This is a qualitative study into university teachers' responses to e-learning
technology (eLT), situated within the debate about how greater use of eLT
might affect universities' role in Society.
The context is the increased use of eLT in Higher Education and its promotion
by various stakeholders. Its effect on students has been well researched but
less may be found relating to teachers. The movement may therefore be
insufficiently informed about eLT's effect on university teachers, leading to
potentially negative consequences.
My methodology, inspired by Kvale's traveller/researcher metaphor, is based
on interviews and thematic analyses of their transcripts. Participants' reactions
to the technologies they use are explored in semi-structured, in-depth
interviews where the interviewees describe their feelings on a range of issues
related to their use of eLT.
Through these conversations I find that, whilst most of the interviewees see
themselves as technophiles, they are nonetheless experiencing issues which
could adversely affect their teaching. I group these into three themes: control,
privacy and knowledge ownership and explore how they may be interrelated
through underlying 'meta-themes' related to teachers' feelings of identity and
trust.
I also discover that many of these feelings are not overt, even to the teachers
concerned, but only become apparent in certain circumstances. The
implications are that critical decisions about technology and teachers' wellbeing,
if taken only on the strength of surveys or structured interviews, may be
ill founded and lead to unwelcome consequences.
I conclude that teachers' responses to eLT need to be understood from a
plural perspective, including considerations of trust and identity, if eLT-based
practices are to be successfully introduced into Higher Education. If teachers
lose their trust (in their students, management or peers) and question their
professional identity, their ability to give of their best to their teaching may
suffer, with potentially detrimental effects on the sector.


This thesis introduces new design techniques for microwave filters and multiplexers in waveguide technology. These devices find wide application in communication systems, such as satellite links or wireless base stations. In particular, the work has been focused in the design of circular-waveguide dual- mode (CWDM) filters. The synthesis technique makes use of distributed models, which are a halfway point between the fast but imprecise lumped circuit models, and the more accurate but costly full-wave electromagnetic models. An automatic software tool to design this type of filters has also been developed, which is able to obtain the physical dimensions of the filter in a matter of minutes. A new technique to correct manufacturing deviations in CWDM filters is pro- posed next, which avoids the use of tuning screws. Instead, fixed squared insertions are employed, which can be fabricated in separated pieces. An space mapping tech- nique is used to calculate the dimensions of these pieces and, after few iterations, the procedure is able to achieve the required response. A systematic method to design manifold-coupled multiplexers is also presented, which also employs distributed models. First, the design of classic multiplexers with CWDM filters is considered. The whole design procedure is thoroughly explained, starting from the required specifications and finishing with the physical dimensions. Finally, the design of a non-conventional wideband multiplexer with a new type of rectangular-waveguide filters is addressed.


– Welding defects can create a major threat in industrial equipments and pressure vessels can during operation. Detecting and identifying of existing welding defects has a great role in the assessment of the probability of failure in different situations. Acoustic emission (AE) is only a nondestructive technique that can be used as in-service testing and used on large structures. This paper examines the changes in the properties of AE source generated from Pencil Lead Break (PLB). AE is recorded across different seam welds with pre-identified welding defects. Series of experiments are carried out on three certified standard Carbon Steel plates. Each plate has different pre-identified defect such as lack of fusion, porosity and slag. Different AE parameters such Energy, Amplitude and number of counts have been used to identify quantitatively the type of defects. The results are showing that AE technique is capable to identifying the different defects types which can be upgraded for higher productivity and accuracy for welding inspection.


LIBERALISM AND THE PRINCIPLE OF DIFFERENCE: RAWLS TESTED BY LARMORE'S THEORY • PART II John Rawls' Political Liberalism (1993) is considered a turning point in the theory of the famous author, but certain elements of his theory, as they were presented in his previous work A Theory of Justice (1971), might appear unclear under a liberal perspective, in particular with regard to the interpretation of the highly debated difference principle. In the first part of this paper—published in this WP-LPF Series—, it is exposed the theory of political liberalism, with particular attention to the concept of neutrality as formulated by Charles Larmore; this precedes the analysis of the principles of justice in Rawls' philosophy: an important aim of this work is to offer a key to understand the revision of Theory, which can be found reading Charles Larmore's Patterns of Moral Complexity (1987), a book also studied and commented by Rawls. Starting from the common elements which bind the two said authors, it is explained why Rawls borrows a lot from the theory of the younger philosopher, even underlining the references they make to each other's works. The whole second part would focus on this thesis: how the difference principle, as proposed by Rawls in A Theory of Justice, could conform itself to the features of political liberalism theory. Alberto De Luigi • Liberalism and the Principle of Difference: Rawls Tested by Larmore's Theory / II 5 LIBERALISM AND THE PRINCIPLE OF DIFFERENCE: RAWLS TESTED BY LARMORE'S THEORY • PART II


This volume explores a relational pattern that occurs during one type of speech event — classroom "participant examples." A participant example describes, as an example of something, an event that includes at least one person also participating in the conversation. Participants with a role in the example have two relevant identities — as a student or teacher in the classroom, and as a character in whatever event is described as the example. This study reports that in some cases speakers not only discuss, but also act out the roles assigned to them in participant examples. That is, speakers do , with each other, what they are talking about as the content of the example. Participants act as if events described as the example provide a script for their interaction.
Drawing on linguistic pragmatics and interactional sociolinguistics, the author describes the linguistic mechanisms that speakers use to act out participant examples. He focuses on the role of deictics, and personal pronouns in particular, in establishing and organizing relationships. The volume also presents a new methodological technique — "deictic mapping" — that can be used to uncover interactional organization in all sorts of speech events.
Drawing on the philosophy and sociology of education, the volume discusses the social and educational implications of enacted participant examples. Educational theorists generally find participant examples to be cognitively useful, as devices to help students understand pedagogical content. But enacted participant examples have systematic relational consequences as well. The volume presents and discusses enacted participant examples that have clear, and sometimes undesirable, social consequences. It also discusses how we might adjust educational theory and practice, given the relational implications of classroom participant examples.


This thesis explores the nature of the global/local nexus: how economic globalisation influences a particular locality and the lives within it. Consequently it addresses the relative neglect of the local and the specific in discussions on economic globalisation and its effects. The research asks two questions: how does economic globalisation influence urban inequality within a specific location? Secondly, how are the life chances of people living within the specific locality influenced by economic globalisation?In order to capture the complexity of change the research draws upon multiple methods for the analysis of a single city case study of Sheffield and selected residents. Chapter one discusses economic globalisation and British social and urban inequality. Chapter three introduces the Sheffield city case study to contextualise the dialectical approach that is taken in this research. Descending further from the global to the local, chapter four (a community profile) contextualises the contemporary forms of urban inequality through an examination of contradictory urban forms: public degeneration and private regeneration. Two disparate forms of housing tenure are selected - a post war residualised council estate and a private adjoining gentrified district: Contemporary social inequality is examined through an analysis of life history interviews with males residing within one of the two respective housing developments. These males left secondary education during the 1980's when economic globalisation emerged.Analysis of the life histories (chapter five) draws on thematic matrices as well as the material from the previous chapters. The research findings highlight the dynamic nature of urban and social inequality under the aegis of economic globalisation. The role of 'marginal gentrifiers' is highlighted, but the very efficacy of the term gentrification is challenged when used to refer to those who reside within such developments. The notion of an inner city council estate 'underclass' is also challenged.


It is the obligation of the state to provide free and universal access to quality health-care services to its citizens. India continues to be among the countries of the world that have a high burden of diseases. The various health program and policies in the past have not been able to achieve the desired goals and objectives. 65th World Health Assembly in Geneva identified universal health coverage (UHC) as the key imperative for all countries to consolidate the public health advances. Accordingly, Planning Commission of India constituted a high level expert group (HLEG) on UHC in October 2010. HLEG submitted its report in Nov 2011 to Planning Commission on UHC for India by 2022. The recommendations for the provision of UHC pertain to the critical areas such as health financing, health infrastructure, health services norms, skilled human resources, access to medicines and vaccines, management and institutional reforms, and community participation. India faces enormous challenges to achieve UHC by 2022 such as high disease prevalence, issues of gender equality, unregulated and fragmented health-care delivery system, non-availability of adequate skilled human resource, vast social determinants of health, inadequate finances, lack of inter-sectoral co-ordination and various political pull and push of different forces, and interests. These challenges can be met by a paradigm shift in health policies and programs in favor of vulnerable population groups, restructuring of public health cadres, reorientation of undergraduate medical education, more emphasis on public health research, and extensive education campaigns. There are still areas of concern in fulfilling the objectives of achieving UHC by 2022 regarding financing model for health-care delivery, entitlement package, cost of health-care interventions and declining state budgets. However, the Government's commitment to provide adequate finances, recent bold social policy initiatives and enactments such as food security bill, enhanced participation by civil society in all health matters, major initiative by some states such as Tamil Nadu to improve health, water, and sanitation services are good enough reasons for hope that UHC can be achieved by 2022. However, in the absence of sustained financial support, strong political will and leadership, dedicated involvement of all stakeholders and community participation, attainment of UHC by 2022 will remain a Utopia.


Accurate global mapping of soil moisture is the goal of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, which is expected to improve the estimation of water, energy, and carbon exchanges between the land and the atmosphere. Like other satellite products, the SMAP soil moisture retrievals need to be validated, with the validation relying heavily on in situ measurements. However, a one‐to‐one comparison is ill advised due to the spatial mismatch of the large SMAP footprint (∼40 km) and the point scale in situ measurements. This study uses a recently developed hyper‐resolution land surface model—HydroBlocks—as a tool to upscale in situ soil moisture measurements for the SMAPVEX15 (SMAP Validation Experiment 2015) field campaign during 2–18 August 2015. Calibrated against in situ observation, HydroBlocks shows a satisfactory Kling‐Gupta efficiency (KGE) of 0.817 and RMSE of 0.019 m3/m3 for the calibration period. These results indicate that HydroBlocks can be used to upscale in situ measurements for this site. Different from previous studies, here in situ measurements are upscaled using a land surface model without bias correction. The upscaled soil moisture is then used to evaluate SMAP (passive) soil moisture products. The comparison of the upscaled network to SMAP shows that the retrievals are generally able to capture the areal‐averaged soil moisture temporal variations. However, SMAP appears to be oversensitive to summer precipitation. We expect these findings can be used to improve the SMAP soil moisture product and thus facilitate its usage in studying the water, energy, and carbon cycles.


Although the three leading symptoms of chronic pancreatitis, pain, exocrine and endocrine pancreatic insufficiency, are well known, only a few long-term studies have correlated these symptoms with the natural course of the disease. Besides these symptoms, numerous pancreatic complications and/or pancreatitis-associated diseases may affect the course and determine the prognosis of chronic pancreatitis. Their influence, however, has not been studied in detail. This review has two major aims: The first one is to give an up-to-date survey of present knowledge on the natural course of the disease with a view to the leading symptoms under special consideration of how the duration of the disease, continual alcohol abuse as well as endoscopic procedures and surgical treatment affect pain. Included is also what is known about chronic pancreatitis as a precondition of pancreatic and extrapancreatic carcinoma. The effect of chronic pancreatitis on the socio-economic status of patients is discussed and the mortality rate of the disease. The second aim of this review is to stimulate pancreatologists from different centers to consolidate resources in order to perform larger controlled studies than any one single center can undertake and work out common criteria for the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis and follow-up of its course.


We explore the dependency between currency crises and the stock market in emerging economies. Our focus is two-fold. First, the risk of a currency crisis rises as the foreign stake in the domestic stock market increases. Successful economies with high capital flows into their booming stock markets especially are prone to stock market-induced currency crises. Second, we apply the dividend growth model to show that stock markets crash in the run-up to a currency crisis. This new type of twin crisis is empirically tested by employing a logit framework using quarterly data for 33 emerging economies for 1994Q1–2007Q4.


OBJECTIVE:  It is well known that eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection results in healing of peptic ulcer and regression of gastric mucosal inflammation. Cranberry juice beverages have been shown to achieve good results in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection. The present study aimed to investigate whether a cranberry juice cocktail could eradicate or prevent H. pylori infection in mice.

METHODS:  In the therapeutic trial, C57BL/6 mice were infected with H. pylori and 2 weeks later, 80 mice were randomly allocated into four groups: Group A, cranberry juice (0.5 mL/mouse, p.o. daily for 30 days); Group B, triple therapy (amoxycillin 50 mg/kg, bismuth subcitrate 6.15 mg/kg, and metronidazole 22.5 mg/kg, daily for 14 days); Group C, a combination of cranberry juice and triple therapy; Control Group, the mice were infected with H. pylori and left untreated. The mice were killed after 24 h and 4 weeks and H. pylori infection status was assessed by rapid urease test and by culture and histology, respectively. In the prevention trial, 40 mice had oral cranberry juice for 30 days. In the last 5 days (days 26−30), the mice were divided into four groups: Group A, challenged orally with H. pylori three times on days 26, 28 and 30 when the mice were not given cranberry juice; Group B, challenged with H. pylori suspended in cranberry juice; Group C, challenged with H. pylori 6 h after receiving juice; Control group, no cranberry juice, but challenged with H. pylori. Two weeks later, the mice were killed to assess the status of H. pylori infection.

RESULTS:  The clearance rates at 24 h after treatment in groups A, B and C were 80%, 100%, and 90%, respectively (P < 0.01 as compared with Control group, two tailed Fisher's Exact Probability Test). Four weeks after cessation of treatment the eradication rates in groups A, B and C were 20% (P = 0.474, two tailed Fisher's Exact Probability Test), 80% and 80%, respectively (P < 0.01). None of the mice were clear of H. pylori infection.

CONCLUSIONS:  Cranberry juice can clear H. pylori infection in mice with a clearance rate of 80%, but the eradication rate was low (20%). Cranberry juice was not effective in preventing H. pylori infection in the mice used in this study.


In patients harboring the IR1152 mutant insulin receptor, hepatic glucose production was normally suppressed by insulin. Hepatocytes without the insulin receptor gene and expressing IR1152 (Hep(MUT)) also showed normal insulin suppression of glucose production and full insulin response of glycogen synthase. In contrast, expression of the IR1152 mutant in skeletal muscle maximally increased glucose uptake and storage, preventing further insulin stimulation. IRS-1 phosphorylation was normally stimulated by insulin in both intact Hep(MUT) and L6 skeletal muscle cells expressing the IR1152 mutant (L6(MUT)). At variance, IRS-2 phosphorylation exhibited high basal levels with no further insulin-dependent increase in L6(MUT) but almost normal phosphorylation, both basal and insulin-stimulated, in the Hep(MUT) cells. In vitro, IR1152 mutant preparations from both the L6(MUT) and the Hep(MUT) cells exhibited increased basal and no insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of IRS-2 immobilized from either muscle or liver cells. IR1152 internalization in liver and muscle cells closely paralleled the ability of this mutant to phosphorylate IRS-2 in vivo in these cells. Block of receptor internalization (wild-type and mutant) in the liver and muscle cells also inhibited IRS-2, but not IRS-1, phosphorylation. Thus, the mechanisms controlling insulin receptor internalization differ in liver and skeletal muscle cells and may enable IR1152 to control glucose metabolism selectively in liver. In both cell types, receptor internalization seems necessary for IRS-2 but not IRS-1 phosphorylation.


The focus of this dissertation is to provide scalable solutions for problems unique to chunk-based deduplication. Chunk-based deduplication is used in backup and archival storage systems to reduce storage space requirements. We show how to conduct similarity-based searches over large repositories, and how to scale out these searches as the repository grows; how to deduplicate low-locality file-based workloads, and how to scale out deduplication via parallelization, data and index organization; how to build a unified deduplication solution that can adapt to tape-based and file-based workloads; and, how to introduce strategic redundancies in deduplicated data to improve the overall robustness of the system.
Our scalable similarity-based search solution finds for an object, highly similar objects from within a large store by examining only a small subset of its features. We show how to partition the feature index to scale out the search, and how to select a small subset of the partitions (less than 3%), independent of object size, based on the content of query object alone to conduct distributed similarity-based searches.
We show how to deduplicate low-locality file-based workloads using Extreme Binning. Extreme Binning uses file similarity to find duplicates accurately and makes only one disk access for chunk lookup per file to yield reasonable throughput. Multi-node backup systems built with Extreme Binning scale gracefully with the data size. Each backup node is autonomous—there is no dependency between nodes, making house keeping tasks robust and low overhead.
We build a 'unified deduplication' solution that can adapt and deduplicate a variety of workloads. We have workloads consisting of large byte streams with high-locality, and workloads made up of files of varying sizes without any locality between them. There are separate deduplication solutions for each kind of workload, but so far no unified solution that works well for all. Our unified deduplication solution simplifies administration—organizations do not have to deploy dedicated solutions for each kind of workload—and, it yields better storage space savings than dedicated solutions because it deduplicates across workloads.
Deduplication reduces storage space requirements by allowing common chunks to be shared between similar objects. This reduces the reliability of the storage system because the loss of a few shared chunks can lead to the loss of many objects. We show how to eliminate this problem by choosing for each chunk a replication level that is a function of the amount of data that would be lost if that chunk were lost. Experiments show that this technique can achieve significantly higher robustness than a conventional approach combining data mirroring and Lempel-Ziv compression while requiring about half the storage space.


Additional information available at the end of the chapter Abstract The development and progression of many diseases is related with an inflammatory process, which could affect different organs or tissues. Currently, many drugs are used to treat inflammation. However, some of these compounds induce severe side effects. For this reason, the search of new therapeutic options for the treatment of inflammation is very desirable. Medicinal plants have been an interesting source for obtaining new active compounds, including several terpenes and terpenoids with anti-inflammatory activity. This book chapter includes 62 sesquiterpenes, 34 diterpenes, and 22 triterpenes with anti- inflammatory activity. The anti-inflammatory effect was evaluated using in vitro , in vivo , and both models. These terpenes were obtained from 44 plant species belonging to 25 botanical families. Eight of theses species belong to the Asteraceae family and four to Lamiaceae family, respectively, and the other species belong to 13 different botanical families, one sesquiterpene was obtained from a sponge and two diterpenes were isolated from corals.


Objective: In this research, long-term exercise-trained and untrained rats underwent exhausting exercise. We compared muscle damage, interleukin-6 (IL-6) a product of the muscle cell myoblast and satellite cells in response to muscle injury -,free oxygen radicals that have been reported to be responsible for this damage and, antioxidant levels in both groups. Materials and Methods: After exhausting exercise, trained and untrained rats were sacrificed by taking blood intracardiacally, just after exhaustion, one day and three days following exhaustion. Muscle damage was examined by light microscopy; the immune reactivity of the muscles was examined by IL-6 immunohistochemical evaluation and malondialdehite. Glutathione peroxidase levels of the muscles were assessed spectrophotometrically. Results: After exhaustion, the muscle damage was found to be higher in the untrained group than in the trained group. Maximum muscle damage, IL-6 immunoreactivity and oxidant levels emerged one day after exhaustion in both trained and untrained groups. The drop of oxidants, increase in antioxidants and the visualized regeneration process in histological samples appeared more significantly on day three after the exhaustion in trained animals compared to untrained animals. Three days after exhaustion, IL-6 and oxidant levels were found to decrease, and especially in the trained group, it approached approximately to the level of controls. In the acutely running untrained group, although IL-6 involvement decreased, plasma oxidant levels were still found to be significantly higher and antioxidant levels were lower compared to that in controls. Conclusion: This experiment revealed that the muscles of the exercisetrained rats were more resistant to this type of destructive muscle contraction than untrained rats. The IL-6 levels did not prominently increase just after the exhaustion but one day after exhaustion which made us think that the pro-inflammatory factors might have been suppressed by another agent most probably by cortisol in the beginning of the muscle damage and increased after the diminishing effects of these agents. Turk J Phys Med Rehab 2013;59:229-35.


The relationship between foreign aid and economic growth is investigated for a panel of developing countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Sri-Lanka, and Tanzania) over the period 1974-1996. The results reveal that the variables contain a panel unit root and they cointegrate in a panel perspective. The long-run elasticities (close to one for most countries) show that foreign aid has a positive and significant effect on economic activity for each country in the sample. A policy implication which may be drawn from the study is that foreign capital flows can have a favorable effect on real income by supplementing domestic savings.


Recent advances in liquid crystal research have included the synthesis of polymeric materials which contain liquid crystalline moieties. The work presented here concerns the study of the structure-property relationships of a particular group of liquid crystalline polymers in which the polymer backbone is cyclic, with the mesogenic moieties attached as side-chains. We have observed mesogenic phases above room temperature for materials comprising cyclic poly(dimethylsiloxane) backbones with mesogenic moieties attached by alkyl spacer units. Dielectric relaxations have been observed in the mesophases of these materials and the activation energies and extent of broadening of the relaxations have been related to the physicalstructure of the molecules. Theoretical studies have been undertaken by the use of the Metropolis Monte Carlo technique and a mean field calculation. Two models have been studied by the Monte Carlo technique in the NVT ensemble. In the first, each complete molecule was represented by a disc-like interactions potential and a tendency for the molecules to align in columns was revealed at low temperature and high density. In the second model, each mesogenic unit was represented separately, with the cyclic polymerrepresented as a constraint on the relative motions of the attached mesogens. A variety of liquid crystalline phases, from discotic nematic to calamitic nematic, were observed at low temperature as the coupling between the side-chains and the backbones was adjusted. In the mean field model energy terms were included for ring-ring interactions, mesogen-mesogen interactions and the coupling between the mesogenic moieties and the backbones. The uniaxial solution of this model also showed a shift from calamitic nematic to discoticnematic phases as the strength of the coupling was increased. Comparisons of the results of the models and the physical measurements are presented and suggestions for future work are proposed.


Background Rotator cuff tears commonly occur in combination with other shoulder injuries such as superior labral anterior posterior (SLAP) lesions. The incidence of these associated lesions increases with age; however, the management of concomitant SLAP and rotator cuff tears has yet to be convincingly addressed in the literature. Hypothesis Patients over the age of 45 years who have concomitant arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and debridement of their type II SLAP lesions will have improved patient satisfaction and functional outcome compared with those who undergo simultaneous rotator cuff and type II SLAP repair. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods We recruited 48 patients (mean age, 51.9 years; range, 45-60 years) who had concomitant rotator cuff and type II SLAP tears. All underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair with subacromial decompression. Patients were randomized intraoperatively into 2 groups: repair versus debridement of their type II SLAP lesions. Ten patients were lost at final follow-up (4 in debridement and 6 in repair group). The outcome was assessed by the Tegner score and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) score and clinically to evaluate range of motion (forward elevation/internal rotation/external rotation). Results At 2 years postoperatively, both the debridement and repair groups showed significant improvement in Tegner score, UCLA score, and range of motion. Patients who underwent rotator cuff repair in combination with debridement of their SLAP tears had significantly better overall UCLA scores (34 vs 31; P < .001) and improved function (5.5 vs 3.8; P < .005) and pain relief (9.6 vs 7.7; P < .001) compared with those who underwent simultaneous rotator cuff and SLAP repair. Range of motion in both internal and external rotation was also significantly better in those patients who had SLAP debridement as compared to SLAP repair. Conclusion In patients over the age of 45 years with a minimally retracted rotator cuff tear and associated SLAP lesion, arthroscopic repair of the rotator cuff with combined debridement of the type II SLAP lesion may provide greater patient satisfaction and functional outcome in terms of pain relief and motion.


We introduce and demonstrate use of a novel, diffuse optical tomography (DOT) based breast cancer signature for monitoring progression of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This signature, called probability of malignancy, is obtained by statistical image analysis of total hemoglobin concentration, blood oxygen saturation, and scattering coefficient distributions in the breast tomograms of a training-set population with biopsy-confirmed breast cancers. A pilot clinical investigation adapts this statistical image analysis approach for chemotherapy monitoring of three patients. Though preliminary, the study shows how to use the malignancy parameter for separating responders from partial-responders and demonstrates the potential utility of the methodology compared to traditional DOT quantification schemes.


This thesis explores the subject of automatic verification of product line models. This approach is based on the hypothesis that to automatically verify product line models, they should first be transformed into a language that makes them computable. In this thesis, product line models are transformed into constraint (logic) programs, then verified against a typology of verification criteria. The typology enumerates, classifies and formalizes a collection of generic verification criteria, i.e. criteria that can be applied (with or without adaptation) to any product line formalism. The typology makes the distinction between two categories of criteria: criteria that deal with the formalism in which models are represented, and the formalism-independent criteria. To identify defects in the first category, the thesis proposes a conformance checking approach directly related with verification of the abstract syntactic aspects of a model. To identify defects in the second category, the thesis proposes a domain-specific verification approach. An optimal algorithm is specified and implemented in constraint logic program for each criterion in the typology. These can be used independently -or in combination- to verify individual product line models. The thesis offers to support the verification of multiple product line models using an integration approach. Besides, this thesis proposes a series of integration strategies that can be used before applying the verification as for individual models. The product line verification approach proposed in this thesis is generic in the sense that it can be reused for any kind of product line model that instantiates the generic meta model based on which it was developed. It is general in the sense that it supports the verification of a comprehensive collection of criteria defined in the typology. This approach was implemented in a prototype tool that supports the specification, transformation, integration, configuration, analysis and verification of product line models via constraints (logic) programming. A benchmark gathering a corpus of 54 product line models was developed, then used in a series of experiments. The experiments showed that (i) the implementation of the domain-specific verification approach is fast and scalable to product line models up-to 2000 artefacts; (ii) the implementation of the conformance checking approach is fast and scalable to product line models up-to 10000 artefacts; and (iii) both approaches are correct and useful for industrial-size models.


The essay reviews major environmental problems of energy development within a broader development and sustainability context. The role of energy in human development and major historical trends as well as their implications for carbon dioxide emissions are discussed. After summarising the scientific understanding of current and possible future climate change, the paper reviews available mitigation and adaptation options including energy efficiency improvements, fuels switching, zero-carbon energy options, emission abatement and disposal at large point sources, enhancement of natural sinks, and adaptation measures. Specific circumstances of developing versus industrialised countries are outlined. The essay concludes with a review of policy instruments that could reconcile protection of the atmosphere with human development and sustainability objectives.


Genetic maps, which document the way in which recombination rates vary over a genome, are an essential tool for many genetic analyses. We present a high-resolution genetic map of the human genome, based on statistical analyses of genetic variation data, and identify more than 25,000 recombination hotspots, together with motifs and sequence contexts that play a role in hotspot activity. Differences between the behavior of recombination rates over large (megabase) and small (kilobase) scales lead us to suggest a two-stage model for recombination in which hotspots are stochastic features, within a framework in which large-scale rates are constrained.


Celebrities have become important participants in the debate on the future of development. The Irish rock star Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, is not only the front man of the band U2 but has also become the champion of an antipoverty movement with worldwide impact. Bono is supported by US economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has become a global spokesperson for poverty reduction, especially in Africa. Surprisingly, the recipes being suggested by Bono and Sachs are breath-takingly one-dimensional and akin to the sweeping propositions of the 1960s: give aid to Africa, waive debt, and provide education, and the continent will develop. While these remedies may look seductive, unfortunately the reality is far more complex and demands attention to the specific circumstance of each individual country or subregion. Grand ideas for development are a dangerous recipe and may in fact worsen the situation of the poor. In this article we address three issues related to the role of celebrities in international relations. First, we chart the rise of prominent celebrity activists in international affairs, in particular their impact on development policies of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Second, we examine the competence of celebrities to handle development issues and suggest a more nuanced and less paternalistic approach. Third, we consider the legitimacy of celebrity activists and whether these nonelected individuals are well positioned to berate democratically elected governments. Celebrities in Politics At the beginning of the twenty-first century, development policy is heavily influenced, in the words of Paul Collier, by development biz and development buzz. (1) Development biz encompasses the aid bureaucracies, aid agencies, and development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), all of whom make a living out of development. Development buzz, for its part, comes from rock stars, celebrities, and NGOs. Development buzz has been a door opener for Bono and other celebrities in recent years. In 1999, Bono had an audience with Pope John Paul II. Six years later, Time magazine named Bono, together with Melinda and Bill Gates, as "Persons of the Year." Bono has attended the World Economic Forum in Davos as well as several summits of the Group of 8 (G8). He and fellow activist Bob Geldof gained particular prominence at the Gleneagles G8 summit of 2005 and the Heiligendamm G8 summit of 2007. At Gleneagles, Bono had one-on-one meetings with George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroder, and Paul Martin and also met Jacques Chirac after the summit. (2) At Heiligendamm, Bono again claimed center stage, holding meetings with various leading politicians. His supporters even set up camp in Berlin months before the event. The attention celebrity diplomats received surrounding Heiligendamm was overwhelming. For example, for its May 2007 edition, Vanity Fair had a German singer, Herbert Gronemeyer, as its guest editor, and dozens of celebrities expressed their concern about poverty and hunger. Concurrently Bob Geldof was guest editor of an issue of the German tabloid Bild-Zeitung that laced pleas for greater development assistance with pictures of dying children and people afflicted with AIDS. (3) Efficient public relations work has made celebrities core players who had better be consulted. Politicians today can hardly avoid meetings with Bono. When Stephen Harper, Canadian prime minister, said he was too busy for a meeting with Bono during the Heiligendamm summit, the rock star did not take no for an answer. He growled that Harper had blocked progress on aid for Africa, and the intimidated prime minister promised to find time for a meeting. (4) Celebrity diplomacy extends well beyond G8 meetings and development issues, of course. George Clooney pronounces on Darfur. Robert Red-ford pronounces on Iraq. Not everyone is impressed. …


The difficulty associated with programing existing robots is one of the main impediments to them finding application in domestic environments such as the home. A promising method for simplifying robot programing is Programing by Demonstration (PbD). Here, an end user can provide a demonstration of the task to be programed, with a PbD "interface" interpreting the demonstration in order to determine low-level control details for the robot. A key aspect of the interpretation process is to make it robust to the noise typically included in a demonstration by the human. In this paper we present a method to help identify and eliminate any noise present in the demonstration. Our method involves two steps. The first step uses the demonstration to build up a partial knowledge of the geometry present in the task. Statistical regression analysis is used on demonstrated trajectories to determine equations describing curved surfaces in configuration space. The second step in our method uses the geometric information obtained in the first step to determine if there are more optimal paths than those demonstrated for completing the task. If there are, our method proposes these as the appropriate control commands for the robot. We show the validity of our approach by presenting successful experiments on a realistic household-type task—changing rolls on a paper roll holder.


In recent years, contemporary western society has played witness to a growth in the production, promotion, and consumption of ostensibly 'ethical' products such as Fair Trade goods. Such commodities are characterised by an emphasis on rebalancing inequalities that 'mass' production/consumption are said to create. This thesis takes sustainable tourism as a novel example of such concerns. With recent inroads in psychology and the social sciences suggesting that the practice of consumption represents a prominent 'mode' for 'identity work' (including class identities), the consumption of 'ethical' products may arguably signify the manifestation of 'ethical identity/identities'. However, 'ethics' and 'identity' are ambiguous words with significant concerns surrounding the 'ethics' of 'ethical' products, and the extent to which individuals exhibit 'ethical identity/identities' through the consumption of such goods. Building on Michael Foucault's 'technologies of self' and 'ethics', this thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of 'ethics', 'identity', and 'practice' in relation to sustainable tourism.


We consider a model in which two countries are involved in arms accumulation. The West is a decentralized market economy whose government uses optimal taxation to provide a public good, defense. The East is a centrally planned economy. Utility depends on consumption, leisure and defense; defense is a characteristic which is an increasing function of the difference between home and foreign weapon stocks. The cooperative outcome leads to a moratorium on investment in weapons. Two non-cooperative solutions to this differential game are also considered. The first is an open-loop Nash equilibrium solution, which presumes that countries cannot condition their investment in arms on the rival's weapon stocks. The second is a perfect Nash equilibrium solution, which presumes that countries can monitor foreign weapon stocks. The perfect equilibrium solution leads to lower levels of arms and is therefore more efficient, so that a unilateral arms treaty should allow countries to observe their rival's weapon stocks. In other words, verification leads to lower weapon stocks and higher welfare for both countries. The perfect equilibrium solution also provides a more satisfactory strategic foundation for the Richardson equations.


Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 1995 to evaluate these vessels and evaluations based on data accrued by inspections performed since the tanks were constructed are the subject of this report


Food is necessary for a healthy lifestyle, but it's an important way of spreading many pathogens and toxic chemicals. The food contamination may happen during planting, harvesting, storing, processing or transporting. Hence, the food quality monitoring is necessary. Plants constitute the main source of food for human being. Fighting against pests and plant diseases in some cases, prevents product loss. It is obvious that the pest control is crucial for the future agriculture, industry and hygiene. Despite the current discussions and critics in scientific conventions about the adverse effects of pesticide use on human life, chemical based methods of pest control are still the most common among the farmers. Pesticide residues in agricultural products due to inappropriate and excessive consumption of pesticides is a worldwide problem that has overshadowed the health of human societies (1). Bushehr province, according to its weather conditions, is one of the major tomato growers in the country in autumn and winter. In this study, the residues of 9 toxins (Cypermethrin, Permethrin, Indoxacarb And Mancozeb, Chlorothalonil, Iprodione, Thiophanate methyl, Carbendazim Golsam, and Abamectin) has been investigated in 37 Tomato samples from the farms of Jam, Dashtestan, Dashti, Deir and kangan cities, and Except Abamectin other toxins were detected. Cypermethrin rate was higher than standard in 2.8% of the samples. The residues of Permethrin, Indoxacarb, Mancozeb, Chlorothalonil, Iprodione and Thiophanate methyl was lower than the allowed limits in all the samples. The amount of Carbendazim was determined to be higher than the allowed limits in 4.8% of the samples.


The largest breeding population of red-legged kittiwakes Rissa brevirostris has undergone a dramatic decline and subsequent recovery since 1975. The causal mechanism is hypo thesized to be climate-induced food shortages during reproduction, yet little is known about how the basin ecosystem, where breeding red-legged kittiwakes primarily forage, is affected by climate variability. We examined when and under what conditions red-legged kittiwakes experienced food shortages. Head feathers (winter) and first primary feathers (summer; n = 24 and 27 yr, and 194 and 122 individuals, respectively) were collected between 1913 and 2016 on St. George Island and were analyzed for stable isotope signatures of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and sulfur (δ34S). Feathers were also analyzed for corticosterone concentration (fCORT), which indicates a bird's exposure to nutritional stress during feather growth. Summer fCORT concentrations were lower when values of the annual Pacific Decadal Oscillation index were positive. Winter fCORT concentrations and δ15N signatures increased when February sea-ice coverage was extensive. We conclude that, since 1913, warm conditions in the Bering Sea ecosystem have been associated with low nutritional stress in adult red-legged kittiwakes breeding on St. George Island. However, we found no strong evidence for isotopic shifts over this same period. A better understanding of the factors governing the abundance and availability of red-legged kittiwakes' prey is needed to predict the impact of anticipated warming on this species and its foraging habitat.


Understanding the causes of the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth is key to maintaining the competitiveness of advanced economies and ensuring long-term economic prosperity. This paper is the first to provide evidence that investment in Knowledge-Based Capital (KBC), despite having a positive effect on productivity at the micro level, is a driver of the weak productivity performance at the aggregate level, by accentuating divergence between a group of "frontier" firms and the rest of the economy. Using detailed firm-level administrative data for Germany, we find evidence that the effect of KBC on productivity is heterogeneous across firms within industries: this effect is 3 times larger for firms in the top quintile of the KBC distribution compared to firms in the bottom quintile of the KBC distribution. We document the existence of divergence in productivity growth between top KBC users and the rest of firms at the industry level, and find that industries where this gap is larger are also those industries where the heterogeneity in the effect of KBC is highest and where average productivity growth was lower. The evidence hence supports the view that the use of KBC plays a role in explaining weak productivity growth, by accentuating differences between firms.


Many information gathering problems require determining the set of points, for which an unknown function takes value above or below some given threshold level. We formalize this task as a classification problem with sequential measurements, where the unknown function is modeled as a sample from a Gaussian process (GP). We propose LSE, an algorithm that guides both sampling and classification based on GP-derived confidence bounds, and provide theoretical guarantees about its sample complexity. Furthermore, we extend LSE and its theory to two more natural settings: (1) where the threshold level is implicitly defined as a percentage of the (unknown) maximum of the target function and (2) where samples are selected in batches. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed methods on two problems of practical interest, namely autonomous monitoring of algal populations in a lake environment and geolocating network latency.


BACKGROUND
There is growing evidence to support the use of the psychedelic drug psilocybin for difficult-to-treat depression. This paper compares the cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) with conventional medication, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and the combination of conventional medication and CBT.

METHODS
A decision model simulated patient events (response, remission, and relapse) following treatment. Data on probabilities, costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were derived from previous studies or from best estimates. Expected healthcare and societal costs and QALYs over a 6-month time period were calculated. Sensitivity analyses were used to address uncertainty in parameter estimates.

RESULTS
The expected healthcare cost of PAP varied from £6132 to £7652 depending on the price of psilocybin. This compares to £3528 for conventional medication alone, £4250 for CBT alone, and £4197 for their combination. QALYs were highest for psilocybin (0.310), followed by CBT alone (0.283), conventional medication alone (0.278), and their combination (0.287). Psilocybin was shown to be cost-effective compared to the other therapies when the cost of therapist support was reduced by 50% and the psilocybin price was reduced from its initial value to £400 to £800 per person. From a societal perspective, psilocybin had improved cost-effectiveness compared to a healthcare perspective.

CONCLUSIONS
Psilocybin has the potential to be a cost-effective therapy for severe depression. This depends on the level of psychological support that is given to patients receiving psilocybin and the price of the drug itself. Further data on long-term outcomes are required to improve the evidence base.


A comprehensive theoretical analysis of a dynamic thermo-ferro-electric pre-stressed bimorph energy harvester is performed. This analysis takes into account pyroelectric and thermal expansion effects. The most general analytical expression for the energy conversion coefficients are presented for a bilayer. These coefficients are derived for a more general situation when mechanical, electrical, and thermal fields are present. We also derive coefficients (transformation coefficients) for sensing, actuating, and energy harvesting. For a particular case, we develop an analytical expression for the energy-harvesting coefficient due to pyroelectric and thermal expansion effects in a rather general situation. This is a function of material properties, location of boundary conditions, vibration frequency, and in-plane compressive/tensile follower force. Numerical simulations of the analytical results are presented in detail. The effects of volume fraction, material properties, applied mechanical loads, and boundary conditions on the harvesting coefficients are introduced in the system. The results for a cantilever and a simply supported beam are obtained as particular cases. The result for a low-frequency (static) system is obtained as a particular case by approaching the vibration frequency to zero. It is shown that volume fraction, material properties, plain compressive/tensile follower force, location of the boundary conditions, and vibrational frequency of the bimorph strongly influence the strain distribution, and this in effect influences the charge coefficient and the generation of energy. The proposed model can be extended to thermal energy harvesters with piezoelectric-shape memory alloy (SMA) composites, nanomaterials, and nanocomposites for solar energy conversion.


This paper will discuss combinatorial uniform shift networks that can shift a binary word a variable number of bit positions. Typical arithmetic applications are for prenormalization or alignment of one of the mantissas in floating point addition, postnormalization of the mantissa in any normalized floating point operation, or for one or more bits of shifting in multiply and divide. Other applications include • packing and unpacking of fields stored in memory either within the processor itself or as part of a separate unit between the processor and the memory (such a unit, called a "field isolation unit," is described by DeSantis, et al1); • isolation of fields of a word in the instruction decoding and break-apart done during emulation of various machines; and • variable-length routing of words between all processors in an array computer by transposing the processor/data word matrix, shifting by the routing distance, and transposing the resultant data word/processor matrix back, as described by Semmelhaack.2


Scorpion venoms are composed of a number of peptides, many of which show neurotoxicity. In addition to these neurotoxins, several antimicrobial peptides have also been isolated from the venoms. The scorpion Isometrus maculatus, belonging to the Buthidae family, is found in many tropical regions including Japan, but little attention has been paid to its biological activity and chemical composition. In this study, we isolated a novel insect toxin, Im-1, by bioassay-guided fractionation of the venom of I. maculatus. Rapid and reversible paralysis was observed after injection of Im-1 into crickets. Im-1 consists of 56 amino acids, and is predicted to form an amphipathic α-helix. Since Im-1 shares sequence similarity to an antimicrobial peptide, parabutoporin, we evaluated its effects on several bacterial strains and found that it showed an antimicrobial activity profile similar to parabutoporin. This suggests that Im-1 and parabutoporin exert their antimicrobial effects through similar mechanisms.


ABSTRACT History education frequently aims at developing active citizenship by using the past to orientate to the present and the future. A pedagogy for pursuing this aim is making connections between the past and the present by means of comparing cases of an enduring human issue. To examine the feasibility and desirability of this case-comparison teaching approach, students (n = 444) and teachers (n = 15) who participated in an implementation study conducted in the Netherlands were questioned about their experiences and views. Results show that both students and teachers felt that case-comparison in the context of an enduring human issue is feasible and not more complex than the usual history teaching in which topics are studied separately without explicitly making comparisons between past and present, even if some students thought that taking account of episodes from different historical periods concurrently required an extra learning effort. Both students and teachers believed that connecting past and present in history teaching enhances engagement and meaning making. They suggested a curriculum combining the case-comparison approach with the type of history teaching they were accustomed to. Mixed methods were used for data collection. Implications for further research on case-comparison learning in history are being discussed.


Electrified domestic hot water systems, being deferrable loads, are an important demand side management tool and thus have the potential to enhance photovoltaic self-consumption. This study addresses the energy and economic performance of photovoltaic self-consumption by using a typical Portuguese dwelling. Five system configurations were simulated: a gas boiler (with/without battery) and an electric boiler (without demand management and with genetic and heuristic optimization). A sensitivity analysis on photovoltaic capacity shows the optimum photovoltaic sizing to be in the range 1.0 to 2.5 kWp. The gas boiler scenario and the heuristic scenario present the best levelized cost of energy, respectively, for the lower and higher photovoltaic capacities. The use of a battery shows the highest levelized cost of energy and the heuristic scenario shows the highest solar fraction (56.9%). Results also highlight the great potential on increasing photovoltaic size when coupled with electrified domestic hot water systems, to accommodate higher solar fractions and achieve lower costs, through energy management.


The rapid growth of biological knowledge is placing it prominence among the sciences. For this reason, biologists are realizing that their responsibilities have changed, as new technological devices are redefining biology. With new trend in information technologies, the biology teacher has to ensure that s/he is current in the content matter, method and technological devices. How sure and ready is the Nigerian secondary school biology teacher with the new technological devices in the laborartory activities? Biology teachers' indifference towards laboratory activities has remained a problem as most of them still use lecture style that has not changed in decades. It is not difficult to break away from this pattern and present activities with new technological devices to students in a manner that excites and sustains their interests. This will not only help them in changing the ambience in the lab, but also expand their talent pool, provide opportunities to enhance the educational value of the activity, and stimulate the desire to learn. The main focus of this paper is on the new technological devices that can be used by the biology teacher during laboratory activities. The paper also highlights the strengths in using these technological devices in some selected topics in biology. Challenges faced by biology teachers and students are also discussed.


A novel about the frightfulness and ruthlessness of being in love Martin Lynch-Gibson believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional reeducation. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendor at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. As his Medusa informs him, this is nothing to do with happiness. "A Severed Head" was adapted for a successful stage production in 1963 and was later made into a film starring Claire Bloom, Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, and Ian Holm."


Purpose: Heterogeneity exists in urban neighborhoods. Factors that affect home choice can differ even though socio-demographics are quite similar. It is possible residents' tastes for environment features in home location also predict how well they respond to built-environment changes by increasing physical activity. Observing factors that affect location can contribute to physical activity success in public health. A study area in West Texas appears very homogeneous: 89% Caucasian; 72% registered Republican; 81% families with children; 68% college educated 87% 'some college;' yet two distinct submarkets exist based on subtle differences in home purchase choices. The area has a high incidence of obesity and diabetes; so landscape changes that might induce physical activity are important. Methods: A random sample of 93 residents who purchased homes between June, 2008 and December, 2009 in Lubbock, TX completed the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire Survey. 66 (71%) responded. Using a prior market study, 18 (27%) were members of submarket 1 and 48 (73%) were members of submarket 2. A Spearman Rank Correlation coefficient (ρ) correlated levels of physical activity on two dimension of physical activity dimensions: C1, "mild, moderate, strenuous"; and C2, "seldom, sometimes, often" to a measure of landscape diversity. Wilcoxin Tests compared types. Results: For the group, Spearman Rank correlation between landscape diversity and strenuous weekly exercise was significant (p<0.054) and correlation to often active was not significant, but at p<0.118. Comparing types, Type 1 residents exercised more often (p<0.067) and more strenuously (p<0.098) as landscape improved. Type 2 residents showed no improvement in physical activity: sometimes and often were insignificant (p<0.68) and (p<0.44) as well as moderate (p<0.63) and strenuous (p<0.29). The Wilcoxin tests for improvement in each category show Type1 improving on both intensity (p<0.022) and frequency (p<0.042) with greater landscape diversity. Conclusions: There is little demographic difference between members of each submarket. So in aggregate, significant improvement on one dimension of physical activity and 88% significance on the other may induce health officials to conclude an improvement in activity occurred for an 'at


In recent years, Voice over IP (VoIP) has gained a lot of popularity. Signaling being an important part of VoIP has been addressed by the (IETF) SIGTRAN working group to meet Quality of Service as given by Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), so that both PSTN and VoIP can co-exit and work together in a seamless manner SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) developed by IETF for VoIP signaling is a communication control protocol capable of running on different transport layers, e.g., TCP, UDP or SCTP. Today's SIP application is mostly operating over the unreliable transport protocol UDP. In lossy environment such as wireless networks and congested Internet networks, SIP messages can be lost or delivered out of sequence. The SIP application then has to retransmit the lost messages and re-order the received packets. This additional processing overhead can degrade the performance of the SIP application. Therefore to solve this problem, the researchers are looking for a more appropriate transport layer for SIP. SCTP, a transport protocol providing acknowledged, error-free, non-duplicated transfer of messages, has been proposed to be an alternative to UDP [1] and TCP [2]. The multi-streaming and multi-homing features of SCTP are especially attractive for applications that have stringent performance and high reliability requirements and an example is the SIP proxy server. In this research, we have analyzed the performance offered by SCTP for SIP message delivery in the perspective of historic research work as well as determined call setup time using UDP and SCTP by simulating SIP traffic in Network Simulator-2 (ns-2). We also evaluate TCP, UDP and SCTP traffic with constant bit rate of traffic through ns-2


Sepsis is a leading cause of preventable maternal mortality in developing countries due to poverty, home deliveries by untrained persons in unhygienic conditions, limited access to healthcare facilities and lack of availability of antibiotics. Recent confidential enquiries into maternal deaths from the developed nations have revealed an increase in maternal mortality secondary to genital tract sepsis and provision of suboptimal critical care. Early recognition of critical illness in obstetric patients, involvement of intensive care teams earlier and provision of same standard of critical care to pregnant women as non-pregnant patients while being mindful of the altered maternal physiology and fetal wellbeing is necessary to improve outcome of this vulnerable population. This article reviews the definitions and risk factors of maternal sepsis and describes the standards recommended for efficient delivery of maternal critical care and sepsis management.


Abstract In this conversation prompted by the publication of Julian Stallabrass's Killing for Show: Photography, War and the Media in Vietnam and Iraq (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), Stallabrass and Mignon Nixon discuss the roles played by photography in two wars that, Stallabrass contends, were simultaneously staged for, and concealed from, the camera. The discussion encompasses diverse modes of war photography, from photojournalism and official military photography to amateur and trophy images, aftermath photographs, and found images used by contemporary artists. It dwells on questions of memory, systemic cruelty, trauma, and melancholy, and on shifts in technology, media, and social relations that have altered the dynamics of killing for show over time, without eliminating the imperative.


Fibre optic networks form the backbone of modern communications systems. As demand for ever increasing bandwidth continues to grow, technologies that enable the
expansion of optical networks will be the key to future development. The semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is a technology that may be crucial in future optical networks, as a low cost in-line amplifier or as a functional element. As fibre networks extend closer to the end user, economical ways of improving the reach of these networks are
important. SOAs are small, relatively inexpensive and can be readily integrated in photonic circuits. Problems persist with the development of SOAs, however, in the form
of a relatively high noise figure and low saturation output power, which limits their use in many circumstances. The aim of this thesis is to outline a concept for control of these parameters such that the SOA can achieve the performance required. The concept relies on the control of the carrier density distribution in the SOA. The basic characteristics of the SOA and how they are affected by changes in the carrier density are studied. The performance of the SOA in linear and high power transmission of CW and pulsed signals is determined. Finally, the wavelength conversion characteristics of the SOA are outlined. The role of the carrier density control in shaping all of these characteristics will be explained.


A candid, moving and inspirational memoir about a high-flying business man who is forced to re-evaluate his life and values when he suddenly loses everything and goes to work in Starbucks. Michael Gill had it made. He was educated, wealthy and well-connected. He had a creative and lucrative advertising job, which he loved and which he was good at, and a model family and home life. Then he loses it all. He is fired by a young exec whom he had mentored. He has an extramarital affair that destroys his family and results in a newborn son. Then he is diagnosed with brain cancer. He has no insurance, no income. One day he wanders into Starbucks and by chance signs up for a job interview. His would-be boss is a young black woman who gives him a job, and sets about training him and mentoring him. What follows is an inspirational eye-opener as Gill experiences a whole new world compared to his former life - with people from completely different ethnic and social backgrounds. 'How Starbucks Saved My Life' follows Gill's journey of discovery as gradually he is forced to question his ingrained assumptions, prejudices and habits. Gill emerges from his fall from grace with humility and gratitude. His new-found empathy teaches him how anyone who has lost their way, or made a mistake, can start again.


STUDY OBJECTIVE--The study aimed to assess the association of different indicators of socioeconomic status with levels of cardiovascular disease risk factors in men and women aged 25-64 years. DESIGN--This was a cross sectional survey, using a community based random sample. SETTING--The provinces of North Karelia and Kuopio in eastern Finland and the cities of Turku and Loimaa and surrounding communities in southwestern Finland in 1987. PARTICIPANTS--Altogether 2164 men and 2182 women aged 25-64 years took part. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS--Data were collected using self administered questionnaires and the measurement of height, body weight, and blood pressure and blood sampling for lipid determinations were done at the survey site. The risk of cardiovascular disease was determined by calculating a simple risk factor score based on the observed values of HDL and total cholesterol, leisure time, physical activity, blood pressure, medication for hypertension, body mass index, and smoking. Indicators of socioeconomic position used were years of education, family income, marital status, and the person's occupation. Lower levels of education, occupation, and income were all significantly associated with an unfavorable risk factor profile in men and women. Education and occupation showed the strongest associations with the risk factor score in both men and women. The results changed little when adjusting for income and marital status. Family income was more strongly associated with the risk factor score in women than men. When adjusting for occupation and education, income was no longer significantly associated with the risk factor score in men. Marital status was not significantly associated with the risk factor score in either sex. CONCLUSIONS--Using the strength of the association with the cardiovascular risk factor score as the criterion for a good socioeconomic indicator, the present study suggests that education and occupation may be equally good indicators in both men and women. Family income may have some additional importance, especially in women.


We discuss advantages and disadvantages of various ways of calculating an optical Point Spread Function (PSF) and present novel Fourier-based techniques for computing vector PSF. The knowledge of the exact structure of the PSF of a given optical system is of interest in fluorescence microscopy to be able to perform high-quality image reconstructions. Even, if we know how an aberrant optical path deviates from the original design, the corresponding PSF is often hard to calculate, as the phase and amplitude modifications need to be modelled in detail. Accurate PSF models need to account for the vector nature of the electric fields in particular for high numerical apertures. Compared to the computation of a commonly used scalar PSF model, the vectorial model is computationally more expensive, yet more accurate. State-of-the-art scalar and vector PSF models exist, but they all have their pros and cons. Many real-space-based models fall into the sampling pitfall near the centre of the image, yielding integrated plane intensities which are not constant near the nominal focus position, violating energy conservation. This and other problems which typically arise when calculating PSFs are discussed and their shortfalls are quantitatively compared. A highly oversampled Richards and Wolf model is chosen as the gold standard for our quantitative comparison due its ability to represent the ideal field accurately, albeit being practically very slow in the calculation. Fourier-based methods are shown to be computationally very efficient and radial symmetry assumption are not needed making it easy to include non-centro-symmetric aberrations. For this reason newly presented methods such as the SincR and the Fourier-Shell method are essentially based on multidimensional Fourier-transformations.


Controversy over the taxonomic relationship of the Taxineae with the Coniferineae has created a new interest in the field of wood anatomy. This has been reflected by the flurry of investigations being conducted in families such as the Podocarpaceae. The systematic position of Amentotaxus is somewhat uncertain (see Keng, 1969). While many authors place Amentotaxus in the Taxaceae, this genus has also been referred to the Cephalotaxaceae or even considered to represent a separate family, the Amentotaxaceae. When Kudo and Yamamoto (1931) described this last family, it was considered to be represented by only a single species, Amentotaxus argotaenia (Hance) Pilger. In his revision of Amentotaxus Li (1952) recognized four species. However, the description and publication of three new species of Amentotaxus based on leaf morphology would appear to have been overly optimistic and has not gone unchallenged. Hu (1964) recognized only three of the species, since she thought that Amentotaxus cathayensis Li could not be usefully upheld as distinct. Moreover, Chuang and Hu (1963) considered that Amentotaxus formosana Li was better referred to Amentotaxus argotaenia (Hance) Pilger. The divergence of opinion has increased the need to investigate any anatomical features that may be of taxonomic importance. In connection with this work it was thought an examination of the wood anatomy would be worthwhile, even though taxonomic evaluation at the subgeneric level is not often successful in this field. A comparative study of the wood anatomy within the genus Amentotaxus is considerably limited by the lack of availability of suitable material; most locations of Amentotaxus are in China. The scanty and now somewhat rare wood specimens were collected before 1935, with the exception of some from Taiwan.


Climate and land use change modify surface water availability in African savannas. Surface water is a key resource for both wildlife and livestock and its spatial and temporal distribution is important for understanding the composition of large herbivore assemblages in savannas. Yet, the extent to which ungulate species differ in their water requirements remains poorly quantified. Here, we infer the water requirements of 48 African ungulates by combining six different functional traits related to physiological adaptations to reduce water loss, namely minimum dung moisture, relative dung pellet size, relative surface area of the distal colon, urine osmolality, relative medullary thickness, and evaporation rate. In addition, we investigated how these differences in water requirements relate to differences in dietary water intake. We observed strong correlations between traits related to water loss through dung, urine and evaporation, suggesting that ungulates minimize water loss through multiple pathways simultaneously, which suggests that each trait can thus be used independently to predict water requirements. Furthermore, we found that browsers and grazers had similar water requirements, but browsers are expected to be less dependent on surface water because they acquire more water through their diet. We conclude that these key functional traits are a useful way to determine differences in water requirements and an important tool for predicting changes in herbivore community assembly resulting from changes in surface water availability.


The popularity of embedded positioning technologies in mobile devices and the development of mobile communication technology have paved the way for powerful location-based services (LBSs). To make LBSs useful and user- friendly, heavy use is made of context information, including patterns in user location data which are extracted by data mining methods. However, there is a potential conflict of interest: the data mining methods want as precise data as possible, while the users want to protect their privacy by not disclosing their exact movements. This paper aims to resolve this conflict by proposing a general framework that allows user location data to be anonymized, thus preserving privacy, while still allowing interesting patterns to be discovered. The framework allows users to specify individual desired levels of privacy that the data collection and mining system will then meet. Privacy-preserving methods are proposed for a core data mining task, namely finding dense spatio-temporal regions. An extensive set of experiments evaluate the methods, comparing them to their non- privacy-preserving equivalents. The experiments show that the framework still allows most patterns to be found, even when privacy is preserved.


The distribution of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) and the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) within the Prairie-Torrens Creek Alluvials province of the Desert Upland region of north-western Queensland was examined. The optimum habitat for each species as indicated by the occurrence of faecal pellet groups was found to be that associated with creek-lines. However, other land types were also used by each species to varying degrees. The relationship between various habitat variables and pellet group counts was investigated using Multiple regression and a Generalised linear model. Proximity to creek-bed, total basal area of trees, species richness and Acacia basal area (negative) best explained the occurrence of koalas. Proximity to creek-bed, Acacia basal area (negative), total basal area of trees, and available water (negative) best explained the occurrence of brushtail possums. In contrast to studies of arboreal species in the moist-south-eastern forests of Australia no relationship was found between foliar nutrient concentrations and the occurrence of koalas or brushtail possums. However, a significant relationship was found between leaf water concentration and the occurrence of koalas. It is suggested that water availability is the paramount factor defining preferred arboreal habitat in arid and semi-arid woodlands.


In the "missing data" (MD) approach to noise robust automatic speech recognition (ASR), speech models are trained on clean data, and during recognition sections of spectral data dominated by noise are detected and treated as "missing". However, this all-or-nothing hard decision about which data is missing does not accurately reflect the probabilistic nature of missing data detection. Recent work has shown greatly improved performance by the "soft missing data" (SMD) approach, in which the "missing" status of each data value is represented by a continuous probability rather than a 0/1 value. This probability is then used to weight between the different likelihood contributions which the MD model normally assigns to each spectral observation according to its "missing" status. This article presents an analysis which shows that the SMD approach effectively implements a Maximum A-Posteriori (MAP) decoding strategy with missing or uncertain data, subject to the interpretation that the missing/not-missing probabilities are weights for a mixture pdf which models the pdf for each hidden clean data input, after conditioning by the noisy data input, a local noise estimate, and any information which may be available. An important feature of this "soft data" model is that control over the "evidence pdf" can provide a principled framework not only for ignoring unreliable data, but also for focusing attention on more discriminative features, and for data enhancement.


The paper draws on Colombo, Sri Lanka as the case study for developing Water Sensitive Planning and Design (WSPD) to deliver a flood resilient urban environment. Digital data and documentary data were evaluated to analyse water sensitive characteristics, potentials and constraints within the catchment. Spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS were used when analysing issues in the landscape mosaic. Evaluation of the landscape mosaic clearly identifies urban form and its significant issues in creating ecological links and patches, such as, marshes, streams, roads and shrubs that can create potential opportunities during stormwater management. Geographically, the low-lying area plays an important role as the natural detention/retention basin for stormwater of the urban catchment during intensive rainfall. In addition, increased impervious surfaces created by high-density urban development and the limited availability of space have created challenges for retrofitting additional stormwater infrastructure. The study identifies the important role that urban planning can play in safeguarding strategies to deal with urban water related issues in more compromising and accommodating ways when situating stormwater infrastructure to optimise the connectivity and corridors. The study demonstrated the importance of street layouts in the urban landscape to support the development of WSPD. This approach provides sustainable ecological protection and outcomes to achieve a flood resilient environment in the catchment.


Objective: To compare the fracture resistance of primary molars restored with the bonded amalgam technique using various luting agents viz, Resinomer, Rely X U - 100 and GC Fuji PLUS as the bonding agents. Materials: Sixty sound primary molars were selected and randomly assigned to one of four test groups of 15 teeth each, i.e. Group I, Group II, Group III, and Group IV. All four groups were prepared to a standard MOD cavity form and restored with amalgam. In Group I no luting agent was used, in Group II Resinomer, in Group III Rely X U100 and in Group IV GC Fuji PLUS was used respectively. Each Group was then subjected to compress ive testing until fracture occurred. The mean loads at fracture of each group were statistically compared using ANOVA with 'Games Howell Post Hoc' test. Results: Group II - Resinomer (852.93Mpa) showed the highest fracture resistance followed by Group IV - GC Fuji PLUS (733.11Mpa), Group III - Rely X U100 (644.83Mpa) and Group I - amalgam alone


With the commencement of the Young Offenders Act in April 1998, Youth Justice Conferencing was introduced across NSW as an alternative to a court appearance for young offenders. At a conference the young offender(s), family, victims and other supporters discuss the offending and its impact in order to encourage acceptance of responsibility by the offender, provide some form of restitution and help to reintegrate the offender back into his/her family and community. This study compares reoffending by young people who participated in a conference with reoffending by young people who attended court. The results indicate that conferencing produces a moderate reduction of up to 15 to 20 per cent in reoffending across different offence types and regardless of the gender, criminal history, age and Aboriginality of the offenders.


Continuously distributed loops of Henle were used in a central core model of the rat kidney's urine-concentrating mechanism to investigate the importance of overlapping loops for three different modes of urea transport in the long loops of Henle: 1) urea-impermeable loops, 2) urea-permeable loops (as indicated by perfused tubule experiments), and 3) loops with urea-permeable descending limbs and active urea transport out of thin ascending limbs. Mode 1 produces high papillary tip osmolality in accordance with tissue slice experiments, but the relative contribution of urea to the osmolality of the central core and the long descending limbs is below experimental measurements. Mode 2 generates no significant osmolality increase in the inner medulla, in agreement with other model studies. Mode 3 produces high papillary tip osmolality with a substantial contribution of urea to the osmolality of the core and the descending limbs, which is more in accordance with experiments. The results suggest that 1) overlapping loops may produce a cascade effect that contributes to the inner medullary concentrating mechanism and that 2) new experiments are needed to more certainly ascertain the urea transport characteristics of the thin ascending limbs.


Ndé gową goshjaa (Lipan Apache families or clan relations) produce a significant portion of indigenous alliances and resistances to imperialism, colonization, industrialization, and militarization in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. The visibility of Ndé isdzáné (Lipan Apache women) in the Lower Rio Grande Valley changed radically after the passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006. In this essay, I speak from my position as one of the cofounders of the Lipan Apache Women Defense and as the third‐born daughter of vocal and consistent leaders of the reemergent Ndé isdzáné in the traditional territories of the Ndé. My analysis is not meant to substitute for the important analysis of local matrilineal leaders, nor is it meant to be static. Rather, as an Ndé isdzáné scholar, I must allow the space to make and to know the people, politics, histories, events, and meanings as they continue to unfold. I believe that Ndé isdzáné, as a basis for Ndé activism (which includes supportive brothers) and as a category of analysis, furthers the work of feminism in U.S., North American, indigenous, and global indigenous human rights defense work. Investigating the histories of our indigenous foremothers—respecting and acknowledging community‐based rights, wishes, and aspirations—challenges Ndé women and our allies to reflect on the rights work of contemporary indigenous women in militarized and state‐occupied policing zones and their roles and challenges as political actors in extreme struggles against economic enslavement, dispossession, land theft, vital resource deprivation, environmental destruction, detention, rape, racialized sexism, indentured servitude, and casta.


The scattering of waves by a finite thin plate in a two-dimensional wave
guide and an array of finite thin plates, in the presence of subsonic mean flow,
are formulated using a mode matching technique. The influence of mean flow
on trapped modes in the vicinity of a finite thin plate in a two-dimensional
wave guide is then investigated by putting the amplitude of the forcing term
to zero in the scattering problem. The conditions for complex resonances are
found, and numerical results are computed. The influence of mean flow on
Rayleigh-Bloch modes is investigated by using a similar methodology.
The condition for embedded trapped modes to exist is introduced next,
and then numerical results for embedded trapped modes without mean flow
are presented. Complex resonances without mean flow are then found by
fixing the geometry of the waveguide. The influence of mean flow on complex
resonances and embedded trapped modes is investigated subsequently. In
addition, the investigation of scattering coefficients is discussed when the
frequency of an incident wave is near the real part of the frequency of complex
resonances or embedded trapped modes.
Embedded trapped modes near an indentation in a strip wave guide,
which may correspond to a two-dimensional acoustic wave guide or a channel
of uniform water depth in water waves, are also found. Modes are sought
which are either symmetric or anti-symmetric about the centreline of the
guide and the centre of the indentation. In each case, a simple approximate
solution is found numerically. Full solutions are then found by using
a Galerkin approach in which the singularity near the indentation edge is
modelled by choosing proper special functions.
The final part of the thesis is devoted to spinning modes (Rayleigh-Bloch
modes) in a cylindrical waveguide in the presence of radial fins. A mode matching technique is used to obtain the potential, and the coefficients in
the expansion are found numerically by using an efficient Galerkin procedure.
In addition, an existence proof for modes symmetric about the centre of the
guide and the centre of the section with radial fins is given by applying a
variational approach. The connection between Rayleigh-Bloch modes and
trapped modes is discussed thereafter, and numerical results for a number of
geometric configurations are presented.


In this chapter, the authors offer a working definition of political humour and summarise its main aspects as discussed in the relevant literature: the genres where political humour surfaces or dominates; the reasons why political criticism is so often encoded in humorous terms; and the (side-)effects of political humour. They also discuss the so-called "inherent ambiguity of humour", thus explaining why political humour does not necessarily influence politics. Rather than provoking social and political change, political humour conveys criticism against the political status quo and recycles and reinforces dominant values and views on politics. The diverse sociopolitical conditions may influence who is allowed to participate in the creation and circulation of political humour and who may become its target.


Abstract This paper presents a distributed information system that facilitates virtual multidisciplinary product development activities. A growing problem today for many companies is that of facing up to increasing global competition, increasing the importance of delivering the right product at the right time and at the least cost. To enable a company to provide competitive services, concurrent engineering methods are employed progressively more often. However, a truly effective concurrent engineering team requires specialists in a wide variety of occupations and skill bases. Effective communication and exchange of information between members usually require not only face-to-face meetings but also highly advanced tools. Various tools have been developed in the past with the premise of facilitating effective communication. However, these have realistically only covered a subsection of the total product development life-cycle. The work presented here displays an approach to the problem in terms of an Internet-based system, which provides a mechanism to allow integrated information sharing from the initial concepts through to the realization and the marketing of a product. The system effectively removes the barriers between people and incompatible computer systems and resulting from non-standardization.


High-order sideband nonlinear optical properties in a DNA–quantum dot coupled system are investigated theoretically here. In this paper, we demonstrate the significant enhancement of the third- and fifth-order optical nonlinear properties of the system by applying the pump-probe technique with pump-exciton detuning tuned to zero. It is shown clearly that these phenomena cannot occur without the DNA–quantum dot coupling, implying some potential applications like DNA detection. We can also obtain and tune the significantly amplified sideband beams at frequencies ωp±2ωD. This research could provide people a deeper insight into the nonlinear optical behaviors in coupled DNA–quantum dot systems.


Art and science cannot 'want' anything, but artists can be interested in disciplinary
outcomes other than those authenticated within their own field, and scientists can want a
greater sense of cultural agency than is allowed within a strictly-ruled discipline. The
pursuit of such aspirations puts into contention the integrity of arts and sciences as
disciplines (for knowing and making a world), and the effectiveness of their cultures in
transmitting their selectivist disciplinary gains, or opening them to participation and
scrutiny.
This inquiry uses Pierre Bourdieu's formulation of the social fields of art and
science critically within a self-reflexive (artist's) discourse. It asks whether aspirations to
extend art and science in the ways summarized above are mutually-enhancing, or part of
a struggle for disciplinary dominance and the control of normative culture. The aim is a
better understanding of what is at stake for an ambiguously-defined contemporary art
when artists and scientists extend their interests to each other's fields – given that their
aspirations ('wants') can be disciplinary or cultural, and either intrinsic or extrinsic,
conventionally speaking, to their home fields.
Conventionally, art as a discipline modulates between the aesthetic and the
intellectual, the wild and the rational, remaining ambiguous about its precise gains. Within
the extended field of art, this ambiguity is resolved opportunistically, among mutuallydependent
agents: artists, curators, academics, collectors (etc.). Explicitly scienceengaged
art is a special case within this art world, and, conversely, art-world conventions
are rejected by some prominent art-science practitioners. Such selective authentications
and disavowals raise the stakes around science-engaged art. On the one hand it seems,
at best, to be merely indexical of the ongoing scientification of everything; on the other, it
particularizes the idea of art as a vector of rational agency, inviting a new necessity and
progressivity in art.


Vleck, VE, Bentley, DJ, Millet, GP, and Cochrane, T. Triathlon event distance specialization: training and injury effects. J Strength Cond Res 24(1): 30-36, 2010-We conducted a preliminary, questionnaire-based, retrospective analysis of training and injury in British National Squad Olympic distance (OD) and Ironman distance (IR) triathletes. The main outcome measures were training duration and training frequency and injury frequency and severity. The number of overuse injuries sustained over a 5-year period did not differ between OD and IR. However, the proportions of OD and IR athletes who were affected by injury to particular anatomical sites differed (p < 0.05). Also, fewer OD athletes (16.7 vs. 36.8%, p < 0.05) reported that their injury recurred. Although OD sustained fewer running injuries than IR (1.6 ± 0.5 vs. 1.9 ± 0.3, p < 0.05), more subsequently stopped running (41.7 vs. 15.8%) and for longer (33.5 ± 43.0 vs. 16.7 ± 16.6 days, p < 0.01). In OD, the number of overuse injuries sustained inversely correlated with percentage training time, and number of sessions, doing bike hill repetitions (r = −0.44 and −0.39, respectively, both p < 0.05). The IR overuse injury number correlated with the amount of intensive sessions done (r = 0.67, p < 0.01 and r = 0.56, p < 0.05 for duration of "speed run" and "speed bike" sessions). Coaches should note that training differences between triathletes who specialize in OD or IR competition may lead to their exhibiting differential risk for injury to specific anatomical sites. It is also important to note that cycle and run training may have a "cumulative stress" influence on injury risk. Therefore, the tendency of some triathletes to modify rather than stop training when injured-usually by increasing load in another discipline from that in which the injury first occurred-may increase both their risk of injury recurrence and time to full rehabilitation.


Recent work has highlighted several advantages of enforcing orthogonality in the weight layers of deep networks, such as maintaining the stability of activations, preserving gradient norms, and enhancing adversarial robustness by enforcing low Lipschitz constants. Although numerous methods exist for enforcing the orthogonality of fully-connected layers, those for convolutional layers are more heuristic in nature, often focusing on penalty methods or limited classes of convolutions. In this work, we propose and evaluate an alternative approach to directly parameterize convolutional layers that are constrained to be orthogonal. Specifically, we propose to apply the Cayley transform to a skew-symmetric convolution in the Fourier domain, so that the inverse convolution needed by the Cayley transform can be computed efficiently. We compare our method to previous Lipschitz-constrained and orthogonal convolutional layers and show that it indeed preserves orthogonality to a high degree even for large convolutions. Applied to the problem of certified adversarial robustness, we show that networks incorporating the layer outperform existing deterministic methods for certified defense against $\ell_2$-norm-bounded adversaries, while scaling to larger architectures than previously investigated. Code is available at https://github.com/locuslab/orthogonal-convolutions.


Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a technology that is extensively being used in various fields. Companies like Samsung, LG, and Apple are launching home appliances that use IoT as a part of their smart home business. Currently, Intelligent Things which combine artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT are being developed. Most of these devices are configured to collect and respond to human behavior (motion, voice, etc.) through built-in sensors. If IoT devices do not ensure high security, personal information could be leaked. This paper describes the IoT security threats that can cause information leakage from a hierarchical viewpoint of cyberspace. In addition, because these smart home-based IoT devices are closely related to human life, considering social damage is a problem. To overcome this, we propose a framework to measure the risk of IoT devices based on security scenarios that can occur in a smart home.


Abstract—he problem of designing test schedules for the testing or diagnosis of a small number of nontransient faults in combinational digital circuits (switching networks) is considered in detail. By testing and diagnosis we mean the following: 1) detection of a fault, 2) location of a fault, and 3) location of a fault within the confines of a prescribed package or module. It is shown that minimal test schedules can be readily derived–using procedures already worked out for solving certain problems in pattern recognition and switching theory–under the assumption that the selection of the test inputs in the schedule is independent of the response of the circuit under test. When this assumption is not made, it is shown that much shorter test schedules are sometimes possible, and procedures are offered for obtaining good ones. Finally, the general status of diagnostics for digital circuits is reviewed and evaluated, and specific problems remaining to be solved are described.


Distant Suffering, first published in 1999, examines the moral and political implications for a spectator of the distant suffering of others as presented through the media. What are the morally acceptable responses to the sight of suffering on television, for example, when the viewer cannot act directly to affect the circumstances in which the suffering takes place? Luc Boltanski argues that spectators can actively involve themselves and others by speaking about what they have seen and how they were affected by it. Developing ideas in Adam Smith's moral theory, he examines three rhetorical 'topics' available for the expression of the spectator's response to suffering: the topics of denunciation and of sentiment and the aesthetic topic. The book concludes with a discussion of a 'crisis of pity' in relation to modern forms of humanitarianism. A possible way out of this crisis is suggested which involves an emphasis and focus on present suffering.