This paper examines and decomposes the gap in per capita expenditures between majority and minority ethnic groups in rural Vietnam between 1993 and 2004. Over this period, the real expenditure gap between rural Kinh and Chinese-headed households and those headed by ethnic minorities increased by 14.6%. Approximately two-fifths of the mean gap is found to be due to differences in household endowments (in particular demographic structure and education), and at least half due to differences in returns to these endowments. Geographic variables explain less than one-fifth of the gap. Over half of the increase in the mean gap is linked to temporal changes in unobservable factors, and less than a quarter to the majority's endowments improving more rapidly than those of the minorities. Broadly similar findings are detected using quantile regression analysis. These findings raise important questions concerning the drivers of the disadvantage faced by Vietnam's ethnic minorities.


Barley is an important cereal worldwide cultivated since about 10,000 years. Barley crop is the fourth most important cereal in the world, after wheat, corn, and rice. It could be a food source for millions of people even though today it is mainly used as animal feed and brewing. So, recently, more than 70% of barley crop has been used for feed; about 21% has been intended to malting, brewing, and distilling industries; lesser than 6% has been consumed as human food. In addition, a growing interest in renewable energy has led to the modest use of barley grain for the production of fuel ethanol. The prominence of barley as food is mainly due to its potentialities in the production of healthy food, as an excellent source of dietary fiber, and a functional food ingredient such as β-glucan. The purpose of this chapter is to carry out an analysis of barley market and to present, in summary, its principal uses.


Many American scholars, lawyers, and judges born in the latter half of the twentieth century have found it difficult to comprehend, or even recognize, the Founding generation's commitment to the law of nations as a system of law, jurisprudence, and morality. Perhaps for similar reasons, that commitment tends to get lost in much modern historical writing. So, too, with respect to a related, but, from a legal perspective, more consequential aspect of the Founding: the prominent place of the law of nations in the constitutional reform project that culminated in the Philadelphia Convention. It was the uncertain struggle to ensure that the United States complied with its (or their) treaty obligations and the law of nations that was arguably the most important, and the most consensual, reason for the drafting and ratification of the new Constitution. That imperative shaped the structure outlined in the text, as well as much of the way that judges, executive officials, and even legislators interpreted and administered the Constitution during the first generation of the federal government. The result was a government designed to interact productively with the law of nations. Some of those interpretations, and some aspects of federal administration, became enormously controversial and generated early partisan divisions. But the basic premise—that the law of nations was the law of the land—proved durable, creating a tradition of international "law- mindedness" that deserves more historical investigation than it has so far received. The result is not just a scholarly lacunae. Among many lawyers today, the Founders' conception of the central position of the law of nations in the American legal order is even less appreciated than their cosmopolitan outlook.
In offering a corrective to this forgetfulness, Professors Anthony Bellia and Bradford Clark, in The Law of Nations and the United States Constitution, make an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue over the Founding. Nonetheless, in our view, the legal theory that Professors Bellia and Clark offer downplays, misses, or misunderstands crucial features of the pertinent history, especially why and how the Founders struggled to interweave the law of nations into the Constitution. These errors and elisions are important, in part for purely academic reasons, bearing on the extent to which their approach accurately portrays a foundational period in U.S. constitutional history. They are also important, however, because they lead Professors Bellia and Clark to reach some sound, but also some unsound, conclusions about important issues of constitutional law.


In this paper, we describe the lack of user participation and involvment during software introductions. Especially big projects with a volume larger than 10 million US-$ are very likely to neglect important benchmarks like e.g. the budget or even completely fail. To fight these costly failures and support software introductions, we propose a service system that integrates the user into the software rollout. This service system consists of three service modules that are supported by components for feedback, communication, user incentives and motivation as well as. The service modules shall empower the users to give support and deliver tutorials or training to other users and furthermore establish a project specific platform which encourages a continuous improvement of the current software solution.


In New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), the Court revived "state sovereignty" as a justiciable constitutional constraint on federal mandates, and struck down portions of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act on the grounds that the statute impermissibly "commandeered" state governments. Printz v. United States, 117 S.Ct. 2365 (1997), confirmed the anti-commandeering principle and relied upon it to invalidate elements of another federal statute, the Brady Act. This Article analyzes and criticizes the anti-commandeering jurisprudence, as it has emerged in New York, Printz, and a case decided by the Court last Term, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections v Yeskey, 118 S.Ct. 1952 (1998). We clarify the distinctions that the Court has drawn between permissible and impermissible federal action as sympathetically as possible, but argue that even on the most charitable construction, those distinctions are justified neither by the values of federalism that the Court has invoked in defense of justiciable state sovereignty, nor by an effort to express in law the importance of federalism to national identity. New York and Printz explicitly recognize three distinctions within the set of federal directives: 1) between "coercive" and non-coercive directives (specifically, directives compliance with which is a condition for federal spending, or for the nonpreemption of state law); 2) between directives that are targeted at state officials, and directives that are "generally applicable" to both state officials and private parties; and 3) between directives addressed to state legislative or executive officials, and directives addressed to state adjudicators. We argue that the anti-commandeering cases are best interpreted, within the context of wider case law, as permitting the federal government to impose in addition a large and significant category of targeted, coercive duties upon state legislative or executive officials--those that are imposed pursuant to the federal preemption of state law. As we interpret the present case law, federal directives that require inaction by state officials do not constitute commandeering; only directives that require action by state officials can do so. In addition, the cases governing Congress' powers to enforce the Reconstruction Amendments make clear that a statute properly grounded upon these powers can override whatever "state sovereignty" constraints limit federal authority under the Commerce Clause. In short, the emerging anti-commandeering jurisprudence is constituted by five demarcations, not three: (1) preemption versus commandeering; (2) coercion versus conditional spending or preemption; (3) targeted versus generally applicable federal statutes; (4) state legislative or executive officials versus state judicial officials; (5) the Commerce Clause versus the Reconstruction Amendments. After clarifying these demarcations, we evaluate them in light of the justifications for recognizing state sovereignty as an external limit to national power. Given the values that the Court has invoked to justify the existence of some justiciable federalism constraints upon the national government (values such as tyranny-prevention, political community, innovation, and the responsiveness of government to geographically diverse needs, preferences, and conditions), does it make sense to prohibit federal commandeering but not preemption, coercive but not noncoercive federal directives, and so on? We argue that none of the demarcations in the ani-commandeering jurisprudence except for the Reconstruction-Amendment demarcation is justified and that this one, although justified, is in its current doctrinal form unclear and probably unworkable. We explore, in the alternative, an "expressive" defense of the anti-commandeering jurisprudence, as seeking to impose an "etiquette" of federalism that alerts political actors to the norms of federalism, without directly confronting congressional value choices. We conclude that this defense is also unsuccessful.


The results of a comparison exercise of ra-diative transfer models (RTM) of various international research groups for Multiple AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) viewing geometry are presented. Besides the assessment of the agreement between the different models, a second focus of the comparison was the systematic investigation of the sensitivity of the MAX-DOAS technique under various viewing geometries and aerosol conditions. In contrast to previous comparison exercises, box-air-mass-factors (box-AMFs) for different atmospheric height layers were modelled, which describe the sensitivity of the measurements as a function of altitude. In addition, radiances were calculated allowing the identification of potential errors, which might be overlooked if only AMFs are compared. Accurate modelling of radiances is also a prerequisite for the correct interpretation of satellite observations , for which the received radiance can strongly vary across the large ground pixels, and might be also important for the retrieval of aerosol properties as a future application of MAX-DOAS. The comparison exercises included different wavelengths and atmospheric scenarios (with and without aerosols). The strong and systematic influence of aerosol scattering indicates that from MAX-DOAS observations also information on atmospheric aerosols can be retrieved. During the various iterations of the exercises, the results from all models showed a substantial convergence, and the final data sets agreed for most cases within about 5%. Larger deviations were found for cases with low atmospheric optical depth, for which the photon path lengths along the line of sight of the instrument can become very large. The differences occurred between models including full spherical geometry and those using only plane parallel approximation indicating that the correct treatment of the Earth's sphericity becomes indispensable. The modelled box-AMFs constitute an universal data base for the calculation of arbitrary (total) AMFs by simple convolution with a given trace gas concentration profile. Together with the modelled radiances and the specified settings for the various exercises, they can serve as test cases for future RTM developments.


Saying that migration is in steady increase and that this produces new global challenges is not news anymore. Nor is the fact that migrants are undoubtedly needed for demographic and economic reasons, for our pensions and labour market shortages. It would be also predictable that well managed migration brings benefits to both the States of origin and of destination, as well as the migrant. The key element in every analysis on migration is another: migration is unavoidable and in a near future it will become a natural aspect of every society. The winning approach in 'managing' migration should therefore be directed to the creation of those conditions that encourage the natural development of a plural society, rather than focus on containment aspects.
It is also true that in public debate the emphasis on integration has recently increased, yet a sort of bipolarism is traceable between the concept from a sociological point of view and the integration policies promoted by the States. Thus, integration courses and programmes – that nowadays cover sometimes also pre-departure courses or become requirements for the legal entry – hide elements of closure rather than a support to inclusion. Looking at migrants as an integral part of the society would instead assume more durable policies.
One of the policies that clearly promote this approach, as well as an active involvement of migrants, is the right to vote. Although the progressive enlargement of the electoral suffrage has become a political imperative in democratic history (Raskin, 1992), the opportunity to include the 'new mass' of immigrants into the political arena has not found a unanimous application. The heated debate on this topic is based on different attitudes toward political inclusion, which in any case remains one of the strongholds of the State's sovereignty. On the one side, voting rights are by many constitutions restricted to citizens only and are considered the last step of a successful integration. On the other side, voting rights are increasingly requested in the name of democratic principles of participation and legitimacy and as a tool for integration. Two conflicting views, fundamentally two research questions: are voting rights requested or in contrast with democratic principles? Are they part or the end of the integration process? A third key element to enter in the entangled discussion is the level of political inclusion for migrants, whether at national or local one. How far can their political inclusion be promoted? The study is divided into three parts, using an approach that starts from a theoretical perspective (Part I) and leads to analytical considerations (Part II) and finally to empirical evidences (Part III).
Oddly enough, only few have focused on this controversial topic, especially in the European context. This research has the ambition of providing a comprehensive analysis of local voting right policies, while supporting the thesis that political inclusion
3
at a local level is normatively suitable for democracy and practically valuable as a way to promote integration. I argue that the exclusion of non-citizens from the local ballot is not beneficial for democracy, and a missing opportunity to create a favourable setting for integration. Given the multidimensionality and complexity of the topic at stake - which involves concepts such as citizenship, integration, democracy, and political participation - I attempt not to confine the research to a single lens of analysis. I therefore sought to generate a dialogue between the normative level related to the theories of citizenship and the sociology of migration, coupled with empirical analysis and statistical evidences.


Abstract The Panel on Plant Health performed a pest categorisation of Xiphinema californicum (Nematoda: Longidoridae) for the EU. The nematode is a well‐defined taxon belonging to a group of morphologically similar species called Xiphinema americanum sensu lato. The nematode was described from the USA and is present in some North and South American countries. The nematode is not present in the EU and is regulated by Council Directive 2000/29/EC, listed in Annex I A I as X. californicum Lamberti and Bleve‐Zacheo. It is a polyphagous pest found in soil associated with a number of plant species. As a migratory ectoparasitic species, it punctures the cells of plant roots. X. californicum is in principle able to cause direct damage to plants, but its main damage is caused by vectoring the American nepoviruses: Tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV), Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV) and Cherry rasp leaf virus (CRLV). Soil is a potential pathway for this nematode for entry into the EU. Moist soil, such as soil attached to plants for planting, increases survival of the nematode. The viruses may persist over prolonged periods inside the nematode and viruliferous nematodes may introduce American nepoviruses. Climatic conditions in the EU are similar to those found in the areas where the pest is currently present. Hosts of the nematode (and of associated viruses) are, e.g. grapes, apples and plums, which are also widely cultivated in the EU. The nematode only moves short distances (around 1 m) but may be spread with soil moving activities. Measures are available to inhibit entry via soil as such. Entry of the nematode with soil attached to plants for planting that are not regulated is possible. X. californicum does satisfy all the criteria that are within the remit of EFSA to assess to be regarded as a Union quarantine pest.


Graph convolutional networks (GCNs) have recently received wide attentions, due to their successful applications in different graph tasks and different domains. Training GCNs for a large graph, however, is still a challenge. Original full-batch GCN training requires calculating the representation of all the nodes in the graph per GCN layer, which brings in high computation and memory costs. To alleviate this issue, several sampling-based methods are proposed to train GCNs on a subset of nodes. Among them, the node-wise neighbor-sampling method recursively samples a fixed number of neighbor nodes, and thus its computation cost suffers from exponential growing neighbor size across layers; while the layer-wise importance-sampling method discards the neighbor-dependent constraints, and thus the nodes sampled across layer suffer from sparse connection problem. To deal with the above two problems, we propose a new effective sampling algorithm called LAyer-Dependent ImportancE Sampling (LADIES). Based on the sampled nodes in the upper layer, LADIES selects nodes that are in the neighborhood of these nodes and uses the constructed bipartite graph to compute the importance probability. Then, it samples a fixed number of nodes according to the probability for the whole layer, and recursively conducts such procedure per layer to construct the whole computation graph. We prove theoretically and experimentally, that our proposed sampling algorithm outperforms the previous sampling methods regarding both time and memory. Furthermore, LADIES is shown to have better generalization accuracy than original full-batch GCN, due to its stochastic nature.


The purpose of this Capstone is to integrate principles of positive psychology into an educational training program for the Tai Chi for Health Institute. This integration will be disseminated in the form of a small handbook and will be put into practice as a presentation in June 2013, during the weeklong Tai Chi for Health workshop in New London, Connecticut ( June 10-15, 2013). After briefly providing an introduction to the field of positive psychology, the paper describes two broad areas: 1) Harnessing the experience of positive emotions in conjunction with physical activity; and 2) Developing and using character strengths in the service of optimal performance. Subsumed within these topics, various positive interventions are described at length along with suggestions for application. An overarching aim of this paper is to synthesize the disciplines of Tai Chi and positive psychology for the purpose of cultivating greater health, happiness, and harmony on a personal and collective level.


For decades, human health was threaten (especially that of children) by what considered as a potential sources of lead exposure which are: lead-contaminated water, soil, and air. The proposed of the research involve developing an integrated exposure, uptake, and biokinetic (IEUBK) model as a human health risk model to predict the blood lead levels BLL in children. The data set of this project for human health risk posed by Pb contamination in air, water and soil were obtained from previous study achieved in 2014 which carried out on 108 school children (School children in rural areas (n=76 child) and School children in urban areas (n=32child) matched for age. The environmental samples demonstrated that the concentration of lead for air and soil exceeded the international acceptable threshold values. However, the concentration of lead in water was below the threshold value. The BLL value from currently result of IEUBK model was above the agency's threshold of concern, 10 μg/dL which was documented as children's BLL lowest level of concern. This predicted values result of BLL was in agreement with actual value of BLL in blood samples of school children for the chosen study. Also, the results of this research confirmed that the high BLL could be attributed to the high lead level in both air and soil of contaminate environment.


This article is the Prologue to a symposium undertaken to prompt Adam Smith scholars to explain their understanding of Smith's impartial spectator, particularly in Smith's highest sense of that expression. The symposium is not intended to serve as a primer on Smith's impartial spectator; the spirit is coffee-house conversation among Smith scholars, as they address searching questions about the impartial spectator. What is the impartial spectator, in Smith's highest sense of that expression? Does the impartial spectator have knowledge that is super-human? Is the impartial spectator universal? How does the impartial spectator relate to "the man within the breast"? To the being whose hand is invisible? To God?


1. Predator–prey interactions are an inherently local-scale phenomenon, but the intensity of these interactions can be mediated by abiotic conditions that can exert a multi-scaled influence through space and time. Understanding how multi-scale abiotic factors may influence local-scale biotic processes has proven challenging; however, the hierarchical nature of riverine flow regimes makes these environments an ideal setting to test how predator–prey relationships may vary with multi-scaled flow variation.
2. We developed a series of Bayesian hierarchical models to explore how predator–prey relationships between barramundi Lates calcarifer and their prey may be influenced by multi-scaled flow variables in the Daly River, northern Australia.
3. We found that spatio-temporal variation in barramundi abundance was strongly related to both antecedent flow and the abundance of prey fishes (predictive r2 = 0.57), and that barramundi abundance is more likely to be influenced by bottom-up, rather than top-down predator–prey dynamics. We also found that the strength and direction of these relationships varied across the catchment and between seasons. We found stronger, positive relationships between barramundi abundance and prey abundance in the most downstream sites with higher mean annual flows, compared to upstream sites.
4. These results indicate that the abundance of predatory fishes can be related to both recent abiotic (flow) conditions and the abundance of prey (biotic conditions), and provides strong support for the importance of bottom-up trophic dynamics. Management of iconic predators such as barramundi should therefore consider both flow management and other key factors such as habitat maintenance to support their prey.


Background/Purpose: Many studies have been undertaken to prevent anastomosis leakage of the colon, and several methods have been used to assess anastomosis healing, such as measurement of bursting pressure or hydroxyproline (a marker of collagen) content at the anastomosis site. However, these methods are inappropriate for comparing anastomosis healing at two time points in the same animals. In the present study, we measured the collagen level by spectral domain polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (SD-PS-OCT) to assess anastomosis healing. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into groups C (saline-administered controls; study group) and M [a 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-administered experimental group]. Immediately after end-to-end anastomosis of the colon, SD-PS-OCT images of anastomoses were taken (baseline). Animals were administered saline or 5-FU for 7 days. On the 7th postoperative day, SD-PS-OCT images were acquired, a histopathologic exam was performed, and hydroxyproline levels as well as mRNA expressions of collagen-1 and collagen-3 were measured at the anastomosis site. Results: Fibroblast proliferation and inflammatory cell infiltration were greater in group C than in group M. The mRNA expressions of collagen-1 and collagen-3 were substantially higher in group C. Hydroxyproline levels were higher in group M than in group C. Though collagen levels measured by SD-PS-OCT at 7 days were elevated compared with baseline in group C, no such changes were observed for group M. Conclusion: Collagen levels at the colon anastomosis site, measured with SD-PS-OCT, were not increased at 7 days postoperatively versus baseline when 5-FU was injected, but were increased in saline-treated controls. The measurement of collagen content by SD-PS-OCT was found to provide a good means of assessing anastomosis healing, because it allows in situ assessment of collagen contents at baseline and during the postoperative period.


Daniel J. Schroeter. The Sultan's Jew: Morocco and the Sephardi World. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. xxii + 240 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $55.00. Cloth. There is already a vast literature devoted to the Jewish experience in the Arab and Islamic worlds, including translated primary sources, scholarly studies of various communities, biographies and autobiographies, surveys of Jewish-Arab and Jewish-Muslim relations, literary and linguistic studies, gender studies, legal studies, studies of modernization and political development, memoirs of life before 1948, even memoirs-cum-cookbooks. More is certain to be written, given the vast paper trail left by Jewish communities as well as the politically charged nature of contemporary Jewish-Arab and Jewish-Muslim relations. Among this huge library a handful of remarkable books stand out, able to evoke time and place as well as highlighting the ambiguities, contradictions, and ironies of Jewish life. Daniel Schroeter's The Sultan's Jew is one such book. Focusing on the life of an important merchant, Meir Macnin (d.1835), Schroeter is able to reveal an enormous amount not only about a Jewish community, but also the worlds it inhabited: Moroccan, Mediterranean, and European. A model of historical interpretation, it is also a delight to read: compelling, concise, and utterly devoid of jargon. The Sultan's Jew follows the author's earlier book, Merchants of Essaouira: Urban Society and Imperialism in Southwestern Morocco (Cambridge, 1988). Based substantially on Macnin family papers recently discovered in Paris, it forms the first part of a projected two-volume study of the transformation of the Moroccan Jewish community in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With its emphasis on the complexities and paradoxes of Jewish life in an Islamic state (during a time, moreover, of growing European involvement), it is a welcome antidote to the more polemical arguments that cloud the subject. Accompanied by a detailed bibliography and substantial endnotes, it makes a useful resource for North African, Middle Eastern, and Sephardic studies in just over two hundred pages. The author's task cannot have been easy. Abundant archival sources in Britain, France, and Morocco, as well as the aforementioned Macnin family papers, all shed light on the activities of Meir Macnin. However, there survives almost nothing from the perspective of Macnin himself: nothing to suggest his motivations or personality. Lacking memoirs or personal correspondence, the author must imagine his subject's voice. Schroeter writes: "Since he rarely speaks in the documents, he is my invented informant around whom I attempt to imagine the world in which he lived" (xv). If ultimately we can never know the accuracy of the Meir Macnin portrait that emerges, we are still left with a vivid and detailed study of his larger community and the political and social contexts in which it functioned. The introductory chapter may be for some readers die most important. Beginning with a review of the literature on Muslim-Jewish relations, the author traces changes in historiography from nineteenth-century German scholarship, through S. D. Goitein's magisterial Geniza study, to later twentieth-century works, noting the effects upon the literature of such events as the Holocaust and the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (The endnotes here are especially useful.) Next, he turns to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Morocco by way of example, noting the mutual "reliance and tension" characterizing Muslim and Jewish communities that lived "at once both together and apart" (10). …


Ice hockey is a contact sport played in a cold environment which leads to assumptions that players are not exposed to a thermal challenge. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the wearing of hockey protective equipment during an exercise protocol designed to simulate a hockey game would induce a thermal challenge and lead to decrements in performance. In order to test this hypothesis and qualify the physiological responses, subjects performed a standardized protocol performed on a stationary cycle ergometer in an environmental chamber set at typical (12oC) ice hockey ambient conditions. The simulation was performed twice; once while wearing cotton undergarments only (NP), and once while wearing cotton undergarments and the typical protective equipment worn during a hockey game (P). Work intensity during each trial was held constant and was evaluated by examining mean power output, which was similar under both P and NP conditions (348.2 W vs 352.08 W, P > 0.05) P vs NP, respectively. Body (37.18 oC vs 36.58 oC) and skin temperatures (34.12 oC vs 28.85 oC) were elevated in P vs NP, respectively (P<0.05). Core temperatures (37.50 oC vs 37.41oC) displayed a trend towards being higher in P vs NP particularly during the third period of simulation (P = 0.053). Sweat loss as a percent of body mass was greater in P vs NP (2.57% vs 1.18%, respectively P<0.05), which led to an increase in plasma osmolality (287 vs 283 mosmol/kg H2O, respectively P<0.05) working heart rate (83.7% vs 78.8% of maximum heart rate), resting heart rate (63.4% and 55.9% of maximum heart rate), and urine specific gravity (1.026 vs 1.017) for P vs NP respectively (each P<0.05). The drop-off in power from pre to post simulated game was examined in both conditions by the use of five repeated maximal six second sprints interspersed with 24 seconds of recovery. The drop-off in both peak (12.0% vs 0.2%) and mean power (14.5% vs 2.7%) was greater in P versus NP (P<0.05). Plasma lactate concentration was higher following the simulated game in P vs NP (9.64 vs 5.96 mmol/L, P<0.05) as was plasma norepinephrine (2274.0 vs 1366.9 pg/ml, P<0.05). Rating of Perceived Exertion increased by 30-53% in the P condition (P<0.05) even though power outputs were equivalent. The elevated body temperature and increased water loss appeared to increase glycolytic flux, which when coupled with the consequences of thermal stress, reduced power output and led to the perception of elevated work intensities during the simulated game.


Abstract Recent beryllium capsule designs have focussed on the lower temperatures and laser powers expected before the NIF laser reaches its full capability, 192 beams, 500TW, and 1.8MJ. First, several new designs are given with peak radiation temperatures for 250 to 280 eV. A 250eV design uses 2% oxygen dopant instead of 0.9% copper. Second, a radiography study of planar joints in S200D beryllium using a Cu, Au, Ag, Al, or Au/Cu braze quantified the diffusion away from the joint. LASNEX calculations show that Cu joint perturbations grow to large enough amplitude to preclude ignition. However by allowing the copper to diffuse twice as far as in these experiments (e.g. by holding at braze temperature longer), the joint calculates to be acceptable, and the capsule gives full yield. Aluminum diffuses extremely far from the joint, almost uniformly in the sample. Third, a capsule with a high Z shell and beryllium ablator calculates to ignite. As expected its ignition threshold is lower, about 70% of the implosion velocity for a capsule like the Be330. The extra tamping of DT bum by a 6 μm tungsten shell increases the yield from 17 to 32 MJ. The capsule radiates 3 MJ of this yield as X-rays. Unfortunately the capsule is more sensitive to DT ice roughness than the Be330 design, failing at 0.6μm roughness.


Sedimentation and nutrient loading are among the most prevalent threats to fluvial ecosystem integrity. This study employed artificial streams ( mesocosms ) to simulate individual and combined impacts of nutrient enrichment and deposited fine sediment on benthic biota. Ninety-six circular mesocosms were used in a 21-day crossed experiment that measured the impact of three substrate compositions (0, 25, and 50% fines –1 (soluble inorganic nitrogen)) on periphyton and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) of macroinvertebrate assemblages indicated substantial shifts in structural composition, while univariate models for Lepidostomatidae and total Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera revealed that nutrient and sediment subsidies related to single factors were suppressed by an additional stressor. Stressor mechanism overlap was evident at higher treatment levels, as moderate nutrient enrichment increased nutritional resources but high nitrogen concentrations lead to substrate smothering by periphyton, contributing to habitat degradation originating from inorganic sedimentation. Our study is consistent with research showing that nutrient loading and sedimentation interact to deteriorate lotic systems beyond levels attributable to either individual stressor. Management practices and pollution standards need to incorporate relationships between stressors tightly co-vary in natural settings.


Chicago School antitrust policy rests upon the premise that the sole purpose of antitrust is to promote economic efficiency. This article shows that this foundation is flawed. The fundamental purpose of antitrust is to protect consumers. To protect purchasers from paying supracompetitive prices when they buy goods or services. This is the "wealth transfer," "theft", "consumer welfare" or "purchaser protection" explanation for antitrust. The article shows that the efficiency view originated in a detailed analysis of the legislative history of the Sherman Act undertaken by Robert Bork. Bork purported to show that Congress only cared about enhancing economic efficiency.To analyze Bork's arguments, this article first explains the underlying economic concepts, including Bork's misleading definition of the term, "consumer surplus" when he should have used the term "total surplus". This article then analyzes the legislative histories of the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Celler-Kefauver Act, and FTC Act. This analysis demonstrates that Congress's overriding concern when it enacted each law was with protecting consumers from paying supracompetitive prices. Congress did this because it believed that illegally acquired supracompetitive pricing constituted an "unfair" transfer of purchasers' property to firms with market power. Economic efficiency was only a secondary concern.The only exception is the law's goal of protecting small sellers from anticompetitive behavior by buyers with illegally gained monopsony power. This limited concern, however, is just the mirror image of Congress' desire to protect purchasers from exploitation. In both buy-side and sell-side cases, the overarching goal is the same - preventing firms that have unfairly acquired power from imposing noncompetitive prices or non-price terms on those they do business with. In both cases these firms "unfairly" acquire wealth. When conduct presents a conflict between the welfare of consumers and total welfare (e.g., a merger that raises prices but reduces costs), courts should choose purchaser protection over economic efficiency. This conclusion supports a more aggressive approach to many areas of antitrust.


Abstract The correspondence between non-Noether symmetries and bi-Hamiltonian structures is discussed. We show that in regular Hamiltonian systems the presence of the global bi-Hamiltonian structure is caused by the symmetry of the space of solution. As an example, the well-known bi-Hamiltonian realization of the Korteweg–de Vries equation is discussed.


The purpose of this study was to determine the reproducibility of time at or above 90 % (t (90 % )VO (2max)) and 95 % (t (95 % )VO (2max)) maximal oxygen uptake during an intermittent treadmill run to exhaustion. Twenty-two distance runners (age 38.0 +/- 7.1 yrs) performed two identical incremental and two identical intermittent tests on four separate days. Respiratory exchange was measured continuously throughout each test by an automated open-circuit gas analysis system. The incremental test consisted of increases in treadmill speed every minute until volitional exhaustion. The highest averaged 30-s oxygen uptake (VO (2)) value was defined as VO (2max) and the minimum speed that elicited VO (2max) was defined as vVO (2max). The intermittent test consisted of 30-s work intervals ran at 105 % vVO (2max) interspersed by 30-s relief intervals ran at 60 % vVO (2max) and was continued until volitional exhaustion. The time that VO (2) was at or above 90 % and 95 % of the mean maximum values elicited during the two previous incremental tests was determined for the intermittent tests. The mean t (95 % )VO (2max) was 232 (SD 174) s and 244 (SD 195) s and the mean t (90 % )VO (2max) was 480 (SD 220) s and 488 (SD 252) s, for trial 1 and trial 2, respectively. Reproducibility statistics for t (95 % )VO (2max) and t (90 % )VO (2max), respectively, were: 95 % limits of agreement 12 +/- 227 s and 8 +/- 328 s; coefficient of variation 34.5 % and 24.5 %; and intraclass correlation coefficient 0.80 and 0.75. Statistical power analysis indicated that this level of reproducibility would allow mean differences of 15 - 20 % between intermittent training protocols to attain statistical significance in future experimental research, with sample sizes probably within the resources of most researchers.


Abstract Two seismic surveys were carried out on the high-altitude glacier saddle, Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa, Italy/Switzerland. Explosive and vibroseismic sources were tested to explore the best way to generate seismic waves to deduce shallow and intermediate properties (<100 m) of firn and ice. The explosive source (SISSY) excites strong surface and diving waves, degrading data quality for processing; no englacial reflections besides the noisy bed reflector are visible. However, the strong diving waves are analyzed to derive the density distribution of the firn pack, yielding results similar to a nearby ice core. The vibrator source (ElViS), used in both P- and SH-wave modes, produces detectable laterally coherent reflections within the firn and ice column. We compare these with ice-core and radar data. The SH-wave data are particularly useful in providing detailed, high-resolution information on firn and ice stratigraphy. Our analyses demonstrate the potential of seismic methods to determine physical properties of firn and ice, particularly density and potentially also crystal-orientation fabric.


OBJECTIVE: To analyze contemporary U.S. use of minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of endometrial cancer and associated inpatient complications and costs. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, the National Inpatient Sample database was analyzed in patients with nonmetastatic endometrial cancer who underwent hysterectomy during 2012–2013. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression and propensity score matching were used to compare complications among patients treated with open compared with minimally invasive hysterectomy surgery. Cost of care was also compared using generalized linear modeling. RESULTS: We identified 9,799 patients; 52.4% underwent open and 47.6% minimally invasive hysterectomy. Many patients (43.4%) were treated at low-volume hospitals (less than 10 endometrial cancer cases annually). Patients were less likely to undergo open surgery in high-volume compared with low-volume hospitals (51.8% compared with 58.1%, respectively; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.35, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.13–0.94) and more likely to undergo open surgery in rural compared with urban teaching hospitals (75.6% compared with 51.1%, respectively; adjusted OR 14.34, 95% CI 9.66–21.27), government compared with nonprofit hospitals (61.3% compared with 51.1%, respectively; adjusted OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.15–2.39), and in patients of black (67.9%; OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.30–1.65) and "other" race (60.5%; adjusted OR 2.39, 95% CI 1.99–2.87) compared with white race (49.2%, referent). Open surgery was associated with increased perioperative complications (adjusted OR 2.80, 95% CI 2.48–3.17) and a $1,243 increase in cost per case compared with minimally invasive approaches (P<.001). Using minimally invasive surgery for 80% of study patients may have averted 2,733 complications and saved approximately $19 million. CONCLUSION: Most U.S. women with endometrial cancer continue to be treated with open hysterectomy surgery despite increased complication rates and financial costs associated with this approach. A disparity in endometrial cancer surgical care exists that is affected by patient race and hospital geography and cancer volumes.


Fricker, M. D. and Willmer, C. M. 1986. Vanadate sensitive ATPase and phosphatase activity in guard cell protoplasts of Commelina.—l. exp. Bot. 38: 642-648. Phosphatase activity was measured in extracts of guard cell protoplasts of Commelina communis L. using the artificial substrate p-nitrophenylphosphate. A pH optimum of 5-8 to 6-3 was determined. Ammonium molybdate (0-1 mol m~3) and sodium vanadate (10 mol m-3) gave almost complete inhibition of phosphatase activity at pH 60. ATPase assays were, therefore, conducted in the presence of 0-2 mol m ~3 molybdate and vanadate was used as a specific inhibitor of plasmamembrane ATPase activity. Vanadate sensitive ATPase activity showed a pH optimum of 6-6 and activity was stimulated by KC1. These properties are characteristic of plasmamembrane proton pumping ATPases in other systems and suggest that proton extrusion in guard cells could be mediated by a similar enzyme. The maximum ATPase activity is sufficient to account for all the proton flux observed during the stomatal opening response.


Valentina Lootens. M.S., Department of Economics, Wright State University, 2006. Assessment of the Technology of Genetic Modification In Light of Its Socio-economic Implications Since Watson and Crick discovered the "double helix" in 1953, the arguments about the benefits and danger of genetic modification remain largely unanswered, particularly in the relation to food supply. Today, genetic modification or genetic engineering are global issues. Governments, scientific organizations, corporations, research institutions, and scholars hotly dispute the advantages and disadvantages of GM technology. However, unfortunately, the population at large is left in darkness about this new technology and its consequences for human health, environment and society. Moreover, genetic engineering creates a special problem: unlike many new technologies it is irreversible. Once introduced into the food chain, GM gene is hard and costly to trace and impossible to revert. The long-term outlook can be devastating: unleashed and unmanageable GM traits will forever change our food, nature and, thus, ourselves. Analytical models and the field data raise alarming questions about the long-term effects of GM on human health, coexistence of different farming methods, extinction of certain species, disruption of the food chain, pollen cross-contamination, new allergies, mutations, new diseases, disadvantaged communities, inability to practice religions and beliefs, etc. The results of this study are alarming: long-term effects of the rapidly diffusing technology of genetic modification are largely unknown, short-term effects are disagreed upon, and there are no signs of large societal benefit to date of this technology. This brings the question: Are biotech's perceived benefits worth the exposure to a potential large-scale catastrophe? TABLE OF CONTENTS Page


Bricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts and literature, and it is often described as the notion of creating or constructing something using a range of objects that happen to be available (Oxford Dictionary). As a design concept, bricolage refers to building by experimentation or 'trial and error' as opposed to production according to some predetermined pattern. As such it allows the bottom-up, or inside-out emergence of content and structure rather than one being imposed down from the top. I propose to use this concept as a metaphor to explore and explain the links between madness and creativity. The belief that madness is linked with creative thinking has been held for centuries, and since the 1970's scientific studies have established an unusually high rate of mental illness (mainly bipolar disorder) amongst highly creative individuals. This has led to further research in the quest to identify more specific connections between the two. Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity. The study's results suggest that the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the environment. It has been observed that decreased latent inhibition of environmental stimuli appears to correlate with greater creativity among people with high IQ. Other people's brains might shut out the same information through a process called "latent inhibition" which is described as an unconscious mental process to ignore, 'filter' or 'screen out' stimuli or information that is considered marginal or irrelevant to the task at hand. Given the overwhelming amount of information received constantly by the brain through the different senses, I propose to explore how a decreased latent inhibition can give rise to the juxtaposition of images, sounds and thoughts, and to explain this in relation to the links between madness and creativity, with use of bricolage, chaos and complexity theory.


Critics of the Food & Drug Administration's ban on off-label promotion often claim that it violates the First Amendment because it suppresses pharmaceutical manufacturers' truthful speech about their legal—and beneficial—products. Characterizing the ban on off-label promotion in this way has more than rhetorical significance. Bans on truthful, non-misleading speech elicit special skepticism because of the belief that they "usually rest solely on the offensive assumption that the public will respond 'irrationally' to the truth." The legislative history of the provisions of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act that underlie the ban on off-label promotion, however, reveals that Congress was concerned that physicians were responding rationally to false and misleading promotional claims. In this Article, I explore the doctrinal questions raised by conceiving of the ban on off-label promotion not as a ban on "truthful speech to physicians" but instead as a prophylaxis against false and misleading pharmaceutical promotion. I review the evidence that false and misleading claims were commonplace before the ban's adoption and persist today, along with the enforcement challenges the FDA confronted at that time and would confront were the ban lifted, and conclude the government likely could develop the factual record necessary to establish that Congress' rejection of an after-the-fact case-by-case approach to combating false and misleading prescription drug promotion is constitutional.


The System-On-Chip (SoC) design faces a gap between the production capabilities and time to market pressures. The design space, to be explored during the SoC design, grows with the improvements in the production capabilities and it takes an increasing amount of time to design a system that utilizes those capabilities. On the other hand shorter product life cycles are forcing an aggressive reduction of the time-to-market. Addressing this gap has been the aim of recent research work. As one approach abstract models have been introduced and a design flow was devised that guides the designer in the process from a most abstract model down to a synthesizable model. Throughout the design process computation and communication concerns are handled individually. The communication is mostly abstracted away from the designer, which allows the design focus to rest on the application specific computation. This separation requires the provider of an SoC design tool to supply fast and accurate communication models. Fast simulation capabilities are required for coping with the immense design space that is to be explored; these are especially needed during early stages of the design. This need has pushed the development of transaction level models, which are abstract models that execute dramatically faster than synthesizable models. The pressure for fast executing models extends especially to the frequently used and reused communication libraries. This document describes the system level modeling of the Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) part of the Advanced Microprocessor Bus Architecture (AMBA). Throughout this work the design of three bus models, at different levels of abstraction, is described; their simulation speed and accuracy is evaluated. As a result guidelines for the developer are derived that support selecting the most appropriate model for a given stage in the design process.


Abstract. Restoration ecology has often been regarded as a subordinate component of conservation biology and yet the two disciplines differ from each other. Conservation aims at staving off extinction, i.e. preserving ecological structures and services which still exist, however endangered they may be. On the other hand, the principal objective of restoration is re-building ecological structures and services that have been destroyed. The most distinct focus of conservation is on population response to exploitation, whereas restoration is principally concerned with over-exploited sites and landscapes in which communities/ecosystems are to be re-built. Conservation aims at preserving as many species as possible; on the other hand, the biodiversity approach in restoration may be addressed on three levels viz. 1) initial species diversity, 2) post-restoration increase of diversity via spontaneous species immigration, and 3) age-state diversity of developing plant cover. The conceptual framework in conservation biology differs from that in restoration ecology. The two basic paradigms used in conservation biology are 1) small-population paradigm and 2) declining-population paradigm, and one of its useful concepts is population viability assessment (PVA). The two principal paradigms used in restoration ecology are 1) nature-in-balance paradigm and 2) nature-in-flux paradigm. Interfaces between conservation and restoration may be recognized when e.g., recovery strategies for threatened species include habitat/ecosystem restoration, or when population processes in non-threatened species are studied to verify their usefulness as restoration material. Integration of species and ecosystem approaches is already recognizable in ecology. It is to be hoped that in future conservation and restoration become integrated components of ecosystem management, but for the time being they remain two different facets of the same problem which is the negative human impact upon environment.


Title of Document: A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF DISTRESS TOLERANCE AS A PREDICTOR OF EARLY SMOKING LAPSE Brooke A. Stipelman, PhD, 2008 Directed By: Carl W. Lejuez, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology The CDC estimates that approximately 20.9% of U.S. adults currently smoke. Moreover, cigarette smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States making it is a significant public health problem. Although 70% of smokers express a desire to quit, relapse is quite common, with rates as high as 60-90% depending on the method of quitting used. Moreover, many smokers who attempt to quit, lapse within a few days, and many of these individuals ultimately resume smoking and are not able to recover to achieve abstinence. The initial experience of smoking cessation is stressful and is associated with a number of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Therefore, one particular hypothesis suggests that how an individual reacts to and tolerates these uncomfortable feelings may be a key contributing factor of relapse. This threshold for tolerating physical and psychological stress is known as distress tolerance. While early evidence has suggested that distress tolerance is associated with duration of quit attempts, to date, no study has examined the effects of distress tolerance across physical, psychological and biological domains on a number of other relapse predictors (e.g. negative affect, anxiety sensitivity and withdrawal symptoms) in determining smoking outcome. Therefore, the following study looked at the role of these variables in predicting smoking outcome in a group of 58 adult smokers who entered a smoking cessation treatment study. As hypothesized, both measures of physical distress tolerance and one measure of psychological distress tolerance significantly predicted time to smoking lapse above and beyond other smoking related variables. There was no relationship between smoking abstinence and self-report and biological measures of distress tolerance. There were also no significant findings with respect to any affect related smoking variables. Implications and future directions are addressed. A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF DISTRESS TOLERANCE AS A PREDICTOR OF EARLY SMOKING LAPSE


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) with features of myelodysplastic syndrome and abnormalities of megakaryocytopoiesis often have cytogenetic aberrations of 3q21 and 3q26 bands involving the paracentric inversion [inv(3) (q21q26)] or a reciprocal translocation [t(3;3) (q21;q26)]. These abnormalities frequently cause inappropriate expression of the EVI1 gene located at 3q26. Other genes that have been implicated at the rearrangement breakpoint are GR6 and RPN1 (both on 3q21). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the EVI1 fusion genes in AML patients with 3q21q26 syndrome.

DESIGN AND METHODS
We used reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction to evaluate the expression of EVI1 and GR6, and particularly of the fusion genes RPN1-EVI1 and GR6-EVI1 in 9 AML patients with either inv(3)(q21q26) (7 cases) or t(3;3)(q21;q26) (2 cases).

RESULTS
EVI1 and GR6 were always expressed, as was RPN1-EVI1; GR6-EVI1 was absent. In 8/9 patients, the part of EVI1 retained in RPN1-DEVI1 contained blocks B and C of the PR domain commonly found in the MDS1-EVI1 gene. In the remaining patient [with inv(3) (q21q26)], only block C was retained: we named this variant fusion gene RPN1-DEVI1. This patient lacked the micromegakaryocytopoiesis frequently found in 3q21q26 syndrome.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the hypothesis that EVI1 activation plays a dominant role in the pathogenesis of the 3q21q26 syndrome. EVI1 expression might occur either as a consequence of rearrangements leading to the formation of different fusion transcripts, such as RPN1-EVI1 and RPN1-DEVI1 or following disruption of the PR activation domain of the MDS1-EVI1 gene.


This paper aims to identify best practices for performing business and systems analysis in projects that are required to comply with Enterprise Architecture. We apply two qualitative research methods to study real-life projects conforming to architecture at Statistics Netherlands. First, a Canonical Action Research approach is applied to participate in two business process redesign projects. Second, we use Focus Group interviews to elicit knowledge about carrying out projects conforming to architecture. Based on this empirical research we present seven observations and ten best practices. The best practices point to the fact that project conformance is not only the responsibility of project members, but also of enterprise architects. Considering four levels of best practices (good idea, good practice, local best practice, industry best practice), we argue that our guidelines are located at the second (good practice) level. More research is required to prove or falsify them in other settings.


The sharp increase of research passion in the new-generation solar cells in recent years has resulted in a new trend in combining multiple types of energy devices in a single device. In view of the enhanced and/or diversified function of integrated devices, as compared with conventional devices with limited performance or sole applicability, many integrated power packs have been widely developed by combining different devices, such as a silicon solar cell (SSC), Cu(In,Ga)(Sn,Se)2 (CIGS), organic solar cell (OSC), dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), perovskite solar cell (PSC), lithium-ion battery (LIB), nanogenerator (NG), supercapacitor (SC), photoelectrosynthetic cell (PESC), and electrolysis cell (ELC), into one unit. In this Review, with a particular emphasis on their recent advances, we cover the integrated solar cell device research in a broad sense and provide an overview of state-of-the-art progress on the integrated solar cell devices based on DSSC and PSC, such as DSSC/LIB, DSSC/SC, DSSC/NG, DSSC/LIB/NG, PSC/OSC, PSC/CIGS, PSC/PSC, PSC/SSC, SSC/SC, PSC/SC, OSC/SC, DSSC/PESC, PSC/PESC, and PSC/ELC, for energy harvesting and storage that are significantly important for self-powering systems and portable/wearable electronics. Finally, the challenges and future outlooks in this promising photovoltaic (PV) field are featured on the basis of current development.


This paper details the design and development of a low-cost control rig to intuitively manipulate an anthropomorphic robotic arm using a bilateral master-slave control methodology. Special emphasis has been given to the ease of operation and some form of force sensation. The control rig is fitted to the user's arm, and the forces exerted by the robotic arm's various joints are fed back to the user. Of special significance is the force feedback from the slave when its gripper is in contact with a real object. Several methods of force sensing have been explored and detailed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by experiments on a commercially available robotic arm, which is controlled by a prototype three-axis master unit. The robotic arm mimics the dexterity of the human hand, wrist, and fingers. The proposed master control unit is cost effective and will have wide-ranging applications in the fields of medicine, manufacturing, security, extreme environment, entertainment, and remotely operated vehicle teleoperation in undersea recovery or extraterrestrial exploration vehicle


The autobiography of one of the greatest pilots in history. In 1939 Eric Brown was on a University of Edinburgh exchange course in Germany, and the first he knew of the war was when the Gestapo came to arrest him. They released him, not realising he was a pilot in the RAF volunteer reserve: and the rest is history. Eric Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm and went on to be the greatest test pilot in history, flying more different aircraft types than anyone else. During his lifetime he made a record-breaking 2,407 aircraft carrier landings and survived eleven plane crashes. One of Britain's few German-speaking airmen, he went to Germany in 1945 to test the Nazi jets, interviewing (among others) Hermann Goering and Hanna Reitsch. He flew the suicidally dangerous Me 163 rocket plane, and tested the first British jets. WINGS ON MY SLEEVE is 'Winkle' Brown's incredible story.


The stable carbon isotopic analysis of tree-rings for environmental, plant physiological and archaeological ap- plications using conventional methods is occasionally limited by physical constraints (narrow rings) or ad-ministrative concerns (requirement for non-destructive sampling) that prevent researcher access to scienti fi cally valuable wood samples. Analysis of such archives by laser-ablation can potentially address these issues and facilitate access to restricted archives. Smaller quantities of wood are required for analysis by laser ablation, hence the approach may be considered less-invasive and is virtually non-destructive compared to standard preparation methods. High levels of intra-annual isotopic variability reported elsewhere mean that a single measurement may not faithfully represent the inter-annual isotopic signal, so before such an approach can be used with con fi dence it is necessary to compare the stable carbon isotopic data produced using these two methods. This paper presents stable carbon isotope ( δ 13 C) data from the resin-extracted wood of dated Scots Pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) tree-rings analysed using a modi fi ed Schulze-type laser-ablation system with results obtained using conventional manual sampling and analysis of α -cellulose prepared from the same tree-ring groups. The laser sampling system is found to perform very well against established more invasive methods. High correla- tions are observed between the methods for both raw and Suess corrected data ( r > 0.90 n = 50). These results highlight the potential for using laser-sampling to support the development of long isotope chronologies, for sampling narrow rings or for pre-screening cores prior to analysis using more detailed or labour intensive methods.


Hope is a very important mindset for malignant pleural mesothelioma patients as their cancer has a grim prognosis and limited therapeutic options. In this paper, we briefly discuss what hope means for a patient and how hope can help to cope with this disease. In addition, we discuss false hope. We also briefly touch on a few of the new therapies currently under development.


DC power systems with multiple buses for redundancy are more reliable and provide reconfiguration options. A game-theoretic-based modeling approach for bus selection is proposed in this paper, which is based on local information of the player and does not require a centralized controller. The initial section provides the modeling and optimization of a single-input player. This modeling mainly follows on the players' local objectives and discrete choices of bus connections. Therefore, in this case, the controller obtains Nash equilibrium (NE) for the pure strategy game. Then, the approach is extended for the integration of global objectives with minimal communication. In addition, different objective priorities are integrated into the optimization routine. Next, the analysis is extended to multi-input player situations which are related to the class of mixed and continuous strategy games. This modeling is important, since the payoff matrix approach does not find an NE in all cases. Finally, the bus selection modeling is carried out by taking the system dynamics into account. This is important for the cases where the system has sudden load or source fluctuations. Experimental results are obtained, which validate the theory.


The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) is a recent initiative from the Eurosystem to collect comparable micro-data on household wealth and indebtedness in the euro area countries. The Household Finance and Consumption Network (HFCN), which comprises the European Central Bank (ECB), national central banks (NCBs), and national statistical institutes (NSIs), is in charge of the development and implementation of the HFCS. The first round of the survey was successfully conducted between 2008 and 2011, and the results were published in April 2013. The second round is now under way and will cover all the euro area countries. This paper is a joint effort by several members of the HFCN to further investigate the issue of unit non-response in the HFCS, better describe and understand its patterns, measure its effects on the overall quality of the survey and, ultimately, propose strategies to mitigate them. The paper is divided into sections, the first section being the introduction. The second section draws up a list of the main possible sources of auxiliary information that can be relied on in order to analyse non-response patterns in the HFCS. It also presents summary indicators that can be used to quantify unit non-response. In the third section, based on the experience from the first wave of the HFCS, the report elaborates on good survey practices (e.g. interviewer training and compensation, use of incentives, persuasive contact strategies, etc.) to prevent unit non-response from occurring. The fourth section compares several reweighting strategies for coping with unit non-response a posteriori, in particular simple and generalised calibration methods. These methods are assessed with respect to their impact on the main HFCS-based estimates. Finally, based on the outcome of this empirical analysis, recommendations are made with regard to post-survey weighting adjustment in the HFCS. JEL Classification: C83


The estate tax and income tax rules independently attempt to either promote or deter different behaviors. The interaction of these different rules often leads to disparate or unintended consequences to taxpayers: for example, achieving an overall lower effective tax rate by paying more estate tax to lower the income tax rate. This overlay of the estate tax rules on the income tax rules is a key problem at the core of our tax system. Yet, few scholars focus on this topic.
In this Article, I document the actual behavior of the trust and estate bar. By looking at how attorneys approach the intersection of estate and income taxes, I demonstrate deficiencies in the current scholarly belief, which is based largely on anecdotal information, that the wealthy have a preference for paying less or no estate tax. I show the real-world preferences that indicate wealthy taxpayers are paying high levels of estate tax to minimize the income tax incidents. After showing the shift of preferences and the resulting overall tax loss to the fisc, the Article then proposes useful policy solutions, such as elimination of the estate tax or using death as an income tax triggering event.


ChucK is a programming language designed for computer music. It aims to be expressive and straightforward to read and write with respect to time and concurrency, and to provide a platform for precise audio synthesis and analysis and for rapid experimentation in computer music. In particular, ChucK defines the notion of a strongly timed audio programming language, comprising a versatile time-based programming model that allows programmers to flexibly and precisely control the flow of time in code and use the keyword now as a time-aware control construct, and gives programmers the ability to use the timing mechanism to realize sample-accurate concurrent programming. Several case studies are presented that illustrate the workings, properties, and personality of the language. We also discuss applications of ChucK in laptop orchestras, computer music pedagogy, and mobile music instruments. Properties and affordances of the language and its future directions are outlined.


Federated Learning (FL) has become an active and promising distributed machine learning paradigm. As a result of statistical heterogeneity, recent studies clearly show that the performance of popular FL methods (e.g., FedAvg) deteriorates dramatically due to the client drift caused by local updates. This paper proposes a novel Federated Learning algorithm (called IGFL), which leverages both Individual and Group behaviors to mimic distribution, thereby improving the ability to deal with heterogeneity. Unlike existing FL methods, our IGFL can be applied to both client and server optimization. As a by-product, we propose a new attention-based federated learning in the server optimization of IGFL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to incorporate attention

mechanisms into federated optimization. We conduct extensive experiments and show that IGFL can significantly improve the performance of existing federated learning methods. Especially when the distributions of data among individuals are diverse, IGFL can improve the classification accuracy by about 13% compared with prior baselines.


In recent years, there has been a great progress in the development of superparamagnetic particles targeted to a wide range of applications, including fields as diverse as biotechnology or waste removal. However, the physics behind their behaviour under usual conditions (diluted dispersions and high magnetic fields) has many, fundamental, open questions. In this review, we revisit the advances in the basic physical concepts and predictive analytical and simulation tools. We focus on recent developments in the understanding and prediction of phenomena induced by magnetic fields both in uniform fields (for example, chain formation) and in magnetic gradients (cooperative magnetophoresis).


Excerpt] The U.S. motor vehicle manufacturing industry' employs 880,000 workers, or approximately 6.6% of the U.S. manufacturing workforce, including those who work in the large motor vehicle parts manufacturing sector, as well as those who assemble motor vehicles. Since the beginning of the decade, the nation's automotive manufacturing sector has eliminated more than 435,000 automotive manufacturing jobs (or an amount equal to about 3.3% of all manufacturing jobs in 2008). The employment level first dipped below one million in 2007 and fell to 880,000 workers last year. With the restructuring and bankruptcy of Chrysler and General Motors, and the ongoing recession in the auto sector, employment in the nation's automotive manufacturing industry will most likely shrink in 2009 and 2010 as additional assembly, powertrain, and auto parts plants close. This report provides an analysis of automotive manufacturing employment, with a focus on national and state trends. The 111th Congress continues to be heavily engaged in oversight and legislative proposals in response to the unprecedented crisis of the domestic motor vehicle manufacturing industry. The Detroit-based automotive manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) have suffered a series of setbacks in recent years with their share of the domestic market dropping from 64.5% in 2001 to 47.5% in 2008. As a consequence, the traditional auto states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio have been—and will continue to be—heavily impacted by the changes taking place in the automotive sector. Together, there are now 152,000 fewer automotive manufacturing jobs in these three states than there were five years ago. Recent automotive sales and production data indicate the enormous changes taking place in today's motor vehicle manufacturing sector. For instance, automotive sales fell to 13.2 million units in 2008, down by 18% from 2007, and forecasts indicate U.S. consumers are expected to purchase fewer than 10 million cars and light trucks in 2009. There has also been a loss of market share by the Detroit 3 producers which has created gains for foreign-owned domestic manufacturers and imports. Some recent Detroit 3 automotive manufacturing employment losses are partially offset by new investments by foreign-owned manufacturers in the United States as they have open, or will open, new plants in states like Indiana, Georgia, and Tennessee. Many Members of Congress, and especially those members from the traditional auto belt states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, have expressed their concerns about lost jobs in the automotive manufacturing sector. With the sale of GM assets to the U.S. government and Chrysler assets to Fiat, two new companies have emerged that will be substantially smaller than the companies that went into bankruptcy. As a consequence, the total level of motor vehicle manufacturing employment will be reduced, especially in locales where facilities have closed. The most recent automotive manufacturing employment data indicate that 42% of all persons in the industry work in one of the three traditional auto belt states, each of which at present employs more than 100,000 persons in the industry. Michigan alone has accounted for 40% of the net job loss in the industry since 2003. Losses in Ohio and Indiana have been less severe, offset somewhat by foreign investment. Alabama, with fewer total automotive manufacturing employees, has been the big job gainer, adding over 12,000 auto manufacturing jobs since 2003. Texas, now the eighth largest state by automotive employment, gained 5,200 jobs between 2003 and 2008. Auto industry states in the South including Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee have lost jobs in recent years, but far fewer than in the traditional auto belt states. This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/666


It is known that computing the list chromatic number is harder than computing the chromatic number (assuming NP ≠ coNP). In fact, the problem of deciding whether a given graph is f-list-colorable for a function f: V → {c -1, c} for c ≥ 3 is Πp2-complete. In general, it is believed that approximating list coloring is hard for dense graphs.

In this paper, we are interested in sparse graphs. More specifically, we deal with nontrivial minor-closed classes of graphs, i.e., graphs excluding some Kk minor. We refine the seminal structure theorem of Robertson and Seymour, and then give an additive approximation for list-coloring within k - 2 of the list chromatic number. This improves the previous multiplicative O(k)-approximation algorithm [20]. Clearly our result also yields an additive approximation algorithm for graph coloring in a minor-closed graph class. This result may give better graph colorings than the previous multiplicative 2-approximation algorithm for graph coloring in a minor-closed graph class [6].

Our structure theorem is of independent interest in the sense that it gives rise to a new insight on well-connected H-minor-free graphs. In particular, this class of graphs can be easily decomposed into two parts so that one part has bounded treewidth and the other part is a disjoint union of bounded-genus graphs. Moreover, we can control the number of edges between the two parts. The proof method itself tells us how knowledge of a local structure can be used to gain a global structure, which gives new insight on how to decompose a graph with the help of local-structure information.


Research on social movement frames has been cumulative. Recently, scholars started studying the structural incentives and constraints for claim-makers by relying on the concept of discursive opportunity structure (DOS) while bringing the public sphere and the media to the centre of analysis of political contention. This article draws on these literatures to investigate social movement campaigns against genetically modified (GM) crops and pesticides in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. First, it argues that there is a transnational DOS that provides structural incentives and constraints to frame risks in symbolic struggles to define GM crops. Next, based on a content analysis of national newspapers, it describes the use of risk frames in national public discourses. Finally, it addresses the question of how this transnationalized DOS is framed by the media by looking at the discursive opportunities for social movements as well as other collective actors in their framing disputes. The study provides evidence of a transnationalization of public debates and offers explanations for national variations by resorting to other components of the DOS such as national policy discourse, timing of political agendas, media structure and culture. It concludes by recognizing the need to consider the various dimensions of opportunity structures for movement action, i.e. political, discursive, and economic, and their relative degree of transnationalization or autonomy over global forces.


This study investigates an important but under-researched topic in Europe, the small shareholder turnout decision. We assess which factors contribute to (small) shareholder participation using a hand-collected panel dataset with information about turnout rates, voting behaviour, and ownership structures of companies that are listed in seven European Member States. We document how ownership concentration positively affects total shareholder turnout, but has a negative effect on small shareholder turnout. Voting power also affects small turnout rates: the greater small shareholder voting power, the greater their eagerness to vote. In addition, total and small shareholder turnout is higher the more important the meeting agenda. And, small shareholders tend to free-ride on large institutional shareholders and corporate insiders, but the magnitude of the free-rider effect is larger for the latter category of blockholders. Our results provide some important insights for the debate on shareholder rights and the role of the AGM in corporate governance. The results show that, despite the criticism, the AGM still plays a role in small shareholder monitoring. Some topics seem to clearly motivate small shareholders to attend, while others are less relevant. Policy makers can stimulate shareholder monitoring by focusing on the factors that determined in this study


This anthology drew on Fisher's research on art, multiculturalism and globalisation, associated with eight years experience as Editor of the journal Third Text (1991-1999). Fisher co-edited the volume with the Cuban international curator and critic Gerardo Mosquera with a jointly authored Introduction. The project was begun in 1999 and over three years were spent researching, translating and selecting the final list of 22 contributors. Although the contributions were drawn from countries as divergent as China, India, Indonesia, Martinique and Lebanon, special attention was given to critical debates from the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking ex-colonial world, little of which had been translated into English.

The book's significance must be assessed against a background of commentaries on cultural politics and postcolonial theory dominated by diasporic intellectuals in Euro-American metropolitan centres, anthologised in MIT's Out There, 1990. Whilst Out There addressed marginality 'internal' to the West, by contrast, Over Here presented art critics, historians and cultural theorists speaking from different global contexts who offered alternative critical positions towards modernity and globalisation to those of Western metropolitanism. The originality of the book rested in its challenge to the notion of the homogenisation of art under globalization through its investigation of the way internationalized aesthetic codes are re-articulated through local experience and symbolic systems.

The volume represented the first published attempt to re-draw the critical art field from a global perspective, and many of the issues it advanced have since been further debated, for example, in the Venice Biennale international conference of 2005, 'Where Art Worlds Meet', in which some Over Here contributors were invited to participate (Fisher, Mosquera and Geeta Kapur). MIT Press has recently reprinted the book.

Reviews appeared in The Art Book, 2005; 'Must Reads', ARCO Contemporary Art, Madrid, 2005; Publ.H-Gender-Mideast, Fordham University USA, 2006; Parachute, Canada, 2006.

Portfolio available.


We present an overview of ad hoc routing protocols that make forwarding decisions based on the geographical position of a packet's destination. Other than the destination's position, each node need know only its own position and the position of its one-hop neighbors in order to forward packets. Since it is not necessary to maintain explicit routes, position-based routing does scale well even if the network is highly dynamic. This is a major advantage in a mobile ad hoc network where the topology may change frequently. The main prerequisite for position-based routing is that a sender can obtain the current position of the destination. Therefore, previously proposed location services are discussed in addition to position-based packet forwarding strategies. We provide a qualitative comparison of the approaches in both areas and investigate opportunities for future research.


Prior research has indicated an association between exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior, potentially as a result of effects on inhibitory mechanisms. However, the role of violence in video games in modulating subsequent neural activity related to cognitive inhibition has received little attention. To examine short-term effects of playing a violent video game, 45 adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes immediately prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the fMRI procedure, participants performed a go/no-go task that required them to press a button for each target stimulus and withhold the response for non-target stimuli. Participants who played the violent game demonstrated a lower BOLD response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when responses were appropriately inhibited. The DLPFC is involved with executive functioning, including suppression of unwanted thoughts and behaviors. In addition, responses in the DLPFC demonstrated stronger inverse connectivity with precuneus in the nonviolent game players. These results provide evidence that playing a violent video game can modulate prefrontal activity during cognitive inhibition.


Objective: To examine the influence of different reference group judgments of global warming on consumers. Methodology: A scale measuring the influence of reference group judgments' on consumers was developed using secondary research. The scale was evaluated by renowned researchers and a statistician. It was pretested prior to being administered to consumers using mall intercept. 548 responses were obtained and the data analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. The Cronbach alpha for the reference group scale is 0.889. Findings: Descriptive statistics revealed that the greatest reference group influence on consumers about global warming was experts in the field. Independent t-test results on gender revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in responses between males and females, while one way ANOVA tests revealed that there were significant differences in responses between groups belonging to different ethnic groups and generation cohorts. However there were no significant differences in responses with groups having different levels of education using the one-way ANOVA. Conclusions: Reference group judgments' of global warming can be used to influence consumers in relation to global warming. Experts in the field appear to be the best option. Using reference group judgments and segmenting consumers on the basis of generation cohort and ethnic group may be beneficial in trying to influence certain groups of consumers in relation to global warming. However segmenting consumers on the basis of sex and education in order to use reference group influence does not appear beneficial since there is no difference in their responses.


Objective: To investigate the association between serum microRNA-7a/b and Myocardial Cell Injury (MCI) induced by ischemia reperfusion in Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients.
Methods: Sixty (60) senile AMI patients were selected and placed in the observation group (A group), while 60 healthy people served as the healthy control group (group B). Depending on their conditions after emergency thrombolytic therapy, the AMI patients were sub-divided into no-reflow group (A1 group, 23 cases) and reperfusion group (A2 group, 37 cases). Blood levels of high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and N-terminal pro-natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were determined in all patients. MicroRNA-7a/b expressions were measured in venous blood 24 h and 120 h before and after thrombolytic therapy.
Results: There were significant, time-dependent increases in microRNA-7a/b expression after thrombolytic therapy, when compared with the control group (p<0.05). Results of correlation analysis showed that microRNA-7a/b was positively correlated with hs-CRP (r1=0.666, p<0.05; but negatively correlated with D-D (r2=-0.642, p<0.05).
Conclusion: In myocardial cell injury induced by ischemia reperfusion, microRNA-7a/b expression is linked to oxidative stress and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. Thus I/RI might be mitigated by regulating the expression of this microRNA.


Current intrusion detection systems (IDS) for industrial control systems (ICS) mostly involve the retrofitting of conventional network IDSs, such as SNORT. Such an approach is prone to missing highly targeted and specific attacks against ICS. Where ICS-specific approaches exist, they often rely on passive network monitoring techniques, offering a low cost solution, and avoiding any computational overhead arising from actively polling ICS devices. However, the use of passive approaches alone could fail in the detection of attacks that alter the behaviour of ICS devices (as was the case in Stuxnet). Where active solutions exist, they can be resource-intensive, posing the risk of overloading legacy devices which are commonplace in ICSs. In this paper we aim to overcome these challenges through the combination of a passive network monitoring approach, and selective active monitoring based on attack vectors specific to an ICS context. We present the implementation of our IDS, SENAMI, for use with Siemens S7 devices. We evaluate the effectiveness of SENAMI in a comprehensive testbed environment, demonstrating validity of the proposed approach through the detection of purely passive attacks at a rate of 99%, and active value tampering attacks at a rate of 81-93%. Crucially, we reach recall values greater than 0.96, indicating few attack scenarios generating false negatives.


ABSTRACT Traditionally, immigrants' propensity to naturalize is attributed to individual characteristics and the origin country. Recently scholars increasingly recognise that naturalisation decisions do not take place in a vacuum: they are conditioned both by the individual life course of immigrants, such as the age at migration and family situation, as well as the opportunity structure set by citizenship policies of the destination country. Yet it is less clear what impact specific policy changes have, and to whom these changes matter most. In this paper we address these questions by analysing citizenship acquisition among first generation immigrants in the Netherlands in light of a restriction in citizenship policy in 2003. We employ unique micro-level longitudinal data from Dutch municipal population registers between 1995 until 2012, which allow us to track naturalisation among different immigration cohorts. We find evidence that indeed naturalisation is part of a larger life course trajectory: immigrants who arrive at a younger age in the Netherlands naturalise more often and so do immigrants with a native partner, or a foreign-born partner who also naturalises. Policy also matters: migrants naturalise later and less often under more restrictive institutional conditions, especially migrants from less developed and politically unstable countries of origin.


Deep networks are highly nonlinear and difficult to optimize. During training, the parameter iterate may move from one local basin to another, or the data distribution may even change. Inspired by the close connection between stochastic optimization and online learning, we propose a variant of the follow the regularized leader (FTRL) algorithm called follow the moving leader (FTML). Unlike the FTRL family of algorithms, the recent samples are weighted more heavily in each iteration and so FTML can adapt more quickly to changes. We show that FTML enjoys the nice properties of RMSprop and Adam, while avoiding their pitfalls. Experimental results on a number of deep learning models and tasks demonstrate that FTML converges quickly, and outperforms other state-ofthe-art optimizers.


A new design methodology for a pattern generator is proposed, formulated in the context of on-chip BIST. The design methodology is circuit-specific and uses synthesis techniques to design BIST generators. The pattern generator consists of two components: a pseudorandom pattern generator (like an LFSR or, preferably, a GLFSR) and a combinational logic to map the outputs of the pseudorandom pattern generator. This combinational logic is synthesized to produce a given set of target patterns by mapping the outputs of the pseudorandom pattern generator. It is shown that, for a particular CUT, an area-efficient combinational logic block can be designed/synthesized to achieve 100 (or almost 100) percent single stuck-at fault coverage using a small number of test the This method is significantly different from weighted pattern generation and can guarantee testing of all hard-to-detect faults without expensive test point insertion. Experimental results on common benchmark netlists demonstrate that the fault coverage of the proposed pattern generator is significantly higher compared to conventional pattern generation techniques. The design technique for the logic mapper is unique and can be used effectively to improve existing pattern generators for combinational logic and scan-based BIST structures.


We are concerned with the issue of detecting outliers and change points from time series. In the area of data mining, there have been increased interest in these issues since outlier detection is related to fraud detection, rare event discovery, etc., while change-point detection is related to event/trend change detection, activity monitoring, etc. Although, in most previous work, outlier detection and change point detection have not been related explicitly, this paper presents a unifying framework for dealing with both of them. In this framework, a probabilistic model of time series is incrementally learned using an online discounting learning algorithm, which can track a drifting data source adaptively by forgetting out-of-date statistics gradually. A score for any given data is calculated in terms of its deviation from the learned model, with a higher score indicating a high possibility of being an outlier. By taking an average of the scores over a window of a fixed length and sliding the window, we may obtain a new time series consisting of moving-averaged scores. Change point detection is then reduced to the issue of detecting outliers in that time series. We compare the performance of our framework with those of conventional methods to demonstrate its validity through simulation and experimental applications to incidents detection in network security.


This thesis explores the relationship between space and creative digital production in Shoreditch, East London (2009-2014). It seeks to identify the spatial conditions that, at multiple scales, mediate and support the operation of digital industries in inner-city locations. Drawing on 'productionist' approaches, which examine creative industries as an industry, work is conceptualized as six activities (producing, meeting, networking, learning, displaying, socializing) performed across four spatial settings: the extended workplace, workspaces, industry events, and the neighbourhood. This qualitative case study uses three data collection methods: semi-structured interviews with workers and industry actors, observations of selected settings, and secondary data. The area is an emergent cluster of digital firms known as 'Silicon Roundabout' and 'Tech City', providing a less explored but relevant case. The thesis' contribution is threefold. First, it provides an empirical account of the spatiality of digital work in Shoreditch. This reveals a network of spaces used for work (base, ancillary, and events) suggesting a reconfiguration, and extension, of the 'workplace' in these industries. This spatial extension is limited and associated with spatial requirements of the tasks involved; the office still plays a central role in digital production. Second, the study identifies macro and micro spatial conditions that mediate and support these work patterns across the four spatial settings and advances the conceptualization of functional, social, and symbolic aspects of these relationships, expanding the understanding of why and how place matters in the digital economy. Third, the analysis reveals that 'structured interaction' and micro processes of spatial segregation and exclusion are critical to support a range of work and social practices in digital production. In contrast to influential accounts that associate creative cities with diversity and tolerance, at the scale of these spatial practices, processes of selection and quest for sameness underpin the operation of these industries within urban space(s).


We investigate the effectiveness of regulatory oversight exercised by the SEC against auditors over the years 1996-2009. The evidence suggests that the SEC is significantly less likely to name a Big N auditor as a defendant, after controlling for both the severity of the violation and for the characteristics of companies more likely to be audited by Big N auditors. Further, when the SEC does charge Big N auditors, the SEC (i) is less likely to impose harsher penalties on the Big N; and (ii) is less likely to name a Big N audit firm relative to individual Big N partners. Moreover, the SEC relies overwhelmingly on administrative proceedings, instead of the tougher civil proceedings, against auditors. One interpretation of these patterns is that the SEC's enforcement against auditors is relatively mild. Other interpretations of these results are also discussed. Though private litigation against auditors is associated with a loss of market share for the auditor, there is no evidence of such product market penalty subsequent to SEC action.


OBJECTIVE
Sociodemographic and psychopathological characteristics as well as treatment approaches to patients at an outpatient clinic for drug addicts are described.

METHODS
Descriptive study based on randomly sampled medical charts and registration forms of subjects presenting for treatment from 1986 to 1993.

RESULTS
The sample was made up predominantly of young white unmarried men, with low occupational status. The number of years of schooling was greater than that of individuals of the same age group in the general population. Thirty-six percent of the subjects were sons of broken-down marriages, 14% had been abandoned by parents during childhood and 14% had lost one of their parents by death. Fifty percent complained of an absent father in their upbringing. Sixteen percent of the patients reported physical abuse in their childhood and the father was the perpetrator in 68% of the cases. The mean age at which subjects started to use drugs was 17.4 years. Cocaine was by far the most abused drug, either alone (34%) or together with other drugs (52%). Slightly less than half of the individuals used marijuana, whereas one fifth were also addicted to alcohol. In the time interval covered by the study the proportion of cocaine abusers increased, whereas marijuana and intravenous drug users decreased among those subjects who attended the program.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study provided information for services assessment and for the modification of the organization of the treatment of drug abuse.


We study the joint assortment planning and inventory management problem, where stock-out events elicit dynamic substitution e ff ects, described by the Multinomial Logit (MNL) choice model. Special cases of this setting have extensively been studied in recent literature, notably the static assortment planning problem. Nevertheless, the general formulation is not known to admit e ffi cient algorithms with analytical performance guarantees prior to this work, and most of its computational aspects are still wide open. In this paper, we devise the first provably-good approximation algorithm for dynamic assortment planning under the MNL model, attaining a constant-factor guarantee for a broad class of demand distributions, that satisfy the increasing failure rate property. Our algorithm relies on a combination of greedy procedures, where stocking decisions are restricted to specific classes of products and the objective function takes modified forms. We demonstrate that our approach substantially outperforms state-of-the-art heuristic methods in terms of performance and speed, leading to an average revenue gain of 4% to 12% in computational experiments. In the course of establishing our main result, we develop new algorithmic ideas that may be of independent interest. These include weaker notions of submodularity and monotonicity, shown su ffi cient to obtain constant-factor worst-case guarantees, despite using noisy estimates of the objective function.


While most experiments investigating zooplankton grazing on harmful cyanobacteria have been carried out with metazoan plankton, several protozoa can also feed efficiently on cyanobacteria. We investigated grazing by the mixotrophic flagellate Ochromonas sp. on the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. Ochromonas sp. grew rapidly on M. aeruginosa and had a strong impact on the population density of its prey. However, specific growth rates of Ochromonas sp. decreased over time, possibly indicating a negative impact on Ochromonas sp. mediated by M. aeruginosa. Grazing did not have any effect on the intracellular microcystin content of M. aeruginosa, and the ingested microcystins did not accumulate within Ochromonas sp. We studied the functional and numerical response of Ochromonas sp. grazing on the microcystin-producing strain M. aeruginosa PCC 7806 and its microcystin-deficient mutant. Ochromonas sp. showed a Type 3 functional response of very similar shape on both the toxic and non-toxic M. aeruginosa strain. Ingestion rates of Ochromonas sp. were even slightly higher on the toxic M. aeruginosa strain. We therefore found no indication of microcystins acting as a defence against mixotrophic flagellates.