In a software system's development lifecycle, engineers make numerous design decisions that subsequently cause architectural change in the system. Previous studies have shown that, more often than not, these architectural changes are unintentional by-products of continual software maintenance tasks. The result of inadvertent architectural changes is accumulation of technical debt and deterioration of software quality. Despite their important implications, there is a relative shortage of techniques, tools, and empirical studies pertaining to architectural design decisions. In this paper, we take a step toward addressing that scarcity by using the information in the issue and code repositories of open-source software systems to investigate the cause and frequency of such architectural design decisions. Furthermore, building on these results, we develop a predictive model that is able to identify the architectural significance of newly submitted issues, thereby helping engineers to prevent the adverse effects of architectural decay. The results of this study are based on the analysis of 21,062 issues affecting 301 versions of 5 large open-source systems for which the code changes and issues were publicly accessible. ACM Reference Format: Arman Shahbazian, Daye Nam, Nenad Medvidovic . 2018. Toward Predicting Architectural Significance of Implementation Issues. In MSR '18: MSR '18: 15th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories , May 28–29, 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden. ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 4, 5 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3196398.3196440


1. The histamine-forming capacity, i.e. histidine decarboxylase activity, was studied in the acid-secreting mucosa of the human stomach employing a highly sensitive and specific isotope-dilution method. Activity was observed in each of six specimens. 2. The enzyme, histamine methyltransferase, which methylates ring nitrogen, was also present and the product, which is inactive as a gastric acid secretogogue, was observed. 3. The products of side-chain N-methylation, N-methylhistamine and N-dimethylhistamine, both of which are highly active in promoting acid secretion, could not be detected by biological and chromatographic techniques.


Objective We sought to examine whether the effect of treatment modality and drugs for cerebral vasospasm on clinical outcomes differs between elderly and non-elderly subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) patients in Japan. Methods We analyzed the J-ASPECT Study Diagnosis Procedure Combination database (n = 17,343) that underwent clipping or coiling between 2010 and 2014 in 579 hospitals. We stratified patients into two groups according to their age (elderly [≥75 years old], n = 3,885; non-elderly, n = 13,458). We analyzed the effect of treatment modality and anti-vasospasm agents (fasudil hydrochloride, ozagrel sodium, cilostazol, statin, eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA], and edaravone) on in-hospital poor outcomes (mRS 3–6 at discharge) and mortality using multivariable analysis. Results The elderly patients were more likely to be female, have impaired levels of consciousness and comorbidity, and less likely to be treated with clipping and anti-vasospasm agents, except for ozagrel sodium and statin. In-hospital mortality and poor outcomes were higher in the elderly (15.8% vs. 8.5%, 71.7% vs. 36.5%). Coiling was associated with higher mortality (odds ratio 1.43, 95% confidence interval 1.2–1.7) despite a lower proportion of poor outcomes (0.84, 0.75–0.94) in the non-elderly, in contrast to no effect on clinical outcomes in the elderly. A comparable effect of anti-vasospasm agents on mortality was observed between non-elderly and elderly for fasudil hydrochloride (non-elderly: 0.20, 0.17–0.24), statin (0.63, 0.50–0.79), ozagrel sodium (0.72, 0.60–0.86), and cilostazol (0.63, 0.51–0.77). Poor outcomes were inversely associated with fasudil hydrochloride (0.59, 0.51–0.68), statin (0.84, 0.75–0.94), and EPA (0.83, 0.72–0.94) use in the non-elderly. No effect of these agents on poor outcomes was observed in the elderly. Conclusions In contrast to the non-elderly, no effect of treatment modality on clinical outcomes were observed in the elderly. A comparable effect of anti-vasospasm agents was observed on mortality, but not on functional outcomes, between the non-elderly and elderly.


Background: Post-discharge Medicines Use Reviews (dMURs) were introduced into the English community pharmacy contract in 2011, with the aim of improving understanding and use of medication by patients who have experienced changes to their medicines in hospital. Early evidence showed uptake of dMURs to be poor. Furthermore, despite being a nationally commissioned service, there is little evidence of the benefit of dMURs to patients.
In light of the documented medication problems that occur in older people on transfer of care, a randomised controlled feasibility study was devised to investigate the feasibility and potential outcomes of a transitional care service for older patients which utilises community pharmacists via the dMUR service

Methods: Hospital pharmacists identified in-patients aged over 65 years who could potentially benefit from a dMUR. Participants were randomised to be referred for a dMUR with their usual community pharmacist or to receive standard discharge care.

Results and Contribution: This study is the first to report on patient outcomes following dMUR referrals. Through interventions made by community pharmacists, referrals may provide a 4-fold return on investment to the NHS in terms of improved quality of care. There were trends towards a shorter length of stay on readmission and reduction in A&E visits in the months following dMUR, and they may also prevent medication related readmissions and deterioration in medication adherence and physical health over time.
However this work revealed significant challenges in providing dMUR referral services to older patients. Being housebound due to poor mobility or health is a major barrier, due to difficulties experienced by community pharmacists with providing domiciliary dMURs. Carer management of medication is another. It is proposed that the provision of domiciliary dMURs should be facilitated by simplifying and clarifying the process for community pharmacists. Proxy dMURs with carers should be allowed in certain cases.
Another key proposal is that the dMUR service should be re-designed to involve at least two parts. Remuneration should reflect the complexity and time needed for dMURs compared to 'standard' MURs.
Lack of time of hospital pharmacists is a barrier to recruiting appropriate patients for dMUR referral and making good quality referrals. Electronic referral from hospital to community pharmacy may assist and should be implemented more widely. It is also suggested that hospital pharmacies should be remunerated for making referrals.


Seven Rules for Social Research teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without. Glenn Firebaugh provides indispensable practical guidance for anyone doing research in the social and health sciences today, whether they are undergraduate or graduate students embarking on their first major research projects or seasoned professionals seeking to incorporate new methods into their research. The rules are the basis for discussions of a broad range of issues, from choosing a research question to inferring causal relationships, and are illustrated with applications and case studies from sociology, economics, political science, and related fields. Though geared toward quantitative methods, the rules also work for qualitative research. Seven Rules for Social Research is ideal for students and researchers who want to take their technical skills to new levels of precision and insight, and for instructors who want a textbook for a second methods course. The Seven Rules: (1) There should be the possibility of surprise in social research. (2) Look for differences that make a difference, and report them. (3) Build reality checks into your research. (4) Replicate where possible. (5) Compare like with like. (6) Use panel data to study individual change and repeated cross-section data to study social change. (7) Let method be the servant, not the master.


Advanced approaches towards defense management, and the process of the ongoing force transformation in particular, rely to a great extent on CapabilitiesBased Planning (CBP) to provide for robust response to a broad spectrum of threats and challenges. Our assumption is that CBP has considerable potential to enhance initiatives for security sector transformation. This paper outlines a planning framework, based on centralized planning and agency-based development of security sector capabilities. It links objectives, security ambitions, planning scenarios, tasks, required and affordable capabilities, and planning risks. The distribution of capabilities among security sector organizations accounts for their traditions, experience, and current roles, but focuses on cost effectiveness. The development of capabilities is subject to regular monitoring, assessment of gaps and risks, and coordinated decision making on corrective measures. Then, the paper presents possible levels of integration of the security sector. The conclusion is that coordinated capability development, with capabilities-based planning as its central feature, should be seen as the core process in security sector transformation.


Comparison of the quality of despeckled US medical images is complicated because there is no image of a human body that would be free of speckles and could serve as a reference. A number of various image metrics are currently used for comparison of filtering methods; however, they do not satisfactorily represent the visual quality of images and medical expert's satisfaction with images. This paper proposes an innovative use of relative multivariate kurtosis for the evaluation of the most important edges in an image. Multivariate kurtosis allows one to introduce an order among the filtered images and can be used as one of the metrics for image quality evaluation. At present there is no method which would jointly consider individual metrics. Furthermore, these metrics are typically defined by comparing the noisy original and filtered images, which is incorrect since the noisy original cannot serve as a golden standard. In contrast to this, the proposed kurtosis is the absolute measure, which is calculated independently of any reference image and it agrees with the medical expert's satisfaction to a large extent. The paper presents a numerical procedure for calculating kurtosis and describes results of such calculations for a computer-generated noisy image, images of a general purpose phantom and a cyst phantom, as well as real-life images of thyroid and carotid artery obtained with SonixTouch ultrasound machine. 16 different methods of image despeckling are compared via kurtosis. The paper shows that visually more satisfactory despeckling results are associated with higher kurtosis, and to a certain degree kurtosis can be used as a single metric for evaluation of image quality.


A long-term study was conducted between 1981 and 2001 in St Vincent, West Indies, and other short-term studies were conducted in the 1990s in the islands of Antigua, Barbados, and Trinidad, West Indies, to determine the major constraints to agricultural production and the influence of these constraints on the sustainability of agricultural diversification programmes in these islands. The results indicated that many of the constraints were common and included marketing, labour, pests and diseases, and praedial larceny. Agricultural information gathering was not a major problem and the main sources of information were the agricultural officers, the media, and other farmers. Agricultural diversification was not successful because it varied with the financial viability of the crops and how well the programmes were advertised and disseminated among the farmers.


The voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) forms the major pore in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Its high conducting open state features a moderate anion selectivity. There is some evidence indicating that the electrophysiological properties of VDAC vary with the salt concentration. Using a theoretical approach the molecular basis for this concentration dependence was investigated. Molecular dynamics simulations and continuum electrostatic calculations performed on the mouse VDAC1 isoform clearly demonstrate that the distribution of fixed charges in the channel creates an electric field, which determines the anion preference of VDAC at low salt concentration. Increasing the salt concentration in the bulk results in a higher concentration of ions in the VDAC wide pore. This event induces a large electrostatic screening of the charged residues promoting a less anion selective channel. Residues that are responsible for the electrostatic pattern of the channel were identified using the molecular dynamics trajectories. Some of these residues are found to be conserved suggesting that ion permeation between different VDAC species occurs through a common mechanism. This inference is buttressed by electrophysiological experiments performed on bean VDAC32 protein akin to mouse VDAC.


Background: The quest for methods expediting rapid postoperative patient turnover has triggered implementation of various fast-track cardiac anaesthesia protocols. Using three different fast-track protocols in randomized controlled studies (RCT) conducted 2010-2016 we found minimal achievements in ventilation time together with actual and eligible length of stay in cardiac recovery unit. The comparable control group patients were evaluated in this retrospective post hoc analysis, for an association between above mentioned parameters and quality parameters, to assess whether the marginal gains have been at the expense of quality of recovery and patient comfort. Method: 90 control patients from three RCT with comparable demographic parameters and receiving standard department treatment were evaluated using time parameters and an objective/semi-objective Intensive Care Unit (ICU) score system (IDS score). Results: Ventilation time was statistical significant lower in latest study (C) than the early (A) and intermedium (B) studies (A=293, B=261, C=205 minutes; P=0.04). The IDS was lower at extubation and all time points in the early study compared to other studies (P < 0.001;). The average IDS in latest study were the double of previous studies at the end of observations, and marginally above the acceptable score for discharge. The postoperative morphine requirement A=15.0, B=10.0 and C=26.5 mg; P=0.002) was statistical significant higher in the latest study compared to previous studies. Conclusion: The implementation of strict fast-track protocols resulting in shorter ventilation time did not convert to earlier eligibility to discharge from the ICU. However, the quality of recovery appears challenged.


OBJECTIVES
To explore the work experiences of three individuals who have chronic non-cancer pain and to identify factors which may affect their ability to remain in employment.

METHODS
Three cases were selected from a data set of six, to illustrate distinct employment history scenarios. All participants had a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. Data was gathered using semi-structured, in-depth interviews that were audiotaped and later transcribed for qualitative, content analysis. Themes identified were those which related to employment experiences and appeared to be important factors influencing the retention of work.

FINDINGS
Four main themes were identified: the nature of physical barriers to employment, autonomy at work, social networks, and the importance and motivation to remain in employment.

CONCLUSION
These findings support existing research in relation to chronic pain and employment in general and expands upon the nature and importance of social support at work. It is suggested that the qualitative methodology illustrated here, which explores the perspectives of those still in employment (as well as those who have stopped working) may be a useful approach to investigating this important area of research.


Between 1700 and 1850 South Yorkshire contained some of the most valuable
portions of a number of Britain's greatest landed estates. Industrialization brought increased population, mineral working, industrial and
transport development, agricultural change and urbanization. This increased
the values of property absolutely and in relation to holdings elsewhere.
This thesis examines the role of estates in these processes, assesses their
contribution and gains, and seeks to establish the extent to which landowners were passive rent receivers and investors. 'Pure rent' receipts
increased, but estate administrations also played a wide-ranging and positive
role. Investments changed the relative value of land, generating increased
rents from resources previously under utilized.
Reactions to opportunity were not uniform. The 'commercial ethos of
economic individualism' penetrated in differing degrees, and material
circumstances differed within this area. The availability of alternative
supplies of capital and enterprise, changes in family priorities among
owners and changes in the economic climate, all influenced commitment.
Urban growth was important with mining, transport and industry, and two of
the largest estates let building land and provided market facilities until
the nineteenth century. Elsewhere village building for smaller communities
was more important.
Agriculture remained vital, but levels of landowner participation varied.
Some invested heavily, with little apparant financial strain. Others were
less liberal. Local markets for produce were buoyant for much of the
period, though price fluctuations caused problems. Estate participation
in these activities is- assessed, and estimates are presented for comparison
with practice elsewhere.2
Consumption was the alternative to investment. An analysis of its extent
and effects aids understanding of the large landowners' roles.3
The wealth and rentals of landowners grew astronomically in this period,
as much the produce of a favourable environment and prior claim on resources
as of astute administration. Large owners were active in South Yorkshire
economic development, in varying degrees, but 'unearned' rental increments
probably outweighed interest and profits. Professionalization of administration meanwhile served the end of consumption as much as development.


I distinguish between two styles of research that are both called "neuroeconomics". Neurocellular economics (NE) uses the modelling techniques and mathematics of economics – constrained maximization and equilibrium analysis – to model relatively encapsulated functional parts of brains. This approach rests upon the fact that brains are, like markets, massively distributed information-processing networks over which executive systems can exert only limited and imperfect governance. Harrison's (2008) deepest criticisms of neuroeconomics do not apply to NE. However, the more famous style of neuroeconomics is behavioural economics in the scanner. This is often motivated by complaints about conventional economics frequently heard from behavioural economists. It attempts to use neuroimaging data to justify arguments for replacing standard aspects of microeconomic theory by facts and conjectures about human psychology. Harrison's grounds for unease about neuroeconomics apply to most BES, or at least to its explicit methodology. This methodology is naively reductionist and illegitimately assumes that economics should not do what all successful science does, namely, model abstract aspects of its target phenomena instead of would-be complete and fully ecologically situated facsimiles of them.


The aim of the study is to examine the perceptions of a sample of
graduate teachers (B. Ed. Hons. ) in primary schools of beginning
teaching. It consists of a questionnaire survey of 57 teachers in he
first year of teaching (1986-1987) and case studies, based on
interviews, documents and questionnaires, of 10 teachers during their
first four years of teaching (1986-1990).
The study begins with a brief outline of its purpose and methods
(Introduction) and an account of influences an teachers and teacher
training from 1970-1990 to place it in context (Chapter 1. ).
Part 1. (Ch. 2-6) gives details of the survey. Data analysis Shows
that the training course was seen as helpful by more teachers than any
in-service support, although this was still a minority. Teachers were
at different developmental stages and the majority received little inservice
support and found evaluation of teaching difficult. Certain
'beliefs', for example a belief in group teaching, were widely held.
In Part 2. (Ch. 7-10) methods of data collection and analysis for 10
case studies are given. A synthesis of data in the form of a life
history was sent to each subject for verification at the end of four
years. Theoretical frameworks adopted from Fuller (1969). Lacey (1977)
and Berlak and Berlak (1981) were used in analysis of life histories to
form case studies, allowing themes to emerge. Comparison of the case
studies in an analytic survey suggests that new teachers enter teaching
with an 'ideal' but find adjustment necessary to the reality of being a
class teacher. In the first year of teaching student teaching practice
is seen as unrealistic, giving insufficient experience in teaching basic
skills, class organisation and long-term planning. Years 2-4 mark a
period of professional growth, when teachers appear to learn more
effectively from their teaching experience, placing theory in a
practical context. Although it appears that the theoretical base of the
ideal of teaching may have been imperfectly conceptualised as a student,
the ideal is retained. Once teachers begin to 'know the Job' they look
for further intellectual stimulus and career challenge and this nay
occur in the second or third year of teaching.
In Chapter 11. the influence of personal theory disposition an the
development of theory-practice relationships is considered and related
to theories associated with teacher learning. Conclusions from the
study and implications for initial training, teacher development and
further research are discussed. The importance of extended school
experience with opportunity for reflection and analysis of teaching is
argued. Training for mentors is urged as a means of pronoting
collaborative enquiry between mentor, student/new teacher, and college
tutor, establishing continuity between training and induction and
stimulating whole school development. The need for attention to student
teachers' individual learning needs, and to their acquisition of the
broad range of competencies required for classroom teaching and for
reflective analysis and further professional development, is also
stressed.
A brief conclusion points to the compromise entailed in drawing
generalisations whilst attempting to preserve the individual teacher's
'voice'.


On February 1, 2003, ten astronauts were orbiting the planet. Seven headed back to Earth on the space shuttle Columbia. They never made it. And the three men left behind found themselves too far from home. Chris Jones chronicles the efforts of the beleaguered Mission Control in Houston and Moscow as they work frantically against the clock to bring their men safely back to Earth, ultimately settling on a plan that felt, at best, like a long shot. Yet even amid the danger, the call of space is a siren song, and "Too Far From Home" details beautifully the majesty and mystique of space travel, while reminding us all how perilous it is to soar beyond the sky.


This study evaluated how different angling practices affect the short-term post-release behaviour of nest-guarding male black bass, Micropterus spp. Male largemouth bass, M. salmoides (Lacepede), and smallmouth bass, M. dolomieu (Lacepede), were angled from their nests and subjected to treatments designed to simulate a variety of common angling practices associated with catch-and-release angling, including fishing tournaments. In addition, some nests had broods reduced (removal of the majority of the eggs or fry from the nest) during the angling treatments to simulate predation of offspring during the angling event. Fish subjected to procedures simulating fishing tournaments (including a 1-h livewell confinement and release 100 m from the nest) exhibited significantly longer rest periods prior to returning to their nest than did other treatment groups. This rest period was longer for largemouth bass than smallmouth bass. Brood removal and air exposure increased abandonment rates compared with controls. These results show that sublethal stressors inherent in some angling practices (such as air exposure and livewell confinement) may delay the return of male black bass to their nest. In the presence of nest predators, the delay in return time could result in increased nest abandonment.


In the present work we perform an econometric analysis of the Tribal art market. To this aim, we use a unique and original database that includes information on Tribal art market auctions worldwide from 1998 to 2011. In Literature, art prices are modelled through the hedonic regression model, a classic fixed-effect model.
The main drawback of the hedonic approach is the large number of parameters, since, in general, art data include many categorical variables. In this work, we propose a multilevel
model for the analysis of Tribal art prices that takes into account the influence of time on artwork prices. In fact, it is natural to assume that time exerts an influence over the price dynamics in various ways. Nevertheless, since the set of
objects change at every auction date, we do not have repeated measurements
of the same items over time. Hence, the dataset does not constitute a proper
panel; rather, it has a two-level
structure in that items, level-1 units, are grouped in time points, level-2
units. The main theoretical contribution is the extension of classical
multilevel models to cope with the case described above. In particular,
we introduce a model with time dependent random effects at the second
level. We propose a novel specification of the model, derive the maximum likelihood
estimators and implement them through the E-M algorithm. We test the finite sample properties of the estimators and the validity of the own-written R-code by means of a simulation study. Finally, we show that the new model improves considerably the fit of the Tribal art data with respect to both the hedonic regression model and the classic multilevel model.


Abstract Geochemical processes and mineralogical transformations in the spontaneously combusting coal waste pile of the Kukla mine in Oslavany, Czech Republic, were investigated. The aims of the study were: (1) the characterization of secondary minerals; and (2) determination of processes which influence the mobility of elements in the pile. The pile burned from the late 19th century until the 1990s and has acquired a zoned nature, with original black material in the core of the pile, red material produced by burning close to the pile slopes and grey and white efflorescent salts precipitated on the pile top and slopes. Several mineral assemblages have been identified including (1) primary minerals in the black material including bituminous coal to anthracite, micas, pyrite and goethite; (2) hematite, spinels and corundum in the red material produced by pyrometamorphism; and (3) hydrated sulphates of magnesium including hexahydrite, konyaite and picromerite in efflorescent precipitates on the slopes of the pile. A conceptual model of geochemical processes in the pile includes seasonal changes with mineral dissolution during the wet season and precipitation of efflorescent salt minerals during the dry season. Formation of secondary minerals such as hematite, which is resistant to weathering and immobilizes hydrolysable Fe, may have a positive environmental impact in the long term.


A range of geographical identifiers are being made available for Understanding Society which allow researchers to merge external data at different geographical levels to individual's responses. Examples of geographical identifiers at higher level include country and Government Office Region; at medium level Local Authority Districts and Travel to Work Areas; at lower level Lower Layer Super Output Areas. This paper provides a brief introduction to UK geography, gives an overview of the geo-codes available for use with Understanding Society and provides documentation of the variables.


John Stuart Mill worked for the East India Company in London for thirty-five years (1823-58), drafting many hundreds of dispatches for the guidance of British administrators in India. Historians have long been aware of Mill's involvement in British Indian government. This comprehensive effort brings together different strands of scholarship on Mill to determine the character of his role based on analyses of his draft despatches and comparisons of their practical and theoretical concerns with the broad themes of Mill's major writings on political philosophy and economics. The essays in this collection explore specific aspects of Mill's approach to Indian issues, including religion, law, education, and security, and also place him within the broader currents of utilitarianism. The contributors present different perspectives on the ideology in Mill's pragmatic work for the Company and his personal philosophy.


As of April 1997, more than forty municipalization proposals have emerged in seventeen states as a means of evading competition transition charges for stranded costs proposed by state commissions. Stranded costs equal the difference between expected regulated net-revenues and the netrevenues obtained in competitive markets from formerly regulated assets.' Municipalities have attempted to bypass these charges through variousapproaches, including: (1) traditional municipalization through condernnation;(2) municipalization involving construction of duplicative or parallel facilities; (3) municipalization through annexation; and (4) municipalization through the provision of only minimal facilities, i.e., muni-lite. The municipalities allege that under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Order No. 88g2 they are not responsible for payments resulting from stranded costs because they could always have condemned the property. Thus, they claim that the utility could not have had a reasonable expectation of continuing to serve in the area. This article explores the municipalization bypass phenomenon and concludes that the FERC should adjust its policies to avoid this type of opportunistic behavior. How do retail customers bypass the competition transition charge? FERC's Order No. 888 developed a "reasonable expectation" criterion for the recovery of stranded costs from retail-turned-wholesale customers. The reasonable expectation approach represents an efficient means of addressing contractual change in wholesale power markets that is consistent with common law remedies for breach of private contract that protect buyer and seller expectations. However, while the FERC proceeded with laudable intentions and applied the correct economic approach to contractual expectations, the reasonable expectation standard may be subject to legal interpretations that depart from the economic expectations of utilities. Further refinement of the reasonable expectation criterion directed against so-called "sham transactions" may be necessary to rule out bypass of transition charges. Municipalities, representing retail customers within their boundaries, can become wholesale intermediaries. The municipalities purchase commodity power from a lower cost source and seek an order from the FERC that the incumbent utility "wheel" that power over its transmission facilities to the municipality. The municipalities then have an incentive to assert that the expectations of incumbent utilities should be substantially lower than the utilities claim, because the municipalities could have condemned the utility's distribution facilities for compensation equal to the book value of the facilities (rather than their market value). Thus, the retail customers avoid competition transition charges, and the municipality need only compensate the incumbent utility for the expected return that it would have obtained were its facilities to be condemned. Using this logic, any wholesale intermediary can enter to serve retail customers and propose that the utility's reasonable expectations should be lowered because retail customers could have bypassed the utility through cogeneration, self-generation, or the construction of new transmission inter-ties. Were such arguments to be upheld, the reasonable expectation standard would have little practical value in determining the incumbent utility's economic expectations. Because transition charges are typically assessed as distribution surcharges, there are incentives to avoid the charges through bypassing not just the merchant function of the incumbent utility, but the distribution system as well. The potential inefficiencies created by such bypass are evident. Duplicative distribution facilities are created not because they can be operated at lower cost than the incumbent or because additional capacity is needed. Rather, the avoidance of distribution surcharges makes the creation of alternative facilities economically feasible. This is a potentially difficult problem that has prompted calls for exit charges or competitively neutral end-user charges imposed on wholesale intermediaries. This article addresses the two means of avoiding competition transition charges: municipalization and transmission bypass. We begin, in Section 11, by reviewing some of the municipalization decisions. We consider proposals by municipalities to supply power with minimal facilities. We then review cases of municipalization with a duplicative distribution system or substation by examining opportunism and contract renegotiation. In Section 111, we consider the FERC's "reasonable expectation" criterion for stranded costs recovery and consider what impact the possibility of condemnation by municipalities has on the expectation interests of incumbent utilities. In Section IV, we examine the potential for uneconomic bypass in the context of the changing structure of the electric power industry. We present our conclusions in Section V.


Recent developments in law, public policy, and regulation have ensured that questions regarding the relationship between banks and their customers have seldom been out of the spotlight. This important book provides a timely, original, and critical examination of the role of the law in regulating banks in the interests of the consumer. The work examines the social and economic rationales for, and the objectives of banking regulation. In so doing, it focuses on the crucial role of regulation in the protection of the consumer. The book then provides a critical appraisal of the principal techniques by which regulation is delivered and protection ensured. Such techniques include prior approval by licensing, continued supervision, and information remedies such as disclosure. The work also looks at how the law protects depositors of insolvent banks through financial compensation schemes, and how it provides consumer redress through mechanisms for ensuring access to justice, in particular ombudsmen. Finally, the book looks at the topical question of consumer access to banking services, and considers the extent to which the law can justify placing social obligations on banks in the consumer interest. This is the first monograph to examine these important topics in this way.


Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is considered to be a hypercoagulable state that contributes to the morbidity associated with the disease. Numerous mechanisms can attribute to this hemostatic activation among these patients.
Objectives: The study was designed to evaluate changes in hemostatic tests, coagulation inhibitors, fibrinolysis, and phosphatidylserine exposure on red blood cells (RBCs) among patients with SCD during both a vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) and a steady state.
Materials and Methods: This observational study comprised 61 patients with SCD, 2 to 16 years old, and 65 healthy patients. Thrombophilia evaluation included prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), protein C and S, d-dimer and Annexin V expression. The independent t test and one-way analysis of variance test were used for comparison of the mean of different samples.
Results: During steady state, patients with SCD had longer PT (14.36 ± 0.98 and 13.32 ± 0.79 s), longer aPTT (31.48 ± 2.52 and 30.11 ± 2.04 s), lower protein C (90.95 ± 20.11 and 98.18 ± 18.42 U/L), lower protein S (60.18 ± 12.96 and 80.8 ± 12.67 U/L), and higher d-dimer (1.19 ± 1.25 and 0.27 ± 0.23 μg/mL) levels than the control group, respectively, P < 0.05. Furthermore, a longer PT (15.02 ± 2.11 s), lower protein C (69.21 ± 16.32 U/L), lower protein S (46.56 ± 9.47 U/L), and higher d-dimer levels (3.44 ± 2.62 μg/mL) were reported during VOC compared to steady state. The mean percentage of RBCs expressing Annexin V was assessed in only 10 patients with SCD and eight in the control group. The mean percentage during a VOC (7.66 ± 3.63) was higher than that during steady state (1.57 ± 0.94) and in the control group (0.41 ± 0.15), P = 0.000. Pearson correlation revealed that d-dimer is significantly associated with hemoglobin, indirect bilirubin, and lactate dehydrogenase, P < 0.05.
Conclusion: Patients with SCD, particularly during VOC, undergo significant hematologic alterations that increase their risk of developing coagulation activation-related complications.


This thesis contains a study of the relationship between biophysical parameters of the rice fields and radar backscattering coefficients from SAR images. It also studies the images of cultivated rice fields using multi-temporal SAR images. The GlobeSAR program ( a joint project between CCRS and MACRES) was carried out in Malaysia from November 1993 to October 1996. In November 1993, the airborne scatterometer CV-580 SAR was used to collect multi polarized C-band images from the rice paddy in Kedah, Malaysia. From the images it is shown that the HH polarization provides distinct differences in backscattering coefficients from paddy fields at different growth stages. Then we continue to study the capability of monitoring of wetland paddy fields by using the satellite borne RADARSAT SAR images. The approach includes using the RADARSAT Data Standard Mode 7, C- band HH polarized data. Four field measurements were conducted in conjunction with the satellite acquisition which fell on 12th May, 5th June, 29th June and 23rd July 1997. Those dates correspond to different stages of paddy growth, I.e. vegetative phase ( 1st tillering), vegetative phase ( 2nd and 3rd tillering), reproductive phase and ripening phase. There are no distinct row and column effects because the farmers practiced random broadcasting method. Ground measurements were colected which consisted of paddy parameters and moisture, water and soil condition. Two sites were selected: Kampung Tanah Seratus and Kampung Teluk Jawa. Two sets of graphs have been plotted showing the backscatter returns, paddy height above water and plant moisture at diffent growth stages. In the last part of the thesis, the production of the rice mapping for the early rice and late rice is done based on the SAR images. The average difference value of 3 dB is observed between the vegetative stage and reproductive stage. This is chosen as the threshold value in the change detection module in the PCI Easi Pace software. The Kuan Filter ( extended Kuan minimum-mean-square-error filter) is used to reduce the speckle, and ratioing technique is applied in the multi temporal image. The result of rice mapping from the change detection method is compared with the rice map obtained from the Department of Agriculture. The strong match shows that the SAR images have a great potential as a monitoring tool for the paddy field growth stage study.


The problem of variation in weld crack susceptibility caused by small variations in alloy and impurity elements for the 70-30 cupro-nickel alloy has been investigated. Both wrought and cast versions of the alloy have been studied, the main techniques employed being the Varestraint test and weld thermal simulation. In the wrought alloys, cracking has been found to occur mainly in the weld metal, whilst in the cast alloys cracking is extensive in both weld metal and heat affected zone. The previously reported effects of certain impurities (P,S,Si) in increasing cracking have been confirmed, and it has also been shown that Ti and Zr may both have a crack promoting effect at levels commonly found in cupro-nickels, whilst C can interact with several of the other elements investigated to produce a beneficial effect. The testing carried out using the weld thermal simulator has shown that a relationship does exist between hot ductility and weld cracking. In particular, the absence of the peak in ductility in the range 1100°C-900°C on cooling from a temperature near to the solidus is indicative of a highly crack susceptible alloy. Principal practical implications of the investigation concern the relationship of weld metal cracking to alloy composition, especially the level of certain impurities. It would appear that the upper limits permitted by the alloy specifications are unrealistically high. The introduction of lower impurity limits would alleviate the current problems of variability in resistance to cracking during welding.


In recent years researchers have tried to identify important factors that can explain re-integration to work for workers on long-term sick leave. The results indicate that multiple factors can explain whether or not people return to work. The aim of the study was to investigate long-term sick workers' experience of professional support for re-integration to work. Participants were drawn from the database of The National Social Insurance Board in Norway. A random sample was selected of persons with mental illness or musculoskeletal disorders (either p- or l-diagnosis/symptoms related to International Classification in Primary Care), who were in receipt of Rehabilitation allowance. The questionnaire was sent to 1 493 persons of whom 740 responded. The most significant finding is that work training/mastering actions were identified by the majority of the rehabilitation benefit recipients as being of slight or moderate use. This highlights the importance of work training/mastering actions being relevant in proportion to the specific situation the individual is presently within. Delays in waiting for treatment attributed to approximately half of the rehabilitation benefit recipient's problems returning to work. This study also highlights that rehabilitation benefit recipients experience loss of co-ordinated measures from those who are supposed to contribute to simplifying their return to work.


Preface. Acronyms. Introduction. Part One: Overview of the Policy Issues. Part Two: The Conference and New Accessions. 1. The Core Challenge of the European Union: Widening Versus Deepening. 2. The Conference: Agenda and Policy Dilemmas. 3. The Dilemma About Monetary Union. 4. The Economies in Transition and the EU: The Experience to Date. 5. Accession of Economies in Transition. 6. A Pre-Accession Strategy and Beyond. Conclusions. Bibliography. Index.


MODULATION OF CNS NEUROTRANSMITTER LEVELS AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIORS IN ORGANIC ANION TRANSPORTER 1 (SLC22A6) AND ORGANIC ANION TRANSPORTER 3 (SLC22A8) KNOCKOUT MICE Christine A. Farthing Bachelor of Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Major Director: Douglas H. Sweet, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy According to the World Health Organization, mental disorders represent the leading cause of disability in the US generating ~58 billion dollars in medical costs annually. Additionally, among the US population, ~40 million adults suffer from an anxiety disorder and ~14 million suffer from a major depressive disorder. The association between the persistence of these neurobehavioral conditions and central nervous system (CNS) levels of biogenic amines and metabolites has been studied for half a century. Further, a number of drugs interfering with neurotransmission/metabolism are used clinically for treatment of these disorders. Recently, some members of the solute carrier (SLC) superfamily, the SLC22 transporter family, which includes organic anion transporters (Oat1, Oat3), were found to be expressed and functional on the apical membrane of the choroid plexus, a component of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier. The cells of this epithelia form tight junctions, which slows penetration of solutes into the brain and limits passive efflux of endogenous solutes from the brain. Therefore, Oat1 and Oat3 are poised to play an active role in the removal of NTs and metabolites from the CSF. Thus, a better understanding of the underlying roles of OATs in regulating CNS neurotransmitters and connecting their activity to complex behaviors may result in improved understanding of the processes governing CNS homeostasis. Basal locomotor, anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors in mice of three genotypes (WT, Oat1, and Oat3) across ages (3-18 mo.) were evaluated using behavioral paradigms (e.g. open field activity (OFA), light-dark (LD), marble burying (MB), and tail suspension test (TST)). Secondly, a simple high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet/electrochemical detection (HPLC-UV/ECD) method was developed for quantitation of monoamines and metabolites in mouse whole brain. Following completion of behavioral assessments, whole brain concentrations of monoamines and metabolites were determined using the developed method. Lastly, a novel gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method was developed for quantitation of amino acid neurotransmitters, L-glutamic acid (GA) and γaminobutyric acid (GABA), in mouse whole brain. The developed method was used for measurement of whole brain concentrations of GA and GABA in a small subset of WT, Oat1, and Oat3 mice at 3 and 18 mo.


The present investigation examines the competence of high-risk children as they face the challenges of school transition and the early grades. A comprehensive perspective on children's school functioning is presented, including their academic performance, work-related skills, and behavioral/interpersonal style. Within a group of children considered vulnerable to school difficulties because of their family background and early functioning, several child, family, and contextual factors are studied as predictors of school outcomes over time. The current study, comprised of three sections, involves a subset ( N = 83) of participants from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a 25-year, prospective, longitudinal investigation of individuals at elevated risk for psychosocial adversity. The focus of Part I is on the links between early child characteristics and abilities and various aspects of school competence. In Part II, the ability of high-risk mothers to foster the learning competence of their school-age offspring is examined. Finally, in Part III, an ecological model of school functioning that emphasizes the additive contribution of child, family, and contextual factors in the development of children's learning competence is tested. The findings from the present investigation provide support for the notion that the roots of academic and social competence in the early grades are established during previous periods in children's development. Specifically, children's cognitive functioning during the toddler and preschool years emerges as one of the most critical markers of school readiness. Children's early social behavior and gender are also found to bear on various aspects of their school adaptation. Finally, within a group of families from moderate to high-risk backgrounds, the quality of parenting is found to represent a strong predictor of children's school functioning. The current findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research, clinical interventions, and social policy.


The life of this extraordinary scientist and painter has been studied by multiple generations, fascinated by the way he harmoniously mixes his passions. Santiago Felipe Ramon y Cajal, better known as Don Santiago Ramon y Cajal (the "Don" as a title of the importance of the age and the "Y" as a way to give renown to their surnames) or referred by many simply as "Cajal" - by the sound of the surname). He was born in the province of Catalonia, first child of the union of Justo Ramon Casasus and Antonia Cajal. His father, a physician, saw in him a successor of the profession, which is why at very young age, he demanded of him the best academic performance and reproached him for his fascination with art. His childhood was marked by many events that would lead him to be charmed with nature and want to translate this into his drawings. The influence of his father was successful because he became a physician. Eager to know other places and with the thirst of an adventurer, he travelled to Cuba, but it was not the experience he had imagined. On his return he found many opportunities that forged his career as a scientist and gave him strength as a person. He married at the age of 27 years with Silveria Fananas, who became the mother of his six children, and was the engine of his life. With his insatiable curiosity, his painter´s spirit and with some help, he described in detail the nerve cells and portrayed in his drawings the magnificent structure and relationships thereof, successfully comparing them with nature, referring to "The Garden of Neurology". He was always a romantic landscape painter, intrigued as much by the macro (with his drawings of nature and anatomy) as the micro (histology); the latter was his greatest passion. All his work bore many fruits, which still amaze us today. Through his hard work and his refusal to placate his inner painter, he managed to mix his passions to their maximum potential, leaving behind a priceless legacy.


In Sloman v The Governor and Government of New Zealand1 the plaintiff attempted to sue the New Zealand Government for failing to make good on emigration contracts concluded in Europe. This article analyses the decision in Sloman, that the New Zealand government could not be sued in English courts, both within its own historical context and with respect to 19th century concerns over the general inability of the Crown to be sued. The article points to archival documents which show that the New Zealand Government itself was concerned, in the wake of the earlier loss of the Cospatrick, as to its own ability to recover the passage monies it had paid, and whether that recovery might be prevented by a lack of legal personality in the English Courts. The article concludes that while Sloman is an important case in its own right, there is also a need for greater investigation of both the practical and theoretical legal difficulties that faced the New Zealand Government in its development and immigration projects of the 1870s.


The consequences of not constructing Tocks Island Reservoir from the standpoint of water supply are examined based on the results of a computerized system analysis of the basin. The analysis considered a recurrence of the 1960s drought; legal flow constraints; estimated 1986 and 2020 consumptive water use including power requirements and out-of-basin diversions to New Jersey; storage reservoirs included in the Basin Comprehensive Plan; and restraints on consumptive use when flow to the estuary is less than the estimated 3,000 cfs needed to contain the salt wedge below the Philadelphia water supply intake at Torresdale. Results of the study using 1986 demands indicated a minimum flow below Trenton with all planned reservoirs of 3,450 cfs; with all reservoirs except Tocks Island, 2,410 cfs; and less than 1,750 cfs with no new reservoir. Both the latter flows represent unsafe conditions considering the salt wedge. Based on demands in 2020, conditions would be worse.


Introduction: Carbon monoxide (CO), which is commonly referred to as the silent killer, can cause deleterious and unwanted cardiac effects. Some of these are arrhythmias, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), cardiogenic shock, heart failure, and pulmonary edema.Case Report: A 50-year-old man, complaining of dyspnea and chest pain, presented to the emergency room approximately half an hour after exposure to fire smoke. He had a history of anterior myocardial infarction 3 years previously and had been treated with a tacrolimus-eluting stent at that time. On admission, electrocardiography showed ST segment elevation in the leads D1, aVL, and V1–3, and ST segment depression in the reciprocal leads. The patient was transferred to the cardiac catheterization laboratory, and coronary angiography revealed stent thrombosis in the proximal part of the left anterior descending artery, causing 100% occlusion. The patient underwent successful balloon angioplasty and stenting. For the treatment of acute CO poisoning, he was administered oxygen. The patient's condition continued to be stable, and he was discharged from the coronary intensive care unit.Conclusion: Patients who have undergone coronary stenting, particularly those in whom drug-eluting stents have been implanted, should be carefully investigated for AMI, stent thrombosis, or any other cardiac complications in the emergency room after CO poisoning


This document summarises conclusions drawn from an ELLA online Learning Alliance (LEA) on Citizen Oversight of Public Policies during which experts and participants, mainly from the global south, discussed the Latin American legal frameworks and institutional conditions that have enabled or prevented the effective realisation of the right to information. In countries where this right has been formally recognised and institutionalised, political actors (states, international human rights agencies and civil society) have mobilised to demand respect, protection and promotion of the right to information. These actors have developed and engaged in important oversight activities. The rich LEA discussions allowed participants from Africa, Asia and Latin America to explore similarities and contrasts between their regions and to identify issues and conclusions that seem to be critical for the different themes.


Employers want to fill their top management posts with candidates of the highest calibre. Any mistake in their recruitment process can mean wasteful costs in both time and money. Consequently, recruitment to any management post is by rigorous selection, often including a range of psychometric tests. "The Graduate Psychometric Test Workbook" provides essential preparation for graduates or managers who face psychometric tests, whether as part of selection or assessment procedures. With correct training and practice a candidate can improve on their expected score, and this workbook provides that opportunity. A companion to the best-selling "How to Pass Graduate Psychometric Tests", it contains even more practice material and realistic timed mock tests relevant to the selection tests of many top organizations. The larger format allows space for writing answers and notes, and there are detailed explanations of answers with interpretations of scores.


 Abstract — Transferring electrical power without any wiring has been a dream since late 19 th century. There were some advances in this area as to know more about microwave systems. However, this subject has recently become very attractive due to their practiScal systems. There are low power applications such as charging the batteries of contactless tooth brushes or implanted devices, and higher power applications such as charging the batteries of electrical automobiles or buses. In the first group of applications operating frequencies are in microwave range while the frequency is lower in high power applications. In the latter, the concept is also called inductive power transfer. The aim of the paper is to have an overview of the inductive power transfer for electrical vehicles with a special concentration on coil design and power converter simulation for static charging. Coil design is very important for an efficient and safe power transfer. Coil design is one of the most critical tasks. Power converters are used in both side of the system. The converter on the primary side is used to generate a high frequency voltage to excite the primary coil. The purpose of the converter in the secondary is to rectify the voltage transferred from the primary to charge the battery. In this paper, an inductive power transfer system is studied. Inductive power transfer is a promising technology with several possible applications. Operation principles of these systems are explained, and components of the system are described. Finally, a single phase 2 kW system was simulated and results were presented. The work presented in this paper is just an introduction to the concept. A reformed compensation network based on traditional inductor-capacitor-inductor (LCL) topology is proposed to realize robust reaction to large coupling variation that is common in dynamic wireless charging application. In the future, this type compensation should be studied. Also, comparison of different compensation topologies should be done for the same power level.


Research into diverse cultural understandings of water provides important contributions to the pressing global issue of sustainable supply, particularly when combined with analysis of relationships between everyday household practice and larger sociotechnical networks of storage and distribution. Here we analyse semi-structured interviews with 298 people about their 241 backyards in the Australian east coast cities of Sydney and Wollongong, undertaken during the 2002–2003 drought. Water emerged as an important issue in both consciousness and practice. In contrast to a number of other environmental issues which stimulate more polarised responses, a commitment to reducing water consumption was shared across the study population and manifest in a variety of changed practices. However, these aspirations are in tension with the pleasure derived from water, and expressed desires for more watery environments. This work contrasts with and extends other studies that have emphasised the perceived separation between the modern home and the networks of production that sustain it. We argue that it is in the relationship between house and garden that people see, understand and participate in the network of water storage and distribution. Their active engagement with these processes enhances their capacity to manage and reduce consumption.


There has been a steady growth of the K-12 student population taking courses online. This study examined reasons for students to choose a public online charter school program and their perceptions of online discussion. A survey was sent to 1,500 students newly enrolled in a statewide public online charter school program. From those who responded, 44% indicated that the online discussion component is not helpful in achieving their academic goals. Also, further analysis suggested that those who drop out of traditional schools probably would not stay even in an online program unless the program adequately supported the students. In this report, interrelationships among perceptual measures along with traits and preferences of online students are discussed and suggestions are made for educators.


Abstract. The work of ISPRS Technical Commission III is devoted to remote sensing. For the XXIVth ISPRS CONGRESS – 2021 Edition (Digital), Technical Commission III received total 201 submissions, including 72 full papers and 138 abstracts. Among these submissions 38 are accepted as peer-reviewed contributions for publication in the ISPRS Annals, 118 were accepted for publication in the ISPRS Archives.These papers are dedicated mostly to topics of the 10 TC III working groups and 4 inter-commission working groups as follows – WG III/1: Thematic Information Extraction; WG III/2: Microwave Remote Sensing; WG III/3: SAR-based Surface Generation and Deformation Monitoring; WG III/4: Hyperspectral Image Processing; WG III/5: Information Extraction from LiDAR Intensity Data; WG III/6: Remote Sensing Data Fusion; WG III/7: Landuse and Landcover Change Detection; WG III/8: Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Environment; WG III/9: Cryosphere and Hydrosphere; WG III/10: Agriculture and Natural Ecosystems Modelling and Monitoring; ICWG III/II: Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping; ICWG III/Iva: Disaster Assessment, Monitoring and Management; ICWG III/IVb: Remote Sensing Data Quality; ICWG III/IVc: Environment and Health. The papers and abstracts were evaluated by the experts in the field and Working Group Chairs according to content, significance, originality, relevance, and clearness of presentation.We would like to thank the authors for their contributions, the reviewers for their reviewing, the working group officers for their efforts on calling for papers, and the organizers of the Congress for publishing this volume.


Over the last ten years, approximately one third of refugee and humanitarian entrants to Australia have been adult men. To date, little research has been done on their health and settlement issues. Many of these men have come from the African continent. This paper reports on the educational and employment outcomes of a group of 173 recently arrived adult African men from refugee backgrounds who have settled in Southeast Queensland. Given the current government policy focus on regional resettlement, the paper compares key outcomes between the adult African men who settled in metropolitan Brisbane with those living in the Toowoomba-Gatton region. The study uses a peer interviewer model and a mixed method approach. Overall, we have found that African men who have settled in regional areas face significantly greater educational and occupational challenges than those who settled in the urban area. They report more negative experiences at educational institutions, are more likely to take jobs that are below their level of skills and qualifications, are more dissatisfied with their jobs, and report greater discrimination and difficulties while trying to secure adequate employment in Australia. A number of policy implications are discussed.


Culture of human islets before clinical transplantation or distribution for research purposes is standard practice. At the time the Edmonton protocol was introduced, clinical islet manufacturing did not include culture, and human serum albumin (HSA), instead of fetal bovine serum (FBS), was used during other steps of the process to avoid the introduction of xenogeneic material. When culture was subsequently introduced, HSA was also used for medium supplementation instead of FBS, which was typically used for research islet culture. The use of HSA as culture supplement was not evaluated before this implementation. We performed a retrospective analysis of 103 high-purity islet preparations (76 research preparations, all with FBS culture supplementation, and 27 clinical preparations, all with HSA supplementation) for oxygen consumption rate per DNA content (OCR/DNA; a measure of viability) and diabetes reversal rate in diabetic nude mice (a measure of potency). After 2-day culture, research preparations exhibited an average OCR/DNA 51% higher (p < 0.001) and an average diabetes reversal rate 54% higher (p < 0.05) than clinical preparations, despite 87% of the research islet preparations having been derived from research-grade pancreata that are considered of lower quality. In a prospective paired study on islets from eight research preparations, OCR/DNA was, on average, 27% higher with FBS supplementation than that with HSA supplementation (p < 0.05). We conclude that the quality of clinical islet preparations can be improved when culture is performed in media supplemented with serum instead of albumin.


Article 6(2) TEU provides that the EU shall accede to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the EU accession project has been significantly delayed by Opinion 2/13 of the ECJ. At the same time, there appears to be some harmony in the case law of the two European Courts, which could lead to the status quo being considered as a valid alternative to EU accession. It might therefore be tempting to remove Article 6(2) altogether from the TEU at the next revision of the Treaties. This paper argues that Article 6(2) should stay in the TEU, because a closer look reveals that the current status quo is not satisfactory: it does not allow an adequate representation of the EU in the procedure before the European Court of Human Rights, nor is it capable of ensuring in the long-term comprehensive and stable consistency between EU law and the Convention. Moreover, removing Article 6(2) TEU would undermine the very idea of a collective understanding and enforcement of fundamental rights. This could initiate a process leading to the current European architecture of fundamental rights protection being unravelled altogether. Hence, there is no return from Article 6(2) TEU. Neither is there from actually implementing it.


After a long history of arguing that Australian governments do not intervene in the bedrooms of the nation, in 2004 the Howard Government did exactly that. Under the enthusiastic choreographing of then Treasurer Peter Costello, it implemented an explicit and indirect fertility policy in the form of a maternity payment, commonly known as the 'Baby Bonus'. Rising fertility in Australia since that time has been widely claimed as evidence of the policy's success. Hailed as a mini 'baby boom', Costello was moved to describe the policy as a shift from 'population or perish' to 'procreate and cherish'. Despite arguing against it while in Opposition, the policy has been continued with only a few changes by the incumbent Rudd Government, seemingly on the grounds that it may indeed be responsible for the recent 'nudging up' of birth rates. This paper traces the policy shift and concludes with a brief analysis of Australian trends across the period of the Baby Bonus (2004-2008), showing that one quarter of the increase in numbers is due to cohort size, but noting that fertility has also risen in many developed countries across the same period and thus trends in Australia may just be part of a broader trend – and/or in part an artifact of the index used to measure fertility. It also draws attention to the collateral effect of an increased dependency ratio, with the mini 'boom' reaching school age at the very moment the post war baby boomers reach retirement age – as forewarned by Costello in 2002 when initially rejecting the idea of a Baby Bonus. * Population Studies Centre, University of Waikato. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania 130 Jackson and Casey


Raytracing applications have naturally high thread divergence, low warp occupancy and are limited by memory latency. In this paper, we present an architectural enhancement called Subwarp Interleaving that exploits thread divergence to hide pipeline stalls in divergent sections of low warp occupancy workloads. Subwarp Interleaving allows for fine-grained interleaved execution of diverged paths within a warp with the goal of increasing hardware utilization and reducing warp latency. However, notwithstanding the promise shown by early microbenchmark studies and an average performance upside of 6.3% (up to 20%) on a simulator across a suite of raytradng application traces, the Subwarp Interleaving design feature has shortcomings that preclude its near-term implementation. This paper introduces the reader to the challenges of raytradng and discusses a novel micro-architectural approach that, on paper, addresses many of the challenges. A thorough analysis of the idea on a production simulator reveals that the high-level motivating statistics are optimistic, and second-order effects, along with other architectural sharp edges, limit the idea's potential. We identify Subwarp Interleaving's primary limiters for an NVIDIA Tbring-like architecture, and we outline the conditions under which the approach could be more effective.


Producing chemicals from renewable resources represents one of the key challenges in chemical science. Whilst catalytic methods for converting renewables to chemicals offer several advantages over biological approaches, the solid catalysts developed to date are typically plagued by rapid rates of deactivation, prohibiting their greater exploitation. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, that a Sn-containing zeolite, Sn-Beta, is capable of continuously converting saccharide solutions to value added chemicals with high levels of activity, selectivity and stability. For both the isomerisation of glucose to fructose, and the conversion of fructose to alkyl lactates, we observe that the addition of up to 10% of water to the methanol/sugar reaction feed increases reactivity by a factor of 2.5, and catalyst stability by one order of magnitude. Continuous operation for up to 1366 h (57 days) is demonstrated, with only limited loss of activity being observed over this period of time. Post-reaction characterisation indicates that the addition of water influences several elements of the catalytic system, which cooperatively result in improved performance.


This paper presents hardware implementation of an efficient solution to recovering gray-scale data pixels of images that have undergone interpixel interference in holographic data storage systems. The adopted algorithm, called the turbo receiver using interference-aware dual-list (TRIDL) detection, enjoys benefits of low error rate performance and low complexity. To verify the functionality and feasibility, this paper implements TRIDL detection with some circuit design techniques such as resource sharing on a field-programmable gate array.


Signal transduction underlies how living organisms detect and respond to stimuli. A goal of synthetic biology is to rewire natural signal transduction systems. Bacteria, yeast, and plants sense environmental aspects through conserved histidine kinase (HK) signal transduction systems. HK protein components are typically comprised of multiple, relatively modular, and conserved domains. Phosphate transfer between these components may exhibit considerable cross talk between the otherwise apparently linear pathways, thereby establishing networks that integrate multiple signals. We show that sequence conservation and cross talk can extend across kingdoms and can be exploited to produce a synthetic plant signal transduction system. In response to HK cross talk, heterologously expressed bacterial response regulators, PhoB and OmpR, translocate to the nucleus on HK activation. Using this discovery, combined with modification of PhoB (PhoBVP64), we produced a key component of a eukaryotic synthetic signal transduction pathway. In response to exogenous cytokinin, PhoB-VP64 translocates to the nucleus, binds a synthetic PlantPho promoter, and activates gene expression. These results show that conserved-signaling components can be used across kingdoms and adapted to produce synthetic eukaryotic signal transduction pathways. antunes MS et al. (2011) Programmable ligand detection system in plants through a synthetic signal transduction pathway. PLoS one 6(1): e16292. doi:10.1371/journal.


Dynamic and responsive transportation systems are a core pillar of equitable and sustainable communities. Achieving such systems requires comprehensive mobility data, or data that reports the movement of individuals and vehicles. Such data enable planners and policymakers to make informed decisions and enable researchers to model the effects of various transportation solutions. However, collecting mobility data also raises concerns about privacy and proprietary interests. This issue paper provides an overview of the top needs and challenges surrounding mobility data sharing and presents four relevant policy strategies: (1) Foster voluntary agreement among mobility providers for a set of standardized data specifications; (2) Develop clear data-sharing requirements designed for transportation network companies and other mobility providers; (3) Establish publicly held big-data repositories, managed by third parties, to securely hold mobility data and provide structured access by states, cities, and researchers; (4) Leverage innovative land-use and transportation-planning tools.


An accurate anteroposterior measurement of jaw relationships is essential in orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to establish a new cephalometric Wits appraisal using a bisector of the mandibular plane angle, named the Frankfort Mandibular Plane Angle Bisector (FMAB). The FMAB was used to assess the sagittal jaw relationship in a sample of Class I individuals, and compare this measurement to the ANB angle and the Wits appraisal using the Maxillomandibular Bisector (MMB).
The data were collected from pre-treatment (T0), immediate post-treatment (T1) and two year post-retention (T2) lateral cephalograms of 61 male and 60 female Class I subjects. Non-extraction, fixed orthodontic appliance treatment in the permanent dentition was carried out for these patients. Cephalometric data were compared to 19 male and 19 female Class I subjects who had no orthodontic treatment and served as controls.
The FMAB was determined to be a reproducible reference plane which undergoes change in response to growth and treatment, consistent with the changes seen in the ANB angle. A good correlation (r>0.86) was found between the MMB and FMAB Wits appraisal measurements in both the control and treatment groups for all time periods, indicating that the use of either of these measures may be indicated in cephalometric analysis.
Key Words: Wits Appraisal, Frankfort Mandibular Plane Bisector, Anteroposterior Skeletal Discrepancy


In recent years, both the scientific community and the industry have focused on moving computational resources with remote data centres from the centralized cloud to decentralised computing, making them closer to the source or the so called "edge" of the network. This is due to the fact that the cloud system alone cannot sufficiently support the huge demands of future networks with the massive growth of new, time-critical applications such as self-driving vehicles, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality techniques, advanced robotics and critical remote control of smart Internet-of-Things applications. While decentralised edge computing will form the backbone of future heterogeneous networks, it still remains at its infancy stage. Currently, there is no comprehensive platform. In this article, we propose a novel decentralised edge architecture, a solution called OMNIBUS, which enables a continuous distribution of computational capacity for end-devices in different localities by exploiting moving vehicles as storage and computation resources. Scalability and adaptability are the main features that differentiate the proposed solution from existing edge computing models. The proposed solution has the potential to scale infinitely, which will lead to a significant increase in network speed. The OMNIBUS solution rests on developing two predictive models: (i) to learn timing and direction of vehicular movements to ascertain computational capacity for a given locale, and (ii) to introduce a theoretical framework for sequential to parallel conversion in learning, optimisation and caching under contingent circumstances due to vehicles in motion.


Globally, gender norms and power differentials profoundly affect both girls' and boys' sexual attitudes, practices and health. One avenue for enabling young people to reflect on traditional gender arrangements that endanger their health—and to lay the groundwork for satisfying sexual lives—is sexuality and relationships education (SRE). Unfortunately, many SRE programmes address gender norms and critical thinking skills either superficially or not at all. Moreover, in some developing countries, SRE programmes do not reach the majority of girls aged 15–19, a high proportion of whom are simply not in school. This paper argues for grounding SRE within a social studies framework, emphasizing gender and social context. Such an approach can foster critical thinking skills, can provide a foundation for subsequent lessons on explicitly sexual topics, can illuminate the links between gender inequality and other social issues, can allow for a human‐rights emphasis that may prove politically less controversial than technical sexuality topics, and may ultimately prove vital to achieving better sexual health outcomes. The experience of community‐based programmes provides lessons for designing and evaluating such approaches in schools.


This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developed to understand the impact of new technology on organizations and applies them to its use within social work agencies. These developing theories employ ideas that are familiar to social workers—organization theory, decision making theory, and communication theory. The paper therefore argues that social workers are in a good position to understand and influence the use of computers within welfare agencies and do not need to be inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is further argued that, unless social workers do become involved in the ways in which new technologies are used within organizations, they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients and may further fail to control the way in which computers affect the nature of social work itself in the future.


Honey bees have played a major role in the history and development of humankind, in particular for nutrition and agriculture. The most important role of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is that of pollination. A large amount of crops consumed throughout the world today are pollinated by the activity of the honey bee. It is estimated that the total value of these crops stands at 155 billion euro annually. The goal of the work outlined in this paper was to use wireless sensor network technology to monitor a colony within the beehive with the aim of collecting image and audio data. These data allows the beekeeper to obtain a much more comprehensive view of the in-hive conditions, an indication of flight direction, as well as monitoring the hive outside of the traditional beekeeping times, i.e. during the night, poor weather, and winter months. This paper outlines the design of a fully autonomous beehive monitoring system which provided image and sound monitoring of the internal chambers of the hive, as well as a warning system for emergency events such as possible piping, dramatically increased hive activity, or physical damage to the hive. The final design included three wireless nodes: a digital infrared camera with processing capabilities for collecting imagery of the hive interior; an external thermal imaging camera node for monitoring the colony status and activity, and an accelerometer and a microphone connected to an off the shelf microcontroller node for processing. The system allows complex analysis and sensor fusion. Some scenarios based on sound processing, image collection, and accelerometers are presented. Power management was implemented which allowed the system to achieve energy neutrality in an outdoor deployment with a 525 × 345 mm solar panel.


Culture of Quality (COQ) is regarded as an important component of total quality management (TQM) however this is a relatively new emerging theme, compared to other concepts in the quality management domain. As a result, literature resources on this topic are relatively scarce and there is a lack of empirical validation of the COQ framework. This study therefore attempts to fill this research gap and aims to empirically investigate the dimensions of the COQ and their impact on organisational and employee performance. The study also explores the interrelationship between each dimension of COQ. A set of hypotheses are proposed and empirically tested based on the 120 survey responses mostly from the Asian region. The survey data was analysed using SPSS through descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. Findings show that COQ dimensions; leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement and employee ownership encourage better employee performance. The study further suggests that organisations should work on ensuring supervision from top to bottom, accelerating information flow, creating autonomous working environment and getting staff involved in strategic management. In addition, findings show that COQ factors also interact with each other in varying degrees. The study therefore addresses an important research gap by empirically investigating the COQ dimensions and suggesting that from an employee perspective, organizational performance can be accelerated through quality culture management.


This essay (6,000 words), which appeared in the Weekly Standard ostensibly as a comment on Mitt Romney's religion speech of December 2007, contains something to offend nearly everyone. It bluntly attacks presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and his evangelical followers for their demand for a Christian president, and calls them religious bigots. The essay also rejects, however, a central claim of Romney's religion speech, that all religious doctrines are beyond criticism or political argument - asserting that Romney, in the attempt to insulate himself from any questions of religion, has endorsed what might be called conservative multiculturalism and moral relativism. The essay argues that this is a disastrous move not just for American conservatives, but for American politics more generally, and urges that liberal toleration has to be understood not as a form of relativism putting religious doctrine beyond scrutiny but instead as a liberal suspension of public judgment on matters that one might well believe one entitled to judge in private. In effect, if the question is what parts of a candidate's religious beliefs are properly subject to public political scrutiny, Huckabee and his evangelical followers say all-in; Romney says, all-out. Neither of those can be considered the answer of liberal toleration. The essay then proposes, in its second half, three rough rules of thumb for determining whether a proposition of religion believed by a candidate for public office ought to be considered fairly open for political discussion. An enormously important reason why it matters that a liberal democracy get these answers right, the essay concludes, is that it matters today, in the world as it stands today, to be able to ask these questions of Islam, and of Muslim candidates. The answers to important questions - relations of church and state, apostasy, free expression, the status of women and gays, etc. - cannot simply be set aside. Either voters will not trust Muslim candidates and will simply refuse to elect them, because they are not allowed, under rules of multicultural political correctness (including Romney's conservative multiculturalism), to ask these questions - or we can put these questions properly on the table, while at the same time having liberal grounds for ignoring questions of doctrine having no substantial bearing on public policy. The former will save everyone's delicate feelings; only the latter, however, will provide the path for full participation in a democratic political community. (This essay is an unabashed, unapologetic jeremiad and it angered many readers when it first appeared.)


A key aim of homelessness services is not only to ensure that homeless people attain a secure home, but that this is a pathway to wider social inclusion. However, relatively little is known about the psychological elements that are essential for homeless people to engage with these pathways, nor whether these elements combine in ways that are predictable from previous research. In the present work, we examined both demographic and behavioural precursors, and contemporaneous psychological predictors, of a set of 49 homeless men's intentions to engage with a programme to move them toward long-term housing and social inclusion. Contrary to predictions based on subjective utility and rational choice theories, we found that normative pressure and did not directly predict the men's intentions. Instead, we found that intentions were predicted by their attitudes towards the services, and their specific beliefs about the benefits of particular courses of action (efficacy beliefs), and to a more restricted extent their experience (sociodemographics); and in those with high prior service use histories, only participatory beliefs guided future service use intentions. These findings suggest that it is important to focus on intentions as a highly relevant outcome of interventions, because beliefs about interventions can break the link between past behaviour or habitual service use and future service use. Such interventions may be particularly effective if they focus on the evaluative and efficacy-related aspects of behaviour over time and better understand the benefits the men evaluated the services as offering them.


Global Production is the first book to provide a fully comprehensive overview of the complicated issues facing multinational companies and their global sourcing strategies. Few international trade transactions today are based on the exchange of finished goods; rather, the majority of transactions are dominated by sales of individual components and intermediary services. Many firms organize global production around offshoring parts, components, and services to producers in distant countries, and contracts are drawn up specific to the parties and distinct legal systems involved. Pol Antras examines the contractual frictions that arise in the international system of production and how these frictions influence the world economy. Antras discusses the inevitable complications that develop in contract negotiation and execution. He provides a unified framework that sheds light on the factors helping global firms determine production locations and other organizational choices. Antras also implements a series of systematic empirical tests, based on recent data from the U.S. Customs and Census Offices, which demonstrate the relevance of contractual factors in global production decisions. Using an integrated approach, Global Production is an excellent resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates interested in the inner workings of international economics and trade.


Fischer–Tropsch synthesis is an attractive process to convert alternative carbon sources, such as biomass, natural gas, or coal, to fuels and chemicals. Deactivation of the catalyst is obviously undesirable, and for a commercial plant it is of high importance to keep the catalyst active as long as possible during operating conditions. In this study, the reactivity of CO on carbon-covered cobalt surfaces has been investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT). An attempt is made to provide insight into the role of carbon deposition on the deactivation of two cobalt surfaces: the closed-packed Co(0001) surface and the corrugated Co(1121) surface. We also analyzed the adsorption and diffusion of carbon atoms on both surfaces and compared the mobility. Finally, the results for Co(0001) and Co(1121) are compared, and the influence of the surface topology is assessed.


Galectin-7 is a β-galactoside-binding animal lectin specifically expressed in stratified epithelia. Its expression is inducible by p53 and is down-regulated in squamous cell carcinomas. Other investigators previously showed that galectin-7 is a proapoptotic protein, and we showed that ectopic expression of galectin-7 in HeLa cells renders the cells more sensitive to a variety of apoptotic stimuli. In the present study, we showed that ectopic expression of galectin-7 in the human colon carcinoma cell line DLD-1 also made the cells more sensitive to apoptosis under various conditions. We also found that galectin-7-transfected DLD-1 (DLD-1-Gal7) cells grew significantly more slowly than control transfectants (DLD-1-V) under normal culture conditions in the absence of apoptosis. Moreover, a significantly lower number of colonies were formed from DLD-1-Gal7 cells than from DLD-1-V cells under anchorage-independent cell growth conditions. Most importantly, tumor formation from DLD-1-Gal7 cells was dramatically reduced compared with DLD-1-V cells when these cells were inoculated s.c. into severe combined immunodeficient mice. DLD-1-Gal7 tumors showed a significantly lower proliferation rate than DLD-1-V tumors as determined by in vivo 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine incorporation. DLD-1-Gal7 tumors also contained a lower density of blood vessels than DLD-1-V tumors, suggesting that ectopic expression of galectin-7 suppresses angiogenesis. This may partially account for the greater suppressive effect of galectin-7 on tumor growth in vivo than in vitro. Our results show that galectin-7 has a suppressive effect on tumor growth, suggesting that galectin-7 gene transfer or other means of specifically inducing galectin-7 expression may be a new approach for management of cancers.


In recent years, the China's economy does not afford to gain the growth that depends on capital and the export is not their expectation. The Chinese policy makers may have an orientation for the change of economics growth model from short term to long term. This means that they do not focus strongly on GDP indicator but focus on the investment efficiency, especially the saving indicator. For doing this, they can reduce domestic investment and promote the outward investment to other countries which have cheaper labor costs and many incentive FDI policies. When these companies do business abroad, they will transfer profits back to China that make an increase in property income and create an increase in economics savings. By comparing two economy structures and some macro economic indicators, this paper tried to give some recommendations to policy makers that we should experience the China situation for Vietnam ourself.


Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium L.) (Asteraceae) is a medicinal plant traditionally used for the treatment of fevers, migraine headaches, rheumatoid arthritis, stomach aches, toothaches, insect bites, infertility, and problems with menstruation and labor during childbirth. The feverfew herb has a long history of use in traditional and folk medicine, especially among Greek and early European herbalists. Feverfew has also been used for psoriasis, allergies, asthma, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. The plant contains a large number of natural products, but the active principles probably include one or more of the sesquiterpene lactones known to be present, including parthenolide. Other potentially active constituents include flavonoid glycosides and pinenes. It has multiple pharmacologic properties, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, cardiotonic, antispasmodic, an emmenagogue, and as an enema for worms. In this review, we have explored the various dimensions of the feverfew plant and compiled its vast pharmacologic applications to comprehend and synthesize the subject of its potential image of multipurpose medicinal agent. The plant is widely cultivated to large regions of the world and its importance as a medicinal plant is growing substantially with increasing and stronger reports in support of its multifarious therapeutic uses.


In the last few years, multicultural citizenship, once hailed as a solution to national cohesion, has faced increasing political and academic accusations of inciting
segregation and group divisions. This has prompted a re-evaluation of different institutional and discursive arrangements of national citizenship and their impact on
the integration of minority ethnic groups. This research into the history of Jewish integration into British society analyses the relationship between changing forms of
British citizenship and the evolution of British Jewish identities. In so doing, it enhances our understanding of how citizenship policies affect minority selfrepresentation
and alter trajectories of integration into mainstream society.

The research draws on an historical and sociological analysis of the Jewish community in Leeds to reveal how the assimilationist and ethnically defined citizenship of Imperial Britain conditioned the successful Jewish integration into a particular formula of Jewish identity, `private Jewishness and public Englishness', which, in the second part of the 20th century, was challenged by multicultural citizenship. The policies of multiculturalism, aimed at the political recognition and
even encouragement of ethnic, racial and religious diversity, prompted debates about private-public expressions of ethnic/religious and other minority identities, legitimating alternative visions of Jewish identity and supporting calls for the democratisation of community institutions. The thesis argues that the national policies of multiculturalism were crucial in validating multiple `readings' of national and minority identity that characterise the present day Leeds Jewish community.

Employing a multi-method approach, the study demonstrates how the social and geographical contexts of social actors, in particular their positions within the minority
group and the mainstream population, enable multiple `readings' of sameness and differences. In particular, the research explores how a wealth of interpretations of
personal and collective Jewish identities manifests itself through a selective and contextualised usage of different narratives of citizenship.


In this article, I argue that from 1992 (when the Lucas case was decided) and for almost ten years thereafter, what I call the "Scalian view" of property and justice dominated Supreme Court jurisprudence. Under this vision, property provides a concrete, objectively knowable, and immutable legal barrier which marks the line between protected individual interests and the exercise of collective power. If government transgresses this line, the individual is almost always deemed to have been wronged. And compensation is required, as a matter of "justice," under the Takings Clause. I argue that with the Court's decisions in Palazzolo and Tahoe in 2001 and 2002, the Scalian view collapsed. No longer would the fact of individual loss - even significant individual loss - necessarily compel the conclusion that a wrong has occurred, or drive an award of compensation home. And no longer would justice, in takings, be seen in only "compensatory" terms. Although the collapse of the Scalian view might be seen as an abrupt or startling turn, I argue that it is, in fact, a very predictable product of the Court's prior taking jurisprudence. Neither the Scalian view's idea of property, nor its conception of justice, could be sustained as the Court's understanding of the range of potential takings expanded and the complexity of property conflicts grew. Indeed, the very ideas that form the core of the Scalian view served to doom it, from the outset, as a viable juridical principle. Thus, I argue that the collapse of the Scalian view is an entirely inevitable outcome. I also argue that it is an entirely welcome outcome, in our effort to reassert sensible notions of takings and justice.


Based on the fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and high nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HN-PCF), a novel dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser is proposed and demonstrated. The experimental results show that, owing to the contributions of two degenerate four-wave mixings in the HN-PCF, the proposed fiber laser is great stable and two output signals are uniform at room temperature. With adjustment of the attenuator, our fiber laser can selectively realize one wavelength lasing.


Interruption of sand transport is the most persistent worldwide coastal problem. Wave action produces sand transport which is not a problem in some areas but in others results in coastal erosion, obstruction of harbor entrances, and permanent loss of sand. Conflict between saving sand and bypassing it is caused by a lack of methods to manage this valuable resource. Separate elements of control have been used with varying degrees of success; now it is proposed to incorporate subsystems into an integrated system for management of the littoral transport. A coastal sand management system is to be evaluated using three principal subsystems: (1) a mobile jet pump for use with a crater sink and fluidization accessories; (2) interlocking inertial modules which simulate structural materials because of high intergrain stresses; and, (3) the tactical deployment of phase dependent roughness elements to direct (or reverse) the net transport of sand. A coherent sand management system promises to make a start toward true control of littoral sand transport. In addition, there is the prospect of eventually establishing the first self maintaining harbors. It is attractive to consider systems which would be operative within reasonable cost, which may be entirely submerged, and which are capable of operating without regard to surface seakeeping problems. Some aspects of the system indicate possible use of the mobile jet pump as a means for estimating longshore transport in the field, use in archaeology, and as a dredging and maintenance tool for small nations whose investment capital could not support massive dredging operations.