A Two-day long activity "Lahore Science Mela" was organized by Khwarizmi Science Society (KSS) at Ali Institute of Education with the support of prominent Philanthropist Syed Babar Ali. Fifty plus stalls, book fairs, displays were set up for the children. This event was a provisional science museum which welcomed the people of Lahore to explore the scientific discoveries and milestones in Pakistan. A large number of organizations along with educational institutes became the part of the event including Technology Times, Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF), Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Lahore University of Management Sciences, GC University, CESOS University Peshawar, Institute of Business Administration, Community College Shukkur, University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan Science Club, Robokids, EjadTech, Lahore Astronomical Society, and many more. Technology Times in collaboration with PSF and Pakistan Academy of Sciences introduced a unique feature in Science Mela by displaying a 100 feet long banner having pictures of eminent Pakistani scientists and engineers who were decorated by Government of Pakistan for their achievement in their respective fields. It is a great opportunity for children as well as all other participants to know about real legends of Pakistan. A large number of students and citizens appreciated the Banner, and click photos with their favorite personalities pictures. "The Lahore Science Mela (LSM) 2018 is a science fest; showcased inventions, discoveries, experiments, science models and artifacts received from all parts of Pakistan. It is an opportunity to engage all citizens, especially the children in celebrating science. Our focus is on the wonder aspects of practical science accomplished through practical activities such as handson games and experiments that will appeal to our young boys and girls", said by Dr. Saadat Anwar Siddiqi the President KSS. There is a session on interaction among scientists, educators, doctors, engineers and public in the Lahore, the cultural hub of Pakistan. This year, ECOSF brought two Mathematics experts from Isfahan Iran to display interactive maths games and puzzles that children enjoyed and learned principles of Mathematics with fun. Dr. Manzoor Hussain Soomro, President ECOSF told that "team from Iran not only inspired young scientists, but also instructed science students about theoretical and practical aspects of mathematics. As mathematics is considered to be a dry subject but it is one of the most important science and if it taught interestingly many children can be attracted to it". Dr Sabieh Anwar, brain behind the LSM said, "the science museum here at LSM showing lively exhibits of science, art and culture. The festivals demonstrate to aware students that science is not just a dry facts subject". The science fair provided opportunity for students of smaller town to exhibit their scientific ideas. They excellently and confidently displayed their science projects and inventions, and also instruct others about the importance of evaluating the scientific phenomena. Participated school's children have made number of interesting projects like WiFi enabled "Fruit Cart" to pick and load the fruits and vegetables in gardens and farms, solar panel which could be used to automate for watering the fields. Dr Sharareh Dastjerdi, from Isfahan Iran, who also set up stall of Khana-e-Riazi Isfahan (Isfahan Mathematics House), told that coming to Lahore was a tremendous experience and this science fair provided opportunity to interact with upcoming scientists of Pakistan. Commenting on the Banner, the President KSS, Dr Saadat Anwar Siddiqi said, "our people especially young generation is not familiar with the real heroes of Pakistan – the scientists, the engineers, who dedicated their lives for Pakistan. This Banner introduced our scientists and engineers briefly. Through this people will know about their contribution which will encourage them to follow. Moreover, this Banner also introduced different fields of science and technology to our young scientists, this will help them to choose their area of study in future". The purpose behind arranging Mela is not to teach but to have fun, through hands-on activities, workshops, fascinating science experiments and demonstration of technological tools that are aimed at all age groups, thus fueling visitors' innate curiosity towards science. KSS is aimed at promoting the science culture in Pakistan's educational institutions and in general public. www.TechnologyTimes.Pk January 22 — 28, 2018 Pages: 8 Vol: IX Issue No: 04


This research presents a proposed anti-viruses strategy, the last intended to be reliable and adaptive tool to deal with complex environment suffer from huge no. of viruses attacks, where these viruses may be known, unknown, predictable or even non predictable. By using association rules for analyzing proposed database which its transactions are the tracked infected files by most reliable and strong anti-viruses, its attributes are the most critical attributes for anti-viruses systems. The extracted rules and some proposed unextracted rules will be analyzed, to build the proposed anti-viruses' strategy. The anti-viruses strategy requires more advanced models, to deal with the complex environment; Multi-Agent System (MAS) is suggested to provide powerful tool for modeling complex systems to detect various viruses. Depending on the decomposition of system into several interacting and autonomous entities called agents, it is possible to build such a strategy.


Novel dialkynyl pyridines were synthesized and protected as alkyl salts for dual gold(I)‐catalyzed cycloisomerization. Different alkyl groups and counter ions were screened for the salts, with benzyl and hexafluorophosphate providing the best results. The cyclization led to NMR yields of >95 % being obtained for a number of substrates. Step‐wise hydrogenation of products could be performed in one‐pot by Pd/C, with selective reduction of the double bonds, followed by deprotection of the benzyl group.


Abstract The main factors perceived by patients as important in selecting a pharmacy were studied for many years. Selected studies mentioned primarily factors such as location, pharmacist competence and attitude, pharmacy services and premiums, and prices. We compared the results from our study in June 2012 with the results of the most recent study conducted in April 2020 focusing on the main factors influencing the patient's option for a specific pharmacy. Respondents were asked an open question about what is the most important factor they consider when choosing a pharmacy and then answers were grouped into main categories. The urban population has been considered for both studies. The results tell us that the factors influencing the choice of a pharmacy remained unchanged over the time: i) prices, ii) availability of medicine, iii) professionalism of the pharmacist and iv) pharmacy proximity is the most mentioned by our respondents in both studies. However, the rank between these factors changed. Prices remain the top factor while the Availability of medicine (products) has been overcome by the Professionalism of the pharmacist (Attitude of the pharmacist) and Proximity. Using the logistic regression and Odds Ratio, we tried to identify socio-demographic segments significantly associated with these factors. Persons with low income are very likely to indicate Price as the most important factor in choosing a pharmacy in 2012 (OR = 2.088, p=0.018), while respondents aged 65 years and older are more likely not to indicate Price as the most important factor compared with other age groups, in both 2012 and 2020 studies (OR = 0.4, p=0.009, respective OR= 0.325, p=0.010). For this type of respondent, 65 years old and above, the attitude of the pharmacist is the most important factor influencing their choice of a pharmacy in 2020, while products availability has been the most frequent answer for this segment back in 2012. Results in Romania are similar to the ones collected from other countries as reported by other studies. However, particularities of the local market and regulations are influencing the ranking.


Background The compassionate use of drugs in Italy is a way of using drugs available in foreign countries but not in Italy. They have the authorization for the same therapeutic purpose but are not available on the market, however they are in clinical trials (CTs) or have been tested in phase III or – if the patient is in a critical condition – have been successful in phase II CTs. As regards evaluating the efficacy of the treatment, a basic aspect of the CT is to evaluate the safety of the drugs used. Great attention is focused on this theme with sponsored CTs; in fact by law (decree 211/2003) the subjects liable for pharmacovigilance are expressly listed and stress is put on reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Regarding the use of compassionate drugs, there are no laws regulating the reporting of ADRs. Purpose To find out how any reports of possible ADRs emerging from compassionate studies are managed in ordinary clinical practise. Materials and Methods For this purpose the database used in our organisation was essential: all of our centre's CTs are listed there. The number of CTs classified by type (for profit, not-for-profit, compassionate) was extracted, focusing on the compassionate use CTs in particular. Then the number of patients treated was drawn from it as well as the pathologies and the ADRs pointed out during meetings with the physicians. Results From this analysis it appeared that in our centre 197 studies (st) are active: 147 are for profit, 27 not-for-profit and 23 compassionate. Among these last ones, 8 are active in the sarcoma department, 5 in haematology, 3 in paediatrics, 6 in medical oncology and 1 in urology. The pathologies being examined are: GIST 4 active sts, 6 patients (pts), Hodgkin's lymphoma 1 st (2 pts), T-cell lymphoma 1 st (1 pt), myeloma 2 sts (1 and 15 pts), thyroid carcinoma 1 st (1pt), bone metastases 1 st (4 pts), melanoma 2 sts (1 and 30 pts), villonodular tenosynovitis 1 st (4 pts), prostatic adenocarcinoma 1 st (4 pts), breast cancer 2 sts (3 and 2 pts), leiomyosarcoma 1 st (2 pts), myxoid liposarcoma 1 st (6 pts), brain stem glioma 1 st (8 pts), NET 1 st (17 pts), acoustic neuroma 1 st (1 pt), idiopathic myelofibrosis 1 st (1 pt), LLC 1 st (1 pt). Although the CTs for compassionate use are fewer than other kinds of trials and require a very low number of treated pts – also because it is a matter of a named patient use and in particular conditions – this does not justify not reporting ADRs. As such drugs are used for critical pts and often for non-approved uses, it seems useful to focus on this aspect, as it allows to more and better investigations on the side of the safety of the drugs. Conclusions The results obtained underline the necessity of better awareness of the problem. As far as our centre is concerned, the results led us to hold meetings with the physicians and to plan interventions in order to make them aware of the problem and in order to start a process of pharmacovigilance with compassionate-use drugs. No conflict of interest.


Although a number of interesting physical properties such as a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) and Dirac semimetal (DS) properties have been recently predicted in two-dimensional (2D) materials, the realization of a 2D material that exhibits both of these DS and NPR features has rarely been reported. Here by adopting particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms combined with first-principles methods, we successfully construct a novel SiO monolayer (Pmna), the dynamic and thermal stability of which was characterized using phonon spectrum calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio calculations showed that the Pmna monolayer exhibits high mechanical anisotropy with an in-plane NPR originating from its puckered atomic arrangement. More notably, the band structure of the Pmna monolayer possesses zero bandgap with four Dirac cones in its first Brillouin zone, exhibiting a DS feature. From the calculations of orbital-resolved band structures, the Dirac cone was revealed to originate from the orbital hybridization of Si and O atoms. The Pmna monolayer is the first 2D structure in the Si-O system that has both an NPR and Dirac semi-metal properties, providing a new model for exploring 2D multifunctional materials.


The Article is about "identity property," which it defines as property that is strongly linked to one's sense of self and family and is valued by its holder primarily for what it represents. Identity property is often jointly inherited by siblings or other relatives, who take as tenants in common. Standard doctrine relies on familial bonds and the unilateral right of partition to mitigate the problem of bilateral monopoly and to foster cooperation in the management of the tenants' common resource. The Article argues that, in the context of identity property, this standard account is wrong. Rather, because the law favors partition by sale, the exit of one tenant often means that the remaining co-tenants will be forced to sell the identity property. Because the remaining tenants perceive the property as non-fungible, the threat of exit is powerful enough to exacerbate the bilateral monopoly and decrease the likelihood of cooperation. The Article relies on the example of the family cottage to elucidate the meaning of "identity property" and examines the formal agreements that relatives who jointly own cottages make when they decide to opt out of the tenancy in common default rules. These formal agreements reveal a willingness to sacrifice the right of exit in order to increase the odds that co-tenants will continue to own the identity property. The Article argues that the law should heed the message of these formal agreements and adopt a more flexible approach to the inheritance of identity property, including the possibilities of temporal partition and facilitated agreement.


Despite the topic's popularity in research, the relationship between sleep duration and physical activity (PA) remains unclear. Measurement protocol differences, highly specific samples, and incomplete data contribute to varying results suggesting that additional research is needed. The purpose of the TRACK II study was to examine the relationship between PA, BMI, and self-reported sleep in adolescents. 369 9 and 10 grade students from 2 diverse school districts participated in the study. Participants completed a self-reported sleep questionnaire and had their height and weight measured. Demographic variables were also reported by participants. Actigraph accelerometers were used to objectively measure physical activity. Participants wore the accelerometers for 1 week and data was collected in 60-second epochs. Minutes of sedentary behavior, light PA, and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were determined using age-specific cutpoints. Spearman correlations were used to examine relationships among sleep, physical activity and BMI for the total sample, and by gender and race. Complete data were available for 276 participants (40.2% male). Average self-reported sleep was 7.2 (SD=1.71) hours per weeknight and 8.07 (SD=2.47) hours per weekend night. Average minutes of MVPA was 14.15 minutes/day (SD=14.08). Average BMI was 24.55 kg/m (SD=6.37). No significant correlations between sleep and MVPA or BMI were found for the total group, by gender, or by race. For this small sample of high school students, selfreported sleep was not associated with objectively measured physical activity or BMI. Additional studies using objectively measured sleep are needed before any conclusions


A 2013 scientific assessment of black carbon emissions and impacts found that black carbon is second to carbon dioxide in terms of its climate forcing. High concentrations of black carbon in the atmosphere can change precipitation patterns and reduce the amount of radiation that reaches the Earth's surface, which affects local agriculture. Acute and chronic exposures to particulate matter are associated with a range of diseases, including chronic bronchitis and asthma, as well as premature deaths from cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute lower respiratory infections. The transportation sector accounted for approximately 19 percent of global black carbon emissions in the year 2000. This report aims to inform efforts to control black carbon emissions from diesel-based transportation in developing countries. It presents a summary of emissions control approaches from developed countries, while recognizing that developing countries face a number of on-the-ground implementation challenges. This study applies a new cost-benefit analysis methodology to four simulated diesel black carbon emissions control projects - diesel retrofit in Istanbul, green freight (plus retrofit) in Sao Paulo, fuel and vehicle standards in Jakarta, and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses in Cebu taking into account the additional climate benefits of black carbon reductions. While this report focuses on quantifying just the health and climate benefits of transport interventions, it also serves to highlight the challenges that can be faced when undertaking more comprehensive evaluation of transport projects. A cost-benefit framework for economic analysis of diesel black carbon emissions control transport projects is also presented that factors in both climate and health benefits. Historically, technical interventions to control diesel black carbon emissions in developed countries have successfully relied on fuel quality improvements and vehicle emissions standards.


Internationally, there is a growing interest in the potential of care ethics as a useful normative framework to evaluate teaching and learning in higher education. However, to date there has been little engagement with the inherent dangers of care such as those of paternalism and parochialism. This is particularly pertinent in the South African context where there are on-going struggles to find ways of dealing with continuing inequality experienced by students, who may be at the receiving end of paternalism and parochialism. This article focuses on interviews conducted with teaching and learning practitioners collected during a larger national project on the potential of emerging technologies to achieve qualitative learning outcomes in differently placed South African higher education institutions. An analysis of the interviews indicated that while these lecturers were portrayed as innovative educators, using emerging technologies to enhance their pedagogy, issues of paternalism and parochialism inevitably affected teaching as a practice of care. The findings showed that without self-reflexivity and critical engagement with issues of power and control, including choice of technology, there exists danger that teaching could be paternalistic, leading to disempowerment of students and a narrow parochial focusing on the studentteacher dyad. What also emerged from the findings was that interdisciplinary teaching and student-led cross-disciplinary learnng has the potential to mitigate parochialism in the curriculum. Vivienne Bozalek, Kathleen Watters & Daniela Gachago 260


This paper analyzes, using country-level panel data from transition economies and Latin America, the impact of labor market institutions on informal economic activity. The measure of informal economic activity is taken from Schneider et al. (2010), the most comprehensive study to date. The data on institutions, which cover employment protection legislation (EPL), the tax wedge, the unemployment benefit level, unemployment benefit duration and union density, are assembled at the IZA (transition countries) and the World Bank (LAC countries). We find that a more regulated labor market (higher EPL) increases the size of the informal economy. There is also evidence that a larger tax wedge increases informality. The tax wedge elasticity of informal economy, when evaluated at the sample mean, is rather modest, around 0.1%. Our results are broadly in line with the literature, which identifies labor market regulation and the tax wedge as important drivers of informality.


In this study, I extended the stochastic model built by Babcock and Paulson (2012) to conduct a one-year cost projection for crop insurance in order to investigate its feasibility of being solely provided by private firms. Based on the 52 years' yield data from 1961 to 2012, the risk consequences from insuring crop yield and revenue against losses are estimated to be far beyond what private insurers could bear on their own. However, reinsurance from the government provides an attractive incentive to insurance firms. Among the six insurance policies researched in this study, the minimum expected net underwriting gains to private firms with government reinsurance in 2013 was $289.9 million, which is about 9.30% of retained premiums. The maximum loss that firms could have borne in 2013 was $4.9 billion. In addition, the impact of a proposal to eliminate premium subsidy for the harvest price option is also estimated. The total savings for taxpayers are estimated to be $1.3 billion, which is about $400 million more than CBO's estimate in 2013, but only 67% of its estimate in 2015.Based on the three-crop competitive storage model initiated by Lence and Hayes (2002), I also develop a better approach for a multiple-year cost projection by modeling the demand shock as a random walk. This approach is capable of preserving the correlations between national yields and prices, maintaining the relationships among national, county and farm yields, retaining the spatial correlations of yields across crops, and incorporating inter-temporal price correlations as well. More importantly, this approach is capable of simulating price draws with a desired volatility pattern: increasing over time but at a slower rate than square root of time t, as stated in Lence, Hart and Hayes (2009). Preserving these correlations and price-related features are crucial in conducting precise cost estimations and valid policy analysis. My analysis shows that the payments from Price Loss Coverage (PLC) with its time-invariant fixed guarantees would be significantly underestimated if both the price serial correlation and the increasing, concave price volatilities are ignored. For Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), their guarantees are adjusted to reflect market conditions so the difference in estimated payments is modest. An easy fix for estimating the cost of PLC is to inflate the price volatilities used to generate random prices for budget scoring purposes.


This article focuses on the challenges facing organisation among the hardest-to-reach working women in the informal economy. What gives some of them the impetus and courage to organise? What is distinctive about the strategies they draw on to transcend their structurally disadvantated position within the economy? What barriers do they continue to face in their efforts to address the injustices of the economic system? Through analysing the organisational strategies used in different contexts and for different sets of workers, we can start to see a different battery of weapons among these working women, which serve them better and more transformatively than the weapons of the weak on which they previously relied: the weapons of the organised. This article discusses these issues specifically in relation to the experience of two organisations: MAP Foundation, Thailand, and KKPKP, Pune, India.


An assessment of irrigation water quality for the concentration of inorganic constituents should consider crop sensitivities, soil properties, such as hydraulic conductivity, reactions with water and solids in the soil, climatic factors, management level and irrigation system, effects on drainage water quality, effects on animals and humans to the element transmitted through harvested products, and economic conditions that determine how much reduction in yield or quality can be tolerated. To avoid the accumulation of toxic amounts of water-borne substances in the rootzone of irrigated lands, long term inputs must be limited to the sum of the losses from the soil and conversion to unavailable forms. Because most soluble constitutents are mobile they can be removed by leaching and their concentration can be adjusted to accomodate different crop tolerances. The problem with elements that exist in soluble and labile forms in soils is that once toxic levels occur reduction of these levels is slow, and many involve removal in harvested crops or conversion to insoluble forms.


New K-Ar dates are presented for areas in W and SE Ethiopia. In the west, the dates distinguish the Geba Basalts of 40 to 32 Ma (previously determined by Merla et al. 1979) from the Welega Shield Volcanics which are shown to range from 11.2 ± 2.2 to 7.8 ± 1.6 Ma. In SE Ethiopia, the Lower Stratoid flood basalts range from 30 ± 4.5 to 23.5 ± 4.5 Ma and are unconformably overlain by the Reira-Sanete shield volcanics which range from c. 15 to c. 2 Ma. The unconformity is marked by a palaeosol as are several of the intervals between the major volcanic stages of Ethiopia. Using new field observations, together with previously published results and unpublished data from the Ethiopian Institute of Geological Surveys, it is suggested that the Ethiopian Flood Basalts were erupted in three major stages. Stage 1, which is mainly older than 40 Ma is separated from Stage 2, 34 to 30 Ma for NW Ethiopia and 40 to 30 Ma for SW Ethiopia, by erosional unconformities. Stage 3 spans 30 to 26 Ma in NW Ethiopia, and 30 to 21 Ma in SW Ethiopia and both are marked by the incoming of silicic volcanism. In W Ethiopia, Stages 1 and 3 are not developed, whilst in SE Ethiopia the Tertiary volcanism commences with Stage 3 flood basalts. The overlying shield volcanics; (25 to 13 Ma in NW Ethiopia and 15 to 7 Ma in W Ethiopia) represent a localized terminal episode built on the Plateau and are considered a fourth stage. The earliest volcanism is restricted to two areas: in SW Ethiopia, where the Akobo Basalts give ages as old as 49.4 Ma (Davidson & Rex 1980), and in NW Ethiopia where the Ashange Basalts underlie the Aiba Basalts which are dated at 34 to 30 Ma. The Ashange volcanism may have begun in the Palaeocene—Eocene but radiometric dates are ambiguous and inconsistent. These two volcanic centres show lithological and geochemical differences, and can be related to two separate rift zones north of Lake Turkana and further north in the Tana Graben. Volcanism appears to have spread by the expansion of these areas, and to have migrated eastwards with time towards the Main Ethiopian Rift which begun to form about 14 Ma ago. There is a complex pattern of domal uplifts within these two volcanic centres with volcanism either preceding doming, or the two being contemporaneous.


Socrates is commonly viewed as a model of rational argumentation and ascetic behavior. However, there is a different way of Socratic thinking – the Cyrenian school with its founder Aristippus of Cyrene. This philosopher was considered a radical hedonist for whom good life was fulfilled only with pleasure. Our paper has two main goals: 1) in the first part of this study we will answer the question whether Aristippus' hedonism corresponds to other forms of Socratic approach to virtue; 2) in the second part of our text we will deal with the problem of what the Aristippean education through pleasure might look like.


Advanced oxidation processes, based on hydroxyl radical chemistry, can be used to successfully destroy chemical contaminants in waters intended for reuse. In determining the effectiveness of these radical oxidative degradations and transformations in water, both reaction rate constants and compound removal efficiencies must be considered. Removal efficiencies are defined as the number of contaminant molecules transformed per 100 hydroxyl radicals reacting. Hydroxyl radical reaction efficiencies have been determined for bisphenol A, caffeine, DEET, and sulfamethazine in different qualities of treated and model laboratory wastewaters. While these four contaminants show similar hydroxyl radical reaction rate constants, their removal efficiencies in deionized water varied significantly at 76±7, 92 ±8, 95±9, and 56±7%, respectively. Model wastewater studies showed that dissolved oxygen did not appreciably influence these values, and low levels of dissolved organic matter ( D O M ) reduced the removal efficiencies by an average of approximately 20%. However, the combination of solution alkalinity and DO M had a significant impact in reducing hydroxyl radical reaction efficiencies, although not always in a linear, additive, fashion. These results imply that the effective implementation of advanced oxidation technologies in wastewater treatments might be enhanced by prior removal of organics or alkalinity.


Cerebral aneurysms (CA) are acquired lesions, affecting 5–10% of the population, being about three times more common in women than in men. The absolute majority of CA is asymptom - atic. However, in symptomatic cases, cerebral aneurysms present without about 80% of cases with severe intracranial hemorrhage, with mortality up to 50% and severe morbidity of up to 80%. At this point, the carotid siphon is particularly important because it is the blood gateway to the anterior cerebral circulation, being the most sinuous portion of the internal carotid artery, and because it houses about 30% of the intracranial aneurysm. The constant interac - tions of blood flow with carotid siphon curvatures are apparently intrinsically related to the epidemiology of these lesions in the various locations of the intracranial circulation and their presentation form. It is well established that a greater anterior knee angle has a significant independent relation with intracranial aneurysms located after carotid siphon, larger aneu rysms, and greater risk of rupture. These findings may be associated with the hemodynamic interactions of blood flow and the curvature of carotid siphon. Little is known about the anatomical changes in carotid siphon and, consequently, the repercussions of the hemody - namic changes that the neurosurgical interventions mechanisms could entail. Devices such as intracranial stents, detachable coils, and even clips of aneurysms can modify the morphol - ogy of carotid siphon, and the knowledge of these consequences could be used to obtain better therapeutic results. In the last 10 years, a new device for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms has been presenting promising results, flow diverters stents (FDS), and its use to treat aneurysms in carotid siphon appears to cause morphological changes characterized by increased anterior and posterior angles. Specifically, the anterior angle increase was associ - ated with better angiographic results. Aneurysms of the extracranial carotid artery (ECAA) are rare and little is known about its natural history. The etiology is diverse and most ECAA are asymptomatic, but they may progress to a pulsatile mass, cranial nerve compression, or cause a stroke. ECAA treatment is still controversial and a better insight into natural history and risk of complications of the different treatments is needed in order to get the consensus.


Texture analysis is a basic issue in image processing and computer vision, and how to attain the rotation-invariant texture characterization is a key problem. This paper proposes a rotation-invariant texture analysis technique using Radon and Fourier transforms. This method uses Radon transform to convert rotation to translation, then utilizes Fourier transform and takes the moduli of the Fourier transform of these functions to make the translation invariant. A k-nearest-neighbor rule is employed to classify texture images. The proposed method is robust to additive white noise as a result of summing pixel values to generate projections in the Radon transform step. Experiment results show the feasibility of the proposed method and its robustness to additive white noise.


The threat of terrorist incidents is higher than ever before and devastating acts, such as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, have left many concerns about the possibility of future incidents and their potential impact. Unlike some natural disasters that can be anticipated, terrorist attacks are sudden and unexpected. Even if sometimes we do have partial information about a possible attack, it is generally not known exactly where, when, or how an attack will occur. This lack of information posses great challenges on those responsible for security, specifically, on their ability to respond fast, whenever necessary with flexibility and coordination.
The surface transportation system plays a critical role in responding to terrorist attacks or other unpredictable human-caused disasters. In particular, existing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can be enhanced to improve the ability of the surface transportation system to efficiently respond to emergencies and recover from disasters. This research proposes the development of new information technologies to enhance today's ITS with capabilities to improve the crisis response capabilities of the surface transportation system. The objective of this research is to develop a Smart Traffic Evacuation Management System (STEMS) that responds rapidly and effectively to terrorist threats or other unpredictable disasters, by creating dynamic evacuation plans adaptable to continuously changing traffic conditions based on real-time information.
The intellectual merit of this research is that the proposed STEMS will possess capabilities to support both the unexpected and unpredictable aspects of a terrorist attack and the dynamic aspect of the traffic network environment. Studies of related work indicate that STEMS is the first system that automatically generates evacuation plans, given the location and scope of an incident and the current traffic network conditions, and dynamically adjusts the plans based on real-time information received from sensors and other surveillance technologies. Refining the plans to keep them consistent with the current conditions significantly improves evacuation effectiveness. The changes that STEMS can handle range from slow, steady variations in traffic conditions, to more sudden variations caused by secondary accidents or other stochastic factors (e.g., high visibility events that determine a sudden increase in the density of the traffic). Being especially designed to handle evacuation in case of terrorist-caused disasters, STEMS can also handle multiple coordinated attacks targeting some strategic area over a short time frame. These are frequently encountered in terrorist acts as they are intended to create panic and terror.
Due to the nature of the proposed work, an important component of this project is the development of a simulation environment to support the design and test of STEMS. Developing analytical patterns for modeling traffic dynamics has been explored in the literature at different levels of resolution and realism. Most of the proposed approaches are either too limited in representing reality, or too complex for handling large networks. The contribution of this work consists of investigating and developing traffic models and evacuation algorithms that overcome both of the above limitations. Two of the greatest impacts of this research in terms of science are as follows. First, the new simulation environment developed for this project provides a test bed to facilitate future work on traffic evacuation systems. Secondly, although the models and algorithms developed for STEMS are targeted towards traffic environments and evacuation, their applicability can be extended to other environments (e.g., building evacuation) and other traffic related problems (e.g., real-time route diversion in case of accidents).
One of the broader impacts of this research would be the deployment of STEMS in a real environment. This research provides a fundamental tool for handling emergency evacuation for a full range of unpredictable incidents, regardless of cause, origin and scope. Wider and swifter deployment of STEMS will support Homeland Security in general, and will also enhance the surface transportation system on which so many Homeland Security stakeholders depend.


We present a novel approach to weakly supervised object detection. Instead of annotated images, our method only requires two short videos to learn to detect a new object: 1) a video of a moving object and 2) one or more "negative" videos of the scene without the object. The key idea of our algorithm is to train the object detector to produce physically plausible object motion when applied to the first video and to not detect anything in the second video. With this approach, our method learns to locate objects without any object location annotations. Once the model is trained, it performs object detection on single images. We evaluate our method in three robotics settings that afford learning objects from motion: observing moving objects, watching demonstrations of object manipulation, and physically interacting with objects (see a video summary at this https URL).


This study assesses the experiences of workplace transformation of eleven Black women leaders working in South African higher education institutions (HEIs). The theoretical background is based in intersectional theories, also providing contextual information. The study uses a research paradigm based in Dilthey's modern hermeneutics, using qualitative methods, such as semistructured interviews, as well as observations within HEIs. Interviews were analysed through content analysis. Findings show a strong commitment of women leaders to transforming their workplaces. Their testimonies point in to the prevalence of gendered and racially biased experiences of Black women leaders in past and present. Their narratives include an account of their transformative vision including consciousness, awareness and positive attitudes, and transformative practices, such as networking and social support.


The problem of merging maps in SLAM is one of the most studied in this field, because it allows to extend the SLAM algorithms to Multi-SLAM field. This issue is treated as a problem of merging images. In computer vision, merging images issue, nowadays it has many approaches for solving it, using feature extractors and descriptors. In this paper, we propose and show a new corner detector technique that can be used in map images. The results obtained in our tests show that, our corner detector is reliable and efficient to extract features in images generated by SLAM algorithms. Furthermore, we compared our algorithm with others feature detectors like Harris Corner Detector, Shi-Tomasi Detector, among others. We found out our corner detector has a good and reliable performance, doing the extraction from those kinds of map images.


The nature and provision of maternity services is shaped by many different factors including location and time period. This thesis is a historical study of Western Australia's maternity services during the period 1829 to 1950. It examines the influence of the medical profession, the state, midwives and women themselves in bringing about important changes to the provision of these services. The study adopts a post-revisionist feminist approach which prioritises the voices of women both as mothers and as midwives. In doing so, it questions established traditional understandings of the quality of the midwifery services offered in WA during the pioneering period and highlights the ways in which medical practitioners and governments undermined empirically-trained midwives and brought about greater state control of their activities. In this analysis, birth in the past is 're-normalised' through an exploration of what birthing may have been like for everyday women and the home is reimagined as a safe and comfortable birthing place.

This study further explores important themes which have relevance to maternity care in the contemporary context. It investigates the changing location of birth and the power structures that influenced women's experiences in different birth locations in the past. Women's 'choices' in childbirth are explored with a focus on the extent to which women were limited in their decision-making by their socioeconomic and geographic status. The study questions the extent to which contemporary understandings of the social importance of birthing, including the emphasis placed on 'choices' and birthing location, can be applied to women of the past. It is argued that early twentieth century women in Australia had a complex and somewhat ambiguous relationship to birthing which limits the extent to which modern understandings of birth can be transposed into the historical narrative.


The financial crisis of 2007-09 has highlighted the importance of developments in financial conditions for real economic activity. The authors estimate the effect of current and past shocks to financial variables on U.S. GDP growth by constructing two growthbased financial conditions indexes (FCIs) that measure the contribution to quarterly (annualized) GDP growth from financial conditions. One FCI is constructed using a structural vector-error correction model and the other is constructed using a large-scale macroeconomic model. The authors' results suggest that financial factors subtracted around 5 percentage points from quarterly annualized real GDP growth in the United States in 2008Q4 and 2009Q1 and should subtract another 5 percentage points from growth in 2009Q2. Moreover, to assess the effect of financial shocks in terms of policy interest rate equivalent units, the authors convert the effect of financial developments on growth into the number of basis points by which the federal funds rate has been tightened. The authors show that the tightening of financial conditions since mid-2007 is equivalent to about 300 basis points of tightening in terms of the federal funds rate. Thus, the aggressive monetary easing undertaken by the Federal Reserve over the financial crisis has not been sufficient to offset the tightening of financial conditions. Finally, in a key contribution to the literature, the authors assess the relationship between financial shocks and real activity in the context of the zero lower bound. They find that the effect of the tightening of financial conditions on GDP growth in the current crisis may have been amplified by as much as 40 per cent due to the fact that policy interest rates reached the zero lower bound.


Over the last 40 years North American grassland bird populations have declined more than any other bird guild. This trend is especially evident in Vermont, where species experiencing precipitous declines include the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) and Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). These declines are linked to habitat loss due to reforestation and suburbanization as well as the intensification of grassland management. Modern grassland management includes earlier first-haying dates (late-May) and shorter intervals between haying events (35 days). These management practices have severe repercussions for songbird populations because 1) early-haying results in complete nest failure (99% Savannah Sparrow and 100% Bobolink nests), 2) the interval between the first and second haying is too short for birds to renest, and 3) intensively managed fields comprise a significant portion of the total available habitat (as much as 40%). In 2002-2006, I examined how hayfield and pasture management affected grassland songbird ecological and evolutionary behavior in the agricultural landscape of the Champlain Valley, Vermont and New York. I studied songbirds in four grassland management types: early-hayed fields harvested in late-May or early-June and again in mid-July; middle-hayed fields harvested in late-June or early-July; late-hayed fields harvested after 1 August; rotationally-grazed pastures, a matrix of small paddocks where cows are moved after the grass in a paddock is eaten to a low point. I addressed the following objectives: 1. Determined the annual productivity, survival, and recruitment of Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows in the four treatment types. 2. Identified the effects of early-haying on the social and genetic mating systems of Savannah Sparrows. 3. Conducted a population viability analysis for Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows nesting in the Champlain Valley, assessing sensitivities of life-history parameters and identifying effective management alternatives. This study provides information on how agricultural management affects the ecology, evolution, and viability of grassland birds. It will help inform landowners, managers, and law-makers about management practices and habitat requirements needed to sustain populations.


In an article on the many eighteenth-century continuations of Roxana published a few years ago, I traced the fluidity of the text before it acquired an author in 1775, and before the first edition of 1724 came to be seen in the nineteenth century as the only authoritative text. (1) My purpose was to urge critics not to dismiss the later editions because they contained non-authorial material, or, as in the case of the Francis Noble and Thomas Lowndes's edition of 1775, were rewritten so thoroughly as to make the 1724 edition unrecognizable. From the point of view of literary and cultural history, I thought, these publications were valuable because they showed that, for most of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, there was no such simple creature as "Defoe's Roxana". There were Roxanas in the plural, not all of whose parts had been written by Defoe, or had even referenced an author on the title page. Our habitual investment in the author had no purchase on a situation in which anonymous novels were the norm, and our exclusive focus on the first edition prevented our understanding the several ways Roxana circulated among eighteenth-century readers, with obvious implications for what could be said about the novel(s). That article is part of a larger project on anonymity, one of several case studies that focus on theoretical and methodological problems of writing and reading anonymous texts, which are inseparable from the ways those texts have circulated. Anonymous publication brings these problems to the foreground in dramatic ways. The last thing I was interested in, I can confess, was straight attribution of a text to an author; I was much more interested in how readers projected authors onto texts, or in the case of Roxana, how, having acquired an author along the way, the text of the novel stabilized over the course of the nineteenth century and ultimately threw into the shade its own earlier picaresque history. Nonetheless, it did occur to me, as it had to have done, that perhaps Defoe did not write Roxana. I approached the issue with an open mind, with no dog in the fight, as they say in Texas. After researching the question, I wrote, in passing, that I thought knowledge of Defoe's authorship of Roxana was part of the daffy business of the small and geographically concentrated world of London printers and booksellers, but it was not in my way at the time to provide evidence, which is the purpose of the present paper. The state of the question that confronted me at the time--without the benefit of P. N Furbank and W. R. Owens's clarification of their position elsewhere in this journal--was as follows. Furbank and Owens, who had argued for the de-attribution of nearly half of the 572 titles in John Robert Moore's Checklist of the Writings of Daniel Defoe, nonetheless accepted that Defoe wrote the prose fictions we think of as his. (2) Specifically, they based their attributions of Roxana, Moll Flanders, Captain Singleton, and Memoirs of a Cavalier on Francis Nobles publications in the 1770s and 1780s, the first editions of these books with Defoe's name on them. (3) Although they considered Noble a disreputable character, causing them to doubt the reliability of his ascriptions as external evidence for Defoe's authorship, they adduced what was for them a crucial piece of evidence, a 1738 edition of Colonel Jacque advertised as "by the author of Robinson Crusoe," and the 1739 reprint of the same, the Preface of which is signed "Daniel Defoe." In their view, this showed it was known that Defoe wrote novels other than Robinson Crusoe, making it more likely that Noble got it right. (4) In my view, however, this was not conclusive evidence for other novels. And although I accepted their appeal to "living memory," (5) meaning that it is not a question of ending authoritative attribution at the moment of the writer's death because those who lived and worked with her or him are still alive to give witness, it seemed to me something of a stretch to claim as external evidence publications appearing over forty years after Defoe's death with no intervening links. …


ABSTRACT The present paper describes a partial skull referred to Incadelphys antiquus, from the early Palaeocene of Tiupampa (Bolivia). The specimen includes the anterior part of the skull with maxillae, premaxillae, nasals, lacrimals, anterior part of frontals and jugal, and both dentaries. Most of the teeth are preserved except some incisors. Some of the major characteristics of Incadelphys are the elongation and slenderness of the rostrum as compared to other Tiupampa taxa and the narrowness and blade-like morphology of the premolars. The new specimen is compared to the other Tiupampan pucadelphydans, especially, pucadelphyids, but also sparassodonts. Comparisons with Marmosopsis juradoi, from the early Eocene of Itaboraí and with Aenigmadelphys archeri from the latest Campanian of North America is also meaningful. Among others, the three genera share a strong distolabial extension of their metastylar area of the M1, which has not been observed, to a such extant, in other American metatherians. A phylogenetic parsimony analysis has been performed with exclusion some poorly known taxa, such as Jaskhadelphys minutus (two upper molars only), from Tiupampa or Kiruwamaq chisu (one M?3 only) from the late Eocene of Peru. The taxa included in our analysis are at least known from all upper and lower molars. The result of our analysis with unweighted characters retrieved the inclusion of Incadelphys, Marmosopsis, Szalinia and Aenigmadelphys in the clade Pucadelphyda, which also includes the Pucadelphyidae and the Sparassodonta. An analysis with downweighted homoplastic characters (with Goloboff K=3) resulted in a monophyletic grouping of Szalinia, Aenigmadelphys, Marmosopsis, and Incadelphys in an unnamed clade designated with the working term SAMI (after the initial of these four genera). This result, which we favor, is the first hypothesis which suggests a close relationship between the early Palaeocene - early Eocene, Tiupampa -Itaboraí pucadelphydans and a Late Cretaceous North American taxon, Aenigmadelphys, which is included within the Pucadelphyda.


A pegylated, recombinant form of L-asparaginase derived from the bacterium Erwinia chrysanthemi (mPEG-R-Crisantaspase), with potential antineoplastic activity. Upon intravenous administration of pegylated recombinant L-asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi, asparaginase hydrolyzes L-asparagine to L-aspartic acid and ammonia, thereby depleting cancer cells of asparagine thus blocking protein synthesis and tumor cell proliferation. Asparagine is critical to protein synthesis in cancer cells, which cannot synthesize this amino acid due to the absence of the enzyme asparagine synthase. Compared to other available Erwinia chrysanthemi derived L-asparaginase agents, the pegylated form is longer acting and less immunogenic.


We consider a spin–orbit coupled system of particles in an external trap that is represented by a deformed harmonic oscillator potential. The spin–orbit interaction is a Rashba interaction that does not commute with the trapping potential and requires a full numerical treatment in order to obtain the spectrum. The effect of a Zeeman term is also considered. Our results demonstrate that variable spectral gaps occur as a function of strength of the Rashba interaction and deformation of the harmonic trapping potential. The single-particle density of states and the critical strength for superfluidity vary tremendously with the interaction parameter. The strong variations with Rashba coupling and deformation imply that the few- and many-body physics of spin–orbit coupled systems can be manipulated by variation of these parameters.


Headache is a symptom so common in current practice that there is a risk that the approach to this problem may not be adequate. The real danger of this symptom lies in the approach of the problem by both the patient and the attending physician. There is the risk of extreme approaches in which the patient ignores the symptom by associating it with stress or fatigue, or there are cases where the patient considers that his headache may be the symptom of a pathology with a reserved prognosis and overloads the medical services. Finding a balance in the effective management of the headache of the patient falls within the competence and abilities of the treating physician who must be able to determine whether it is a primary or secondary headache, and when the situation requires multidisciplinary case investigation, the treating physician must establish the investigation plan most effectively for a correct diagnosis. Compliance with the research plan established by the attending physician is often hindered by objective reasons, such as the difficulty of accessing medical services or subjective reasons generated by the information acquired by the patient from less competent sources, represented in particular by information from the virtual environment, that can also provide valuable and quality information, but their management must be done by people with medical skills. Thus, for the attending physician, the challenge is not only the classification of the headache into the category of sign, symptom or disease, but also the way in which he will work with the patient to maintain his health.


By using a rubber window acoustically matched to sea water, the Sonar system on a destroyer can be made considerably more sensitive. However, if the layered construction of the window develops delaminations while in service, the hydrodynamic characteristics of the structure may become modified and acoustic noise can be generated during high-speed operations. In order to inspect for these delaminations while the ship is tied up to its dock, a pulse-echo ultrasonic scan performed by a diver using a sea-water coupled transducer would appear to be ideal. However, the choice of acoustic parameters suitable for inspecting rubber were unknown. Laboratory studies sho1~ed that by utilizing very short time duration pulses whose center frequencies lie between 0.5 and 1.0 Mhz, it was possible to detect water-filled pockets within 0.2 inches of the outer surface of the window. A prototype instrument suitable for shipboard and dry dock operation has now been constructed. This instrument features optimized pulse excitation of low-frequency broad band transducers when attached to 50 to 100 feet of coaxial cable. A signal light is also incorporated to provide the diver with information on the condition of the rubber window under his transducer.


The study of person reference stands at the cross-roads of linguistics, anthropology and psychology. As one aspect of an ethnography of communication, this book deals with a single problem — how one knows who is being talked about in conversation — from a rich and varied ethnographic perspective. Through a combination of grammatical agreement and free pronouns, Bininj Gunwok possesses a pronominal system that, according to current theoretical accounts in linguistics, should facilitate clear cut reference. However, the descriptions of Bininj Gunwok conversation in this volume demonstrate that frequently a vast gulf lies between knowing that, say, an object is '3rd singular', and actually knowing who it refers to. Achieving reference to people in Bininj Gunwok can involve a delicate and refined set of calculations which are part of a deliberate and artful way of speaking. Speakers draw on a diverse set of grammatical and lexical devices all underpinned by shared knowledge about a diverse range of social relationships and cultural practices.


The Ediacaran Doushantuo biota has yielded fossils interpreted as eukaryotic organisms, either animal embryos or eukaryotes basal or distantly related to Metazoa. However, the fossils have been interpreted alternatively as giant sulphur bacteria similar to the extant Thiomargarita. To test this hypothesis, living and decayed Thiomargarita were compared with Doushantuo fossils and experimental taphonomic pathways were compared with modern embryos. In the fossils, as in eukaryotic cells, subcellular structures are distributed throughout cell volume; in Thiomargarita, a central vacuole encompasses approximately 98 per cent cell volume. Key features of the fossils, including putative lipid vesicles and nuclei, complex envelope ornament, and ornate outer vesicles are incompatible with living and decay morphologies observed in Thiomargarita. Microbial taphonomy of Thiomargarita also differed from that of embryos. Embryo tissues can be consumed and replaced by bacteria, forming a replica composed of a three-dimensional biofilm, a stable fabric for potential fossilization. Vacuolated Thiomargarita cells collapse easily and do not provide an internal substrate for bacteria. The findings do not support the hypothesis that giant sulphur bacteria are an appropriate interpretative model for the embryo-like Doushantuo fossils. However, sulphur bacteria may have mediated fossil mineralization and may provide a potential bacterial analogue for other macroscopic Precambrian remains.


On the basis of the present knowledge of cardiac electrophysiology a rather complete picture of the different aspects of the rhythmic activity of the heart can be given. Especially studies on single cells have made possible a detailed analysis of the excitatory process. A complete theory of excitation and impulse generation was first achieved in nerve fibers. This information could then be applied to cardiac electrophysiology and excitation in cardiac fibers could be described mathematically in terms of changes in ionic conductances, the electromotive forces for the ions being constant. Present electrophysiological concepts use a model of the cell membrane which consists of several "channels" for the flow of ions represented by the parallel membrane conductances for these ions. The electrophysiologist attempts to explain the membrane potential during excitation, as well as all influences altering the excitation process, by a change of one or more of these ionic conductances. The most serious limitation of this concept is the lack of any detailed knowledge of the molecular structures and processes inside the membrane which are the basis for ionic conductances.

Effects of drugs on membrane potential and excitation are explained by the electrophysiologist in terms of changes of ionic conductance or of shifts of the electromotive force for the flow of the ions across the membrane. The most readily explained effects of drugs are those which can be represemited by the change of one specific ionic conductance from the normal to a new constant level. The effect of ACh is the best known and most important example: all its membrane effects are based on the increase of the potassium conductance. Such drug effects are characterized by a fast onset and usually a fast reversibility to the normal state.

A more complicated theoretical situation exists if the effect of a drug cannot be explained solely by a static change of conductance. The ionic conductances depend on the membrane potential and the time after a change of the membrane potential; a drug can work by shifting these relationships. Typical representatives of this group of drugs, quinidine and procainamide, reduce the increase of sodium conductance brought about by depolarization and alter the time constant of this effect. In this manner these drugs raise the threshold for excitation and have antiarrhythmic properties. These drugs also change the static membrane conductance for other ions, and have effects on the intracellular ionic concentration as well as those on cell metabolism. The antiarrhythmic effect, however, can be attributed to the interference with the depolarizing mechanism in the membrane.

The last (and, from the theoretical point of view, the most frustrating) group of drug effects is that in which, in addition to changes of membrane conductances, a change in the electromotive force for the flow of specific ions has to be assumed. The latter possibility is equivalent to a change in intracellular ionic concentration; such a change may also affect membrane conductances. The action of epinephrine probably belongs to this group of effects. In addition to an increase in sodium permeability, shifts of intracellular ion concentrations are involved. Typically, these drug effects change in character with time after application and may depend on the metabolic state of the cell. It is quite possible that the difficulties in theoretical interpretation of the effects of drugs such as epinephrine are due to the limitations of the electrophysiological membrane model.

As a concluding remark the author may state his views concerning a useful direction of future work in this field. He has regretted the considerable lack in electrophysiological information about the effects of many drugs, information which could be gained by the application of relatively simple methods. Especially to be deplored is the fact that experiments at the cellular level are very often missing. From the theoretical point of view it does not seem very useful to go on doing elaborate experiments on the heart in situ as long as the actions of drugs on single fibers have not been observed. For example, no study is available of the direct effects of either digitalis or veratrum alkaloids on the pacemaker in the sinoatrial node. Thus, it is not known whether veratramine causes bradycardia because of an "inhibitory" effect depressing the pacemaker potential, or whether bradycardia results from a very prolonged action potential in the sinus fibers. Electrophysiological studies of effects at the cellular level should be done with several more local anesthetic agents, the volatile anesthetics, sympathomimetic agents, dichloroisoproterenol, reserpine, and many more fibrillatory drugs, in order to clarify their mechanism of action.

Although the biophysical approach to the problem of drug effects on the cardiac membrane will still lead to much new and valuable information, the trend to a biochemical approach is strong. Many new aspects of drug action would be opened if more information concerning structural and biochemical counterparts of membrane conductances would be provided.


The Architectural Engineering (ARCE) Program at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo is creating a unique and novel interdisciplinary course where architecture, architectural engineering and construction management students collaborate to design and plan the construction of a building structure. The current plan is to develop a default interdisciplinary experience that can be taken by every student and then allow course substitutions for other options as they are created. This paper reports on one of those other options, specifically a unique real world, global, multi-disciplinary experience in East Africa that has resulted from a master's degree project that incorporated 14 undergraduates into the work. The project is entering its second year, now includes 24 undergraduate students and has the potential to continue well into the future. The students are supporting the Catholic diocese in Same, Tanzania to design a polytechnic school to accommodate up to 500 students. The design experience is allowing students to address the social, political, economic, constructability, and global issues that come from a real world project on a different continent. The students are incorporating local labor capabilities, regional material availability, climate, seismic vulnerabilities, and local customs and traditions into their design. To minimize the costs of construction, operation and maintenance, the student design includes efficient construction methods, energy sustainability and water sustainability.


Democracy cannot be implemented overnight. Democratization is an often unpredictable process. This book concentrates on that political transformation in one of Indonesia's most 'traditional' islands, Sumba. Why does democratization create such great opportunities for local politicians with their private agenda's? Why does regional autonomy, as part of the national democratization program, promote socio-economic inequality in West Sumba?


Addressing climate change globally requires significant transformations of production and consumption systems. The language around climate action has shifted tangibly over the last five years to reflect this. Indeed, thousands of local governments, national governments, universities and scientists have declared a climate emergency. Some commentators argue that the emergency framing conveys a new and more appropriate level of urgency needed to respond to climate challenges; to create a social tipping point in the fight against climate change. Others are concerned to move on from such emergency rhetoric to urgent action. Beyond emergency declarations, new spaces of, and places for, engagement with climate change are emerging. The public square, the exhibition hall, the law courts, and the investors' forum are just some of the arenas where climate change politics are now being negotiated. Emergent governing mechanisms are being utilised, from citizens' assemblies to ecocide lawsuits. New social movements from Extinction Rebellion to Fridays For Future demonstrate heightened concern and willingness to undertake civil disobedience and protest against climate inaction. Yet questions remain which are addressed in this thematic issue: Are these discourses and spaces of engagement manifestations of a radical new climate politics? And if these are new climate politics, do they mark a shift of gear in current discourses with the potential to effect transformative climate action and support a just transition to a decarbonised world?


We discuss a thin-film spin-coating and patterning process of a conductive polymer electrode for flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). For the polymeric anode, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)-doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has been spin coated on a non-ionic surfactant layer that was pre-coated on the polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. A peel-off method has then been employed to pattern the conductive polymer anode without UV irradiation or heat treatment involved. A peel-off pattern is induced by different adhesion energy among a hydrophobic flexible substrate, a hydrophilic polymeric anode layer, and an adhesive film peeler that is in contact with the polymer anode. With this process technology, we have successfully fabricated solution-processed flexible green OLEDs, showing a peak luminescence of 6000 and a maximum current efficiency of 16.2 cd/A.


Recent literature on indigenous entrepreneurship has called for the exploration of the relationship between indigenous culture and entrepreneurship as well as the relationship between indigenous identity and entrepreneurship. In this study, we explore how being an entrepreneur effects the identities of Canadian indigenous people. To do so, we interviewed thirty urban British Columbian indigenous entrepreneurs. Drawing on an identity work lens, we illuminate the narratives that entrepreneurs leverage and create during interviews in their attempt to create a coherent and meaningful concept of themselves. Counter to the current focus in the indigenous entrepreneurship literature which suggests indigenous entrepreneurs may struggle to maintain their indigenous culture and identity while being an entrepreneur, our study suggests that being an entrepreneur does not necessarily weaken, and in fact can strengthen, the connection indigenous entrepreneurs have to their identities as indigenous people.


This paper contributes to the study of the impact of academic mobility on the development of students' intercultural competence (IC). Following Byram, IC is seen as comprising the three components of knowledge, behaviour and attitude. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, analysing the results of a quantitative pre-stay post-stay survey administered to 110 students from 2 universities in Catalonia (Spain), as well as one student's discursive construction of this impact during her study abroad (SA). The analysis explores the potential complementarity of the two perspectives. Findings show that for this group of students, SA of between 5 and 10 months had a stronger impact on the knowledge component of IC than on the behaviour and attitude components. The analysis of an individual student's experiential narratives is used to shed light on the challenge of personal 'change' in adapting to the 'difference' of the SA context.


As the federal government has increased its role in society, the executive departments have each become responsible for thousands of programs and billions of dollars. The challenge to presidents in the modern presidency has been how to ensure that the myriad policies developed within the departments meet the programmatic and political goals of the administration. That challenge has been met with a series of different strategies by recent presidents, each of which focused on using White House staff to influence or directly control the policy direction being taken within the departments. The focus of this article is the examination of the structure employed by Ronald Reagan to manage departmental policy making from the White House. I explore several questions: How different was this structure from ones used in previous administrations? How did the Reagan structure operate? and Are there parts of the Reagan structure that can or should be continued? Continuing the Domestic Policy Office The 1947 National Security Act institutionalized a White House structure for coordinating foreign policy, but domestic policy remained an enigma with no formal structure for coordinating or guiding the departments. The 1939 Reorganization Act provided a White House staff for presidents, but none had directly focused White House staff on managing domestic policy. In 1969, Richard Nixon became the first president to develop a formal White House structure for coordinating the departments in the development of domestic policy initiatives. By executive order, Nixon established the Urban Affairs Council in January 1969, creating ten small working groups of cabinet officers. Yet, in spite of the efforts of its executive director, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Urban Affairs Council had a rather short life of only 11 months. Richard Nixon, dissatisfied with the policy initiatives continuing to emerge from the departments, abolished the Urban Affairs Council and created the Domestic Council, also through executive order ("Public Papers of the President," 1970). The Domestic Council was given broader control than the Urban Affairs Council over the departments in managing domestic initiatives and in controlling the proliferation of existing programs. Every president since Richard Nixon has continued to have a White House-based domestic policy office. Although Nixon and Ford referred to the unit as the Domestic Council, successive presidents changed the name. Carter referred to the unit as the Domestic Policy Group, Reagan and Bush called it the Office of Policy Development, and Clinton has again changed its name to the Domestic Policy Council. Although the names have been different, the goal of each president has been to create an internal structure that ensures that the political and programmatic objectives of the president are maintained throughout departmental policy making. The Reagan Structure for Managing Domestic Policy Making The experiences of Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter in managing domestic policy making from the White House were mixed. Each had created an office in the White House for domestic policy and had used that office with varying degrees of success in controlling departmental agendas. Reagan built on the experiences of his predecessors and continued the use of a White House structure for managing domestic policy making. The legacy of the Reagan years, however, is that the administration expanded the White House structure to include not only the domestic policy office but a network of interrelated White House offices to oversee departmental policy making. The White House exercised more control over domestic policy under Reagan than in any previous administration.(1) Reagan's White House network revolved around three key units within the White House: the Office of Policy Development that guided departmental initiatives; the White House personnel office that sought to expand the number of departmental political appointees and to ensure that those appointees were Reagan loyalists; and an internal clearance system that allowed White House staff to bargain departmental policies with Congress without departmental involvement. …


Sonic Rupture applies a practitioner-led approach to urban soundscape design, which foregrounds the importance of creative encounters in global cities. This presents an alternative to those urban soundscape design approaches concerned with managing the negative health impacts of noise. Instead, urban noise is considered to be a creative material and cultural expression that can be reshaped with citywide networks of sonic installations. By applying affect theory the urban is imagined as an unfolding of the Affective Earth, and noise as its homogenous (and homogenizing) voice. It is argued that noise is an expressive material with which sonic practitioners can interface, to increase the creative possibilities of urban life. At the heart of this argument is the question of relationships: how do we augment and diversify those interconnections that weave together the imaginative life and the expressions of the land? The book details seven sound installations completed by the author as part of a creative practice research process, in which the sonic rupture model was discovered. The sonic rupture model, which aims to diversify human experiences and urban environments, encapsulates five soundscape design approaches and ten practitioner intentions. Multiple works of international practitioners are explored in relation to the discussed approaches. Sonic Rupture provides the domains of sound art, music, creative practice, urban design, architecture and environmental philosophy with a unique perspective for understanding those affective forces, which shape urban life. The book also provides a range of practical and conceptual tools for urban soundscape design that can be applied by the sonic practitioner. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/sonic-rupture-9781501309977/#sthash.0rQOP3Ef.dpuf


Coastal Plain soils in Georgia are susceptible to runoff, sediment, and chemical losses from short duration-high intensity, runoff producing storms at critical times during the growing season. We quantified runoff and sediment losses from a Tifton loamy sand managed under conventional- (CT) and strip- (ST) tillage and planted to peanuts. Simulated rainfall was applied at planting, 30 days after planting, and after harvest during the peanut growing season with rainfall events comprised of variable intensity (Iv) patterns representative of each time or season (spring=IvSPR, summer=IvSUM, fall=IvFALL). Simulated rainfall was applied to 2x3m plots (n=3) for each treatment. Runoff and sediment were measured from each 6-m 2 plot. Runoff ranged from 9-22% of the rainfall applied for the three events. The most runoff occurred from CT-IvFALL plots; the least occurred from ST-IvSUM plots. Maximum runoff rates were 7-20% of the maximum intensity and occurred 3-8 min after maximum intensity peaks. Sediment yields ranged from 105-1420 kg ha -1 . The most sediment occurred from CT-IvSPR plots; the least occurred from ST-IvSUM plots. Runoff and sediment curves had similar shapes as their corresponding rainfall intensity pattern. As for tillage, CT plots had 38% more runoff and 2.7-fold more sediment than ST plots over the three events. The largest difference in runoff (2.4-fold) and sediment (3.8-fold) among CT and ST plots occurred in the fall (IvFALL). Results improve our understanding of when runoff, sediment, and chemical losses are highest at critical times during a peanut growing season, and show how ST is effective in limiting those losses.


To the Editor: We read with interest the work of Sasano et al.,1 relating changes in atrial electrophysiologic parameters and effectiveness of antiarrhythmic drug therapy in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The main finding in this study is the correlation of atrial effective refractory period prolongation with clinical efficacy, while intraatrial conduction intervals were not changed significantly by drugs. On the bases of our previous experience2 and that of others,3,4 I would like to suggest that perhaps the authors would have found a significant reduction in intraatrial conduction time with early extrastimuli in the patients responding to drugs, because extrastimuli produce marked intraatrial conduction delay in patients with atrial arrhythmias, the increase in intraatrial conduction time induced by extrastimuli is related to the induction of repetitive atrial firing,5 and this was reduced by drugs in Sasano's study. Furthermore, we found that effective refractory period by an i.v. class I drug can be associated with a decrease of extrastimulus induced conduction delay.6 Since the authors undoubtedly have the data on conduction delay induced by early extrastimuli on hand, it would be nice to know if this parameter could help distinguish effective from ineffective drug treatment.


Social figures are an independent element of sociological research – that is the initial thesis of the authors. Sociological diagnoses of present-day life often place the focus of their analysis on emblematic figures because they embody essential characteristics of contemporary society. To give a more precise outline of the sociological meaning of social figures, the concept is placed in the context of related categories of sociology – ideal types, social role, social character, and social figuration. Based on a comparative analysis of these categories, the features of social-figurative representations are identified. The authors demonstrate what social figures do in the context of sociological studies, how they generate evidence, how they can be used in an explorative manner in empirical research settings, and also what the limits of their analytical potential are. Abstract Social figures are an independent element of sociological research – that is the initial thesis of the authors. Sociological diagnoses of present-day life often place the focus of their analysis on emblematic figures because they embody essential characteristics of contemporary society. To give a more precise outline of the sociological meaning of social figures, the concept is placed in the context of related categories of sociology – ideal types, social role, social character, and social figuration. Based on a comparative analysis of these categories, the features of social-figurative representations are identified. The authors demonstrate what social figures do in the context of sociological studies, how they generate evidence, how they can be used in an explorative manner in empirical research settings, and also what the limits of their analytical potential are.


Although in Europe the quality of swimming pools (SPs) is dictated by regulations, microbiological and chemical hazards are described in the literature. Environmental bacteria or toxic disinfection by-product (DBP) compounds may indeed be recovered in waters even after disinfection. We evaluated the water quality from 26 outdoor seasonal SPs of the Versilia district, according to requirements of Regional Decree 54R/2015. In spring 2017, supply and reinstatement waters were collected after shock hyperchlorination (10 mg/L) while in summertime, a second sampling of waters before entering the pools, as well as in the pools, was performed after SPs were open to the public. In all samples, microbiological and chemical parameters were determined as defined by Directive 98/83/EC and the Italian Health Ministry. Microbiological data were within suggested limits. The first chemical analyses showed that in 35% of the feeding-pool seawater samples, the halogenated organic compounds were higher than the maximum permissible concentrations (30 μg/L). Pool waters were then dechlorinated and re-treated with hydrogen peroxide (10 mg/L) to ensure the abatement of DBPs (from 164 ± 107 to 0.9 ± 0.8 μg/L; p = 0.002). Results highlighted the need of self-controlled procedures for the SPs waters to prevent waterborne diseases and suggested hydrogen peroxide as the most appropriate disinfection method.


A number of researchers have investigated the impact of network architecture on the performance of artificial neural networks. Particular attention has been paid to the impact on the performance of the multi-layer perceptron of architectural issues, and the use of various strategies to attain an optimal network structure. However, there are still perceived limitations with the multi-layer perceptron and networks that employ a different architecture to the multi-layer perceptron have gained in popularity in recent years, particularly, networks that implement a more localised solution, where the solution in one area of the problem space does not impact, or has a minimal impact, on other areas of the space. In this study, we discuss the major architectural issues affecting the performance of a multi-layer perceptron, before moving on to examine in detail the performance of a new localised network, namely the bumptree. The work presented here examines the impact on the performance of artificial neural networks of employing alternative networks to the long established multi-layer perceptron. In particular, networks that impose a solution where the impact of each parameter in the final network architecture has a localised impact on the problem space being modelled are examined. The alternatives examined are the radial basis function and bumptree neural networks, and the impact of architectural issues on the performance of these networks is examined. Particular attention is paid to the bumptree, with new techniques for both developing the bumptree structure and employing this structure to classify patterns being examined.


Scale coarseness is a pervasive yet ignored methodological artifact that attenuates observed correlation coefficients in relation to population coefficients. The authors describe how to disattenuate correlations that are biased by scale coarseness in primary-level as well as meta-analytic studies and derive the sampling error variance for the corrected correlation. Results of two Monte Carlo simulations reveal that the correction procedure is accurate and show the extent to which coarseness biases the correlation coefficient under various conditions (i.e., value of the population correlation, number of item scale points, and number of scale items). The authors also offer a Web-based computer program that disattenuates correlations at the primary-study level and computes the sampling error variance as well as confidence intervals for the corrected correlation. Using this program, which implements the correction in primary-level studies, and incorporating the suggested correction in meta-analytic reviews will lead to more accurate estimates of construct-level correlation coefficients.


We present a robust, dense, and accurate Shack-Hartmann spot dislocation map determination method based on a regularized optical flow algorithm that does not require obtaining the spot centroids. The method is capable to measure in presence of strong noise, background illumination and spot modulating signals, which are typical limiting factors of traditional centroid detection algorithms. Moreover, the proposed approach is able to face cases where some of the reference beam spots have not a corresponding one in the distorted Hartmann diagram, and it can expand the dynamic range of the Shack-Hartmann sensor unwrapping the obtained dense dislocation maps. We have tested the algorithm with both simulations and experimental data obtaining satisfactory results. A complete MATLAB package that can reproduce all the results can be downloaded from [http://goo.gl/XbZVOr].


Advancements in information and communication technology (ICT) offer new possibilities when dealing with crisis situations. In this paper we present the design for a crowd tasking tool (CTT) that is currently under development. We describe how the tool can assist disaster relief coordinators during a crisis by selectively distributing tasks to a crowd of volunteers. We also compare the CTT with an already existing ICT based solution for supporting volunteerism during crisis. The differences between these two tools are addressed and the implications for volunteerism are discussed. The paper concludes with an outlook on future work emphasizing a form of volunteer involvement that offers potential for gathering information that is more relevant and easier to digest for decisionmaking than information provided solely by self-organised volunteers through social media.


Abstract Shallow marine sandstone bodies isolated within marine mudrock successions are still incompletely understood. A robust understanding of such bodies is of interest not only scientifically, but also in order to facilitate successful exploration for and production of petroleum and other natural resources. Such bodies are preserved in the Turonian Frontier Formation of the northern Uinta Basin in Utah and Colorado, U.S.A., where they have been previously interpreted as the products of "offshore bars." A reappraisal of these bodies in the uppermost Frontier Formation (herein defined as the Turonian Ashley Valley Member) reveals three northeast–southwest elongate, incised highstand, forced regressive, and lowstand offshore sandstone bodies partially to fully encased in offshore marine mudrock. These bodies are herein named the Buckskin Hills, Kane Hollow, and Raven Ridge sandstones (from oldest to youngest). Five lithofacies were identified from 47 measured outcrop sections located along the western and southern margins of Dinosaur National Monument. They are 1) marine shelf claystones and siltstones, 2) lower–upper offshore marine admixed siltstone and sandstone, 3) lower–upper offshore thin-bedded sandstones and siltstones, 4) distal lower shoreface heavily bioturbated very fine-grained sandstone, and 5) transgressive lag conglomerate. Wireline logs from 112 drillhole locations throughout the Uinta Basin were calibrated with nearby outcrop locations to construct cross sections and net-sandstone isochore maps. From these, regionally traceable horizons (flooding surfaces and internal erosion surfaces) facilitated an analysis of stacking patterns, development of a stratigraphic framework, and a depositional-environment interpretation. Overall, the Ashley Valley Member preserves a basinward-offlapping stacking pattern, indicative of shoreline progradation in response to the late Turonian Greenhorn global eustatic regression that was interrupted by two, high-frequency transgression–regression cycles. This nested cyclicity cannot be explained by global eustasy alone, and instead is suggestive of a secondary allogenic control, likely related to Western Cordilleran Foreland Basin (WCFB) geodynamic driving mechanisms. As a result, the Ashley Valley Member provides an example of tectonic forcing on stratal stacking patterns, highlighting the importance of intrabasinal tectonic processes on dispersal patterns and high-frequency relative base-level fluctuations within the WCFB stratigraphic record.


Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease, and leukocyte levels are associated with future risk of ischemic cardiac disease. Objective: To investigate the hypothesis that relative elevations in leukocyte count in a stroke-free population predict future ischemic stroke (IS). Methods: A population-based prospective cohort study was performed in a multiethnic urban population. Stroke-free community participants were identified by random-digit dialing. Leukocyte levels were measured at enrollment, and participants were followed annually for IS, myocardial infarction (MI), and cause-specific mortality. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for IS, MI, and vascular death after adjustment for medical, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors. Results: Among 3,103 stroke-free community participants (mean age 69.2 ± 10.3 years) with baseline leukocyte levels measured, median follow-up was 5.2 years. After adjusting for stroke risk factors, each SD in leukocyte count (1.8 × 109 cells/L) was associated with an increased risk of IS (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.42), and IS, MI, or vascular death (HR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.26). Compared with those in the lowest quartile of leukocyte count, those in the highest had an increased risk of IS (adjusted HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.08 to 2.82). The effect on atherosclerotic and cardioembolic stroke was greater than in other stroke subtypes. Conclusion: Relative elevations in leukocyte count are independently associated with an increased risk of future ischemic stroke and other cardiovascular events.


Crossovers are essential in meiosis of most organisms to ensure the proper segregation of chromosomes. The lack or improper placement of crossovers can result in nondisjunction and aneuploidy in progeny. Crossovers near the centromere can cause nondisjunction; centromere-proximal crossovers are suppressed by what is termed the centromere effect, but the mechanism is unknown. Here, we investigate contributions to centromere-proximal crossover suppression in Drosophila melanogaster. We mapped a large number of centromere-proximal crossovers and find that crossovers are essentially absent from the highly-repetitive (HR)-heterochromatin surrounding the centromere but occur at a low frequency within the less-repetitive (LR)-heterochromatic region and adjacent euchromatin. Previous research suggested that flies that lack the Bloom syndrome helicase (Blm) lose meiotic of crossover patterning, including the centromere effect. Mapping of centromere-proximal crossovers in Blm mutants reveals that the suppression within the HR-heterochromatin is intact, but the centromere effect is lost. We conclude that centromere-proximal crossovers are suppressed by two separable mechanisms: the HR-heterochromatin effect, which completely suppresses crossovers in the HR-heterochromatin, and the centromere effect, which suppresses crossovers with a dissipating effect with distance from the centromere.


In recent years social networking sites have become very popular. Many people are member of one or more of these profile sites and tend to put a lot of informa- tion about themselves online. This often publicly available data can be useful for many purposes. Retrieving all available data from one person and merging it into one profile even more. Detection of which profiles belong to the same person becomes very important. This task is called Entity Resolution (ER).
In this research we develop a model to solve the ER problem for profiles from social networking sites. First we present a simple model. Then we try to improve this model by making use of the social networks a member can have on these sites. We believe that involving the networks can improve the results significantly.
General idea is that we have two sites with profiles. With the model we try to find out which profiles of the first profile site correspond to which profiles of the second profile site, whereby we assume a person to have at most one profile at each profile site.
In the simple model, we compare all profiles of the first profile site against all profiles of the second site. This comparison will result in a score for each pair: the pairwise similarity score. The higher this score, the higher the probability that these profiles belong to the same person. The pairs that satisfy the so-called pairwise threshold are the candidate matches. From these candidate matches, the matches are chosen.
In the network model, we start the same way. When the list of candidate matches is determined, the network phase is started. For each candidate match the network similarity score is calculated. This is done by determining the overlap in the networks of both profiles in the candidate match. The more overlap between the networks, the higher the network similarity score, the higher the probability that the profiles in the candidate match belong to the same person. This time, the candidate matches should satisfy a network threshold in order to stay a candidate match. Then from the remaining candidate matches, the matches are chosen.
In order to test whether the network model would indeed improve the simple model, we have set up experiments. Since no suitable data sets were available, we retrieved our own data set. Unfortunately, it appeared to have some limitations. Also, we have built a prototype that implemented the model. The prototype has several parameters for which we could vary the values in the experiments to find a good configuration.
The network model ensures that there are more conditions that need to be met to be a match. The experimental results confirm this. That means that the precision of the results increases. On the other side, due to these strict conditions, corresponding profiles are missed, which is undesired. However, in case there are ambiguous profiles in the set, the network model can distinguish the correct profile, which is highly desired. This situation will occur frequently in real life, hence we think the network model can really contribute to solving the ER problem.


Water accounting is an important tool for water managers. Many studies use official water accounting data or similar data for their assessment. In particular, large-scale studies or water footprint studies have limited opportunities for "in-situ" data collection. In many cases, the processors of studies do not know the origin of the data and their limitations. Water accounting data are very often used for decision-making process, water resource management, and planning in the water sector. This article tries to answer the question "How truthful are water accounting data?" For this task water accounting in the agriculture sector in the Czech Republic was selected. The data on water withdrawals for the agriculture purposes was analysed and compared with water needs estimation based on additional data on agricultural production.


The United States has reached a point of economic inequality that has not been seen since the 1920s. According to the median voter theorem of redistribution, democracy is supposed to act as a check on growing economic inequality. The intuition behind this theorem is simple: If a majority of the population sees their incomes stagnate while a wealthy minority gets richer, the majority will demand redistributive policies, and representatives will respond by addressing inequality. But in the United States, very little redistribution has accompanied rising economic inequality.

Why has democracy failed to check economic inequality in the United States? Political scientists and legal scholars have pointed to political inequality as the culprit. Political scientists have shown that elected representatives are much more responsive to the wealthy than any other income group. Legal scholars have argued in favor of equalizing campaign finance and regulating lobbying as ways to reduce political inequality. Empirical studies, however, have raised doubts about the effectiveness of any reform efforts aimed at those areas, and constitutional law disfavors solutions aimed at diminishing the political voice of the wealthy.

In this Article, I argue that reducing the income class imbalance of the electorate — i.e. the tendency of wealthier voters to vote at higher rates than less affluent ones — will be a more constitutionally viable and effective means of ameliorating political inequality. I base this argument on the median voter theorem, which suggests that elected officials decide whether or not to adopt redistributive policies based on whether they believe the median voter desires such policies. Because the poor vote less and have less access to their elected representatives, representatives perceive the electorate to be better off than the population as a whole actually is, diminishing the pressure to redistribute in contexts of rising economic inequality.

The ideal solution to this form of political inequality is to induce the participation of the poor and enhance their engagement with elected officials through campaign mobilization. Mobilizing the poor would not only increase the proportion of the poor in the electorate, but more importantly, would change how representatives perceive the electorate and its demands for redistribution. Achieving these goals will require looking to new legal strategies aimed at incentivizing mobilization. I examine three legal strategies that could increase the incentives for political campaigns to mobilize the poor: campaign finance vouchers, earmarking campaign contributions, and a mobilization-matching fund. I conclude by suggesting a path to advancing these strategies in the current political climate.