b.) The early chapters begin with a discussion of federal policy towards labor relations in the United States under the National Labor Relations Act, a documentation of the growth of unfair labor practice charges that occurred over the 1950-1980 period and then a demonstration that this growth can be only partially "explained" by the changing industrial and regional distribution of employment in the United States. Quite interestingly, he presents comparative data from Canada, which has a regulatory system for labor relations similar to the NLRA, and shows that similar growth occurred there. Chapter 4 then critically surveys the extensive prior literature that purports to show how unfair labor practice charges have influenced union growth in the United States; Flanagan's conclusion here, buttressed by some empirical work of his own, is that changes in labor law policy are unlikely to have a broad influence on the degree of union representation in the


to make researchers out of its readers, but rather to show them the many tools they and their marketing staffs have at their disposal. One statistical technique, discriminant analysis, can reveal guests' perceptions of how your hotel differs from the competition. A second technique, cluster analysis, can show you how well your guests think you are performing. Together, these techniques allow the operator to establish a market position and rise above the competition by doing a better job of meeting travelers' perceived needs.


The business environment of the manufacturing industry is changing from a hardware-based product focus to a process and function focus. A current industrial interest is the development and sale of functions. This function could be realised as a product based on hardware, software and services, and may be sold as a function rather than as hardware. This function view is referred to as Functional Products (FP). The new focus for the customer is on value rather than hardware. This presents new challenges for how engineering hardware design may best be carried out. Sale of functional products requires a changed business model in which the price of the functional product is related to the functionality of the product itself; hence the name functional product. The supplier can in such a scenario no longer sell maintenance and spare parts. Instead, these activities become a cost, thus motivating the supplier to increase process efficiency, decrease internal production cost by using less energy per produced unit andincrease knowledge about use-cases. The researcher's challenge is how to create new knowledge regarding functional product development for academic as well as for industrial benefit. The research question was formulated as: How may methods or tools for design process modelling and simulation be developed to support functional product development? Four case studies were carried out in Swedish industry. Case study 1 was carried out in cooperation with Hagglunds Drives AB. Case study 2 was carried out in cooperation with companies Hagglunds Drives AB, Volvo Aero and Volvo Car Corporation. Case study 3 was carried out in cooperation Volvo Aero and Case study 4 was carried out in cooperation with nine industrial companies during the formation of the Faste Laboratory, Centre for Functional Product Innovation. Results include the need for integrating product development process and company strategy for functional product development and the identification of the need for new methods and tools to enable better understanding of technology and business processes. The research shows the possibility of evaluating cost and time of development before doing the actual product development work by modelling and simulating the design process. Thus, the knowledge that previously was implicit in the work process is made explicit and possible to manipulate for a desired outcome. Linking the future business cases to work processes by modelling and simulation enables knowledge re-use and work-process predictions concerning cost and time. Hence, modelling and simulation of work processes results in better knowledge of company development capacity earlier than before, thus allowing shorter reaction time to changes in the business domain.


Therapeutic colonoscopy with electrocautery is widely used around the world. Adequate colonic cleansing is considered a crucial factor for the safety of this procedure. Colonic gas explosion, although rare, is one of the most frightening iatrogenic complications during colonoscopy with electrocautery. This complication is the result of an accumulation of colonic gases to explosive concentrations, but may be prevented by meticulous bowel preparation. The purpose of this review is to discuss the indications and the types of bowel preparations for therapeutic colonoscopy, and to contribute recommendations for the adequate bowel preparation for colonoscopy with electrocautery.


DP complements of prepositions in Modern Hebrew often bear morphosyntactic definiteness marking that is triggered by the definiteness value of the noun modified by the PP. Although reminiscent of definiteness agreement with attributive APs, the agreement observed with PPs is not always obligatory. This article argues that what distinguishes modifiers that display obligatory definiteness agreement is that they denote properties. I propose that the morphosyntactic definiteness feature of property-denoting modifiers is uninterpretable and therefore it must be checked by agreement. Checking is made possible by the fact that pps in Hebrew have the structure of a construct state, where definiteness features spread from an embedded DP to a higher projection.


Background and aims: Human adenoviruses can cause a diversity of clinical diseases, but there is no antiviral therapy formally approved by adenovirus infections. Thus, antiviral agents derived from medicinal plants which are effective against adenoviruses infections are urgently required. Therefore, this research was aimed to evaluate in vitro antiadenovirus activity of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel extract. Methods: In this research, crude ethanol extract of pomegranate peel was prepared. Anti-adenovirus activity of the extract was evaluated on Hela cell line using MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol–2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) and 50% Cytotoxicity Concentration (CC50) of the extract were determined using regression analysis. To determine antioxidant activity, total phenol content, and flavonoids content of the extract, the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay; Folin-Ciocalteu method and aluminum chloride colorimetric method was used, respectively. Results: The CC50 and IC50 of the extract were 165±10.1 and 18.6±6.7µg/ml, respectively. The selectivity index (SI), the ratio of CC50 and IC50, was 8.89. The IC50 of DPPH radical was 7.7±1.21 μg/ml, compare with butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), with IC50 of 25.41±1.89 μg/ml. The total phenol and Flavonoid contents were 282.9 mgGAE/g and 136.6mg/g, respectively. This study revealed that the pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Conclusion: peel extract exhibited Anti-adenovirus activity, with SI value of 8.9, suggesting its potential use as Anti-adenovirus agents. Also this extract with high phytoconstituents could be a promising source of medicinally important natural compound.


OBJECTIVE
We investigated differences in observed performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and self-reported satisfaction with social role performance between people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI) and age- and gender-matched control participants.

METHOD
We measured observed performance of 14 IADLs using the Independence, Safety, and Adequacy domains of the Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills (PASS) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information Systems (PROMIS) to examine satisfaction with social role performance.

RESULTS
Total PASS scores were significantly lower in participants with a-MCI (median=40.6) than in control participants (median=44.2; p=.006). Adequacy scores were also significantly lower. No significant differences were found between groups on the PROMIS measures.

CONCLUSION
IADL differences between groups were related more to errors in adequacy than to safety and independence. Occupational therapy practitioners can play a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of subtle IADL deficits in people with MCI.


Additional information Abstract This chapter introduces quasi-steady water vaporization under mid-infrared (IR) radia- tion and the IR absorption of characteristic radiation associated with the first-kind liquid-gaseous phase transition of water. When characteristic radiation in the mid-IR spectral range is applied to water surface, the strong volumetric absorption of radiation energy in the liquid-phase causes water to be nearly isothermal. In addition to volumet- ric absorption, surface absorption of characteristic radiation induces vaporization of water. The complete mechanism of liquid-gaseous phase-transition radiation involves the direct surface absorption/emission of infrared energy accompanied by evaporation/ condensation of water. A direct consequence of excess characteristic radiation upon water surface is the induced supersaturation. This mechanism opens up a door for enhanced distillation under characteristic radiation. Blackbody-like materials such as black anodized aluminum surfaces and metal surfaces painted in black are recommended to be heated to ~250 (cid:1) C to serve as economical radiation sources. For isothermal water at room temperatures, ~20% supersaturation can be induced by hemispherical Blackbody radiation with temperature ~11 (cid:1) C higher than the water temperature. In this situation, energy extracted from the ambient for water vaporization can be as much as 80% of latent heat. With radiation-enhanced evaporation, the production cost for distilled water is signifi- cantly reduced as compared to distillation at the boiling point.


This paper empirically investigates the issue of contagion from the US stock market to the
West African Regional Stock Market (BRVM) during the subprime crisis. It carries out aggregate
and sectoral level analyses within a modified EGARCH framework. The results are
twofold: 1) at the aggregate level, there are contagion effects in the mean and volatility from
the US market to the BRVM; 2) at the sectoral level, it appears that all economic sectors have
undergone the crisis through either the mean or the volatility or both.


Abstract This work presents a study of mixed gender agreement in the case of hybrid nouns in Russian. Examination of a number of approaches which seek to account for the category "gender" shows that these approaches are problematic when trying to explain mixed gender agreement in hybrid nouns. It is proposed here that the multiple-layer DP-hypothesis by Zamparelli (1995 and subsequent work) is best suited to analyze the Russian data. However, this rests on the crucial assumption that Russian demonstratives can occupy multiple positions within the DP, something that must still be verified by future work.


Whether fish biomanipulation is an efficient restoration technique in eutrophic warm sub/tropical lakes has been subject to recent debate. Our investigations undertaken in warm Lake Eymir, Turkey show that fish re- moval increased water clarity during a five-year period. Rapid re-colonisation of submerged plants, Potamogeton pectinatus and Ceratophyllum demersum, occurred. This recovery was achieved at higher total phosphorus (TP) levels than the suggested threshold for stability, probably owing to the nitrogen-limited condition of the lake. Re- establishment of vegetation coincided with significantly reduced concentrations of TP and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). Abundance of the large-bodied Daphnia pulex was low and it later disappeared completely from the zooplankton community, probably due to increased fish predation. A severe drought, occurring two years after the fish removal, significantly lowered the water level, increased the hydraulic residence time and caused an expan- sion of the vegetation. The drought was also associated with a significant increase in salinity, conductivity, nutrient concentrations (TP and DIN) and in the abundance of Arctodiaptomus bacillifer. The in-lake nutrient amounts became more dependent on internal processes rather than on the external loading, which was very low during the drought period. When the water level rose to normal values, the concentrations of TP and soluble reactive phosphate (SRP) decreased. However, the DIN concentration significantly increased due to slowed denitrification processes in consequence of the low availability of dissolved oxygen. This increase in ammonium concentrations may have contributed to the instability of clear-water conditions by releasing the lake from its former nitrogen-limited state, since the TP levels in the lake had already surpassed critical levels. Along with this, tench (Tinca tinca ) biomass in- creased to pre-biomanipulation levels and the pike (Esox lucius) to planktivorous fish ratio decreased with increased chlorophyll-a concentrations, largely by inedible cyanobacteria, which led to a decline in summer water clarity but not to disappearance of submerged plants. The early growth of plants was probably controlled by the spring water clarity, which remained high, and the lake maintained its macrophyte-dominated state, despite the relatively turbid conditions prevailing in summer. The highly positive effect of the Lake Eymir restoration effort contradicts the experiences from other subtropical lakes. This could be due to the fact that warm Lake Eymir being at high latitude with a strong presence of predatory fish and limited abundance of planktivorous fish species, as opposed to low altitude warm lakes. However, drought as an inherent feature of the arid region may be even more important in the future as drier conditions are predicted for the Mediterranean region in consequence of the global climate change.


The large volume of protein-ligand structures now available enables innovative and efficient protocols in computational FBDD (Fragment-Based Drug Design) to be proposed based on experimental data. In this work, we build a database of MED-Portions, where a MED-Portion is a new structural object encoding protein-fragment binding sites. MED-Portions are derived from mining all available protein-ligand structures with any library of small molecules. Combined with the MED-SuMo software to superpose similar protein interaction surfaces, pools of matching MED-Portions can be retrieved from any binding surface query. The rapidity of this technology allows its application to a diverse set of 107 protein binding sites. The selectivity of the protocol is shown by a qualitative correlation between the average hydrophobicity of the pools of MED-Portions and those of the binding sites. To generate hitlike molecules, MED-Portions are combined in 3D with the MED-Hybridise toolkit. Our MED-Portion/MED-SuMo/MED-Hybridise protocol is applied to two targets that represent important protein superfamilies in drug design: a protein kinase and a G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR). We retrieved actives molecules of PubChem bioassays for the two targets. The results show the potential for finding relevant leads from any protein 3D structure since the occurrence of interfamily MED-Portions is 25% for protein kinase and almost 100% for the GPCR.


A novel structure with high surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity and bio-specificity as a SERS-based immuno-sensor (named as Raman reporter-labeled immuno-Au aggregate) is demonstrated and employed for protein detection. In each fabrication process, the features of those aggregates are obtained and characterized by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) extinction spectra, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures, and SERS spectra. Experimental results indicate that proper amounts of the reporter molecules can result in the moderate aggregation morphologies of gold nanoparticles. Compared with the previously reported method using Raman reporterlabeled immuno-Au nanoparticles, more sensitive SERS-based protein detection is realized with this novel immuno-sensor.


Hailed as the "cake discovery of the century" back in the late 1940s when it was first introduced to home bakers, the chiffon cake remains a firm favourite the world over seven decades on. And no wonder, as chiffon cakes are not just light, fluffy and moist, everything that is desirable in a cake, but also low in sugar and butter-free! Although chiffon cakes are typically baked round and tall, creative bakers Susanne Ng and Tan Phay Shing found that they could break from this mould (!) and inject a dose of fun and lots of creativity into making chiffon cakes a whole new way! From multi-colour patterned cakes, tiered cakes, decorated cakes and cakes with hidden designs, to shaped cakes, cake pops and cupcakes, all decorated without the need for cream or fondant, you'll be amazed at what you can create using chiffon cake, with results that taste as good as they look! Get creative and rediscover the cake of the century with Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes today!


Dye-sensitized solar cells are a class of photovoltaics that have shown promise in producing electricity at a reasonable price. Although the processes limiting performance of the devices are quite well understood, their quantification has not been incorporated into a single consistent framework. In this study this framework, based on continuum charge transport equations, is presented and used to investigate the effectiveness of common characterisation methods. Approximate analytical solutions to the model are also derived and it is shown that these can be used to solve the device model inverse problem by fitting the solutions to impedance spectroscopy measurements. Experimental results indicate that the overall device model is a good description of the system and that it can be used to quantify different power loss mechanisms. Additionally some initial work was undertaken to formulate a charge transport model for a new class of photovoltaics called perovskite cells. The cell is modelled as a p-i-n heterojunction where the perovskite absorber is an intrinsic semiconductor sandwiched between two selective contacts. Simulations indicate that a significant built-in field drives free charges towards the contacts significantly improving charge collection.


Sudrajat, I. S., E. S. Rahayu, Kusnandar and Supriyadi, 2017. Effect of social factors in stochastic frontier profi t of organic rice farming in Boyolali. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 23 (4): 551–559 This research explored about the profi t of organic rice farming system that infl uenced by social factors with stochastic frontier Cobb-Douglas profi t function and MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation). The observation was made at farmer groups namely Pangudi Raharjo and Pangudi Boga in Dlingo Village, Mojosongo, Boyolali, Central Java, Indonesia. Stochastic frontier method is equation model to estimate the parameters of the factors that will affect the level of profi t effi ciency in order to be close to the maximum (frontier). In this model, the factors that affecting the profi tability and the factors causing the profi t ineffi ciency of organic rice farming can be seen. This model was called composed error model because the error term consists of two components, namely the external factor/ errors caused by factors that can't be controlled by the farmers (V1) and internal/ errors caused by factor that can be controlled by the farmers (U1). Error due to internal factors (U1) is composed of economic and social factors. This study elaborated the effects of social factors on ineffi ciency in the profi t of organic rice farming system. As the result, the most dominant social factor was management which followed by frequency of participation in training, the role of institutions/ associations, frequency of participation in counseling, and the age of the farmers.


Abstract. The degradation of 2-aminoethanol (MEA) by the hydroxyl radical (OH) was studied in the European Photoreactor (EUPHORE), a large outdoor environmental chamber. High-Temperature Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (HT-PTR-MS) and Fast Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) were used to follow concentrations of reactants in the gas phase. Aerosol mass concentrations were tracked with Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (AMS). The chamber aerosol model MAFOR was applied to quantify losses of MEA to the particle phase. The rate constant k(OH + MEA) was determined relative to the rate constant of the 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene reaction with OH and was found to be (9.2 ± 1.1) × 10−11 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, and thus the reaction between OH radicals and MEA proceeds a factor of 2–3 faster than estimated by structure-activity relationship (SAR) methods. Main uncertainty of the relative rate determination is the unknown temporal behaviour of the loss rate of MEA to chamber wall surfaces during the sunlit experiments. Nucleation and growth of particles observed in the experiments could be reproduced by the chamber model that accounted for condensation of gaseous oxidation products, condensation of ethanolaminium nitrate and nucleation involving MEA and nitric acid.


This article analyses the legal framework implemented in Portugal for the execution of its Recovery and Resilience Plan. Starting from the analysis of the legal framework offered by the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), it critically analyses the main regulations created on a special or exceptional basis for the implementation of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRRP), with emphasis on the governance model, but also on the exceptional measures to facilitate budgetary procedures, expenditure authorisation and staff hiring and also special public procurement measures. As these special and exceptional measures are, as a rule, intended to relax or reduce the mechanisms of prior administrative control of certain procedures, the external control of special public procurement measures by the Portuguese Court of Auditors was strengthened. Lastly, and despite the Portuguese legislator not dedicating special legislation to it, the most appropriate means for resolving any legal disputes arising from the implementation of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan are addressed. The present article will be divided and published in two parts. The first part will be dedicated to the RRF, the PRRP and special measures for its implementation already with reference to the special public procurement measures approved in this context. The second part will be dedicated to the analysis of the special measures for public procurement and the appropriate means for the resolution of possible disputes arising from the execution of the national RRP. In each part we will present the respective conclusions. Keywords: EU Next Generation Funds, Recovery and Resilience Facility, Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan, administrative arbitration