An injectable biodegradable hydrogel was prepared for temperature-responsive pulsatile release of insulin. Triblock copolymer of poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(ε-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-PCL-PEG, PECE) was prepared by ring opening bulk copolymerization and characterized using FT-IR, (1) HNMR, and gel permeation chromatography. Aqueous solution of PECE formed an injectable hydrogel, which was solution at room temperature and transformed into gel at 37°C. The temperature-responsive sol-gel transition and crystallinity of PECE hydrogel was studied and compared with pluronic, a well-studied nonbiodegradable injectable hydrogel. In vitro release study revealed that insulin release profile of PECE was similar to pluronic, and its viscosity was 1/30(th) of pluronic sol at 10,000 s(-1) shear rate. Release behavior of insulin from PECE hydrogels followed Fickian diffusion of first order. Insulin retained its secondary structure after release as confirmed by circular dichroism spectrum. A threefold increase in Fickian diffusion coefficient was evidenced when temperature was increased from 34 to 40°C because of crystalline melting of PCL part of PECE. Pulsatile release of insulin showed a correlation coefficient of 0.90 with the change of temperature.


T follicular helper (Tfh) cells potentiate high-affinity, class-switched antibody responses, the predominant correlate of protection from vaccines. Despite intense interest in understanding both the generation and effector functions of this lineage, little is known about the epitope specificity of Tfh cells generated during polyclonal responses. To date, studies of peptide-specific Tfh cells have relied on either the transfer of TcR transgenic cells or use of peptide∶MHC class II tetramers and antibodies to stain TcR and follow limited peptide specificities. In order to comprehensively evaluate polyclonal responses generated from the natural endogenous TcR repertoire, we developed a sorting strategy to separate Tfh cells from non-Tfh cells and found that their epitope-specific responses could be tracked with cytokine-specific ELISPOT assays. The immunodominance hierarchies of Tfh and non-Tfh cells generated in response to immunization with several unrelated protein antigens were remarkably similar. Additionally, increasing the kinetic stability of peptide-MHC class II complexes enhanced the priming of both Tfh and conventional CD4 T cells. These findings may provide us with a strategy to rationally and selectively modulate epitope-specific Tfh responses. By understanding the parameters that control epitope-specific priming, vaccines may be tailored to enhance or focus Tfh responses to facilitate optimal B cell responses.


On the history of mountain-related topics in Czech literature: František Palacký and Milota Zdirad PolákThe literature of the Czech national revival produced a unique type of cestopis travel account, which, from a Polish point of view, could be regarded as an equivalent of accounts of Polish Romantic travels of fellow countrymen across their country. In the Czech literature we can distinguish a clear thematic group associated with the Karkonosze mountains. It includes M.S. Patrčky's O Krkonošských horách 1823, Josef Myslimír Ludvík's Myslimír, po horách krkonošských putující 1824, Karel Slavoj Amerling's Cesta na Sněžku 1832, Karel Hynek Mácha's Pouť Krkonošská 1833–34, František Tomsa Přátelské dopisy z cesty na Sněžku 1845, Josef Frič's Cesta přes Friedland na Krkonoše 1846, and Karel Hanuš's Cesta na Sněžku 1847. These works testify to an expansion of themes tackled by literature during the so-called national revival. Characteristic forms of the period conformed to the Classical, pre-Romantic and Romantic conventions. One of the most interesting themes tackled by literature in those days were the mountains. In line with the spirit of national revival, the Czech cult of the domestic was expressed in the linking of the homeland and its landscape with important aspects of Czech national identity. This convention of referring, as means of self-identification, to spatial symbolism and its vocabulary was visible in the Czech and Slovak culture in several aspects. The vocabulary of Czech national symbols now included the Karkonosze mountains, Šumava or the Bohemian Forest, the Tatras and the Blanik hill. František Palacký referred to landscape-linked symbolism in his ode Na horu Radhošť, added to his youthful work, written together with Pavel Josef Šafařík, Počátkové českého básnictví obzvláště prosodie 1818. The poem formally served as an example illustrating theoretical analyses of poetry included in the study in question. Using the fact that Radhošť was a mountain in Moravia, Palacký included the mountain as a motif in a rather unique founding myth associated with the local Moravian patriotism. Thus mountains became a representative motif of the literature of the Czech national revival. When it comes to Czech poetry, mountain motifs were  introduced into it on a broader scale for the first time by Milota Zdirad Polák Matěj Polák, 1788–1856 in his descriptive poem  Vznešenost přírody 1819. Polák's novelty lay in his introduction into Czech literature of a new genre, descriptive poem, as well as linguistic experiments neologisms thanks to which he developed his own poetic language. Using the category of the sublime as a tool to interpret the natural phenomena he described, Polák sought to demonstrate the richness of the forms of the world, their complexity and diversity. That is why the catalogue of motifs he used is vast. It accorded an appropriate place to the mountains with a brave attempt to concretise their motif: fragments of the poem deal with the Alps, a description of the Karkonosze mountains is highlighted and there is also a motif of volcanic eruption. Undoubtedly the most interesting and artistically the most valuable is an extensive fragment of the poem devoted to the Karkonosze mountains. The fear of the horror of high mountains, the Alps, described in the poem, found its equivalent in the writings of Jan Kollár 1793–1852, who presented his emotions associated with his stay in the Alps in an account of an 1841 journey to Italy Cestopis obsahující cestu do Horní Italie a odtud přes Tyrolsko a Bavorsko, se zvláštním ohledem na slavjanské živly roku 1841 konanou, Budin 1843. Both writers, Polák and Kollár, were hugely impressed by  the mountains, but this did not lead to any Romantic reflection on their part.


In an effort to increase perceptions of cohesion among intercollegiate soccer players, a team-based mindfulness meditation program was undertaken. This team-building program was delivered by using a personal-disclosure mutual-sharing approach. A total of 31 female intercollegiate soccer players from two teams participated. Assigned to the intervention condition was a Canadian intercollegiate team (U Sports), while the control condition was an American intercollegiate team (NCAA, Division II). The participants completed a measure of cohesion (Group Environment Questionnaire) pre- and postintervention. Controlling for the preintervention scores, the 8-week team-based mindfulness meditation program resulted in significantly higher perceptions of social cohesion for the intervention group compared with the control group at postintervention. However, there were no significant differences in task cohesion between the intervention and control groups at postintervention. Using personal disclosure, mutual sharing seems a viable approach by which to deliver a team-based mindfulness meditation program to enhance a team's social cohesion.


Many data center transports have been proposed in recent times (e.g., DCTCP, PDQ, pFabric, etc). Contrary to the common perception that they are competitors (i.e., protocol A vs. protocol B), we claim that the underlying strategies used in these protocols are, in fact, complementary. Based on this insight, we design PASE, a transport framework that synthesizes existing transport strategies, namely, self-adjusting endpoints (used in TCP style protocols), innetwork prioritization (used in pFabric), and arbitration (used in PDQ). PASE is deployment friendly: it does not require any changes to the network fabric; yet, its performance is comparable to, or better than, the state-of-the-art protocols that require changes to network elements (e.g., pFabric). We evaluate PASE using simulations and testbed experiments. Our results show that PASE performs well for a wide range of application workloads and network settings.


The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs)1 have introduced sanctions and debarment systems, under which a company or individual can be sanctioned if it engages in one or more of the sanctionable practices which have been agreed upon by the MDBs.2 The MDBs, as well as their staff, have pub- lished several documents explaining and justifying their sanctions regime.3 This Essay aims to address certain underlying considera- tions on which the MDBs rely in shaping those legal regimes, and will question these considerations in light of international legal standards and principles.Rather than modeling the MDBs' sanctions and debarment sys- tems on U.S. law, the MDBs should have considered international standards such as the principles of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the rules of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).4 An example of MDB reliance on U.S. law can be seen in the World Bank's establishment of its sanctions and debarment sys- tem.5 Indeed, a sanctions and debarment decision should strictly follow the rule of law and, in particular, apply the principles of equal treatment and proportionality, bedrock principles of the WTO's procurement regime. Notwithstanding the valid goals and purposes of the sanctions and debarment systems of the MDBs, which are described in Part III, there are numerous questionable aspects of the current system. Part IV describes these aspects and argues that the sanctions and debarment decision should not allow any room for business considerations. It also argues that early release from debarments must be possible where sufficient self- cleaning measures have been undertaken.The concept of proportionality must have a more pivotal role. Additional efforts must be made to ensure procedural justice in the MDBs' sanctions and debarment regimes. Moreover, the subsidiar- ies of sanctioned or debarred respondents seem to be treated unfairly. Finally, it is noted that the cross-debarment regime lacks harmonization and creates several legal difficulties that preclude an effective cross-debarment.I. World Bank Sanctions Regime Modeled after U.S. LawThe World Bank sanctions regime was significantly influenced by the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1998, as well as the nature of the procurement approach found in the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation, especially subpart 9.4.® Although the two systems have their differences, particularly with regard to the World Bank's limited sanctionable practices, they are similar in many respects.7There are, of course, obvious differences between the U.S. and World Bank systems. The U.S. federal debarment system, for example, is avowedly not designed for punishment,8 while the World Bank system is designated, already by its name, as a sanctions sys- tem. That said, many fundamental aspects of the World Bank sys- tem, such as sanctions that are not bound by principles of proportionality, reflect the system's grounding in the U.S. system, rather than in the norms of the European Union or the WTO.9The similarity is a result of the recommendations made by the Thornburgh Report, which stated as follows:The debarment practices of national agencies that would be the most pertinent from the Bank's standpoint would probably be those of the U.S. government, for the reason that those are the practices that are most familiar to the majority of lawyers appearing before the Bank as counsel for respondents in debar- ment proceedings.10However, the Thornburgh Report's reasoning is not a convinc- ing justification for modeling the World Bank sanctions regime on U.S. law. A law should be modeled and created having primary regard to the aims and purposes to be achieved. Therefore, given the international nature of the MDBs, international agreements and principles should be considered first. Further, the national legal systems of the stakeholders should be observed and, as an overarching point, regard must be given to efficiency, trans- parency, and comprehensibility. …


The synthesis of natural products is a growing area of research within the field of chemistry. Compounds are extracted from sources such as fungi, plants, algae, and other natural sources. The compounds that are biologically active often need to be synthesized in the laboratory due to the fact that the natural resources only contain scant amounts of the active compound. In this research, kinetic resolution, a form of asymmetric synthesis, is used in conjunction with Bronsted acid catalysts to form enantioenriched small molecules that can later be used in the synthesis of natural products. The Petersen lab chose to focus on substituted ?-hydroxy tert-butyl esters. The small molecule was lactonized via a Bronsted acid catalyzed kinetic resolution yielding enantioenriched starting material. In kinetic resolution, the maximum amount of material that can be achieved is 50% with an enantiomeric excess of 100%. Initial optimization was conducted on a-substituted ?-hydroxy tert-butyl esters which showed that R-TRIP was the best catalyst in the kinetic resolution. ?-Substituted and disubstituted ?-hydroxy tert-butyl esters were tested with the syn-a,?-dimethyl substrate showing the highest selectivity (s = 15.6). Cyclic hydroxy esters are currently being tested.


Although most pasture growth models simulate many above- and belowground components of the plant community, calibration and validation are usually based only on periodic measurements ofaboveground forage yield. This research used daily measurements of gross primary productivity (GPP) to validate the photosynthesis subroutine of the Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM). The model was calibrated for a pasture grazed by beef cattle (Bos taurus) in 2003, then validated with data from 2004 through 2006. Predicted and observed annual yield differed by 14 ± 9%, whereas predicted GPP differed from observed GPP by only 7 ± 3%. Seasonal trends in GPP were also adequately simulated, although a slight overestimation in the spring and early-summer and underestimation in the later half of the year occurred. Overestimation occurred when wintertime temperatures were above freezing or when N availability was high following fertilizer application. Late-season underestimation was related to low soil N availability which resulted from excessive N uptake by plants earlier in the year. Only minor adjustments in model structure were needed to improve simulation of GPP. Most adjustments involved changes in parameter values, many of which are often difficult to find or lacking in the literature. Refinement of models to accurately simulate the seasonal distribution of physiological parameters such as GPP will help ensure that model structures correctly represent the true dynamics of C assimilation and pasture growth.


The aim of this essay is to discuss the possibilities for a large scale investigation of the fauces mosaics that are preserved in Pompeii, and to examine what symbol value they had and how they communicated social order in a Roman society. The essay is structured as a synopsis that aims to investigate suitable ways to approach this field of study and lay the ground for a large scale empirical study. I have investigated different approaches to analyse the field and thoroughly discussed ways to use Ray Laurence's (1994) methodology to answer the following questions: Which houses in Pompeii have a mosaic floor in their entrances and where are these houses situated? Is it possible to determine whether or not these house owners chose to decorate their entrances due to the location of their houses: i.e. is it possible to see a deliberate choice from these house owners? The main question of this essay is whether or not Laurence's methodology of the patterns of movement could provide a solid ground for an inquiry like this. The conclusion is that this methodology will be an effective analytical framework that will shed light on these questions and enhance our knowledge of how fauces mosaics were used to communicate symbols of status to specific profession groups in the Roman society.


A 73-year-old man presented with chest pain, elevated troponin levels, and electrocardiographic signs of acute anterior myocardial infarction. Coronary angiography revealed total occlusion of the left main stem (Figure 1A) with moderate collateralization from the right coronary artery (Figure 1B). An intraaortic balloon pump was inserted prior to induction of anesthesia for emergency coronary bypass grafting. At this point, hemodynamic compromise occurred, and simultaneous induction of anesthesia and mechanical resuscitation were required. After a median sternotomy, internal massage, and institution of cardiopulmonary bypass, beating-heart double-vessel coronary artery bypass was performed. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was used as a bridge to recovery. Early postoperative transesophageal echocardiography revealed massive cardiac edema (Figure 1C). The patient was successfully weaned from membrane oxygenation 2 days later, and made a good recovery.


Since World War II, integration with the world economy has arguably been the chief route from poverty to wealth. Japan initially exported cheap goods and later moved on to more technologically sophisticated products. When Japan became rich, Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore replaced Japan as low-wage exporters, and when these countries moved on to more sophisticated products, Thailand and Malaysia filled their niche. More recently, China has become an important exporter of manufactured goods and India is increasingly moving into services exports. No mainland sub-Saharan African country has experienced this type of transformation. Even countries that have undergone major economic reforms seem far from takeoff. Forecasts for Africa, based on extrapolation of its historical experience, tend to be bleak. We consider whether it is possible to construct a model, consistent with the data, which supports a more optimistic view. Motivated by the Asian experience, the model assumes countries can potentially undergo rapid economic transformation only if they integrate into the world economy by producing nontraditional exports. For the purposes of constructing a long-run model of the world economy, we are agnostic on whether exports matter due to technological learning by doing spillovers, political economy considerations, or other factors. As each developing country transforms and becomes advanced, it further improves trade opportunities for the remaining developing countries. For example, if China becomes rich, a billion more people will live in countries that import toys and a billion fewer will live in countries that export them. Our approach is similar to that of Robert E. Lucas (2000) in that we assume growth prospects improve with the state of the world economy, potentially generating accelerating world growth. Unlike Lucas (2000), however, we allow for differential population growth between rich and poor countries. The steady-state proportion of the world population living in advanced countries depends on the rate at which developing countries transform into advanced ones, and on the magnitude of population growth differentials between these two groups of countries. The economic transformation process will overcome the demographic trend, leading to a prosperous steady state, only if the initial share of world population in advanced countries is above a threshold. A simple calibration using historical data suggests that the longrun prospects for lagging developing regions may hinge on a race between economic growth in China and India and population growth in the lagging regions, particularly Africa. If the former "wins," we may eventually observe accelerating global growth. This suggests some caution should be used when interpreting empirical studies on growth determinants, as these results may not be stable over time. Country characteristics that lead to poor performances today may well allow for rapid growth in the future if, and when, the world economy reaches a sufficiently advanced stage. Our model also suggests a queuing effect, where the order in which countries are absorbed into the world economy is determined by the quality of their policies. Economic reforms in one country may potentially have a large impact on growth if they move the country to the front of the queue. But similar reforms in all countries may have a much smaller impact on world growth.


Growing technology, escalating capability, and increasing complexity in many real world systems demand the applications of multivariate statistical analysis approaches by simulation. In these approaches, generating multivariate random vectors is a crucial part of the system modeling and analyzing. The NORTA algorithm, in which generating the correlation matrices of normal random vectors is the most important task, is one of the most efficient methods in this area. To do this, we need to solve some complicated equations. Many researchers have tried to solve these equations by three general approaches of (1) solving nonlinear equations analytically, (2) solving equations numerically, and (3) solving equations by simulation. In this paper, we develop a new method to generate the correlation matrices of normal random vectors based on the artificial neural networks approach. We apply the Perseptron Neural Network as the best applicable network to function fitting. In order to understand the proposed method better, we present two numerical examples and report the results of simulation studies.


In a recent paper (J. Chem. Phys. 139, 064111, 2013), an antisymmetrised product of strongly orthogonal geminals with the expansion coefficients explicitly expressed by means of the occupation numbers was used to generate the Piris natural orbital functional 5 (PNOF5). This functional describes most of the non-dynamical effects, but also an important part of the intrapair (intrageminal) electron correlation. Second-order corrections to the generating PNOF5 wave function were derived using the multiconfigurational perturbation theory size consistent at the second order (SC2-MCPT) to include the missing interpair (intergeminal) electron correlation. A modified version of the SC2-MCPT involving double excitations only from different geminals was introduced and denoted as PNOF5-PT2. In this paper, the ground-state energies of 36 closed-shell species belonging to the G2/97 test set of molecules are studied by the PNOF5-PT2 and PNOF5-SC2-MCPT methods. The numerical performance of both methods on eight dimers, with different strength of hydrogen bonds, and 13 isogyric reactions is also assessed. The results are in reasonable agreement with those obtained using the complete active space second-order perturbation theory and coupled-cluster method with singles, doubles, and noniterative triples corrections.


There is a growing consensus that domestic and international trademark laws must be revised to better protect the right to freedom of expression. This paper argues that governments and free speech advocates should currently focus their efforts on developing a global "soft law" instrument that contains specific, speech-protective model trademark laws that clarify how nations can protect expressive interests in domestic trademark laws without violating their international obligations to protect trademarks. The goal would be to encourage decision-makers to consider how the unreasonable expansion of trademark protection can harm the public interest, and provide governments with the tools to reconcile trademark rights and free expression in their domestic trademark legislation, regulations, and litigation. Nations would have the flexibility to experiment and select which speech-friendly trademark reforms work best given their domestic law and culture. Experimentation is better than harmonization in this area until more countries agree on whether and how to protect expressive interests in trademark law. After providing some background regarding the increasing conflict between trademark rights and free expression, this paper demonstrates how the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property allow member states to protect expression in their trademark laws. It also sets forth a framework for the development of speech-protective model trademark laws relating to what is protectable subject matter in trademark law, the scope of rights, defenses, remedies, and secondary trademark liability. These guidelines could provide a useful "menu" of options for legislators, trademark offices, and courts trying to balance the various rights and interests in trademark law.


Hot spots are a major concern in high-end processors as they constrain performance and limit the lifetime of semiconductor chips. Using embedded thermal sensors, dynamic thermal management systems track the hot spots during runtime and adjust the performance and the cooling system of the processor when necessary. In many-core processors, the locations of hot spots vary spatially and temporally depending on the configuration of active cores and the workloads running on the cores. Our work includes both theoretical advances in sensor allocation techniques and experimental advances for thermal imaging of real processors. We propose a hard sensor allocation algorithm to determine the sensor locations where hot spots can be tracked accurately given a budget number of sensors. We also propose soft sensor computation techniques to alleviate design constraints on sensor locations and to further improve the resolution of hot spot tracking. The proposed soft sensing technique combines the measurements of the hard sensors in an optimal way to estimate the temperature at any desired location. We use infrared imaging methods to characterize the thermal behavior of a real dual-core processor during operation. We execute large number of workload configurations on the processor and track the locations and temperatures of hot spots during runtime. The thermal characterization data are then used as the input to our sensor allocation techniques. We demonstrate that our sensor allocation techniques improve significantly upon the previous results in the literature and provide accurate tracking of hot spots.


The unsustainable consumption and waste of natural resources is a legacy of modern times, born largely from the inappropriate marriage of excessive material durability with fleeting product lifespans. Waste management facilities throughout the European Union (EU) are overloaded with fully functioning domestic electronic products (DEPs). In many cases, waste of this nature can be seen as nothing more than a symptom of a failed relationship between the user and the product. This is because consumer desire is unstable; it continually evolves and adapts, whilst the DEPs deployed to both mediate and satisfy those desires remain relatively frozen in time. It is this incapacity for evolution and growth that renders most products incapable of both establishing and sustaining relationships with users. The waste this inconsistency generates is substantial, coming at increasing cost to manufacturers facing the policy-driven demands of the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and, perhaps more importantly, the natural world. We must therefore begin to consider the emergent paradigm of emotionally durable design to propose new and alternative genres of DEPs that reduce the consumption and waste of resources by increasing the resilience of relationships established between consumers and their products; presenting a more expansive, holistic approach to design for durability, and more broadly, the lived experience of sustainability.


Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) is the most commonly used insulating material for extruded high voltage cable applications. Degassing is a heat-treatment process that is performed to remove methane from XLPE insulation which is formed during the crosslinking reactions as a by-product. Apart from removing methane, heat-treatment influences the electrical properties through changing the morphology due to annealing and also removal of polar crosslinking by-products. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is generally used to observe the changes in crystalline structure of the polymer. Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) is widely used to study polarization properties of dielectric materials. In this study these two methods are used for a comparative analysis of XLPE and LDPE subjected to different heat-treatment time, with or without a diffusion barrier. Electrical measurements are performed at room temperature. From the SEM imaging conducted after permanganate acid etching, formation of spherulites due to heat-treatment is not obvious in neither LDPE nor in XLPE. However, distinctions between LDPE and XLPE in SEM micrographs are evident. From studies with dielectric polarization spectroscopy, it is found that the LDPE samples are less sensitive to heat-treatment in comparison to the XLPE samples while dissipation factor of XLPE samples are influenced by the choice of pressing film used during sample preparation.


Following the invasion of Iraq, the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority ("CPA") introduced a series of Orders and Regulations that restructured the foreign investment landscape in that country. Some of these regulations, and the political story behind their implementation, have received scholarly attention. However, few commentators have analyzed the body of CPA-issued regulations for provisions relevant to foreign investment. This paper traces the evolution of investment law in occupied Iraq through a detailed evaluation of CPA-issued Orders and Regulations. Analysis of these regulations, of pre-existing US policy on foreign investment, and of criteria used to measure foreign investment regulation reveals the extent to which the CPA regime installed in Iraq is intensely pro-foreign investor and reflects a policy commitment to opening developing markets to foreign investment.


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives have grown dramatically worldwide, no exception in export-oriented country like Thailand. Business sector now engages in a vast number of CSR initiatives. However, there is a lack of empirical research pertaining to CSR, typically in developing countries, wherein there are often questions about understanding of CSR, level of engagement, and lack of consumers' support. This research attempts to investigate CSR in Thai context and attempts to, firstly, examine CSR from the business point of view; why and how businesses, implement CSRs. Second, to investigate public's perception and expectation for the business to be "socially responsible", and their decisions to exercise their purchasing power over the companies with and without CSR initiatives. Third, to investigate how businesses and the public communicate and connect with each other with regards to CSR initiatives. This research selected petroleum business as a focus of study. The combined qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. The research conducted semi-structured interview with the management of PTT Group and Shell (Thailand) and conducted survey on consumers' side. This research confirms the necessity for businesses to engage in CSR. With stronger public awareness on CSR, businesses can no longer move on without being socially responsible. Evidently, this research finds that public has higher expectation towards firms to be socially responsible. They are willing to exercise their power to support companies that are socially responsible and are able to use their sanction to boycott companies that do not act in a socially responsible manner, especially when those two products of the similar quality are sold at the same price. In view of CSR communications, it is found that CSR communications to publics do have a critical impact on perception toward businesses. The respondents have significantly improved their perceptions towards the companies once they learnt more about the good causes that the companies contributed to the society.


Because it still lacks adequate theory needed to ground its multiparadigm multimethodologies, critical systems practice has been derisively called "theoretically-contradictory eclecticism". This paper is an introduction to and overview of the author's forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation which offers a new framework for research in critical systems thinking and proposes a new approach for the practice of critical systemic intervention. To underpin this framework an ontology of process–structure isomorphies is designed as a metaphysical interface through an abstraction called the critical moment to each of the conventional paradigms of critical systems thinking (functionalist, interpretivist, emancipatory and postmodern). The ontology is realised by a new epistemology (its raison d'etre) that respects paradigm incommensurability and yet exploits all the advantages to be had from a multiparadigmatic perspectivity. The new methodology, (wherein each of the paradigmatic approaches is critically 'deployed') then operationalises and completes the new framework. This new approach calls for and directs the systemist's critically reflexive, axiologically transparent, multiparadigmatic appreciation of, and multimethodological engagement with, the problem situation and flux. The philosophy necessarily lays out the framework's foundational motives, rationale, intents and purposes and acts as a guide for its use. The principal advantage of this new approach is derived from its critically-grounded multiparadigmatic perspectivity and the consequent leveraging of the full gamut of existing systemic methodologies and best practices.


The purpose of this study was to quantify the occurrence of the arcuate artery. The arcuate artery was defined as that artery branching off the dorsalis pedis artery at or below the level of the tarsometatarsal joint, tending laterally across the bases of metatarsals 2 through 4, and supplying dorsal metatarsal arteries 2 through 4. The arcuate artery was present in 16.7% of 72 cadaver feet that were dissected and examined, suggesting that the arcuate artery is not the primary blood supply to dorsal metatarsal arteries 2 through 4 as is commonly described. It was determined that the lateral tarsal artery supplied dorsal metatarsal arteries 2 through 4 more frequently (47.2%) than the arcuate artery. The proximal perforating arteries as well as various combinations of all three sources were also found to contribute complete blood supply to dorsal metatarsal arteries 2 through 4. Therefore, a consistent dorsal arterial network, which differentiates throughout development, better explains the blood supply of the dorsal forefoot than the arcuate artery.


The role of innovations in improving government productivity and the effectiveness of services has previously been little studied. This report surveys central departments and agencies to ascertain what kinds of innovations they have recently made, and analyses the factors that they see as important in sustaining the innovations. Organisational or administrative innovations in central government are diverse, but most involve improving performance management, introducing new IT projects or web services, as well as some physical technology changes. Many recent projects focus on joining up government and improving users' experience of services. The average innovation nominated takes 24 months to deliver and costs £900,000, but a minority of projects are much bigger and take longer. The innovation process in central government is top-down and dominated by senior management. Contributions from lower-level staff are not so important. Innovative changes are often launched because of either political or ministerial pressures or efficiency drives. However, once this external trigger is provided departments and agencies have a stockpile of possible innovations to hand which they use to sustain change. The availability of funding is cited as a key factor sustaining innovations, but using means to search for innovations such as specific innovation units can also play an important part. The main barriers to innovation are a reluctance to embrace new ways of working and fragmentation within government, creating 'silos' between agencies. The main impacts of applied innovations are improvements in services and responsiveness, but innovations seem to be less successful in cutting costs or improving staff working conditions. There is scope for government to take a more systematic approach to developing innovations by improving costs and productivity data, communicating more simply to staff what kinds of innovations can be helpful, encouraging some counter-cultural thinking and methods for finding innovative solutions, and ensuring that approval and piloting processes are not over‑protracted. The behaviours needed for innovation often challenge traditional ways of thinking and need to be recognised and rewarded. Departments and agencies can learn lessons from the private sector in developing more regular and serial innovations.


We develop a model of debt sustainability analysis with optimal financing decisions in the presence of macroeconomic, financial and fiscal uncertainty. We define a coherent measure of refinancing risk, and trade off the risks of debt stock and flow dynamics, subject to debt sustainability constraints and endogenous risk and term premia. We optimize both static and dynamic financing strategies, compare them with several simple rules and consol financing to demonstrate economically significant effects of optimal financing, and show that the stock-flow tradeoff can be critical for sustainability. We quantify the minimum refinancing risk and the maximum rate of debt reduction that a sovereign can achieve given its economic fundamentals, and extend the model to identify optimal timing for debt flow adjustments that allow the sovereign to go beyond these limits. We put the model to the data on three real-world cases: a representative euro zone crisis country, a low-debt country (Netherlands) and a high-debt country (Italy). These applications illustrate the use of the model in informing diverse policy decisions on sustainable public finance. The model is part of the European Stability Mechanism toolkit to assess debt sustainability and repayment capacity of member states in the context of financial assistance.


RANDOMIZED CONVOLUTIONAL AND CONCATENATED CODES FOR THE WIRETAP CHANNEL Alireza Nooraiepour M.S. in ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING Advisor: Tolga Mete Duman October 2016 Wireless networks are vulnerable to various kinds of attacks such as eavesdropping because of their open nature. As a result, security is one of the most important challenges that needs to be addressed for such networks. To address this issue, we utilize information theoretic secrecy approach and develop randomized channel coding techniques akin to the approach proposed by Wyner as a general method for confusing the eavesdropper while making sure that the legitimate receiver is able to recover the transmitted message. We first study the application of convolutional codes to the randomized encoding scheme. We argue how dual of a code plays a major role in this construction and obtain dual of a convolutional code in a systematic manner. We propose optimal and sub-optimal decoders for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and binary symmetric channels and obtain bounds on the decoder performance extending the existing lower and upper bounds on the error rates of coded systems with maximum likelihood (ML) decoding. Furthermore, we apply list decoding to improve the performance of the sub-optimal decoders. We demonstrate via several examples that security gaps achieved by the randomized convolutional codes compete favorably with some of the existing coding methods. In order to improve the security gap hence the system performance further, we develop concatenated coding approaches applied to the randomized encoding scheme as well. These include serial and parallel concatenated convolutional codes and serial concatenation of a low density generator matrix code with a convolutional code. For all of these solutions low-complexity iterative decoders are proposed and their performance in the wiretap channel is evaluated in terms of the security gap. Numerical examples show that for certain levels of confusion iii


The overall objective of this thesis is to describe and explain how different quality management philosophies can be combined in the supply/demand chain, in order to contribute to its resilience. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative, based on theory and literature related to TQM, Lean, Agile and Six Sigma, one literature study and three case studies that were performed in companies. The studies are related to four research questions and are presented in four papers. The first research question focuses on similarities and differences between the quality management concepts TQM, Lean and Six Sigma. The findings were that TQM, Six Sigma and Lean have many similarities, but they differ in some areas. For examples Lean addresses process flow and waste, whereas Six Sigma addresses variation and design. The conclusion is that there is a lot to gain if organisations are able to combine these three concepts, as they are complementary. Two case studies and a literature survey supported the findings. The second research question focuses on outcomes in a logistics process if using quality management. The findings were that the quality management approach leads to risks being mitigated, managed and monitored and ensures a more effective, robust and flexible process, very much in line with the Agility philosophy. Solutions for quicker response to customers have also been introduced. The findings were supported by two case studies in seven companies. The third research question focuses on how prepared the transport- and logistics-oriented companies are for the application of quality concepts and quality management philosophy. The findings were that they can be described as being TQM-oriented. The companies do not consider Lean and Six Sigma to be future trends. Focus is on the customer, while they do not focus on variations or removing waste. The findings were supported by a case study in 24 companies. The fourth research question focuses on how quality concepts can contribute to risk control and resilience in an organisation. A combined Lean/Six Sigma approach by using Six Sigma framework and the last phase, Perfection, in the Lean concept, implies that the companies' resilience, due to their strengthened ability to handle variability, risk management and agility, was improved. The findings were supported by two case studies in seven companies.


We are in the midst of a computing revolution. As the cost of provisioning hardware and software stacks grows, and the cost of securing and administering these complex systems grows even faster, we're seeing a shift towards computing clouds. Clouds are essentially services accessed over a network, and offer developers scalable, robust computing infrastructure on a "pay as you go" basis, with the ability to dynamically adjust the amount of "rented" resources, and thereby, the bill. For cloud service providers, there is efficiency from amortizing costs and averaging usage peaks. Internet portals like Yahoo! have long offered application services, such as email for individuals and organizations. Companies are now offering services such as storage and compute cycles, enabling higher-level services to be built on top. In this talk, I will discuss Yahoo!'s vision of cloud computing, and describe some of the key initiatives, highlighting the technical challenges involved in designing hosted, multi-tenanted data management systems.


Tensor field visualization is a challenging task due in part to the multi-variate nature of individual tensor samples. Glyphs convey tensor variables by mapping the tensor eigenvectors and eigenvalues to the orientation and shape of a geometric primitive, such as a cuboid or ellipsoid. Though widespread, cuboids and ellipsoids have problems of asymmetry and visual ambiguity. Cuboids can display misleading orientation for tensors with underlying rotational symmetry. Ellipsoids differing in shape can be confused, from certain viewpoints, because of similarities in profile and shading. This paper addresses the problems of asymmetry and ambiguity with a new tunable continuum of glyphs based on superquadric surfaces. Superquadric tensor glyphs enjoy the necessary symmetry properties of ellipsoids, while also imitating cuboids and cylinders to better convey shape and orientation, where appropriate. The new glyphs are demonstrated on fields of diffusion tensors from the human brain.


[Abstract]: A digital elevation model (DEM) is one of the most important datasets for catchment management and planning. It provides elevation information that is useful for many environmental applications including hydrologic modelling and flood management planning. Currently, the most comprehensive catchment wide DEM in the Condamine Catchment is a dataset derived from 1:100,000 topographic mapping. It is identified as the Department of Natural Resources and Water (NRW) DEM and it has an estimated average accuracy of approximately 10m vertically based on a 25m horizontal grid. The Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) derived DEM is also available for this catchment. It has a horizontal resolution of 87m and a vertical accuracy of about 16m. The accuracy of these DEMs may not be suitable for all application areas. Therefore, accuracy assessment of current DEM was deemed necessary. In this study existing ground survey marks were used as 'true' elevation data for DEM accuracy assessment. For assessment purposes, the catchment area was classified into flat, moderate and steeper slope categories and each category was evaluated separately. Elevation data corresponding to the existing survey marks were extracted from each of the above DEMs. Differences were calculated between the survey marks and the elevations extracted from the DEMs. These differences were grouped into several error ranges for each slope category and each DEM type. The result indicated that the NRW 25m DEM has better than 10m accuracy at 90% confidence level. The SRTM 87m DEM over the same area has proven to be slightly better with a 95% confidence of better than 10m. However, the accuracy assessments of these DEMs vary over the different slope categories and land use utilization.


A 10-year-old girl with no nasal or respiratory symptoms developed a headache lasting a few hours. The next day she became totally blind in the right eye and over 5 days vision in the left eye deteriorated to bare light perception. The diagnosis of a sphenoid sinus mucocele was made radiologically and drainage via an endonasal sphenoidectomy produced 12 ml of brownish fluid. Endoscopic biopsy of the wall confirmed the diagnosis of a mucocele. Steroid treatment was given postoperatively, but vision recovered to 6/12 in the left eye only. The importance of urgent clinical diagnosis and treatment is stressed.


Alkyl-passivated silicon nanoparticles have been studied via aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in conjunction with electron energy loss spectroscopy in order to characterize both their chemical composition and structural make-up. Energy loss spectra indicate a predominantly silicon core structure with some oxide species and Si–C surface bonds. Shifts in the Si L-edge onset to higher energies are attributed to quantum confinement effects in the material although the magnitudes are greater than theoretical values expected for silicon nanocrystals bound by alkyl chains. Nanocrystal STEM samples formed by direct evaporation and deposition of intact nanocrystals show evidence of crystalline planes and structural rearrangements, which can be observed under extended irradiation by the electron probe beam.


This paper examines the ability of balanced pension plan managers to successfully time the equity and bond market and select the appropriate assets within these markets. In order to evaluate both market timing abilities in these balanced pension plans, we extend the traditional equity market timing models to also account for bond market timing. As far as we know, we are among the first to apply this multifactor timing model to investigate equity and bond market timing simultaneously. This performance evaluation has been conducted on two samples of Spanish balanced pension plans, one with Euro Zone and one with World investment focus. This allows us to decompose managers' skills into three components: selectivity, equity market timing, and bond market timing. Our findings suggest that the average stock-picking ability of pension plans is positive. World schemes tend to have positive bond timing skills, while Euro Zone pension plans are on average not able to time equity or bond markets.


The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension for Event State
Publication describes a mechanism with which a presence user agent is
able to publish presence information to a presence agent. Using the
Presence Information Data Format (PIDF), each presence publication
contains full state, regardless of how much of that information has
actually changed since the previous update. As a consequence, updating
a sizeable presence document with small changes bears a considerable
overhead and is therefore inefficient. Especially with low bandwidth
and high latency links, this can constitue a considerable burden to
the system. This memo defines a solution that aids in reducing the
impact of those constraints and increases transport efficiency by
introducing a mechanism that allows for publication of partial
presence information.


The nature of zeolite catalytic sites was studied by observing their interactions with sorbants. In situ FTIR studies of a range of sorbants on H+ZSM-5, H+mordenite and H+Y showed that the zeolite Bronsted proton was transferred towards the sorbant. Sorbants could be placed in three classes depending on the type of hydrogen bond formed. "Class A" sorbants were alcohols, alkanes, ammonia, amines and carboxylic acids and showed a single v0-H band shifted from the vO-H of the zeolite. The shift in vO-H increased with increasing proton affinity of the sorbant. "Class B" sorbants were alkenes and aromatics and showed a resultant broad, flat vO-H due to bonding through the t electrons of the double bond or aromatic ring. "Class C" sorbants included water, ethers, ketenes, aldehydes, nitriles and carboxylic acids (also Class A). They showed extremely broad hydroxyl bands from -3700 to -1200 cm-1 with several maxima. Bonding was through oxygen or nitrogen lone electron pairs. A novel, low temperature (-400 [degrees] C), reaction of acetic acid to ketene was observed over alkali-exchanged zeolites. Thermal desorption/mass spectrometry, mini-reactor mass spectrometry and in situ FTIR techniques were used to investigate the products obtained by varying the carboxylic acid and the catalyst, and the reaction mechanism.


The objective of this paper is to analyse to what extent the use of cross-section data will distort the estimated elasticities for car ownership demand when the observed variables do not correspond to a state equilibrium for some individuals in the sample. Our proposal consists of approximating the equilibrium values of the observed variables by constructing a pseudo-panel data set which entails averaging individuals observed at different points of time into cohorts. The results show that individual and aggregate data lead to almost the same value for income elasticity, whereas with respect to working adult elasticity the similarity is less pronounced.


An ecologic study was conducted to evaluate the dry matter yield response and the mean daily growth and water consumption rates of grain sorghum at four climatic sites in the tropics and subtropics. BR-54 seeds of this crop were grown in pots watered by capillarity with a specially-devised fiberglass wick-tin can reservoir technique which permitted water use measurements and drainage through the same wick. Seven weekly harvests were made of shoots and roots separately over a 52-day growth period centered on the March 22 vernal equinox . Climatic sites had a marked effect on dry matter yields (weight of the shoot). The yield response is directly related to the amount of water consumed which, at the same time, is closely related to the leaf area. However, an analysis of variance indicates that the relative growth rate, unit leaf area, water use rate, and other related indices did not significantly differ with climatic sites. As a result, it was found that there existed highly significant quadratic relationships of the relative growth rates and water use rates as a function of days after emergence when the four climatic sites were included together in regression analysis. Linear regression analysis showed also a significant relationship of unit leaf rate and water use rate on the mean daily values of solar radiation intensity and, to a lesser extent, to the open-pan evaporation.


We have introduced a new query optimization framework called intensional query optimization (IQO), which enables existing optimization techniques to be applied to queries that use views. In particular, we consider that view deenitions may employ unions. Advanced database technologies and applications|such as federation and mediation over heterogeneous database sources|lead to such complex view deenitions, and to the need to handle complex, expensive queries. Query rewriting techniques have been proposed which exploit semantic query caches, materialized views, and semantic knowledge about the database domain to optimize query evaluation. These can augment syntactic optimization to reduce evaluation costs further. Such techniques include semantic query caching, query folding, and semantic query optimization. However, most proposed rewrite techniques ignore views in queries; that is, the views are considered as other tables. The IQO framework enables rewrites to be applied to various expansions of the query, even when no such rewrite is applicable directly to the query itself. With IQO, we optimize the query tree, not just the query. The IQO framework introduces the notion of a discounted query, which is a query with some of its expansions \separated out", so the query can be recast into pieces that can be optimized. For this approach to be eeective, the sum of the costs of evaluating each piece must be less than the cost of evaluating the query itself. This includes the discounted query. We develop an evaluation plan for discounted queries that is generally more eecient than the evaluation of the queries themselves.


Large disparities exist in terms of maternal and under-five mortality between rich and poor countries and also between rich and poor within countries. In order to improve maternal and child health countries need data to inform programs and policies. In terms of maternal mortality getting accurate estimates is a challenge for many low- and middle-income countries. These countries often lack complete vital registration systems which include reporting of all births and deaths. Data from health facilities alone do not capture the deaths that occur in homes or non-facility environments. Countries that are able to obtain estimates often only have these estimates at a national level though maternal mortality may vary widely by sub-region within a country. In addition few low- or middle-income countries have information regarding cause of maternal mortality at either a national or sub-national level. This guide presents a methodology of using a post-census verbal autopsy in conjunction with the World Health Organizations International Classification of Disease (ICD) guidelines. This methodology can enable countries to obtain the information they need at both national and sub-national levels for effective programs and policies.


This paper examines the theoretical properties of full-cost transfer prices in multidivisional firms. In our model, divisional managers are responsible for the initial acquisition of productive capacity and the utilization of that capacity in subsequent periods, once operational uncertainty has been resolved. We examine alternative variants of full-cost transfer pricing with the property that the discounted sum of transfer payments is equal to the initial capacity acquisition cost and the present value of all subsequent variable costs of output supplied to a division. Our analysis identifies environments where particular variants of full-cost transfer pricing induce efficiency in both the initial investments and the subsequent output levels. Our findings highlight the need for a proper integration of intracompany pricing rules and divisional control rights over capacity assets. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.


The effects of organic solvents on 50 male workers exposed 5-46 (mean 18) years were studied with a cross-sectional design. Referents were matched pairwise according to age and education. An analysis of confounders confirmed good comparability between the two groups. As indicators of organic brain dysfunction regional cerebral blood flow was measured and the power spectrum of the subjects' electroencephalograms was analyzed, the former being reduced 4% and the latter showing increased power in the delta and beta bands in the exposed group. Symptoms of brain dysfunction were significantly more frequent among the exposed subjects and showed an exposure-effect relationship. Neuropsychological tests revealed definite indication of brain dysfunction in 14% of the exposed subjects in comparison to none in the reference group. The exposed subjects performed significantly worse than the referents in tests measuring focused attention abilities. A neurophysiological examination of the peripheral nervous system showed no difference between the groups. Clinical chemistry demonstrated no differences that could be explained by solvent exposure.


The impact of haptic feedback on the perception of unknown objects (10 without texture, 10 with texture, and 2 complex shapes) was examined. Using a point probe (a PHANTOM), three treatment groups of students (visual, haptic, and visual plus haptic feedback) explored a set of virtual objects. The visual treatment group observed the objects through a small circular aperture. Accuracy of perception, exploration time, and description of objects were compared for the three treatment groups. Participants included 45 visually normal undergraduate students distributed across the three treatment groups and 4 blind students composing a second hapticonly group. Results showed that, within the normally sighted students, the haptic and haptic plus visual groups were slightly slower in their explorations than the visual group. The haptic plus visual group was more accurate in identifying objects than the visual or haptic-only groups. The terms used by the haptic treatment group to describe the objects differed from the visual and visual plus haptic groups, suggesting that these modalities are processed differently. There were no differences across the three groups for long-term memory of the objects. The haptic group was significantly more accurate in identifying the complex objects than the visual or visual plus haptic groups. The blind students using haptic feedback were not significantly different from the other haptic-only treatment group of normally-sighted participants for accuracy, exploration pathways, and exploration times. The haptic-only group of participants spent more time exploring the back half of the virtual objects than the visual or visual plus haptic participants. This finding supports previous research showing that the use of the PHANTOM with haptic feedback tends to support the development of 3-dimensional understandings of objects.


Bio-oil produced from fast pyrolysis of biomass contains various levels of acetic and formic acids derived from breakdown of cellulose and hemi-cellulose components. Removal of these organic acids from bio-oil was investigated for use as industrial chemicals as well as to improve the quality of recovered bio-oil as fuel in various applications. Calcium oxide and a quaternary ammonium anion-exchange resin were used to form acid salts of the organic acids, which were then separated, and the organic acids were generated by reacting with sulfuric acid. Both methods were found to be effective in limited ways and various difficulties encountered in this approach are discussed.


In this paper we argue that studying Falun Gong9s use of the Internet is essential to understanding the movement as a whole. Falun Gong has made skillful use of the Internet for three of its most important
 functions. In the area of information distribution, the Internet has become an important vehicle for disseminating Li Hongzhi9s teachings. To strengthen the integrity of a globally-dispersed community,
 it has proven useful for organizing face-to-face gatherings and for online experience sharing. In Falun Gong9s struggle for survival as a movement, the Internet has helped practitioners bring pressure against
 the People9s Republic of China (PRC) government, especially at the international level. But Falun Gong9s Internet use has not guaranteed success in these tasks. Reliance on the Internet has paved the way
 for the emergence of a splinter sect and challenges to Li9s authority, and the PRC government has effectively countered much of Falun Gong9s Internet use within the country.


In 1998 the Slovenian UI system was drastically reformed. The reform reduced the potential duration of unemployment benefits substantially and simultaneously improved employment services offered to, and monitoring of, the recipients. We find that the reduction in potential benefit duration had a positive effect on the exit rate out of unemployment - both to employment and to other destinations - at various durations of unemployment spells and for many categories of unemployed workers. We also identify a clear spike in the exit rate out of unemployment in the month unemployment benefits expire (and a smaller spike in the month thereafter), and for males an increase of job-finding rate in the third month of unemployment, a likely consequence of a reduction of the level of benefit that occurs at that point. Interestingly, post-unemployment wages of recipients were not affected after the change of the law, suggesting that higher job-finding rates following the reduction of benefits were not produced by reduced reservation wages (higher acceptance probability) but rather more effective job-search activity.


Interest in California's beautiful native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers is at an all-time high. Yet identification and classification of the state's vast and varied flora can be challenging for both amateurs and professionals. This book provides a superb way for learning to identify California's native and naturalized plants by learning to recognize plant families. The heart of the book contains user-friendly keys and descriptions of seventy major families prominent in wildlands. With this book in hand, anyone will be able to identify common native and naturalized species throughout California's majestic floristic province extending from southwestern Oregon into northern Baja California and to the western side of the major mountain ranges.


How are bryophyte alpha and beta diversities distributed across spatial scales along an elevational gradient in an oceanic island? Which mechanisms and drivers operate to shape them? Starting from a multiscale hierarchical sampling approach along an 1000 m elevational transect, we used additive diversity partitioning and null modeling to evaluate the contributions of the alpha and beta diversity components to overall bryophyte diversity in Terceira Island, Azores. Substrate-level diversity patterns were explored by means of the Sorensen Similarity Index and the Lloyd Index of Patchiness. Elevation-level beta diversity was decomposed into its replacement and richness differences components, with several environmental variables being evaluated as diversity predictors. Bryophyte diversity proved to be primarily due to beta diversity between elevation sites, followed by diversity among substrates. Compositional differences between neighboring sites decreased with elevation, being mainly caused by species replacement and correlating with differences in relative humidity and disturbance. At the substrate level, we found a great homogeneity in terms of species composition, coupled with a low substrate specialization rate. We conclude that, in Terceira's native vegetation patches, regional processes, such as environmental gradients associated with elevation, play a greater role in shaping bryophyte diversity than local processes. Moister and less disturbed areas at mid-high elevation harbor a richer bryoflora, consistently more similar and stable between neighbouring sites. Simultaneously, the different substrates available are somewhat ecologically redundant, supporting few specialized species, pointing to these areas providing optimal habitat conditions for bryophytes. Our findings provide a better understanding of how bryophyte diversity is generated in Terceira Island, indicating that management and conservation measures should focus on island-level approaches, aiming to protect and rehabilitate additional natural vegetation patches at different elevations, especially in the severely disturbed lowlands.


Research and development in graphene synthesis has been rapidly growing in the past few years because of its extraordinary physical, mechanical, thermal, electrical and optical properties. Graphene flakes, one of the most popular forms of graphene, can be used for many applications such as conductive inks, nanofluids, supercapacitors, composites, etc. Synthesis of graphene flakes is indeed a path to reach large-scale production even if the cost of production and efficiency are required to be further improved. This review sheds light on the recent advancements of graphene flake synthesis and it gives a comprehensive analysis of the synthesis methods. Keys for further improvements are proposed based on the mechanisms involved in the graphene flake formation.


Appropriate utilization of clinical laboratory services is important for patient care and requires institutional stewardship. Clinical laboratory stewardship programs are dedicated to improving the ordering, retrieval, and interpretation of appropriate laboratory tests. In addition, these programs focus on developing, maintaining, and improving systems to provide proper financial coverage for medically necessary testing. Overall, clinical laboratory stewardship programs help clinicians improve the quality of patient care while reducing costs to patients, hospitals, and health systems. This document, which was created by a new multiinstitutional committee interested in promoting and formalizing laboratory stewardship, summarizes core elements of successful hospital-based clinical laboratory stewardship programs. The core elements will also be helpful for independent commercial clinical laboratories.


ABSTRACT This manuscript examines the concept and processes of tariffs in global business. In the flowing sections is a review of the market-entry literature, an examination of purposes and types of tariffs, a critical analysis of four case examples of tariffs in global business involving the steel, lumber, automobile, and textile industries, and a discussion of the use of foreign trade zones in managing a firm's tariff exposure. The manuscript features a comprehensive literature review that may be of value to global business practitioners and researchers. INTRODUCTION After a month at sea in a container aboard a cargo ship, a product lands at a port in a host country. Then begins the process of moving the product through the various host-country governmental offices related to country entry and customs. Priced conservatively on export from its home country, the product must be competitive in the host-country market. A recent market research study indicates that the host-country promises to be a profitable market for the exporting firm, but it is a price-sensitive market and the product's price, therefore, must be competitive with local products. The market-entry process moves smoothly at the port. The firm's host-country distributor adroitly handles the documentation for country entry. All is going well with the processing activities at the port until the host-country government levies a tariff of 60% on the specific product type and country-of-origin locale of the product imported to the host country. At the imposition of the tariff, the landed cost of the product increases from (X) in host-country currency to [(X) + 0.60(X)]. At a tariff-imputed landed cost of [(X) + 0.60(X)], the product likely will not be competitive, particularly in the host country's price-sensitive market. MARKET-ENTRY LITERATURE The opening vignette typifies an unfortunate experience of some managers in international market-entry transactions. A foreign market is selected, a product is shipped, and upon arrival a higher than anticipated tariff is levied. While it is possible to request "advanced tariff classification" from a country to which a product is being exported to know the likely amount of tariff beforehand, tariff schedules in a host country sometimes will change without prior notification. The change more often than not is an increase in tariff. This results in the landed cost of a product increasing significantly as the result of an increase in tariff, thereby affecting a product's price competitiveness within a host-country market. Nations affect market-entry behaviors of home-country firms seeking entry to host-country markets through trade policies, the mix of national customs, laws, procedures, rules, and tariffs that govern international trade (Strange, 1988; Behrman & Grosse, 1990; Brewer, 1993; Shleifer & Vishny, 1994; Aswicahyono & Hill, 1995; Loree & Guisinger, 1995; Markusen, 1995; Braunerhjelm & Svensson, 1996; Barrell & Paine, 1997; Kehoe, 1998, Rugman & Verbeke, 1998; Globerman & Shapiro, 1999; Editorial, 2003; Cellich & Jain, 2004; Kahn, 2004; Kehoe, 2004, Griffin & Pustay, 2005). In addition to trade policies, market-entry behavior is influenced by variables such as the market-entry decision processes and managerial motivations at work in a firm, a firm's level of export intensity, the interplay of host-country culture and market-entry processes, and the international experiences of a firm's management. The actions of governmental and non-governmental institutions impact the market-entry decision processes and affect a firm's market-entry strategies. For example, market-entry policies and rules (e.g., tariffs and quotas) within a host country drive decisions whether to ship a product in complete form to a host county or to ship in component parts for assembly within the country. Similarly, country-of-origin policies of a host country affect decisions whether or not to ship directly from home to a host country or to transship through another country. …


Background

Several beta-lactams are recommended as single agents for the treatment of febrile neutropenia.

Objectives

To compare the effectiveness of different anti-pseudomonal beta-lactams as single agents in the treatment of febrile neutropenia. To compare the development of bacterial resistance, bacterial and fungal superinfections during or following treatment with the different beta-lactams.

Search strategy

We searched the Cochane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Issue 3, 2010. MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, FDA drug applications, conference proceedings and ongoing clinical trial databases up to August 2010. References of included studies were scanned.

Selection criteria

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing an antipseudomonal beta-lactam to another antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotic, both given alone or with the addition of the same glycopeptide to both study arms, for the initial treatment of fever and neutropenia among cancer patients.

Data collection and analysis

Two review authors applied inclusion criteria and extracted the data independently. Missing data were sought. Risk ratios (RR) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI), and pooled using the fixed effect model. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Risk of bias was assessed using a domain-based evaluation and its effect of results was assessed through sensitivity analyses.

Main results

Forty-four trials were included. The antibiotics assessed were cefepime, ceftazidime, piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem and meropenem. Adequate allocation concealment and generation were reported in about half of the trials and only two trials were double-blinded. The risk for all-cause mortality was significantly higher with cefepime compared to other beta-lactams (RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.86, 21 trials, 3471 participants), without heterogeneity and with higher RRs in trials at low risk for bias. There were no differences in secondary outcomes but for a non-significantly higher rate of bacterial superinfections with cefepime. Mortality was significantly lower with piperacillin-tazobactam compared to other antibiotics (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.92, 8 trials, 1314 participants), without heterogeneity. Carbapenems resulted in similar all-cause mortality and a lower rate of clinical failure and antibiotic modifications as compared to other antibiotics, but a higher rate of diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile.

Authors' conclusions

Current evidence supports the use of piperacillin-tazobactam in locations where antibiotic resistance profiles do not mandate empirical use of carbapenems. Carbapenems result in a higher rate of antibiotic-associated and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea. There is a high level of evidence that all-cause mortality is higher with cefepime compared to other beta-lactams and it should not be used as monotherapy for patients with febrile neutropenia.

Plain Language Summary

Single-agent antibiotic treatment for cancer patients with fever and low white blood cell counts

Cancer patients develop neutropenia, a decrease in the neutrophil subset of the white blood cells, as a result of chemotherapy. Neutropenia exposes patients to infections, mainly bacterial. Without antibiotic treatment these infections may be fatal, therefore antibiotic treatment is administered when a patient with neutropenia develops fever. The objective of this review was to compare antibiotic treatments currently recommended in consensus guidelines for the initial treatment of cancer patients with fever and neutropenia.

We identified 44 studies comparing different antibiotics. Cefepime resulted in significantly higher mortality compared to all other antibiotics combined, at the end of patients' hospital stay or 30 days after entry into the study. The risk was 39% higher with cefepime, ranging from 4 to 86% increased risk. We did not find an explanation for this when looking into other outcomes reported in the primary studies. Piperacillin-tazobactam resulted in lower mortality than other antibiotics. The other antibiotics (ceftazidime, imipenem and meropenem) showed comparable efficacy, with a lower rate of antibiotic changes for imipenem or meropenem and a higher rate of severe diarrhea with these two antibiotics.

We conclude that piperacillin-tazobactam might be the preferred antibiotic for the treatment of cancer patients with fever and neutropenia and that cefepime should not be used. Antibiotic selection (other than cefepime) depends on the individual patient and the type of bacteria prevalent in the specific hospital.


A visual guide to innovative techniques with Photoshop Elements 9 Photographers who are familiar with the basics of using Photoshop Elements 9 will love this collection of 100 tips and tricks to getting more from the software. Highly visual two-page tutorials and step-by-step screen shots make it easy to see and follow the directions, enabling you to coax even more functionality from this top-selling image-editing software. This guide ventures into the bells and whistles of Photoshop Elements, showing you all the cool effects you can achieve. Photoshop Elements is the leading and most affordable image-editing software on the market; the latest version offers new opportunities to enhance your photos and develop your own individual style Full-color, step-by-step instructions make learning each of the cool techniques faster and easier Features secrets from the author, a well-known professional photographer, and uses his own stunning images to illustrate the tips and techniques Photoshop Elements 9: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks helps you take your Photoshop Elements skills to the next level.


If the U.S. will continue to be a leader in the technological world of the 21st century, it must create a new generation of American engineers with an understanding of the world, its people and their resources. International students, in this context, make a vital contribution to American education. They help liberalize and broaden the outlook of American students and provide them with a unique and valuable perspective of the world. They also help faculty with research projects and course instruction and often remain after graduation to help avert personnel shortages in both education and industry. This essay, the winner of the Daniel W. Mead prize for student writing, analyzes the pattern of foreign student enrollment in engineering programs during the last decade; the importance of international students to engineering education; and their impact on education administration. Finally, the effect of foreign students on professional practice is addressed.


Recently, two separate studies--one by Alan Ginsburg, a former director of Policy and Program Studies in the U.S. Department of Education, the other by a committee constituted by the National Research Council (NRC)-- have sought to discredit the work of Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of schools for the District of Columbia. According to Ginsburg, Rhee was no more effective--probably even less effective--than her predecessors. Not surprisingly, his argument was quickly picked up by American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten. In a Wall Street Journal interview, she asserts that Michelle Rhee "had a record that is actually no better than the previous two chancellors." In a blog post dated March 29, 2011, Diane Ravitch makes the same point: "The gains under Rhee were no greater than the gains registered under her predecessor Clifford Janey, who did not use Rhee's high-powered tactics, such as firing massive numbers of teachers." Yet the evidence Ginsburg musters to support such claims falls well short of its mark. In the second study, the NRC committee does not deny that student performance in the District of Columbia improved under Michelle Rhee's chancellorship between 2007 and 2010, but it says there is no scientific evidence that proves the work of the chancellor is responsible for those gains. "The problem was the [test score] changes that seem to be going in the right direction can't be attributed to the specific changes in the system," the study committee's co-chair Robert M. Hauser told an Education Week reporter. While it is certainly true that one cannot, in the absence of experimental evidence, establish a connection between policy changes and test-score outcomes, Hauser added a carefully worded slap at Rhee: "All districts should be cautious about generalizing from the kind of aggregate overview data that have been used to suggest successes of changes made in the district to date." The reporter is then informed that "students' NAEP scores started to improve before the overhaul law passed, as noted in a report last month by Alan Ginsburg." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The NRC study bears the more prestigious imprimatur, but it is the Ginsburg study that is most likely to be cited in future discussions of merit pay, teacher tenure, and the like. So our fact-checking of the two studies begins with his contribution to the discussion. The Ginsburg Report Alan Ginsburg, though now retired, was until very recently the ultimate Washington insider. For more than a generation he was known as the Department of Education's data-collection guru, the person inside the bureaucracy who understood best what information to collect and how to collect it. So it is of considerable interest that Ginsburg has now chosen to give aid and comfort to Weingarten and other union leaders by leveling a hard-core attack on "The Rhee DC Record." To an Education Week reporter, Ginsburg insisted that his critique of "The Rhee DC Record" is not "intended to be anti-Rhee." He is reported as saying that he acted only because "he believes they [his findings] should serve as a check on a policy of mass dismissals of teachers as a way to improve districts.' For me, it's the much larger question in this country of building a large teaching force.'" It is nonetheless quite disconcerting that he--and those who rely on his work--say that she was engaged in "large-scale firing" and "mass dismissals" when in fact she released in 2010 just 241 teachers for low performance. Ginsburg excludes any and all information coming from the D.C. exams, known as the Comprehensive Assessment System (CAS), required by the federal law known as No Child Left Behind. He explains that decision on the grounds that "performance levels for 2006 and afterwards are not comparable with those from prior years." But that does not preclude a comparison of Rhee's record for the years beginning in 2007 with the situation in the year before she arrived. …


Despite the importance of location-specific adaptive crop breeding research, past reforms of breeding systems in Nigeria have focused more on centralizing the breeding activities into fewer locations. This has been based partly on the premise that such research systems can still effectively meet the need for a diverse set of varietal technologies that are suitable for different agroecological conditions through the use of numerous outstations and multilocational trials, regardless of the locations of the headquarters or the outstations where breeders are located. However, little empirical evidence exists to support this premise. Using panel data for agricultural households in northern Nigeria, as well as spatial data on agroecological factors, this study fills this knowledge gap. Specifically, it empirically shows that agricultural productivity and technical efficiency at farm household level is significantly and positively affected by similarity between the agroecological conditions of the locations of these households and where major crop breeding institutes are headquartered in Nigeria, namely Maiduguri, Kano, Zaria, Badeggi, Ibadan, and Umudike, after controlling for the agroecological conditions and various relevant household characteristics of these households. These findings suggest that where improved varieties are developed or evaluated affects agricultural productivity and technical efficiency in different locations. Overall agricultural productivity in Nigeria can be significantly increased not simply by increasing support for public sector varietal development, but by doing so in a manner that increases the similarity in agroecological conditions between areas where crop breeding is conducted and the areas where farm households produce those crops.


This paper brings together a body of empirical evidence on how marriage affects the economic well-being of families with children. The paper considers the theoretical reasons marriage might enhance economic well-being, clarifies the empirical questions about the potential roles of marriage, and presents descriptive data and the evidence from empirical studies. The review deals with the impact of higher marriage propensities on incomes and wealth, of gains in marriage relative to cohabitation, of the stimulus to male earnings associated with marriage, and of the changes in economic well-being associated with entry into marriage, divorce, remarriage, and parenthood.


Intensified economic globalisation has had positive and negative effects. It has left nation states struggling to deal with the negative fall-out. National regulation against abuses has, however, proven increasingly ineffective, especially since companies have the freedom to move their hazardous activities to under-regulated areas.
States have stepped up cooperation and coordination on a bilateral as well as a multilateral basis: international organisations and treaties become more and more relevant to the regulation of international trade relations. However, the traditional instruments of international law are frequently considered too cumbersome and slow.
Increasingly international law is created by unconventional means: 'task forces' prove to be far more expedient, since they prefer 'soft law' to treaty law. Political enforcement by peer-pressure becomes more relevant than by juridical instruments (e.g. courts and tribunals). Furthermore, regulation goes well beyond law-making by legislators and government bodies; non-state actors contribute extensively, especially in the area of regulating international trade relations.


A long period of international discussion and negotiation about new global trading arrangements ended in 1979. Despite changed economic and institutional circumstances, and growing deficiencies in the. existing arrangements for agricultural trade, these negotiations have done little to improve the efficiency with which the world's agricultural resources are used. Rather, they have tended to institutionalise the status quo. This is likely further to disadvantage efficient producers and to lead to a growing bilateralism in trading relationships, with consequent increased politicisation and potential for conflicts and instability.


Research examining the effectiveness of grade retention has provided overwhelming and seemingly irrefutable evidence that grade retention is an ineffective and potentially harmful practice. However, proponents of grade retention often advocate that retention in the early elementary grades (e.g., kindergarten, first and second grade) is the justified exception. This longitudinal study examined the reading growth trajectories of students (n = 49) from first through eighth grade. Hierarchical linear modeling analytic procedures provided novel insights regarding the relative reading growth trajectories among retained students, comparing those students retained in kindergarten through second grade with those students retained in Grades 3-6. The results revealed that the growth trajectories of students retained early (Grades K-2) were comparable to those retained later (Grades 3-5). These findings failed to support the efficacy of retention at an earlier grade in elementary school.


We propose RaPP, a new methodology for novelty detection by utilizing hidden space activation values obtained from a deep autoencoder. Precisely, RaPP compares input and its autoencoder reconstruction not only in the input space but also in the hidden spaces. We show that if we feed a reconstructed input to the same autoencoder again, its activated values in a hidden space are equivalent to the corresponding reconstruction in that hidden space given the original input. In order to aggregate the hidden space activation values, we propose two metrics, which enhance the novelty detection performance. Through extensive experiments using diverse datasets, we validate that RaPP improves novelty detection performances of autoencoder-based approaches. Besides, we show that RaPP outperforms recent novelty detection methods evaluated on popular benchmarks.


In the fall of 2015, the Asheville City Board of Education announced plans to undertake a restructuring initiative to accommodate recent significant growth in district enrollment, which is predicted to tax the district's current physical capacity in the next three to six years. This paper explores the implications and manifestations of privilege in the unfolding of the restructuring conversation in Asheville, where progressive prioritization of equity and a liberal social justice mindset meet entrenched systems of racial and class privilege. Ultimately, the examination reveals the privilege of access to information that comes with membership in the dominant group, and in the conclusion I reflect on my own role in this system.


The aim of this paper is to explore the effects of exports and other variables (foreign direct investment, remittances, capital formation, and labour force) on economic growth in West Balkan countries (Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia). This study utilizes a strongly balanced panel data over the 20052015 period for Western Balkan countries using the ordinary least squares method (OLS), ie Pooled regression model to evaluate the parameters. The relationship between export and economic growth has turned to be statistically significant and positively related for the countries under the study. Results also indicate the statistically significant positive relationship between economic growth and other variables included in the model such is remittances, capital formation, and labor. The relationship between economic growth and foreign direct investment has turned out to be statistically insignificant and negatively related.


If we consider that the creation and the restoration of a wetland system begins with the design of the hydrology, then establishing the form and function of a wetland begins with the design of the plant community structure. Planting plans are often based on a limited set of criteria such as the tolerance of a species to withstand flooding and/or the availability of a species on the commercial market. Although these criteria are important, the design of a wetland system is much more complex and one which requires a knowledge of plant ecology. It is, after all, the plant community which will determine the ecological value of the habitat, the extent to which the system will act as a filter for the environment and the type of substrate which will develop within the system. Thus, being able to show the success of plant survival in a created wetland through the monitoring phase does not ensure that the system has adequately compensated for lost wetland value or function. However, by incorporating the structure of the plant community into wetland design, we can begin to create wetland systems which serve an intended function as well as replace some of the ecological value lost during development.


Indonesia is a maritime country, rich in biodiversity such as seaweeds which have potential as animal feedstuffs. Previous study showed that the seaweeds high in ash contents and have potential as mineral sources for dairy cattle. This study was aimed to compare several seaweeds species's ( Sargassum sp. , Gelidium sp. , G r acilaria sp. , Eucheuma cottonii and giant Eucheuma cottonii ) potential as mineral sources for dairy cattle. Parameters observed in this study were macro mineral contents (Ca, P, Na, Cl, Mg, S), the mineral solubility in HCl and rumen liquor, and estimate of their availability in rumen and abomasum. This study used completely randomized design except for solubility in rumen liquor study which was used completely blocked design. The collected data were analysed using ANOVA followed by Duncan multiple rank test except for mineral contents which used descriptive statistics. The results showed that all seaweed tested high in macro mineral contents except for Gelidium sp . Their solubility in HCl and rumen liquor were also high. It is concluded that all seaweed tested were good mineral sources for dairy cattle, except for Gelidium sp .


In recent decades, semiotics has shown an increasing interest in the passion and body dimensions of meaning. In particular, the growing emphasis on the role of bodily presence in semiotics has extended semiotic reflection to issues like embodiment, intersubjectivity, interactions and practices. In this context, a certain absence is noticeable regarding a field of reflection that is crucial for testing semiotic theoretical and methodological tools. This field concerns dance, that has been approached only marginally because of the challenges encountered in its analysis. Our contribution aims, first of all, at showing how the notion of gesture allows us to understand the passage from a sense of movement to the constitution of a cultural identity and imaginary based on bodily interaction and on the divers forms it assumes. We will will focus our attention on Argentinian tango and the principles of tango movement, in an attempt to grasp the features of tango bodily interaction. Subsequently, this will allow us to highlight the close link between a strictly bodily level of semiosis and that concerning the social practice of dancing.


Continuous developments and investigations in flow predictions are of interest in watershed hydrology especially where watercourses are poorly gauged and data are scarce like in most parts of Africa. Thus, this paper reports on two approaches to generate local monthly runoff of the data-scarce Semliki watershed. The Semliki River is part of the upper drainage of the Albert Nile. With an average annual local runoff of 4.622 km 3 /annum, the Semliki watershed contributes up to 20% of the flows of the White Nile. The watershed was sub-divided in 21 sub-catchments (S3 to S23). Using eight physiographic and meteorological variables, generated from remotely sensed acquired datasets and limited catchment data, monthly runoffs were estimated. One ordination technique, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and the tree cluster analysis of the landform attributes were performed to study the data structure and spot physiographic similarities between sub-catchments. The PCA revealed the existence of two major groups of sub-catchments – flat (Group I) and hilly (Group II). Linear and nonlinear regression models were used to predict the long-term monthly mean discharges for the two groups of sub-catchments, and their performance evaluated by the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), Percent bias (PBIAS) and root mean square error to the standard deviation ratio (RSR). The dimensionless indices used for model evaluation indicate that the non-linear model provides better prediction of the flows than the linear one.


In recent years, several trends caused by climate changes like decrease of average precipitation, etc. These climate trends directly or indirectly result in substantial and unprecedented change in the degree of saturation within the unsaturated zone. Most of the structures are constructed in unsaturated zone which is at shallow depths. Many precipitations induced slope failures occurred in unsaturated soils because of negative pore water pressure which highlights the need to consider suction in the analysis. Application of classical soil mechanics principles to unsaturated soil results improper estimation of design parameters as it is not accounting the complexities of unsaturated soil parameters. Suction stress is the separate term that account the unsaturated conditions in the soil.
Geosynthetic Synthetic Reinforced Soil Structures are soil structures which are coherent and flexible. They provide an effective and economic solution for embankments, etc. Field measurements reveal lower tensile loads than the predicted using limit state design method as it is not considering the suction in the analysis. Recent studies show that 60% of failure GRSS are due to varying moisture content in the soils. Therefore, there is a need to find the influence of unsaturated parameters in the soil slope analysis.
The primary aim of the work is to study the effect of unsaturated backfills on the reinforced soil structures with log spiral failure surface. Two different backfill material namely High Quality and Marginal Quality Backfills are considered for the analysis with various climatic conditions. Internal and Global Stability analysis is carried out both deterministically and probabilistically. In addition to that, optimised effective pull-out length is back calculated. Optimum number of reinforcement layer with optimum effective pull-out length is also presented. The variability associated with the unsaturated shear strength parameters and the infiltration rate is also considered into account.


Due to increasing energy costs there is a need for accurate management and planning of shop floor machine processes. This would entail identifying the different operation modes of production machines. The goal for industry is to provide energy monitors for all machines in factories. In addition, where they have been deployed, analysis is limited to aggregating data for subsequent processing later. In this paper, an Autoregressive Hidden Markov Model (ARHMM)-based algorithm is introduced, which can determine the operation mode of the machine in real-time and find direct application in intrusive load monitoring cases. Compared with other load monitoring techniques, such as transient analysis, no prior knowledge of the system to be monitored is required.


Band structure design plays a vital role on the development of highly efficient and visible-light driven photocatalysts. Large band dispersions ensure a fair mobility of the photoinduced charge carriers, leading to excellent photocatalysis. As a case in point, Bi2Sn2O7 has been investigated for the first time as a robust visible-light photocatalyst. The VB and CB are both highly dispersed, and contain s orbitals (Bi 6p + Sn 5s + O 2p for CB, O 2p + Bi 6s for VB). Bi2Sn2O7 was prepared by a direct hydrothermal reaction in the absence of additives and exhibited improved performance. This study not only discloses insights into the design of new photocatalysts in term of band engineering, but also provides flexibility and selectivity for the deliberate synthesis of other functional materials.