Metal oxide nanoparticles offer great merits over controlling rheological, thermal, chemical and physical properties of solutions. The effectiveness of a nanoparticle to modify the properties of a fluid depends on its diffusive properties with respect to the fluid. In this study, rheological properties of aqueous fluids (i.e. water) were enhanced with the addition of CeO2 nanoparticles. This study was characterized by the outcomes of simulation and experimental results of nanofluids. The movement of nanoparticles in the fluidic media was simulated by a largescale molecular thermal dynamic program (i.e. LAMMPS). The COMPASS force field was employed with smoothed particle hydrodynamic potential (SPH) and discrete particle dynamics potential (DPD). However, this study develops the understanding of how the rheological properties are affected due to the addition of nanoparticles in a fluid and the way DPD and SPH can be used for accurately estimating the rheological properties with Brownian effect. The rheological results of the simulation were confirmed by the convergence of the stress autocorrelation function, whereas experimental properties were measured using a rheometer. These rheological values of simulation were obtained and agreed within 5 % of the experimental values; they were identified and treated with a number of iterations and experimental tests. The results of the experiment and simulation show that 10 % CeO2 nanoparticles dispersion in water has a viscosity of 2.0–3.3 mPas.


This dissertation looks at social ventures that create social impact whilst being self-sustainable. By adopting three different theoretical perspectives, various aspects of organizations with multiple social and economic objectives are highlighted. Study 1 examines the hybrid nature of social ventures. It examines the conditions under which social ventures develop hybrid value creating activities to deal with their economic and social goals. Based on data from 11 social ventures, the findings are based on a combination of an inductive analysis and fsQCA analysis. The focal point of the study is how the interplay of the exclusiveness of the beneficiary target group, the overlap between customers and beneficiaries, and the visibility of the social mission in the value offering, influences the extent to which social ventures hybridize their means. The study contributes to the literature on social ventures specifically, and hybrid ventures more generally. Study 2 is based on a qualitative and inductive ethnographic study of a social venture. It sheds light on how organizational members have an imprinting effect on a venture beyond the founding phase. The model proposed in this study illuminates how the imprinting process is an ongoing, two-way interaction between the individual and the organizational level. The analysis shows how the initial imprint of the venture attracts people with specific social identities, and how bottom-up involvement of organizational members impacts on the imprint through three processes: projecting, sharing and contextualizing. This study adds to the literature on imprinting on one hand, and to literature on social ventures on the other hand. Study 3 is a comparative study of two social ventures bringing electrification to rural communities in a bottom-of-the-pyramid market. The study unpacks how these ventures design governance models to align the heterogeneous interests of their stakeholders including customers, employees and local communities – with their own organizational social and economic objectives. On one hand, the results of the analysis show how the two ventures differ in terms of a customer versus community focus in their governance approach. On the other hand, the analysis shows how this divergent take on governance is driven by a different perception of stakeholder categories, a dissimilar conceptualization of beneficiaries of the social mission, and a different extent of adopting relational versus transactional approaches towards the stakeholders. The study is a response to calls for research on governance in the context of organizations with multiple social and economic objectives.


We study the asymptotic behaviour of a class of oscillating integral functionals, which may depend on measures concentrated on periodic low-dimensional or multi-dimensional structures. We set the problem in the framework of Sobolev spaces with respect to periodic measures, and show that, under proper assumptions, a limit functional deened on the usual Sobolev space can be obtained using the techniques of ?-convergence, whose energy density is described by an appropriate formula.


This book explores the syntactic nature of inner aspect from a minimalist perspective. It begins with the new observation that there are two independent properties at play in English inner aspect: the object-to-event mapping and event structure. From a discussion of English statives and Russian, it is concluded that the former property is variant and the latter universal; a minimalist conception of language variation arises naturally in this context. Additionally, an exploration of a lexical derivational approach to achievements leads to the expectation that there are no accomplishments in the lexicon. A detailed look at idioms suggests that this expectation is met. These results support the division of labor between an operative lexicon and narrow syntax in aspectual composition; this naturally poses a problem for (neo-)constructional approaches to inner aspect. Finally, one conclusion reached about the syntactic nature of inner aspect regards the object-to-event mapping: it is a purely syntactic phenomenon.


This study was carried out to understand and bring to fore if a simulation-based activity is effective on the academic performance of the students which has a general outlook to enhance meaningful science learning. This study focused on effectiveness of the stellarium-based activity on the academic performance of Grade 11 STEM Strand students of Sotero B. Cabahug FORUM for Literacy, School Year 2017 – 2018. The respondents of this study were composed of 28 students. The data pointed out that data analysis results shows that by conventional criteria, the differences of the scores on the different competencies is considered to be extremely statistically significant Results revealed that the stellarium-based activity is effective in teaching the cycles of the sky. Statistical results showed that the academic performance of the respondents improved when taught using the stellarium-based activity. Thus, it is best to learn astronomy using simulations. Computer simulations have demonstrated the potential to facilitate this process by highlighting students' misconceptions and presenting plausible scientific conceptions. From the results, students are recommended to use stellarium, where the process often involves open-ended investigations into a question or a problem, requiring them to engage in evidence-based reasoning and creative problem-solving, as well as problem finding. Furthermore, science educators are encouraged to use stellarium in teaching the cycles of the sky and as anchors of the future teachers must always come equipped for these challenges charged on them, thus engaging students to learn and develop the potentials needed from them to take part for the betterment of today's world. Most importantly, future researchers are commended the development of a localized stellarium-based activity will greatly affect the academic performance of the student will surely boost their interest in learning astronomy education.


With Britain's training schemes going through considerable change, this is an overview of the impact and success of one of the most wide-ranging government schemes of the last 20 years. It surveys the background to the MSC and analyzes its effect upon particular sections of the community. The relations between the MSC and secondary schools, further education, local authorities, the churches, the voluntary sector, employers and trade unions are looked at in detail. Many of the contributors, who include Bill Speirs of the STUC, Jim Wright, formerly a leading training manager in industry, Tom Burness a college principal, and the Reverend Donald Moss of the Church of Scotland, came into contact with the MSC through their work. Others are academics who have been researching the MSC for number of years.


Real-world planning problems often involve hundreds or even thousands of objects, straining the limits of modern planners. In this work, we address this challenge by learning to predict a small set of objects that, taken together, would be sufficient for finding a plan. We propose a graph neural network architecture for predicting object importance in a single inference pass, thus incurring little overhead while greatly reducing the number of objects that must be considered by the planner. Our approach treats the planner and transition model as black boxes, and can be used with any off-the-shelf planner. Empirically, across classical planning, probabilistic planning, and robotic task and motion planning, we find that our method results in planning that is significantly faster than several baselines, including other partial grounding strategies and lifted planners. We conclude that learning to predict a sufficient set of objects for a planning problem is a simple, powerful, and general mechanism for planning in large instances. Video: https://youtu.be/FWsVJc2fvCE Code: https://git.io/JIsqX


The failure of uncovered interest rate parity to explain short-term interest rate movements is well documented. We show that short-term changes in long-term interest rates do help to explain short-term exchange rate movements. The relationship gets stronger over our sample period, as the liquidity of the exchange rate market increases. We also show that controlling for time-varying exchange rate risk also helps to improve the fit of the relationship.


PURPOSE
To investigate adherence to endocrine treatment and its relationship with disease-free survival (DFS) in the Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98 clinical trial.

METHODS
The BIG 1-98 trial is a double-blind trial that randomly assigned 6,193 postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer in the four-arm option to 5 years of tamoxifen (Tam), letrozole (Let), or the agents in sequence (Let-Tam, Tam-Let). This analysis included 6,144 women who received at least one dose of study treatment. Conditional landmark analyses and marginal structural Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the relationship between DFS and treatment adherence (persistence [duration] and compliance with dosage). Competing risks regression was used to assess demographic, disease, and treatment characteristics of the women who stopped treatment early because of adverse events.

RESULTS
Both aspects of low adherence (early cessation of letrozole and a compliance score of < 90%) were associated with reduced DFS (multivariable model hazard ratio, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.93; P = .01; and multivariable model hazard ratio, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.08 to 2.38; P = .02, respectively). Sequential treatments were associated with higher rates of nonpersistence (Tam-Let, 20.8%; Let-Tam, 20.3%; Tam 16.9%; Let 17.6%). Adverse events were the reason for most trial treatment early discontinuations (82.7%). Apart from sequential treatment assignment, reduced adherence was associated with older age, smoking, node negativity, or prior thromboembolic event.

CONCLUSION
Both persistence and compliance are associated with DFS. Toxicity management and, for sequential treatments, patient and physician awareness, may improve adherence.


We study optimal hedging design for returns on an Italian equity mutual fund index since 2008. Alternative hedging instruments include one-month futures contracts for FTSE-MIB, FTSE100 and Xetra DAX. We use bivariate models of our Italian equity mutual fund index and each hedging instrument to investigate the performance of optimal static hedges. Our main model is the Markov-switching vector autoregression with duration dependence for the conditional mean of returns proposed by Pegalatti [9]. The hedging performance is then compare with that of standard Dynamic Conditional Correlation models. Our results are twofold. First, DAX futures contracts are the best hedge for Italian equity mutual funds within our class of financial instruments. Second, the duration-dependent Markov-switching model improves on the hedging performance of the competing DCC models.


A 5-GHz transmitter front-end for 802.11a and HIPERLAN2 wireless local area networks was implemented in a low-cost 46-GHz-f/sub T/ silicon bipolar technology. The transmitter includes a digitally controlled linear-in-dB variable-gain up-converter and a three-stage linear power amplifier. At a 3-V supply voltage, the front-end exhibits a 23.5-dBm output 1-dB compression point, 35-dB maximum power gain, and 30-dB dynamic range. The dB-linear gain error is lower than /spl plusmn/0.8 dB. The transmitter is able to comply with the stringent error vector magnitude requirement of the standard up to a 19-dBm output power level.


Despite generating thousands of cases on important public issues, the single subject rule remains a source of uncertainty and inconsistency. The root of the problem lies in the inability to define the term "subject" using legal doctrine. This paper reexamines the single subject rule through the lens of public choice theory and finds that its purposes are wrongheaded. Logrolling is not necessarily harmful, and improving political transparency requires legislative compromises to be packaged together rather than spread across multiple acts. Riding is not a form of logrolling but an analytically distinct and more threatening practice. This analysis yields a precise, political definition of "subject" and a new framework for resolving single subject disputes.


Sialoadhesin (Sn) is a sialic acid–binding Ig-like lectin expressed selectively on macrophage subsets. In a model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, Sn interacted with sialylated ligands expressed selectively on CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) and inhibited their proliferation. In this study, we examined the induction of Sn ligands (SnL) on all splenic CD4+ T cells following in vitro activation. Most CD4+ Tregs strongly upregulated SnL, whereas only a small subset of ∼20% CD4+Foxp3− T cells (effector T cells [Teffs]) upregulated SnL. SnL+ Teffs displayed higher levels of activation markers CD25 and CD69, exhibited increased proliferation, and produced higher amounts of IL-2 and IFN-γ than corresponding SnL− Teffs. Coculture of activated Teffs with Sn+ macrophages or Sn+ Chinese hamster ovary cells resulted in increased cell death, suggesting a regulatory role for Sn–SnL interactions. The key importance of α2,3-sialylation in SnL expression was demonstrated by increased binding of α2,3-linkage–specific Maackia amurensis lectin, increased expression of α2,3-sialyltransferase ST3GalVI, and loss of SnL following treatment with an α2,3-linkage–specific sialidase. The induction of SnL on activated CD4+ T cells was dependent on N-glycan rather than O-glycan biosynthesis and independent of the mucin-like molecules CD43 and P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1, previously implicated in Sn interactions. Induction of ligands on CD4+Foxp3− Teffs was also observed in vivo using the New Zealand Black × New Zealand White F1 murine model of spontaneous lupus and SnL levels on Teffs correlated strongly with the degree of proteinuria. Collectively, these data indicate that SnL is a novel marker of activated CD4+ Teffs that are implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.


Sicily is a thick orogenic wedge formed by (1) the foreland (African) and its Sicilian orogen and (2) the thick-skinned, Calabrian–Peloritani wedge. The crust under central Sicily, from the Tyrrhenian margin to the coastline of the Sicily Channel, has been investigated by the multidisciplinary (SI.RI.PRO.) research project. The project dealt with the nature and thickness of the crust and depth and geometry of the Moho, which is essential in formulating subduction models and improving the knowledge of African and Tyrrhenian–European lithospheres. The results resolve features such as (1) the main orogenic wedge, (2) the very steep, NW–SE-trending regional monocline suggesting inflection of the foreland crust, (3) the deep Caltanissetta synform imaged, for the first time, to about 25 km, and (4) the top of the crystalline basement and the inferred crust–mantle boundary. The SI.RI.PRO. transect confirmed that the NNW-dipping, autochthonous Iblean platform of SE Sicily and its basement extends all the way into central Sicily. Further NW, towards the NNW end of the transect, a large uplift involves the Iblean platform and its underlying basement. The associated gravity anomaly is interpreted as the southern wedge edge of the Tyrrhenian mantle that splits the subducting Iblean–Pelagian (African) continental slab from an overlying synformal stack of allochthonous thrust sheets. Supplementary materials: Additional data are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18594.


Advances in the field of touch recognition could open up applications for touch-based interaction in areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We extended this challenge to the research community working on multimodal interaction with the goal of sparking interest in the touch modality and to promote exploration of the use of data processing techniques from other more mature modalities for touch recognition. Two data sets were made available containing labeled pressure sensor data of social touch gestures that were performed by touching a touch-sensitive surface with the hand. Each set was collected from similar sensor grids, but under conditions reflecting different application orientations: CoST: Corpus of Social Touch and HAART: The Human-Animal Affective Robot Touch gesture set. In this paper we describe the challenge protocol and summarize the results from the touch challenge hosted in conjunction with the 2015 ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI). The most important outcomes of the challenges were: (1) transferring techniques from other modalities, such as image processing, speech, and human action recognition provided valuable feature sets; (2) gesture classification confusions were similar despite the various data processing methods used.


Over the years, it is argued that due to cultural differences between traditional and more innovative societies, technologies which have been invented, developed and served their intended purposes without disrupting the culture of the society to which they were meant to be used, should be modified to suit the culture of other societies. The author strongly believes that in order for the people in less developed societies to be more creative and to act independently, people in more developed societies should avoid imposing their ideas and technologies upon the indigenous systems of social organisation. This paper explores the possibility and ways through which to attract and encourage people from developing countries to consider the information and communication technology industry as a potential field of study for their children and prepare themselves to secure jobs in the information industry, as the world is gradually but surely transforming itself from industrial society to an information and knowledge society. The paper presented the result of a study about how the people of Tonga view computers and computerised information systems. An overview of the importance of socio-cultural values is presented, followed by a discussion of the impact of cultural interaction and cultural change on traditional societies. The concept of appropriate and suitable technologies is briefly described. Finally, a study of the perception of Tongans, in the Waikato area in New Zealand is presented, followed by a strategy that may be used to improve people's understanding of computers as tools for processing, sharing and preserving information.


This paper is a case study of the Sweden Democrats with the aim to better understand the nature of the immigrant-critical nationalist parties, often referred to as right-wing extremist, right-wing populist etc. who has had success in several countries, and their ideological roots. A comparative descriptive analysis has been done of the ideas of the Sweden Democrats' ideology, with the aim to identify and examine the presence of fascism ideas in SD's ideology. On the basis of the existing research has an ideal type been formulated what fascism most basic ideas are. With this idealtype as an analytical tool has SD's party platform, political speeches, SD-kuriren and Jimmie Akesson's book, etc. been analyzed. It has been possible to demonstrate the similarities and differences between the SD's and fascist ideas. Ideas of SD which is also a typical feature of fascism is the opposition to the conduct of immigration policy and to stop or limit immigration which appears as the party's most prominent idea that is also a typical feature of fascism. The myth of the betrayed people's home "Folkhemmet" appears to be a typical "mystical core" in the SD's thinking which is similar to the example stab-in-the-back legend of Nazism. The idea about the third way and a excluding nationalism that sees diversity as a threat is common within fascism while the differences is that the SD profess democracy and denounces anti-democratic ideas. SD is like the fascists not pacifists but has not, moreover, any typical fascist ideas on the war in its program. The multicultural society is considered a threat, which is similar to the ideas of fascism, and SD considers that a culture war is going on, especially with Islam. SD has some ideas in common with fascism that indicates continuity from the interwar fascism. Other ideas differ from the ideas of fascism, which shows that the party has been partly done up with its ideological roots. The type of thought structures identified in the analysis of the Sweden Democrats have several ideas in common with the fascist discourse, but there are also similarities with the humanist Enlightenment discourse in the affirmation of democracy.


We describe a formal approach based on graphical causal models to identify the"root causes"of the change in the probability distribution of variables. After factorizing the joint distribution into conditional distributions of each variable, given its parents (the"causal mechanisms"), we attribute the change to changes of these causal mechanisms. This attribution analysis accounts for the fact that mechanisms often change independently and sometimes only some of them change. Through simulations, we study the performance of our distribution change attribution method. We then present a real-world case study identifying the drivers of the difference in the income distribution between men and women.


This study examined the link between self-compassion and the balance of the needs of self and other in conflict situations. College undergraduates (N = 506) were asked to provide an example of a time in which their needs conflicted with those of their mother, father, best friend and romantic partner. Participants were asked how they resolved the conflict (subordinating, self-prioritizing, or compromising). They also reported whether their resolution choice felt authentic, the degree of emotional turmoil experienced when resolving the conflict, and their sense of well-being in each relational context. Across contexts, higher levels of self-compassion were related to greater likelihood to compromise and lesser likelihood to self-subordinate needs, as well as greater authenticity, lower levels of emotional turmoil, and higher levels of relational well-being. With fathers and romantic partners, the link between self-compassion and well-being was mediated by greater likelihood to make compromise decisions.


In this essay, the author describes his curricular journey in creating a course on narrative inquiry and memoir for experienced early childhood educators. The author recounts the steps he took in selecting reading texts and activities for the course, and emphasizes the value of using poetry as a form of narrative for helping early childhood educators represent and understand key experiences and influences in their personal and professional lives. In presenting examples of the educators' original poems, the author points out the value of poetry to recount and illuminate small moments of experience, insight, and reflection for early childhood educators. Relevant background theory on the role of narrative and inquiry in early childhood and critical intersections between story and poetry are also provided. The author invites commentary firstname.lastname@example.com; a copy of the syllabus on which this article is based is also available upon request.


Developing an intersectional social justice praxis in student affairs is important given the wide sweeping economic and political shifts are occurring in society and are creating shifts within higher education environments. These shifts, referred to here as neoliberalism, adversely affect already minoritized populations (e.g., trans* students). Simultaneously, higher education professionals, particularly those in identity-based centers, seek solutions to common student problems (e.g., campus climate) through policies and practices, which may inadvertently advance a neo-liberal agenda. I propose a framework that seeks to develop policies, programs, and practices that work to subvert neoliberalism, or at the very least stop the advancement of neoliberal ideology within student affairs. In this article, I argue adoption of this framework in student affairs using findings from an exploratory study about the experiences of transgender college students. The framework calls for social justice approach grounded in Critical Trans Politics and draws on notions of intersectionality to understand the effects of larger social forces on individual students' experiences.


Structural design optimization usually deals with multiple conflicting objectives to obtain the minimum construction cost, minimum weight, and maximum safety of the final design. Therefore, finding the optimum design is hard and time-consuming for such problems. In this paper, we borrow the basic concept of multi-criterion decision-making and combine it with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to develop an algorithm for accelerating convergence toward the optimum solution in structural multi-objective optimization scenarios. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was illustrated in some benchmark reinforced concrete (RC) optimization problems. The main goal was to minimize the cost or weight of structures while satisfying all design requirements imposed by design codes. The results confirm the ability of the proposed algorithm to efficiently find optimal solutions for structural optimization problems.


Capturing economic rent from natural resources, particularly forests, frequently still creates disagreement between the government and businesses. The charges imposed by the government in the forms of reboisation fund (DR) and forest resource provision (PSDH) have been in place for very long time, accepted by all stakeholders, and supported by laws. Government policy regarding compensation for forest stand value (GRNT) creates controvercies. This paper intends to clarify problem of forest charges by returning it to its fundamental theories, e.g. economic theory of natural resouces. Economic rent of forests that are controlled by the government is the right of all Indonesia people. Henece, the government has responsibility for capturing the rent as much as possible in the most efficient way. If the stumpage is too low then it potentially promotes overcutting, whereas if it is too high then it makes forest business less attractive that potentially promotes illegal activities. In forestry, economic rent of forest has a special name, it is stumpage price. There are some difficulties in estimating a competitive stumpage price, wheter the one obtained through a direct competitive auction of standing timber or through calculation of residual price. Partly, the difficulties were generated by the government's own policies that strongly distorted log prices. Log export ban and vertical integration are the two most influential policies in distorting log prices. Actually, the government is able to design and implement a single charge to capture PSDH, DR, and GRNT so that their administration becomes much simpler and more efficient.


The figure-ground distinction is particularly interesting where the same stimulus can give rise to more than the one interpretation of figure. The work presented here examines the role of eye movements in such figure perception. The figure-ground dichotomy is first elaborated and stimuli which can give different figural interpretations are classified as reversible perspective or ambiguous figures. Theories which have been proposed to account for such figure perception are then reviewed and it is argued that a schematic map theory offers a plausible explanation. The parameters which have been studied with regard to these stimuli are then considered and it is argued that the role of eye movements has not been adequately investigated. Stimuli are then proposed to be composed of elements which are differentially weighted towards each figural aspect. Figure perception is largely a result of an observer selectively attending to these elements as determined by the schematic map. Eye movements function to move such attention about the stimulus. A series of afterimage experiments then examines the existence of such elements in a line drawing of Boring's ambiguous figure. The response of figure was found to be governed by the elements to which the subject could attend. Two free-viewing experiments are then reported which demonstrated that in a non- stabilised condition the immediate response of figure was determined by the elements present in the stimulus. No age-related effects of such elements were found when children served as subjects. Eye movement types and recording techniques are then reviewed and an inconspicuous recording method developed. Subjects' eye movements were then recorded as they viewed versions of the ambiguous figure. The results are interpreted as supporting a schematic map explanation. A model is finally developed to account for the role of eye movements in figure perception.


Floods are the most frequent of natural disasters, affecting millions of people across the globe every year. The anticipation and forecasting of floods at the global scale is crucial to preparing for severe events and providing early awareness where local flood models and warning services may not exist. As numerical weather prediction models continue to improve, operational centers are increasingly using their meteorological output to drive hydrological models, creating hydrometeorological systems capable of forecasting river flow and flood events at much longer lead times than has previously been possible. Furthermore, developments in, for example, modelling capabilities, data, and resources in recent years have made it possible to produce global scale flood forecasting systems. In this paper, the current state of operational large‐scale flood forecasting is discussed, including probabilistic forecasting of floods using ensemble prediction systems. Six state‐of‐the‐art operational large‐scale flood forecasting systems are reviewed, describing similarities and differences in their approaches to forecasting floods at the global and continental scale. Operational systems currently have the capability to produce coarse‐scale discharge forecasts in the medium‐range and disseminate forecasts and, in some cases, early warning products in real time across the globe, in support of national forecasting capabilities. With improvements in seasonal weather forecasting, future advances may include more seamless hydrological forecasting at the global scale alongside a move towards multi‐model forecasts and grand ensemble techniques, responding to the requirement of developing multi‐hazard early warning systems for disaster risk reduction. WIREs Water 2016, 3:391–418. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1137


This is a beautifully illustrated guide to the history, philosophy, practice and etiquette of this Japanese martial art, and the physical and spiritual benefits it can bring. It is a complete aikido course from beginner to advanced level, containing suitable exercises for men, women and children of all fitness levels. You can learn how to harmonize with and neutralize an opponent's attack, using their own force against them. It features illustrated step-by-step sequences that demonstrate postures, movements, pins, falls and throws, showing both solo and paired exercises. It includes over 500 photographs that show every stage of each movement in easy-to-follow stages, demonstrated by qualified experts. Aikido is a martial art developed by Japanese master Morihei Ueshiba in the early part of the 20th century. It is based on natural movements and the unity of mind and body, which combine to harmonize with the actions of an opponent and to restrain or throw them by utilizing the power of their own energy. The practice of aikido is associated with many physical and spiritual benefits; as well as controlling an opponent, it is an excellent way to develop strength, suppleness, stamina and mental and emotional harmony. This clearly presented and accessible book is a fully illustrated guide to the development, philosophy and techniques of an extraordinary art. With over 500 photographs, together with comprehensive text from one of the most respected teachers working today, this is a perfect guide for anyone beginning aikido, or for experienced practitioners who want to go further.


Interpretations of "literacy" and approaches to literacy pedagogy and assessment are under renewal as meaning-making and learning are increasingly situated in digitized environments. While the implications of these shifts are in part technological, they are also relational, as students are increasingly positioned as interactive with participatory roles in self-knowledge and increased responsibility for their learning. However, while shifts are occurring in understandings of literacy and approaches to literacy pedagogy, the same cannot be said for the way in which assessments of digital literacies are undertaken. There is a lack of valid, reliable, and practical assessments of new literacies to inform and help students to become better prepared for study, work, and citizenship in digital environments. This article maps five characteristics of effective formative assessment in print-based classrooms with seven affordancesin digital learning and assessment to suggest an analytical framework for examining teacher and student assessment in digital environments. Drawing on data from a research project in which a team of teachers introduced a one-to-one computing program and worked to renew their literacy assessment practices, this article discusses how each of the seven affordances are enacted in the assessment practices in a years five and six primary school classroom. The findings from this research project show that educational technologies have the potential to enable new approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment that better align with the needs of twenty-first century literacy learners. The findings alsosupport approaches to formative assessment that value print and multimodality and engage students in more flexible and differentiated ways. They can enable teachers and students to be re-positioned as designers, knowledge producers, and collaborative learners. The seven affordances provide a framework that holds rich possibilities for teacher learning and planning as prompts to support reflection on formative assessment practices, critique habitual practices, and considernew opportunities.


Manufacturing cost of high precision scroll compressor parts remains a dominating factor in determining the overall production cost. Traditionally, scroll compressors are made of metallic parts which require high tolerances to avoid leakage. Precision is even more important when the compressor is designed for oil-free operation and metal to metal contact can potentially be detrimental to the overall performance. With implementation of non-metallic compressor parts such as plastics, various avenues such as injection molding can be taken to reduce production cost. In addition, various polymer blends can be chosen to alleviate the danger of contact through the use of self-lubricating materials. In the present study, a new compressor concept has been designed and built from both plastic and metallic materials. Performance tests have been conducted on the compressor concept and comparison between plastic and metallic compressor performance have been made.


In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the memory footprint of convolutional network architectures. We introduce a vector quantization method that aims at preserving the quality of the reconstruction of the network outputs rather than its weights. The principle of our approach is that it minimizes the loss reconstruction error for in-domain inputs. Our method only requires a set of unlabelled data at quantization time and allows for efficient inference on CPU by using bytealigned codebooks to store the compressed weights. We validate our approach by quantizing a high performing ResNet-50 model to a memory size of 5 MB (20× compression factor) while preserving a top-1 accuracy of 76.1% on ImageNet object classification and by compressing a Mask R-CNN with a 26× factor.1


As an applied social science discipline, Public Administration is a highly diverse field of scientific enquiry that is evolving rapidly. With the emergence of the so-called Mode 2 of knowledge production, the realization increases that complex societal challenges cannot be addressed through singular disciplinary perspectives. There is general agreement among scholars that their thinking should not be dependent on particular disciplines, in order to search for potential solutions to complex societal challenges. Interdisciplinary cooperation and integration often leads to transdisciplinarity from which new insight emerges. In this regard the question is to what extent individual disciplines could contribute to the construction of transdisciplinary knowledge. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the potential cognitive-epistemic (knowledge-based) contributions that Public Administration as study domain could make to transdisciplinarity. For this purpose the philosopher Dooyeweerd's modality perspective is utilized as a framework.


IMPORTANCE
Occupational therapy using an Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI) approach is a common intervention that has not been extensively studied in children with idiopathic sensory processing and integration challenges (e.g., without a diagnosis of autism).

OBJECTIVE
To test the effectiveness of ASI using measures related to motor coordination and functional performance in children with a sensory-based motor disorder (SBMD).

DESIGN
Nonconcurrent, multiple baseline, single subject.

SETTING
Outpatient clinic that was part of a children's hospital in an urban setting.

PARTICIPANTS
Three boys (ages 5-8 yr) with an SBMD.

INTERVENTION
Each participant received ASI 3 times per week for 10 wk. Outcomes and Measures: Three motor probes were measured weekly. Pre- and posttest assessments included goal attainment scaling (GAS) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition (BOT-2).

RESULTS
All 3 participants showed improvements in motor probes during the intervention period on the basis of a 2 SD band method of analysis. Statistically significant improvements were noted across GAS goals, and positive changes were found on the BOT-2, with large effect sizes.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Findings suggest improved motor performance and high goal achievement using ASI for children with idiopathic sensory processing and integration challenges. What This Article Adds: This study adds to a body of literature suggesting that ASI is effective in increasing functional performance in children with sensory processing and integration challenges. Future studies using multiple baseline designs are feasible in the clinic setting and can help build the evidence base for ASI.


Abstract Summer iron (Fe) fertilization in the Ross Sea has previously been observed in association with diatom productivity, lithogenic particles and excess Fe in the water column. This productivity event occurred during an early breakout of sea ice via katabatic winds, suggesting that aeolian dust could be an important source of lithogenic Fe required for diatom growth in the Ross Sea. Here we investigate the provenance of size-selected dust deposited on sea ice in McMurdo Sound, south-western (SW) Ross Sea. The isotopic signature of McMurdo Sound dust (0.70533<87Sr/86Sr<0.70915 and -1.1<εNd(0)<3.45) confirms that dust is locally sourced from the McMurdo Sound debris bands and comprises a two-component mixture of McMurdo Volcanic Group and southern Victoria Land lithologies. In addition, the provenance of lithogenic sediment trapped in the water column was investigated, and the isotopic signature (εNd(0)=3.9, 87Sr/86Sr=0.70434) is differentiated from long-range transported dust originating from South America and Australia. Elevated lithogenic accumulation rates in deeper sediment traps in the Ross Sea suggest that sinking particles in the water column cannot simply result from dust input at the surface. This discrepancy can be best explained by significant upwelling and remobilization of lithogenic Fe from the sea floor.


ABSTRACT In this article, we examine a novel way of imposing shape constraints on a local polynomial kernel estimator. The proposed approach is referred to as shape constrained kernel-weighted least squares (SCKLS). We prove uniform consistency of the SCKLS estimator with monotonicity and convexity/concavity constraints and establish its convergence rate. In addition, we propose a test to validate whether shape constraints are correctly specified. The competitiveness of SCKLS is shown in a comprehensive simulation study. Finally, we analyze Chilean manufacturing data using the SCKLS estimator and quantify production in the plastics and wood industries. The results show that exporting firms have significantly higher productivity.


We address the problem of controlling large distributed robotic systems such as factories. We introduce tools which help us compose local, hybrid control programs for a class of distributed robotic systems, assuming a palette of controller for individual tasks is already constructed. These tools, which combine backchaining behaviors with Petri Nets, expand on successful work in sequential composition of robot behaviors. We apply these ideas to the design of a robotic bucket brigade and simple, distributed assembly tasks.


Economic development theory has recognized that access to finance enables economic agents of production to exploit growth opportunities. The governments of less developed countries since world war two have been striving hard to enacting suitable policies to enable rural households in accessing timely credit. This has led to a rise in the agricultural production and productivity. The pattern of economic transformation followed by less developed countries, which has squeezed agriculture sector surpluses without reducing the burden of population dependent in such economic activities. Consequently, the borrowing generally in such kind of economic transformation process becomes burden some. The modern development process in both the rural economies of Indian and Pakistani Punjab could also not able to replace the older money-lending system, which remained excessively exploitative. This process of financing rural economic activities can be called as double squeezing of agricultural households. An attempt has been made here to examine the growth, structure and deficiencies in the rural financial systems of two Punjabs during the period 1975-76 to 2003-04. Some suggestions related to public policy for providing timely and adequate credit have also been made.


Why is the Victoria Line so hot? What is an Electrical Multiple Unit? Is it really possible to ride from King's Cross to King's Cross on the Circle line? The London Underground is the oldest, most sprawling and illogical metropolitan transport system in the world, the result of a series of botch-jobs and improvisations.Yet it transports over one billion passengers every year - and this figure is rising. It is iconic, recognised the world over, and loved and despised by Londoners in equal measure. Blending reportage, humour and personal encounters, Andrew Martin embarks on a wonderfully engaging social history of London's underground railway system (which despite its name, is in fact fifty-five per cent overground). Underground, Overground is a highly enjoyable, witty and informative history of everything you need to know about the Tube.


The press plays a crucial role in image formation and information provision about female soldiers who die on battlefields. This article demonstrates how the UK press coverage of the death of four British service women stripped them of their identity as soldiers and minimised their accomplishments and level of military participation. It analyses how media discourse of war and military practices converged to reinforce cultural assumptions of war. The article argues that the nuanced coverage of the four women who died in Iraq within one year was a result of gendered mediation, which accentuated the femininity and masculinity dichotomy associated with the military; and underscored the gendered nature of war. The study shows that the gendering of the death of the women reinforced the entrenched marginalisation of women in war narratives.


Due to individual driver behavior, a traffic system is subject to many stochastic factors.
Deterministic partial differential equations and their extensions, traditionally used in traffic flow
modeling, may not be sufficient in applications such as real-time estimation and prediction of traffic
flow conditions. In previous studies, the issue of physical relevance has received little attention in
efforts to introduce a stochastic component into deterministic equilibrium-based traffic models. In
this work, the stochastic component is derived directly from realistic driver behavior implemented
as a fully discrete fine-grained agent-based model and combined into the deterministic Aw-Rascle
system of equations via ensemble averaging. The same approach can be applied to any second-order
traffic model of a similar form. Solutions for the stopping and deceleration cases are obtained using
the second-order Lax-Wendroff scheme and compared to the results obtained from the agent-based
simulation.
iv


Two papers that described a startlingly easy way to produce stem cells are apparently on the verge of retraction. In the face of new evidence that the data in the papers are incorrect, two remaining authors who had opposed the move have reportedly agreed to withdraw the work. The saga has raised anew perennial questions about the responsibility of senior authors on a paper and the efficacy of the peer-review process—although Science has learned that an initial paper on the stem cell method was rejected by Cell, Science, and Nature. Still, the work was ultimately published in Nature, leaving open a major question: How did leading stem cell scientists who were co-authors fail to detect the myriad apparent problems with the work?


The efficacy of chloroquine (CQ) and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) was evaluated in 89 subjects greater than one year of age with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in the East Nusatenggara Province of Indonesia. Fever clearance time was longer in the SP group than in the CQ group. However, parasite clearance time was extended in subjects who received CQ compared with those who received SP. Major adverse events were not observed in either group, and no hospitalizations were required during the study. Treatment failure rates at day 28 were 69% for CQ and 8.5% for SP. In both treatment groups, gametocytemia developed during the follow-up period, but was more pronounced in the SP group, peaking at 94% on day 7. Regardless of treatment group, children < 10 years of age had significantly higher treatment failure rates than subjects >/=10 years of age (relative risk = 2.49), suggesting that acquired immunity influenced treatment outcomes in the presence of parasite drug resistance. Although a highly effective alternative to CQ for clearing infection, SP treatment also presented some potential drawbacks (e.g., increased and persistent gametocytemia). Replacement of CQ with SP as a first-line therapy, either alone or in combination with CQ, in those areas of Indonesia with high levels of CQ resistance should significantly improve treatment outcomes, particularly in vulnerable populations lacking clinical immunity. More efficacious and rapidly acting asexual stage treatments are generally associated with increased gametocyte clearance and combination therapy in areas where drug resistance is high or emerging may provide an additional means for reducing transmission.


Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) is one of the most distinctive prose satirists of the Romantic period. The Cambridge Edition of the Novels of Thomas Love Peacock offers the first complete text of his novels to appear for more than half a century. Nightmare Abbey (1818), Peacock's third novel, is a spirited satire that shows Peacock to be a perceptive observer and engaged critic of the literary and political preoccupations of his time. While the novel has often been characterized in popular culture either as a burlesque of the Gothic novel or a mere spoof of Romantic gloom and doom, this edition recognizes it as a purposeful critique of Romanticism. Explanatory notes illustrate the ways in which several characters are caricatures of prominent Romantic writers, including Peacock's close friend Shelley as well as Coleridge and Byron, and also identify the various sources, some previously unsuspected, from which Peacock created their dialogue.


This study was conducted with the main objective of studying the emission
and production potential of methane (CH4) from different soil types of wetland rice
field and determining the controlling soil characteristics affecting methane
production. The specific objectives are (i) to determine the best time in the day for
manual sampling of CH4 gas in the field, (ii) to measure CH4 fluxes and total
emission from three rice fields under field conditions, during the wet and dry
seasons, and (iii) to determine the ability of some soils in Java to produce methane
from its indigenous and added C source.
Two experiments were conducted. The first was a field experiment. Three
top soils, classified as brown Regosol, red Latosol and dark brown Alluvial, were
placed in a wooden micro-plots lined with plastic sheets and planted with IR 64-rice
variety. The soils received continuous irrigation with 5cm ponding above the soil
throughout the growing season. A (l m x 1 m x 1 m) plexi-glass chamber was placed
on each of the micro-plots to measure daily CH4 flux. The experiment was conducted for two seasons i.e. dry and wet seasons. The Eh and pH changes were recorded
regularly every four days.
Results of the experiment show that the emission of methane from the soils
reached the highest peak at 40 days after transplanting (primordial stage). The
emissions declined after they reached the early flowering stage, and drops to the
lowest level until the plots were drained. There were no significant differences in
grain yield between the three soils from two seasons of observation. Dark brown
Alluvial (156. 1 kg CHJha/year) produced the highest emission followed by brown
Regosol (142.2 kg CHJha/year) and red Latosol (39.6 kg CHJha/year).
Reducing CRt emissions while maintaining or enhancing yield requires
information on CRt fluxes from a wide range of ecosystems and climatic zones. An
optimal less-intensive sampling strategy with the use of manually operated chamber
to measure daily CRt flux is required. Result from this study suggests that gas
sampling using the chamber at 1100 his the best time to represent the daily flux
variation observed throughout the growing season.


In many animal species with a bilateral symmetry, Hox genes are clustered either at one or at several genomic loci. This organization has a functional relevance, as the transcriptional control applied to each gene depends upon its relative position within the gene cluster. It was previously noted that vertebrate Hox clusters display a much higher level of genomic organization than their invertebrate counterparts. The former are always more compact than the latter, they are generally devoid of repeats and of interspersed genes, and all genes are transcribed by the same DNA strand, suggesting that particular factors constrained these clusters towards a tighter structure during the evolution of the vertebrate lineage. Here we investigate the importance of uniform transcriptional orientation by engineering several alleles within the HoxD cluster such as to invert one or several transcription unit(s), with or without a neighboring CTCF site. We observe that the association between the tight structure of mammalian Hox clusters and their regulation makes inversions likely detrimental to the proper implementation of this complex genetic system. We propose that the consolidation of Hox clusters in vertebrates, including transcriptional polarity, evolved in conjunction with the emergence of global gene regulation via the flanking regulatory landscapes, to optimize a coordinated response of selected subsets of target genes in cis.


The ability of the two fluid method (TFM) to predict the gas-solid flow phenomenon in conical spouted beds operated with high density (6050 kg m−3) particles simulating the nuclear fuel coating conditions is investigated. The effects of geometric and operational factors, such as conical angle and static bed height, are also assessed. The results show that TFM predicts the time-averaged bed pressure drop quite well. The qualitative variation of the particle velocity, solids volume fraction, and axial particle flux with axial height are captured by the simulations. The simulated trends observed in the investigation of the effects of static bed height and conical angle on the particle velocity, solids volume fraction, and axial particle flux agree well with those of the experimental measurements.


This paper explores the contribution of the Nairobi Declaration on the Right of Women and Girls to a Remedy and Reparation to the problem of delivering justice through reparation programmes for women victims of sexual violence in conflict situations. It highlights that this civil society initiative is particularly significant because it gives voice to women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence. Placed in the context of the recent adoption by the United Nations' General Assembly of the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, the Nairobi Declaration redefines reparation and guides policy-making to implement the right to reparation specifically for victims of sexual violence. The concept of reparation as a transformative and participative process put forward in the Nairobi Declaration constitutes its most innovative and inspiring contribution.


This paper provides further insights into the nature of relationship lending by analyzing the link between relationship lending, borrower quality and collateral as a key variable in loan contract design. We used a unique data set based on the examination of credit files of five leading German banks, thus relying on information actually used in the process of bank credit decision-making and contract design. In particular, bank internal borrower ratings serve to evaluate borrower quality, and the bank's own assessment of its housebank status serves to identify information-intensive relationships. Additionally, we used data on workout activities for borrowers facing financial distress. We found no significant correlation between ex ante borrower quality and the incidence or degree of collateralization. Our results indicate that the use of collateral in loan contract design is mainly driven by aspects of relationship lending and renegotiations. We found that relationship lenders or housebanks do require more collateral from their debtors, thereby increasing the borrower's lock-in and strengthening the banks' bargaining power in future renegotiation situations. This result is strongly supported by our analysis of the correlation between ex post risk, collateral and relationship lending since housebanks do more frequently engage in workout activities for distressed borrowers, and collateralization increases workout probability.


Current analysis, involving measurements of biotic and abiotic factors, determined which factor favored cyanobacteria with subsequent concentrations of microcystins in water collected from a public water supply source during the dry and rainy periods and which received residual water from agricultural production systems. Since no microcystins were detected, waters fitted within the maximum limits of 1 mg.L-1 for MC-LR. Nevertheless, if aquiculture production systems are not properly administered, especially for the diet factor, great risks will exist in the contamination and pollution of fresh water. This fact may cause intoxication to the population that use the water and to the aquatic plants and animals which make it their habitat.

 Key words: HPLC, nitrogen, organic matter, microcystins, phosphorus.


The original authors (K. Bhattacharya and J. Zhong, see ibid., vol. 16, pp. 294-300, 2001) discussed deregulation with independent system operators (ISOs). In this paper, the author argues that independent transmission companies (ITCs) are an alternative and probably a better long term approach. ITCs have advantages in the planning, rapid installation, and operation of network reactive power compensation devices. The original authors' response is also presented.


The main objective of the BAH (Biologische Anstalt Helgoland) was to gain control over the induction of sporogenesis in Laminaria digitata and to reduce the time it takes individual algae to start reproduction. Compared to the occurrence of double prime sorus double prime (sporogenous tissue) on L. digitata in the field, the experiments showed the acceleration of sporogenesis by 5 months under certain conditions in the laboratory. Pieces of young tissue developed sorus under various light regimes and a range of temperatures. In contrast to L. digitata, L. saccharina tissue required short-day conditions for sorus formation that was obtained at least two months ahead of natural occurrence. The minimum plant age of L. digitata facilitating sporogenesis was found to be 7.5 months at the start of the experiment, with the first sorus showing after 5 weeks. This corresponds to our findings in mass cultures of local L. digitata which have been undertaken close to the island of Helgoland. They rendered early formation of sorus on 8.6 months old sporophytes as calculated from the zoospore stage, contrasting to 18 months in natural populations and reconfirming findings in mass cultures at CEVA, Pleubian. The youngest tissue forming sorus in the experiment was collected from a second year plant and was only 14 to 28 days old. Older pieces of the thallus preceeded younger pieces in sorus formation. Nutrient enriched seawater accelerated sporogenesis compared to pure seawater, but had the disadvantage of facilitating luxuriant growth of epiphytes. The viability of the laboratory raised spores was tested and a completely normal developement of young sporophytes obtained. 340 m of culture string were densely seeded with L. digitata spores from 12 disks with an original diameter of 23 mm. double prime Phycotrons double prime , designed by IFREMER, Nantes, and employed at Helgoland showed that in parallel experiments isolated disks of thallus preceded whole algae in the formation of spores by far. The same was found in a different experimental setup. To investigate the reasons for the different behaviour of isolated pieces versus whole thallus in terms of sporogenesis, experiments were conducted at CNRS-CEOBM, Roscoff, and at the BAH on Helgoland. An oxidative stress following the punching out of thallus disks was tested, but could not be proven. Addition of various oligosaccharides to disks resulted in burst-like releases of H sub(2)0 sub(2) by disks.


Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) has proved to be a very effective way of optimising software engineering problems. Nevertheless, its full potential as a means of dynamic adaptivity remains under explored. This paper sets out the agenda for Dynamic Adaptive SBSE, in which the optimisation is embedded into deployed software to create self-optimising adaptive systems. Dynamic Adaptive SBSE will move the research agenda forward to encompass both software development processes and the software products they produce, addressing the long-standing, and as yet largely unsolved, grand challenge of self-adaptive systems.


Background: Research on the school subject of physical education and health in Sweden has proliferated in the early part of the 21st century. Several large research programmes have been conducted that shed light on the history of physical education and health in this country and that provide a research-based description of the current situation in the subject, particularly with regard to teachers' and pupils' view of the subject and which activities dominate the lessons. Purpose: To review the main results of two of these research programmes, highlight some of the practical challenges facing people working with the development of physical education and health as identified by the research, and point to some of the research challenges arising from how the reviewed research was actually conducted. Findings: The reviewed research reveals an uncertainty about the subject's educational purpose. Teachers maintain that the main purpose of physical activity is to 'have fun' and the majority of pupils report a positive attitude towards the subject. However, those favouring the subject, mostly boys, are also members of a sports club in their leisure time. Both teachers and pupils have difficulties in articulating what the pupils are supposed to learn in physical education and health. Some of the pupils report that they are supposed to learn the skills and rules of different kinds of sports. Observation studies also confirm that conventional sports activities, particularly ball games, tend to dominate the subject in terms of the use of language heavily loaded with competitive sport connotations. Conclusions: The results of the research programmes highlight a number of practical challenges with regard to a physical education and health that according to the national syllabus is supposed to emphasize teaching and learning (for) health: what, more exactly, are pupils supposed to learn and what does a teaching that facilitates such learning look like, what does a teaching that is equitable for all pupils look like and what is the relation between physical education, sport and health? The results of the research also highlight a number of research challenges. Much of the research was carried out without an elaborated theoretical framework that emphasized the teaching processes and the relation between teaching and learning. In addition, most of the research was undertaken from a point of view considered alien to most physical education teachers. There seems to be a need for studies that aim to reduce the gap between theory/researchers and practice/practitioners. Finally, there seems to be a need for researchers to change focus from studying activities to studying learning outcomes.


Braun products have been shown more frequently at exhibitions than those of any other comparable company. Some people find that they reflect basic human values such as authenticity and integrity. For others, they are the very incarnation of German perfectionism. Braun is not merely a trademark; it stands for an all-encompassing concept. For the last five decades, this concept has spawned innovative products with an unprecedented regularity that begs to be explained -- especially as the era spanned by the history of Braun design is not exactly one characterised by continuity. Instead, the second half of the 20th century witnessed a dramatic change in living conditions. Prosperity and greater ease entered our daily lives, but also widespread disorientation and alienation. It is to the credit of those who set the Braun design project in motion that they were able to counteract this feeling of alienation -- which manifested itself to them not least in poorly designed objects of daily use -- with a vision of design reform. There had already been attempts made along these lines. What was new was that a commercial enterprise spearheaded the movement. Also new was the systematic approach, the application of design principles to modern products and the innovative dynamic thus triggered. Finally, the considerable commercial success this design project enjoyed was likewise a revelation. All of this led the company to establish a design department that was not merely an appendage, but rather an active decision-maker in the development of products from the initial idea to realisation. This is how Braun and design became synonymous.


Neural networks have shown great performance in cognitive tasks. When deploying network models on mobile devices with limited resources, weight quantization has been widely adopted. Binary quantization obtains the highest compression but usually results in big accuracy drop. In practice, 8-bit or 16-bit quantization is often used aiming at maintaining the same accuracy as the original 32-bit precision. We observe different layers have different accuracy sensitivity of quantization. Thus judiciously selecting different precision for different layers/structures can potentially produce more efficient models compared to traditional quantization methods by striking a better balance between accuracy and compression rate. In this work, we propose a fine-grained quantization approach for deep neural network compression by relaxing the search space of quantization bitwidth from discrete to a continuous domain. The proposed approach applies gradient descend based optimization to generate a mixed-precision quantization scheme that outperforms the accuracy of traditional quantization methods under the same compression rate.


Purpose: Project management for multi-institutional, multi-site clinical trials poses significant challenges. We describe the response to challenges encountered in a 5-year National Institutes of Health multi-institutional 7-site randomized controlled trial of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) self-management interventions study.
Methods: The collaborating institutions consisted of a large 220,000-member integrated healthcare system and a university academic health science center partner. The clinical team comprised the principal investigator and research coordinators covering 6 of the 7 clinical sites, while the academic team comprised the co-principal investigator, coinvestigators, and other research and clinical coordination staff. Subjects recruited for the study had a glycosylated hemoglobin ≥ 7.5 within the last 6 months and received primary care at the participating clinics. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were consented at private orientation meetings, randomized into one of 4 study arms, and followed every 6 months over a 24-month period for data collection.
Results: The encountered challenges concerned: 1) communication across the multiple clinic sites; 2) multiinstitutional coordinator training; 3) multiple record-keeping methods; 4) clinical access for academic personnel; 5) unanticipated clinical coordinator turnover; 6) subject recruitment and retention; and 7) multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Solutions included conducting full team weekly or bimonthly research meetings, coordinator crosstraining, adding study-specific templates with downloadable fields, developing a protocol for working with single point of contact in each clinic, securing commitment from the centralized clinical system to dedicate coordinator(s) to the project for the duration of the study period, setting explicit monthly recruitment goals for each clinic, and establishing a lead IRB up-front.
Conclusion: Our challenges reflect the complexity of clinical trial collaborations across clinical and academic partners. Of critical importance to the success of clinical/academic collaborations is the commitment by all institutions for advance determination of communication strategies, IRB processes, records access and storage systems, and online training needs.
Trial Registration Number/Site: NCT01221090, https://clinicaltrials.gov


This book is the first to explore the Jewish contribution to, and integration with, Ukrainian culture. Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern focuses on five writers and poets of Jewish descent whose literary activities span the 1880s to the 1990s. Unlike their East European contemporaries who disparaged the culture of Ukraine as second-rate, stateless, and colonial, these individuals embraced the Russian- and Soviet-dominated Ukrainian community, incorporating their Jewish concerns in their Ukrainian-language writings.The author argues that the marginality of these literati as Jews fueled their sympathy toward Ukrainians and their national cause. Providing extensive historical background, biographical detail, and analysis of each writer's poetry and prose, Petrovsky-Shtern shows how a Ukrainian-Jewish literary tradition emerged. Along the way, he challenges assumptions about modern Jewish acculturation and Ukrainian-Jewish relations.


The present study was planned to investigate the effect of ethanolic extract of Leucas Urticifolia on resutured incision, excision and burn wounds in Wistar rats. Resutured incision, excision and dead space wounds were inflicted under light ether anaesthesia aseptically. In incision wound model the control animals receive only distilled water and all test animals were treated with different doses of Lucas urticifolia ethanolic extract (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg), orally for a period of 10 days. On the day 11, wound breaking strength of the resutured incision wound was estimated. In excision and burn wound models the animals were treated topically daily with two different concentrations (5% and 10%w/w) of extracts and the rats of standard groups were treated with 5% povidone iodine ointment topically till the complete closure. The percentage wound contraction and epithelization period were studied from day of creating wound till complete closure of the wound. The ethanolic extract of L. urticifolia show significant wound healing activity against all wound models studies. High wound breaking strength, high rate of wound contraction and decrease in period of epithelialisation were observed in treated animals when compared to control group of animals. From the results obtained it can be concluded that ethanolic extract of L. urticifolia has significant wound healing activity. The enhanced wound healing activity of ethanolic extract may be due to free radical scavenging action and the antibacterial property of the phytoconstituents (flavonoids) present in it which either due to their individual or additive effect fastens the process of wound healing.


A survey was conducted among cyclists in the city of Calgary, Canada, to identify the characteristics of winter cyclists in a metropolitan area with a very cold climate, and to investigate what variables are most likely to affect their cycling behavior. The findings of the survey reveal that even very low temperatures do not appear to be a major concern for most participants. Instead, the majority of cyclists mentioned road surface conditions, rather than the weather itself, to be the major deterrent to winter cycling. In order to analyze the direct and indirect relationships between the different variables affecting winter cycling, a multi-layered model was developed. The model distinguishes between the cyclists' inherent characteristics, cycling behavior variables and motivating factors that could both affect cycling behavior and be affected by inherent characteristics. Since the cyclists' inherent characteristics, such as age and gender, cannot be changed, identifying and addressing the cyclists' motivating factors could be a key to influencing cycling behavior.


This paper is about the conceptual framework of team flow and the action research project at the Hogeschool Utrecht (University of Applied Sciences) which has been launched recently.
Have you ever linked the performance of The Rolling Stones - as a long - standing successful music business - to concepts of leadership and collaboration? By doing so, you can discover critical success factors for a new quality in collaboration, called team flow.
The key elements of the team flow concept are:
• Authentic communication;
• Complementary qualities and habits;
• Shared leadership;
• Sharing a common passion;
• Synergetic identity.
These elements find further ground in the U-Theory by Scharmer, the concept of team roles by Belbin, the shared leadership approach by Pearce, and others. You will probably have heard of the theory of Czikszentmihalyi, "that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing" (Czikszentmihalyi 1999).
For collaboration, this means highly motivated persons co-creating a state of team flow through communicating authentically, sharing leadership and a common passion. Team flow is a concept for generative collaboration, a kind of collaboration focused on innovation and co-creativity. This concept promotes entrepreneurship and fundamental change.


The Anyoto leopard-men, a society from eastern Congo, operated between approximately 1890 and 1935. Until now the history of the leopard-men has inspired representations of Central Africa as a barbaric and disorderly place, and the idea that a secret association of men attacked innocent people and ate their limbs remains dominant in western culture. Since the early 20th century this image has been rather faithfully perpetuated in colonial ethnography and official reports and in popular representations of Africa. The Anyoto costumes in the collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa have in particular inspired leopard-men iconography in western sources until today. There are certain striking similarities between western fictional literature on the Anyoto society and the factual sources, such as eyewitness reports from colonists and missionaries. Both share the historically rooted and culturally-specific representation of people from outside their own areas. In Europe there has been a long tradition of representing heathens and non-Europeans as being half man, half beast and behaving like animals, including eating their own species. Such cultural predispositions have stood in the way of understanding the real purposes of this society. Anyoto men's activities were a way of maintaining local power relations, performing indigenous justice in secret and circumventing colonial government control. Keywords : Anyoto, colonialism, representation, resistance. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 46 (1) 2009: pp. 79-94


The purpose of the present paper is to define the minerals content in the Najaf Dunes fields and the origin of these sand sediments in the southwestern parts of Iraq. There are three types of dunes in this field were described, the barchan, longitudinal, and dome dunes and additional types e.g. Nabkha, Barchanoid ridges, and sand sheet dunes. The study area was divided into three areas according to the geographical position, and numerous samples were collected from this field. The mineralogical study consists from three methods these are; the first: separation of sand samples into the light and heavy minerals by heavy liquids,where performed on 30 samples. The second method; carbonate content performed on 60 samples, and the third method; X-ray diffraction performed on 20 samples.  The light minerals contents composed from quartz, feldspar, and rock fragments, the rock fragments composed mainly of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock fragments. The heavy minerals are mostly composed from opaques minerals, chlorite group, garnet group, zircon, pyroxenes, amphiboles, epidotes, biotite, muscovite, tourmaline, kyanite, staurolite, rutile,and celestite.  The heavy minerals analyses of all dunes, in three areas, show to the many source areas, these recent sediments and nearby older Sedimentary formations around the study areas, especially Dibidbba formation were the great influence from other geological formations. While the high percentages of carbonate content was obtained due to the presence of neighboring formations, which consists of limestone rocks (e.g. Dammam, Euphrates and Nfayil). And the present study shows a clear relation between the carbonate percentages and the grain size, as they increase with finer sizes.


The influence of the evangelical Christian right on the Bush administration has had a mostly unnoticed impact on America's environmental policy. While some take God's granting of dominion over the earth to man as a call to good stewardship of our planet, many evangelicals distrust science and disdain environmental protections. They live in anticipation of one event: the Rapture, when Christ will return to cleanse the earth while the true believers are transported to heaven. For those who believe that the Rapture and the destruction of the world are imminent, there is no need to be concerned about saving the planet from environmental catastrophe. "Welcome to Doomsday" is an investigation into the coupling of ideology and theology, in particular the intrusion of religion into political life, in America today. Global climate change is a rapid, possibly irreversible occurrence, yet the stance taken by the White House in both international and domestic arenas is one of both ignorance and disbelief. Appeasing the influential agendas of corporations, as well as the uncompromising dominant beliefs of evangelical groups, the Bush administration has firmly established a disastrous record of ignoring the urgency of potentially devastating changing climate. "Welcome to Doomsday" is a passionate call to save the planet from the forces not only of greed and exploitation but from those who associate its destruction with a spiritual apocalypse. Written by the compelling and articulate Bill Moyers, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the current dismal state of environmental policy as well as in the growing power of the evangelical movement in the United States.


Despite using one of the most sophisticated digital rights management systems currently available, the video game Spore was illegally downloaded approximately 1.7 million times between September and December of 2008, making it the most widely pirated game of 2008 by more than half a million downloads. This iBrief addresses several legal arguments that have been raised against a digital rights management system called "SecuROM," which is widely used by video game companies like Electronic Arts, the publisher of Spore. First, the iBrief discusses the comparisons that have been drawn between SecuROM and the controversial digital rights management technologies previously employed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Second, the iBrief addresses the question of whether highly restrictive implementations of SecuROM may be legally circumvented under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Third, the iBrief discusses the potential for using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's three-year rulemaking procedure to obtain certain exemptions for circumventing systems like SecuROM.


Frailty is a vulnerable situation among older adults which can lead to unfavorable health outcomes such as falls, mortality, functional decline and institutionalization. The increasing number of elderly people and low rate of mortality has necessitated the need for high-quality medical services for this aging population, and this has led to a high cost of geriatric health care. There exist a huge number of screening tools to detect frailty and it is important for researchers and general practitioners (GPs) to select the appropriate and precise tool that would effectively lead to quality results. Frail individuals can be managed effectively when there is an early screening and intervention. Healthcare providers need tools that are simple and validated in order for screening and interventions to become effective. Self-reported frailty screening tools are very simple to use, not expensive and test results can be interpreted by non-health professionals. This work reviewed some of the commonly used frailty screening tools, and proposed a practical approach that would assist GPs in assessing frailty in older adults.


Replicability is a core principle of the scientific method. However, several scientific disciplines have suffered crises in confidence caused, in large part, by attitudes toward replication. This work reports on the value the computing education research community associates with studies that aim to replicate, reproduce or repeat earlier research. The results were obtained from a survey of 73 computing education researchers. An analysis of the responses confirms that researchers in our field hold many of the same biases as those in other fields experiencing a crisis in replication. In particular, researchers agree that original works - novel works that report new phenomena - have more impact and are more prestigious. They also agree that originality is an important criteria for accepting a paper, making such work more likely to be published. Furthermore, while the respondents agree that published work should be verifiable, they doubt this standard is widely met in the computing education field and are not eager to perform the work of verifying others' work themselves.


Sino-US relations have experienced uneven developments over the last decade as the two major powers have grappled with the evolving post-Cold War international security environment as well as shifting domestic agendas and foreign policy priorities. The bilateral military-to-military relationship likewise has gone through a period of resumption and exploration, important achievements and major setbacks, and continued efforts at improving mutual trust and understanding. Among the key features of this relationship are high-level exchange visits of defense ministers and military leaders; confidence-building measures, including the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, annual Defense Consultation Talks, and port visits; and regular contacts at the functional level between the two countries' national defense universities and military academies. Through these contacts, the two militaries have begun to engage each other in exchanging views on threat perceptions, perspectives on global arms control and regional se curity, defense conversion, military doctrines, and broader politico-security issues. This article offers a preliminary assessment of the nature, evolution, and pitfalls of the Sino-US military relationship since the Tiananmen incident in 1989. It begins with a brief overview of the major developments over the last decade, identifying both progress and setbacks. The next section discusses US and Chinese interests in developing and maintaining military ties both from the broader strategic objectives sought by policymakers in Beijing and Washington and the institutional perspectives of the two militaries. It is clear that the two sides have different agendas and have adopted different approaches. This at once explains the tensions in pursuing the bilateral military relationship and calls for pragmatic initiatives conducive to future developments. This is followed by an examination of the factors that have influenced, and may well continue to affect, bilateral military relations. The article concludes by summarizing the major findings of the research and offering some tentative recommendations f or developing stable, pragmatic, and meaningful bilateral military relations between China and the United States. Sino-US Military Relations Since 1989: An Overview The Tiananmen incident of June 1989 remains a pivotal event in the chronicle of Sino-US relations. It fundamentally changed the way in which bilateral relations had been managed since President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the fundamental basis of bilateral cooperation during the Cold War years evaporated. Among the first casualties of Tiananmen was the Sino-US bilateral military relationship. The Bush Administration of that era immediately suspended all high-level military contacts and froze the ongoing foreign military sales (FMS) programs for China. (1) Although the US National Defense University (NDU) "Capstone" delegations resumed visits to China in 1991, and there were informal contacts between the two militaries during Operation Desert Storm, including the PRC Defense Attache's visiting the Pentagon and receiving briefings on US operations in the Gulf, it was not until October 1993 when Chas W. Freeman , Jr., Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, visited China that bilateral military-to-military contacts resumed. This important visit followed the Clinton Administration's decision to shift from a confrontational China policy to one of engagement. In the aftermath of the Yinhe fiasco (2) and faced with the looming crisis over the North Korean nuclear weapons program in the summer of 1993, the Pentagon, in particular two senior officials--Deputy Secretary of Defense William Perry and Freeman- pushed for a more conciliatory China policy, including resuming contacts and opening up dialogues with the Chinese military. …


We formalize the notion of a Cartesian situation in the situation calculus, a property that imposes strong structural conditions on the configuration of a set of possible worlds. Focusing on action theories that use the standard Scherl and Levesque account of knowledge and action, we show how Cartesian situations give rise to a set of decomposition properties for simplifying epistemic formulae (in particular, certain disjunctive and existentially quantified formulae) into equivalent components that only mention fluent literals. Moreover, we describe certain expressive classes of action theories that preserve the Cartesian property through action. This work offers the possibility of identifying action theories that can be compiled into alternative accounts of knowledge with similar representational restrictions, but without possible worlds.


Self-defense is a universally accepted exception to the prohibition of the use of force in international law, and it has been subjected to careful academic scrutiny. The prohibition of the threat of force, although equally important in terms of its normative status to the prohibition on use, has attracted far less academic commentary to date. This Article examines the relationship between the two prohibitions—of the use and threat of force—and considers the largely unexplored possibility of states utilizing a threat of force as a means of lawful defensive response: self-defense in the form of a threat. The status of this concept under international law is assessed, and the criteria that may regulate it are analyzed. This Article is based on an analogy between traditional "forcible" self-defense and the notion of threats made in self-defense. However, one cannot automatically apply the well-established rules of self-defense to a defensive threat, largely because of the practical differences between a threatened response and a response involving actual force.


Traditionally, densities of newly built roadways are checked by direct sampling (cores) or by nuclear density gauge measurements. For roadway engineers, density of asphalt pavement surfaces is essential to determine pavement quality. Unfortunately, field measurements of density by direct sampling or by nuclear measurement are slow processes. Therefore, I have explored the use of rapidly-deployed ground penetrating radar (GPR) as an alternative means of determining pavement quality. The dielectric constant of pavement surface may be a substructure parameter that correlates with pavement density, and can be used as a proxy when density of asphalt is not known from nuclear or destructive methods. The dielectric constant of the asphalt can be determined using ground penetrating radar (GPR). In order to use GPR for evaluation of road surface quality, the relationship between dielectric constants of asphalt and their densities must be established. Field measurements of GPR were taken at four highway sites in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties, Michigan, where density values were also obtained using nuclear methods in the field. Laboratory studies involved asphalt samples taken from the field sites and samples created in the laboratory. These were tested in various ways, including, density, thickness, and time domain reflectometry (TDR). In the field, GPR data was acquired using a 1000 MHz air-launched unit and a ground-coupled unit at 200 and 500 MHz. The equipment used was owned and operated by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and available for this study for a total of four days during summer 2005 and spring 2006. The analysis of the reflected waveforms included "routine" processing for velocity using commercial software and direct evaluation of reflection coefficients to determine a dielectric constant. The dielectric constants computed from velocities do not agree well with those obtained from reflection coefficients. Perhaps due to the limited range of asphalt types studied, no correlation between density and dielectric constant was evident. Laboratory measurements were taken with samples removed from the field and samples created for this study. Samples from the field were studied using TDR, in order to obtain dielectric constant directly, and these correlated well with the estimates made from reflection coefficients. Samples created in the laboratory were measured using 1000 MHz air-launched GPR, and 400 MHz ground-coupled GPR, each under both wet and dry conditions. On the basis of these observations, I conclude that dielectric constant of asphalt can be reliably measured from waveform amplitude analysis of GJPR data, based on the consistent agreement with that obtained in the laboratory using TDR. Because of the uniformity of asphalts studied here, any correlation between dielectric constant and density is not yet apparent.


While evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have long offered an alternative approach to optimization, in recent years backpropagation through stochastic gradient descent (SGD) has come to dominate the fields of neural network optimization and deep learning. One hypothesis for the absence of EAs in deep learning is that modern neural networks have become so high dimensional that evolution with its inexact gradient cannot match the exact gradient calculations of backpropagation. Furthermore, the evaluation of a single individual in evolution on the big data sets now prevalent in deep learning would present a prohibitive obstacle towards efficient optimization. This paper challenges these views, suggesting that EAs can be made to run significantly faster than previously thought by evaluating individuals only on a small number of training examples per generation. Surprisingly, using this approach with only a simple EA (called the limited evaluation EA or LEEA) is competitive with the performance of the state-of-the-art SGD variant RMSProp on several benchmarks with neural networks with over 1,000 weights. More investigation is warranted, but these initial results suggest the possibility that EAs could be the first viable training alternative for deep learning outside of SGD, thereby opening up deep learning to all the tools of evolutionary computation.


Modeling joint probability distributions over sequences has been studied from many perspectives. The physics community developed matrix product states, a tensor-train decomposition for probabilistic modeling, motivated by the need to tractably model many-body systems. But similar models have also been studied in the stochastic processes and weighted automata literature, with little work on how these bodies of work relate to each other. We address this gap by showing how stationary or uniform versions of popular quantum tensor network models have equivalent representations in the stochastic processes and weighted automata literature, in the limit of infinitely long sequences. We demonstrate several equivalence results between models used in these three communities: (i) uniform variants of matrix product states, Born machines and locally purified states from the quantum tensor networks literature, (ii) predictive state representations, hidden Markov models, norm-observable operator models and hidden quantum Markov models from the stochastic process literature,and (iii) stochastic weighted automata, probabilistic automata and quadratic automata from the formal languages literature. Such connections may open the door for results and methods developed in one area to be applied in another.


Immobilized insulin, prepared by coupling insulin directly to agarose or through hydrocarbon "connecting arms," was demonstrated to be capable of firmly binding intact adipocytes and their ghosts. Various lines of evidence indicate that the insulin receptor on the plasma membrane, in addition to the insulin coupled to the agarose, was responsible for the observed binding. This evidence includes: (a) the finding that increasing the "arm" length increased the binding capacities of insulin-Sepharose affinity chromatographic columns, (b) specific inhibition and reversal by insulin and antiserum to insulin of the binding, as compared to lesser effects by other peptide hormones, (c) the indication that only the plasma membrane sacs, not the other cellular contaminants in the crude ghosts, are capable of binding, and (d) the impairment and restoration of trypsin-sensitive membrane binding sites that are also required for insulin biosensitivity. These findings support the idea that the insulin receptor is the trypsin-sensitive site. By use of the differential buoyant densities of the various cell-bead complexes that resulted from the interaction of adipocytes with insulin-Sepharose, a new procedure was developed to demonstrate and study the binding. These complexes could also be demonstrated by interference contrast microscopy. Binding readily occurred under conditions favorable for insulin stimulation of the cells. By coupling tracer amounts of [(125)I]insulin to Sepharose or insulin-Sepharose, the effects of anti-insulin antisera, free insulin, and other peptide hormones and supplemental factors on the buoyant-density distribution of the complexes could be measured, as well as the effects of other ligands coupled to Sepharose.


Existing studies, largely based in the transaction cost economics tradition, approach the issue of vertical scope from the point of view of the decision faced by the individual firm about whether to make or buy, given a set of existing markets and well-defined vertical segments. However, recent research has shown that the very ability to make or buy should not be taken for granted. We argue that this is not only the case for dis-integration, but also for re-integration, which often implies the need for new "all-in-one" markets. Drawing on the analysis of the recent trend toward re-integration in the British building industry, we develop an inductive framework that explains why industries, after going through long periods of vertical specialization, shift to vertical re-integration. First, we observe that various industry groups, including professionals, play an active role in shaping the nature and the boundaries of the industry, facilitating the onset of vertical specialization. This vertical division of labour, in turn, shapes a number of increasingly distinct knowledge bases in the industry; it also defines the trajectories along which capabilities evolve over time. Over time, specialization in scope begets specialization in knowledge, and may inadvertently lead to excessive compartmentalization. The gap between what the vertically specialized system can produce and what the market demands sets in motion a process of experimentation with integrated service provision. The emergence of re-integration may be facilitated by broader social forces such as the de-institutionalization of professions, or changes in demand structure. It is also driven by the agency of firms which through re-integration seek to protect their position; enter new, related markets; or find new ways of leveraging their capabilities. We thus show how and why firms strategize to change their institutional environment and help create new markets.