Quad bike vehicle related casualties continue to be a leading contributor in regards to fatal and serious injuries occurring in Australian rural areas, particularly on farms. Side by Side Vehicle (SSV) incidents also contribute to rural casualties albeit to a much lesser extent. Despite significant attention, little progress has been made in reducing their incidents or severity, and indeed they appear to be increasing. An investigation of closed cases in the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) for the period 2000 to 2012 identified 141 fatal cases. Of these sixteen or around 11% of all fatalities involved a fatality on a public road. Little is known about the characteristics of these public road related fatalities. The authors are not aware of any publications regarding Australian casualties. However, some data regarding Victorian road related Quad bike and SSV serious injuries have been published. Data has been collected for NSW and other states by two of the authors. In some countries, such as Sweden and parts of the USA, such vehicles are permitted to travel on public roads. A question that has arisen for Australian regulators is whether these vehicles should be permitted to travel on Australian roads and if so under what circumstances. In order to understand the risk and form a road safety policy position regarding these vehicles it is important know what the magnitude of the problem is and how people are being injured and killed in the road environment. This paper presents an overview of the statistical data and characteristics of the road related Quad bike and SSV crashes in Australia. Recommendations concerning these vehicles roadworthiness are also presented.


Igbo traditional vendor foods purchased from Nsukka market were analyzed for their nutrient composition and nutritive cost. A weighing scale was used to weigh the samples and the cost of each was recorded. The proximate compositions of the samples were determined using the procedure of AOAC. The minerals and vitamins were
determined using standard assay methods. The proximate composition, minerals and vitamin composition as well as the nutritive cost were expressed per 100g edible portion. The protein content ranged from 0.7g in fried plantain to 8.4g in groundnut cake. Groundnut cake had the highest protein content. Groundnut cake, steamed cowpea paste (moi-moi) and bean pottage contained ⅓ of the daily protein requirement of children 4-6yrs as
eaten per 100g edible portion. Most of the vendor foods had adequate calcium, phosphorous and zinc levels for different age groups. They were poor sources of vitamins. Result of the cost analysis showed that moisture took the greatest part of the money spent on the food items. The results appear to suggest that these foods could be economic sources of nutrients. Keywords : Nutrient composition, Nutritive cost, Igbo traditional vendor foods. Agro-Science Vol. 5 (1) 2006: pp. 36-44


Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) is a task where an agent navigates in an embodied indoor environment under human instructions. Previous works ignore the distribution of sample difficulty and we argue that this potentially degrade their agent performance. To tackle this issue, we propose a novel curriculum-based training paradigm for VLN tasks that can balance human prior knowledge and agent learning progress about training samples. We develop the principle of curriculum design and re-arrange the benchmark Room-to-Room (R2R) dataset to make it suitable for curriculum training. Experiments show that our method is model-agnostic and can significantly improve the performance, the generalizability, and the training efficiency of current state-of-the-art navigation agents without increasing model complexity.


Group work and group work assessment in higher education has been discussed, researched and written about widely. One of the driving forces behind the design and assessment of group work has been the need to expose, familiarise and equip students with the skills that they must possess to combat real world situations. Despite the call from employers for graduates who are able to communicate effectively with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and who must be prepared to work within or direct a team, assessing individual contribution to group activities appears to be the most inhibiting factor that repressed some academics from implementing the idea. Moreover, some critics who conduct group work and carry out group assessment are simply doing that because they are required to do so. This paper supports the established conviction that the ability to work as part of a team is one of the prerequisites for securing employment in the computing industry. The authors, both industry and teaching practitioners, use systems analysis and design as a case study to support their claim that computer professionals must be trained to be able to speak the languages of businessmen, politicians, technicians, computer users, managers, and so on. The study reported in this paper found that while students preferred to put themselves into groups (self select), teachers should be involved and give students guidance about the capability of each individual student and the various skills that are needed to complete group activities. The study also found that when it came to assessing group work, teachers were not considered by students as the experts in assessing group work because they did not know much about the contribution made by individual members of the group. The paper therefore recommends that self evaluation, peer assessment and individual assessment techniques should be used when assessing group work. This paper is a contribution towards increasing the awareness of the importance to include group work as an integral part of preparing computer professionals for survival in the wider business environment.


This practice-based thesis proposes radical, critical, creative reconsiderations of memory and how the mnemic may be expressed in art practice. The research took place through developing a series of works within contemporary installation art practice, which considers the experience of memory an abstract, affective event.

The thesis confronts the typical assumptions and ocularcentric misconceptions that the mnemic is a visual phenomenon. It challenges presumed relationships between photographs and memory then asks: How may notions of memory be re-examined through art practice so as to allow alternative expressions of memory to emerge? After the critique, the thesis offers an alternative concept of memory that may be incorporated into art practice: the memory-event. The concept emerged through my art practice alongside engagement with the writings of philosophers Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and contemporary theorists such as Simon O'Sullivan and Brian Massumi.

The inquiry utilises O'Sullivan's framework as a method towards parallel critique and creation in contemporary art practices; these counter existing forms of thought. The framework includes seven Deleuzean concepts applied in rethinking memory: the encounter, affect, the production of subjectivity, the minor, the virtual, the event, and mythopoesis. The thesis adopts this approach, and demonstrates how the memory-event developed through phases of research. Firstly, the thesis establishes and critiques prevailing ideas and expressions of memory. It then defines the methods and theories to disrupt existing assumptions of the mnemic, showing how the defined methods and theories were applied in reconsidering and posing alternatives to established assumptions. Included is a visual and textual portfolio of work exploring the ideas of memory produced in my art practice.

The implications of this research for art practice constitute, through the mobilisation of the memory-event, potentials for liberation from the constraints of representation and common assumptions of memory. This produces innovative expressions of the mnemic experience, and continues to challenge ways in which memory is considered.


Since the 1990s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses have gained prominence as architects of new forms of transnational governance creating Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The legitimacy and effectiveness of VSS are dependent on interactions with public authorities and regulation. While studies suggest that the (perceived) gain or loss of sovereignty by a state shapes public–private interactions, we have little understanding on how states use or interpret sovereignty in their interactions with VSS. In this paper, we explore what interpretations of sovereignty are used by states at different ends of global value chains in interactions with VSS. Based on a comparative and longitudinal study of interactions of Indonesian and Dutch state actors with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, we conclude that states strategically use different and changing notions of sovereignty to control the policy and debate regarding sustainable palm oil. When interactions between public and private governance are coordinative in nature, notions of interdependent sovereignty are used. However, when interactions are competitive, domestic and Westphalian notions of sovereignty are used. Our results show conflicting interpretations and usages of sovereignty by different states, which might negatively impact the regulatory capacity within an issue field to address sustainability issues.


This Article reframes the way we think about Justice Frankfurter — not as a Warren Court antihero but as an opponent of judicial supremacy, forerunner of popular constitutionalism, and exemplar for scholars who criticize the Court's Affordable Care Act and other recent decisions as contemptuous of Congress and other elected branches. Frankfurter shared Jefferson's faith in the democratic political process and enlightened public opinion and distrusted courts as historically reactionary institutions that thwarted the popular will and social change. This is the first article to broaden the definition of popular constitutionalism beyond political and social movements and elected officials to include the Supreme Court justices themselves. By arguing that Justices can be popular constitutionalists, this Article links judicial restraint with popular constitutionalism. Frankfurter's judicial restraint stemmed from his belief that the democratic political process was a more enduring, effective, and legitimate method of protecting civil liberties and producing constitutional change. His last opinion, his dissent in Baker v. Carr, warned about the evils of judicial supremacy. Bush v. Gore and Citizens United made his Baker dissent seem prophetic. This Article invites scholars to rethink how Frankfurter's jurisprudence fits into the ongoing debate about the role of the Court and into progressive constitutional theories including popular constitutionalism.


Introduction: Performing artistes have entertained audiences for thousands of years. Their repertoires require the integration of a well 'tuned' central nervous system and hypermobility. Hypermobility is a common phenomenon that is beneficial for some but not for others. This thesis discusses hypermobility associated with multisystemic symptoms referred to as Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS). It is suggested that the multifactorial manifestations of the condition contribute to deconditioning thus impacting on the physical and mental well being of individuals with JHS. Purpose: To explore the multi-factorial manifestations of JHS including functional difficulties and their impact on quality of life. Methods: A two part study; part one, development of a questionnaire to assess for functional difficulties; part two, a mixed methods approach to explore aspects of JHS. Results: Principal Axis Factoring was employed to explore the structure of the 9-item Functional Difficulties Questionnaire (FDQ-9) to assess functional difficulties reported in childhood and adulthood. Internal consistency was high (0.81), correlations between items were > 0.5 and preliminary findings suggested satisfactory construct validity. Test-retest reliability was good (ICC 0.96 [95% CI 0.92 to 0.98]. Patients with JHS were 3 [95%CI 1.95 – 4.56] times more likely to report functional difficulties both as a child and as an adult than healthy volunteers. Patients with JHS were significantly more likely to report dislocations, autonomic nervous system, gastrointestinal and cardio-respiratory symptoms than healthy volunteers. Chronic widespread pain reported by 86% of patients with JHS was a significant predictor of quality of life using the SF-12. Patients with JHS had significantly lower physical component scores than healthy volunteers (29.2 [SD 10.6] and 54.5 [SD 5.7]) respectively. Conclusions The development of the FDQ-9 contributes to the understanding of the multi-factorial manifestations of JHS and their long term nature. These have important clinical implications as symptoms of JHS appear early in life. Management of this condition requires early recognition and an understanding of the multisystemic nature.


: Purpose: The article aims to study the precarious employment in single-industry towns and to assess the effectiveness of government measures aimed at reducing it and ensuring the protection of economic and social rights of workers. Design/Methodology/Approach: It was revealed that the transition to an information-digital society, which continues to be formatted at the junction of changes in communication technologies and the motivation of employment behavior, has significantly changed the labor market in Russia. There was a massive introduction of non-standard forms of employment, which has not only positive effects, but also negative risks that are most acute in single-industry towns. To minimize these risks, it is necessary to find mechanisms to increase the economic and social security of workers with flexible employment. Findings: The paper proposes to develop an employment management policy in single-industry towns regarding the precarious employment and include measures of solving the issues related to self-employment of the population. Practical Implications: The practical results of the study can be used to develop assumptions for regional authorities to reduce precarious employment in single-industry towns. Originality / Value: The main contribution of this study is that single-industry cities should reduce inefficient "social employment" by creating highly efficient jobs and developing self-employment.


Marine fishing in India is generally confined to narrow regions of nearshore areas. The presence of mechanized boats operated by those who were not involved in fishing earlier and the encroaching of the inshore fishing grounds by these boats created conflicts between the traditional and mechanised sectors, resulting in clashes between these two sectors leading to large scale damages to both men and material. The coast from Jagathapattmam (south) in Pudukkottai District to Mallipattinam (north) in Thanjavur District consists of 26 marine fish landing centres, 10 in the district of Pudukkottai and the rest in Thanjavur. Increased tempo of mechanized fishing in these centres was not received well by indigenous craft owners of the fishing villages. This culminated in the major clashes between the two sectors in the year 1978, leading to heavy damages. In order to avoid such clashes a Peace Council was formed with the local R.D.O. as Chairman and representatives from State Fisheries Department, mechanized boat owners and indigenous craft owners as members. The Peace Council has drawn up a programme to regulate fishing activities.


Background: Different packing materials are used in wet scrubbers that each one has its own advantages and limitations. Common ceramic packing materials have high removal efficiency but they are heavy, fragile and high head loss along the bed. Finding a suitable replacement for these materials has always been concerned by researchers. The objective of the present study was to compare the ammonia removal efficiency from air by a wet scrubber packed with ceramic raschig rings and PVC. Methods: A laboratory scale column was randomly packed in 30 cm depth with ceramic raschig rings as well as PVC. Ammonia laden air was injected into the column at three air flow rates including 5, 10 and 15 lit/s. Ammonia gas was applied to the column in three concentration ranges including 2326, 40.2-43.7 and 55-60 PPM using water scrubbing liquid. Results: The result of 54 experiments revealed that the efficiency of column packed with raschig rings was higher than the efficiency of column packed with PVC in all three studied air flow rates. The removal efficiency of column increased significantly in both packing (P<0.001) as the inlet concentration of ammonia gas was increased. The head loss across the bed was significantly increased (P<0.001) as air flow rate was increased from 5 to 10 and 10 to 15 lit/s. Conclusion: PVC can be considered as a suitable substitute for ceramic raschig rings in wet packed scrubbers.


This article reports the survey findings from a research project exploring the use of skilled migration as a strategy for assisting in overcoming the pressing risks facing the Australian rail industry in workforce development. These risks are associated with an ageing workforce and skill shortages in engineering and technical areas. The data presented originate from a survey of skilled migrants in an employment program for skilled migrants in the Sydney metropolitan area and skilled migrant engineers in Victoria. The findings point to the potential, and yet untapped source of highly qualified professionals who could be targeted for recruitment by the rail industry. Of greater significance are the broader implications of the research in terms of engineering skills wastage and atrophy in a time when Australia cannot produce enough engineering professionals domestically to meet the demand. This is all set against a backdrop of global engineering shortages and fierce domestic competition for engineering skills made even more prominent with the second wave of the resources boom.


The period from 1870-1920 was a turning point in modern history. It was during this time that the contours of the modern industrial state were formed. A "Great Merger Movement" occurred right in the middle of this period across most of the industrialized nations of the world. The trend toward industrial concentration, which was known at the time as the "trust problem," generated considerable public alarm. Some have argued that it was caused by antitrust policy and the Supreme Court's early antitrust decisions. Indeed, the idea has become the conventional wisdom among some antitrust scholars, especially those connected with the law and economics movement, and it has contributed to a growing skepticism about the efficacy of antitrust law more generally. This article analyzes the development of the Supreme Court's antitrust jurisprudence from E.C. Knight through Swift and attempts to offer a more balanced overview of the interplay between the economic transformation that occurred around the turn of the twentieth century and the formative developments in American antirust law. From this perspective, both the merger movement and the Supreme Court's early antitrust decisions were responses to the same underlying economic forces. There is little, if any, reason to believe that the Supreme Court's decisions actually caused the Great Merger Movement. In fact, the Court's decisions were considerably more coherent than some scholars have recognized. One of the unfortunate consequences of all the attention that has been devoted to the effect of the Supreme Court's decisions on industrial concentration is that it has distracted attention from the role that the decisions played in the development of constitutional doctrine. The economic forces that created the trust problem also compelled the Supreme Court to extend the scope of federal commerce powers and bring a wide range of new business activities within the reach of federal regulations. Ironically, the same Court that handed down Lochner also laid the foundations of the modern American system of business regulation.


For over a decade, nonparametric modelling has been successfully applied to studying nonlinear structures in financial time series. It is well known that the usual nonparametric models often have less than satisfactory performance when dealing with more than one lag. When the mean has an additive structure, however, better estimation methods are available which fully exploit such a structure. Although in the past such nonparametric applications had been focused more on the estimation of the conditional mean, it is equally if not more important to measure the future risk of the series along with the mean. For the volatility function, i.e. the conditional variance given the past, a multiplicative structure is more appropriate than an additive structure, as the volatility is a positive scale function and a multiplicative model provides a better interpretation of each lagged value's influence on such a function. In this paper we consider the joint estimation of both the additive mean and the multiplicative volatility. The technique used is marginally integrated local polynomial estimation. The procedure is applied to the deutschmark/US dollar daily exchange returns.


Heparanase is an endo-beta-D-glucuronidase that degrades heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans in the extracellular matrix and the basement membrane and is well known to be involved in tumor cell invasion and angiogenesis. We have focused on heparanase as a target for antitumor agents, especially antimetastatic agents. (R)-3-hexadecanoyl-5-hydroxymethyltetronic acid (RK-682) was found to display an inhibitory activity against heparanase in our screening of natural sources. Because RK-682 has been reported to show inhibitory activities against several enzymes, we have tried to develop selective heparanase inhibitors using the method of rational drug design. Based on the structure of the heparanase/RK-682 complex, we speculated that selective inhibitory activity against heparanase could be acquired by arylalkylation, namely, by benzylation of the 4-position of RK-682. Among the rationally designed 4-alkyl-RK-682 derivatives, 4-benzyl-RK-682 has been found to possess a selective inhibitory activity for heparanase (IC50 for heparanase, 17 micromol/L; IC50 for other enzymes, >100 micromol/L). 4-Benzyl-RK-682 also inhibited the invasion and migration of human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells (IC50 for invasion, 1.5 micromol/L; IC50 for migration, 3.0 micromol/L). On the other hand, RK-682 had no inhibitory effect on the invasion and migration of HT1080 cells at doses of up to 100 micromol/L.


A cellular manufacturing system consists of several work cells in which parts are processed under machines. Identification of parts and machines in each work cell, known as cell formation, is a major step in design of a cellular manufacturing system. This thesis presents a method for cell formation. The method uses clustering approach to identify work cells in three steps. First, production information represented in an incidence matrix is evaluated for finding the coupling relationships between parts and machines. In second step the gathered coupling information in the first step is used to reorder the incidence matrix rows and columns, and create a tree diagram. Using the tree diagram, work cells and parts and machines in each work cell are identified in the third step. Performance of the method is evaluated by solving two types of cell formation problem. The results indicate that the method can produce solutions as good as other methodologies. In comparison to clustering cell formation methodologies, the method has a flexible solution procedure that simultaneously groups parts and machines, and it does not need predetermined production information for executing cell formation.


This datasheet on Entandrophragma utile covers Identity, Overview, Associated Diseases, Pests or Pathogens, Distribution, Biology & Ecology, Environmental Requirements, Uses, Management, Economics, Further Information.


We used transect and camera-trap surveys and DNA identification of scat samples to provide the first update since 1977 of large mammals in the montane forests of the conflict-ridden province of Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan. Nuristan contains a range of habitats from oak Quercus spp. forests to treeless alpine steppes that historically hosted populations of markhor Capra falconeri, Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus, grey wolf Canis lupus and common leopard Panthera pardus, among others. Surveys conducted in 2006-2009 in an area of 1,100 km 2 by the Wildlife Conservation Society confirmed the presence of some of these species, and also recorded the common palm civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, previously un- known from Afghanistan; this extends the westernmost boundary for this species. The most commonly recorded species, as determined by direct sightings, scat identification or camera-trap photographs, were the Indian crested porcupine Hystrix indica, red fox Vulpes vulpes and a canid (grey wolf or golden jackal Canis aureus). Despite indica- tions of significant habitat loss and unsustainable hunting, globally important species persist in the area and targeted conservation programmes are required for the protection of these species, the forests they inhabit and the surrounding communities who depend on both for their survival.


Many terrestrial plant canopies regulate spatial patterns in leaf density and leaf inclination to distribute light evenly between the photosynthetic tissue and to optimize light utilization efficiency. Sessile aquatic macrophytes, however, cannot maintain the same well‐defined three‐dimensional structure because of the strong drag and shear forces of moving water. This difference in canopy structure has been suggested to account for the three‐ to fivefold higher gross production rates in terrestrial than aquatic communities. To evaluate the effect of community structure in aquatic habitats, we combined a simple mechanistic model and empirical measurements on artificially structured macroalgal communities (Ulva lactuca) with varying thallus absorptance and community density. Predicted and measured values corresponded closely and revealed that gross production in high‐light environments was markedly enhanced by a vertical orientation of thalli when absorptance and community density were both high. This result implies that aquatic macrophytes of high thallus absorptance and community density exposed to high light are limited in attaining high gross production rates because of their inability to distribute photons evenly between the photosynthetic tissues. As scattering and attenuation in the water column increase, the effect of thallus structure on production declines and thin transparent macrophytes are more efficient at utilizing light than thick opaque macrophytes. The results confirm that inefficient distribution of light can account for the low community production rates in aquatic habitats and the depth distribution of form‐functional groups of macroalgae with different canopy structure.


Abstract Suberin is a natural hydrophobic material that could be used to improve the water repellency of cellulose surfaces. It is also abundant in the outer bark of birch (Betula verrucosa); birch bark is a side-stream product in Scandinavia from the forest industry, which is generally burned for energy production. A suberin monomer, cis-9,10-epoxy-18-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid, was isolated from birch outer bark and polymerized via lipase (immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B). The resulting epoxy-activated polyester was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and size exclusion chromatography. Then the polyester was cured with tartaric or oxalic acid, and the crosslinked polyesters were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry. Hydrophobic materials were prepared by compression molding of polyester-impregnated cellulose sheets, and the final products were characterized by FTIR, cross-polarization magic angle spinning 13C NMR, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The water contact angle was significantly increased from 0° for the original cellulose sheets to over 100° for the produced hydrophobic materials.


The development of computing and communication systems has gone through a spiral cycle of centralization and decentralization schemas. The earliest telephone network used decentralized point-to-point connections. It moved to centralized switching system as the number of devices increased. The centralized computing and communication systems further moved into a decentralized paradigm, as devices expand and dependability of large systems becomes a dominating factor. The current cloud computing and communication systems appear to be a centralized system where computing and communication resources are not in the client computers but in an integrated infrastructure. Nevertheless, the implementation of the centralized infrastructure is equipped with decentralized and redundant resources, which makes the system more dependable as any internal failures can be tolerated internally. However, the terminal devices and their interfaces to the centralized infrastructure remain vulnerable to the single-point-of-failures. This paper focuses on terminal devices and their interfaces to the new generation of assurance network and presents the challenges of making the devices and the interfaces as dependable as the assurance network. The idea of achieving the goal is through a pool of Mobile Physical Services (MPS) that can connect to multiple networks and can be shared by neighboring users.


This paper presents an extension of the semantic tableaux approach to theorem proving for the class of normal conditional logics. These logics are based on a possible worlds semantics, but contain a binary "variable conditional" operator ⇒ instead of the usual operator for necessity. The truth of A⇒B depends both on the accessibility relation between worlds, and on the proposition expressed by the antecedent A. Such logics have been shown to be appropriate for representing a wide variety of commonsense assertions, including default and prototypical properties, counterfactuals, notions of obligation, and others.

The approach consists in attempting to find a truth assignment which will falsify a sentence or set of sentences. If successful, then a specific falsifying truth assignment is obtained; if not, then the sentence is valid. The approach is arguably more natural and intuitive than those based on proof-theoretic methods. The approach has been proven correct with respect to determining validity in the class of normal conditional logics. In addition, the approach has been implemented and tested on a number of different conditional logics. Various heuristics have been incorporated, and the implementation, while exponential in the worst case, is shown to be reasonably efficient for a large set of test cases.


For those who are not new to the world of Japanese animation, known mainly as anime, the debate of "dub vs. sub" is by no means anything out of the ordinary, but rather a very heated argument amongst fans. The study will focus on the differences in the US English version between the two approaches of translating audio-visual media, namely subtitling (official subtitles and fanmade subtitles) and dubbing, in a qualitative context. More precisely, which of the two approaches can store the most information from the same audiovisual segment, in order to satisfy the needs of the anime audience. In order to draw substantial conclusions, the analysis will be conducted on a corpus of 1 episode from the first season of the popular mid-nineties TV animated series, Sailor Moon. The main objective of this research is to analyze the three versions and compare the findings to what anime fans expect each of them to provide, in terms of how culture specific terms are handled, how accurate the translation is, localization, censorship, and omission. As for the fans' opinions, the study will include a survey regarding the personal preference of fans when it comes to choosing between the official subtitled version, the fanmade subtitles and the dubbed version.


The aim of the article is to study the prospects for sustainable financial growth of the gas industry in Russia and China until 2030. unlike traditional interpretations, the authors consider financial sustainability as a result of the interaction and mutual influence of energy, environmental, economic and social processes grouped into subsystems. The authors analyzed the statistical indicators of the sustainable financial growth system of the largest oil and gas companies in Russia and China from 1996 to 2016. A model for calculating the financial sustainable growth system in the Python programming language was developed. The Lasso regression analysis method and the SARIMA model were used. The sustainable financial growth system index of oil and gas companies was substantiated. By means of the system methodology, the authors identified problems and systematized the contradictions in the organization of the sustainable financial growth in the gas industry of the two countries. As part of the proposed methodological approach, the original SARIMA model was built. The model explains the internal structure of the financial growth sustainability of the oil and gas industry in Russia and China. The authors calculated the sustainable financial growth system forecast for Russia and China until 2030. The calculations showed that in the future the system of sustainable financial growth in China's oil and gas industry may be disrupted. The authors offer ways to prevent the development of these negative trends. Namely: the promotion of social responsibility of state corporations, the development of green and social financing, the study of energy efficiency. In Russia, the stability of the financial growth of the oil and gas industry is characterized by stability over the entire forecast period.


Computerised medical record (CMR) system data can be used to compare different models of health care for children. We identified sources of data from the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project that compares family doctor led with paediatrician led and mixed models of child care using index conditions. Asthma and immunisation coverage are the first of these. We explored the extent to which an established Patient Registries Initiative (PARENT); MOCHA's own survey (MIROI); the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) immunisation information system survey and the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP) registry of data sources provided data to make comparisons of child health care. Five countries had data repositories for our index conditions from paediatrician lead services, compared with 14 for mixed, and 11 for family doctor led services. PARENT identified 212 sources, MIROI 148 sources, ECDC 17 sources and ENCePP 42; with immunisation related data sources found in all four but asthma in only three. There are less sources of electronic data available to study paediatrician led systems than other models; this risks unequal sample size bias.


The gas permeability of plastic films is important in packaging, containment, and agricultural fumigation. Recently, an approach for estimating the mass transfer coefficient of vapors across a film was presented by Papiernik et al. (2001). The mass transfer coefficient is an intrinsic property of a film-chemical combination, independent of the concentration gradient maintained across the film. Here we describe an apparatus useful for obtaining permeability data; the model of Papiernik et al. (2001) may be fitted to the data to determine mass transfer coefficients. The assembled equipment provides a sealed permeability cell, where a sample of the film to be tested is sandwiched between two static half-cells. Vapor is spiked to one side of the film and the concentrations in the spiked and receiving chamber are monitored until equilibrium. A sealed system is required for this approach; the permeability cells described here were gas-tight for >40 d. This approach produces reproducible measures of mass transfer coefficients that are not dependent on the size of the experimental apparatus. Model parameters were similar when fitted simultaneously as when determined independently from the same data set.


The objectives of this research were to estimate heritabilities and correlations between body condition score (BCS) from various sources, determine the genetic relationship among BCS, dairy form, cow health and reproductive performance and investigate various models to analyze BCS and dairy form. BCS was obtained from herds using PCDART dairy management software and from linear type appraisals by Holstein classifiers. Cow health data was obtained from several herds recording disease treatments. Genetic evaluations for cow health in Denmark were also obtained. Reproductive data and yield data were provided by DRMS and AIPL-USDA. Heritabilities and correlations among traits were estimated with REML using animal and sire models. Random regression and repeatability sire models were compared. Fixed effects for all models included contemporary group effects, age, and days in milk (DIM) when available. Random effects were sire or animal and error. The heritability estimate of BCS from linear type appraisal was 0.22. The genetic correlation estimate between BCS from PCDART records and linear type appraisals was 0.87, between BCS and dairy form was –0.72 and between BCS and strength was 0.69. The genetic correlation estimates from random regression models between DIM 0 in lactation 1 and DIM 305 in lactation 3 were estimated to be 0.77 for BCS and 0.60 for dairy form. Higher BCS and lower dairy form were significantly correlated with lower milk yield, less metabolic disease and fewer days open. The relationship among BCS, dairy form, cow health and reproductive disease remained significant after adjustment for milk yield. The relationship between BCS and cow health and reproductive performance tended to be non-significant after adjustment for dairy form. Supplementing direct genetic evaluations for days open with evaluations for dairy form increased reliability of days open by an average of 0.06 for 19 recently proven bulls. Selection for lower dairy form or higher BCS will slow the deterioration of cow health and reproductive performance that accompanies selection for increased yield.


Why is the sky dark at night?The answer to this ancient and celebrated riddle, says Edward Harrison, seems relatively simple: the sun has set and is now shining on the other side of the earth. But suppose we were space travelers and far from any star. Out in the depths of space the heavens would be dark, even darker than the sky seen from the earth on cloudless and moonless nights. For more than four centuries, astronomers and other investigators have pondered the enigma of a dark sky and proposed many provocative but incorrect answers. "Darkness at Night" eloquently describes the misleading trails of inquiry and strange ideas that have abounded in the quest for a solution.In tracing this story of discovery--one of the most intriguing in the history of science--the astronomer and physicist Edward Harrison explores the concept of infinite space, the structure and age of the universe, the nature of light, and other subjects that once were so perplexing. He introduces a range of stellar intellects, from Democritus in the ancient world to Digges in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, followed by Kepler, Newton, Halley, Cheseaux, Olbers, Poe, Kelvin, and Bondi. Harrison's style is engaging, incisive yet poetic, and his strong grasp of history--from the Greeks to the twentieth century--adds perspective, depth, and scope to the narrative. Richly illustrated and annotated, this book will delight and enlighten both the casual reader and the serious inquirer.


Abstract. We present the first high-resolution measurements of pollutant trace gases in the Asian summer monsoon upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere (UTLS) from the Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere (GLORIA) during the StratoClim (Stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes for better climate predictions) campaign based in Kathmandu, Nepal, 2017. Measurements of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), acetylene (C2H2), and formic acid (HCOOH) show strong local enhancements up to altitudes of 16 km. More than 500 pptv of PAN, more than 200 pptv of C2H2, and more than 200 pptv of HCOOH are observed. Air masses with increased volume mixing ratios of PAN and C2H2 at altitudes up to 18 km, reaching to the lowermost stratosphere, were present at these altitudes for more than 10 d, as indicated by trajectory analysis. A local minimum of HCOOH is correlated with a previously reported maximum of ammonia (NH3), which suggests different washout efficiencies of these species in the same air masses.
A backward trajectory analysis based on the models Alfred Wegener InsTitute LAgrangian Chemistry/Transport System (ATLAS) and TRACZILLA, using advanced techniques for detection of convective events, and starting at geolocations of GLORIA measurements with enhanced pollution trace gas concentrations, has been performed. The analysis shows that convective events along trajectories leading to GLORIA measurements with enhanced pollutants are located close to regions where satellite measurements by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) indicate enhanced tropospheric columns of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the days prior to the observation.
A comparison to the global atmospheric models Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) has been performed. It is shown that these models are able to reproduce large-scale structures of the pollution trace gas distributions for one part of the flight, while the other part of the flight reveals large discrepancies between models and measurement. These discrepancies possibly result from convective events that are not resolved or parameterized in the models, uncertainties in the emissions of source gases, and uncertainties in the rate constants of chemical reactions.


Contemporary television has been marked by such exceptional programming that it is now common to hear claims that TV has finally become an art. In Appreciating the Art of Television, Nannicelli contends that televisual art is not a recent development, but has in fact existed for a long time. Yet despite the flourishing of two relevant academic subfields-the philosophy of film and television aesthetics-there is little scholarship on television, in general, as an art form. This book aims to provide scholars active in television aesthetics with a critical overview of the relevant philosophical literature, while also giving philosophers of film a particular account of the art of television that will hopefully spur further interest and debate. It offers the first sustained theoretical examination of what is involved in appreciating television as an art and how this bears on the practical business of television scholars, critics, students, and fans-namely the comprehension, interpretation, and evaluation of specific televisual artworks.


E-banking has become one of the most powerful tools in the banking industry and so it has attracted the attention of many researchers and academics. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to explore the bankers' perception based on the advantages of electronic banking and the risks that are associated with electronic banking. Secondly, to explore banker's perception on the risk management principles of e-banking according to the 14 principles of Basel Committee in Cyprus. The main research instrument is a questionnaire. Multinomial regressions and other statistical tools are applied in this paper. Our findings suggest that most of the respondents, who are bankers in Cyprus, perceive e-banking as an advantage for reducing the risk of carrying cash, for the time saving and convenience. Surprisingly, the bankers do not consider that e-banking increases frauds and issues on data loss, and do not increase the chances of government access. Furthermore, our results indicate that the four major public banks in Cyprus identify risks and manage them according to the 14 principles of Basel Committee. Finally, a significant link between both the years of experience of banker and the position held in the banks; and the security control as one of the 14 principles of Basel Committee has been identified applying multinomial regression model. The results can strongly support the management team of each bank for the development of a more efficient strategy for the future of e-banking in Cyprus.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications are used illicitly by undergraduate students, often to increase focus, memory, and attention in order to enhance their academic performance. Studies on such unprescribed use of psychostimulants suggest that these medications have countereffects and yield cognitive deficits. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between ADHD medication use and academic performance as indicated by individuals' reported grade point average (GPA). Moreover, this study aimed to establish a relationship between the aversive side effects associated with ADHD medication use on physical health, mental health, and academic performance. A total of 879 individuals completed an anonymous Google Form survey that was administered at colleges/universities in the U.S. using social media platforms. The survey included questions regarding frequency of ADHD medication use, symptoms experienced, perception of safety, GPA, and general demographic information. Our results indicate that the use of ADHD medication is significantly correlated with a self-reported low GPA as well as an increase in reported mental health side effects (including depression, anxiety, and panic attacks) and physical side effects (including sleep disturbances, fatigue, headaches, and weight loss). Conversely, belief in the efficacy of ADHD medications in aiding academic performance was negatively correlated with a self-reported high GPA. It thus appears that the use of non-prescription ADHD medications is not associated with increased academic performance. Furthermore, mental and physical symptoms related to illicit ADHD medication use are likely to contribute to the observed poor academic performance. It is therefore recommended that college student populations are educated on these findings to decrease illicit use of ADHD medications as study aids.


Latin America has recently experienced three cycles of capital inflows, the first two ending in major financial crises. The first took place between 1973 and the 1982 'debt-crisis'. The second took place between the 1989 'Brady bonds' agreement (and the beginning of the economic reforms and financial liberalisation that followed) and the Argentinian 2001/2002 crisis, and ended up with four major crises (as well as the 1997 one in East Asia) — Mexico (1994), Brazil (1999), and two in Argentina (1995 and 2001/2). Finally, the third inflow-cycle began in 2003 as soon as international financial markets felt reassured by the surprisingly neo-liberal orientation of President Lula's government; this cycle intensified in 2004 with the beginning of a (purely speculative) commodity price-boom, and actually strengthened after a brief interlude following the 2008 global financial crash — and at the time of writing (mid-2011) this cycle is still unfolding, although already showing considerable signs of distress. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the financial crises resulting from this second cycle (both in LA and in East Asia) from the perspective of Keynesian/ Minskyian/Kindlebergian financial economics. I will attempt to show that no matter how diversely these newly financially liberalised Developing Countries tried to deal with the absorption problem created by the subsequent surges of inflow (and they did follow different routes), they invariably ended up in a major crisis. As a result (and despite the insistence of mainstream analysis), these financial crises took place mostly due to factors that were intrinsic (or inherent) to the workings of over-liquid and under-regulated financial markets — and as such, they were both fully deserved and fairly predictable. Furthermore, these crises point not just to major market failures, but to a systemic market failure: evidence suggests that these crises were the spontaneous outcome of actions by utility-maximising agents, freely operating in friendly (light-touched) regulated, over-liquid financial markets. That is, these crises are clear examples that financial markets can be driven by buyers who take little notice of underlying values — investors have incentives to interpret information in a biased fashion in a systematic way. 'Fat tails' also occurred because under these circumstances there is a high likelihood of self-made disastrous events. In other words, markets are not always right — indeed, in the case of financial markets they can be seriously wrong as a whole. Also, as the recent collapse of 'MF Global' indicates, the capacity of 'utility-maximising' agents operating in unregulated and over-liquid financial market to learn from previous mistakes seems rather limited.


This study analyzes the cost-production relationship of trap and hand line fishing in Puerto Rico. A model of the fishing family firm is designed which is similar to the traditional neo-classical model of the fishing industry. The catch functions, of the Cobb-Douglas type, are estimated using the single least squares methods. Tests of technical efficiency and tests of price efficiency are then conducted to establish if some groups of fishermen are more efficient than others and to verify if the fishermen maximize their profit, given the technical coefficients of the catch function and the level of the prices. The results of those tests show that some fishermen are significantly more skillful than others. They also indicate that, as a rule the fishermen do not maximize their profit, that is, that they do not choose the optimum combination of inputs. Those conclusions suggest a certain number of policy measures. It is shown that improving the fishermen's skill would substantially increase their catch. The same results would be obtained if, with proper advice, they selected the optimum combination of inputs. Given the lack of sufficient data on the fish population it was not possible to measure the precise extent of the effects of those policy measures. However this study provides a useful guide for the policy makers.


In this paper, both Distributed Generators (DG) and capacitors are allocated and sized optimally for improving line loss and reliability. The objective function is composed of the investment cost of DGs and capacitors along with loss and reliability which are converted to the genuine dollar. The bus voltage and line current are considered as constraints which should be satisfied during the optimization procedure. Hybrid. Particle Swarm Optimization as a heuristic based technique is used as the optimization method. The IEEE 69-bus test system is modified and employed to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results illustrate that the lowest cost planning is found by optimizing both DGs and capacitors in distribution networks. Keywords-distribution network, optimization methods, Reliability


We provide the global optimization community with new optimality proofs for 6 deceptive benchmark functions (5 bound-constrained functions and one nonlinearly constrained problem). These highly multimodal nonlinear test problems are among the most challenging benchmark functions for global optimization solvers; some have not been solved even with approximate methods. The global optima that we report have been numerically certified using Charibde (Vanaret et al., 2013), a hybrid algorithm that combines an Evolutionary Algorithm and interval-based methods. While metaheuristics generally solve large problems and provide sufficiently good solutions with limited computation capacity, exact methods are deemed unsuitable for difficult multimodal optimization problems. The achievement of new optimality results by Charibde demonstrates that reconciling stochastic algorithms and numerical analysis methods is a step forward into handling problems that were up to now considered unsolvable. We also provide a comparison with state-of-the-art solvers based on mathematical programming methods and population based metaheuristics, and show that Charibde, in addition to being reliable, is highly competitive with the best solvers on the given test functions.


The research was undertaken at the University of Huddersfield with support staff to ascertain perceptions about the appraisal process with regard to whether it was an effective, worthwhile tool and how they felt they engaged with the process and why. According to much research the appraisal process is renowned as an unsatisfactory process for managers and staff alike and understanding why this is may help consider a new approach. Staff were invited to complete an online survey and several were then interviewed more in depth about their feelings and experiences of the system. The investigation found that staff generally welcome some form of appraisal but that the current process was essentially out-dated and the process and paperwork needed revamping. In addition to this training was identified as a major flaw in the process as training was limited and not compulsory. Engagement with the process was lacking in many areas as a result of perceived unfairness or with poor working relationships with managers.


ABSTRACT Background At rest, omission of breakfast lowers daily energy intake, but also lowers energy expenditure, attenuating any effect on energy balance. The effect of breakfast omission on energy balance when exercise is prescribed is unclear. Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the effect on 24-h energy balance of omitting compared with consuming breakfast prior to exercise. Methods Twelve healthy physically active young men (age 23 ± 3 y, body mass index 23.6 ± 2.0 kg/m2) completed 3 trials in a randomized order (separated by >1 week): a breakfast of oats and milk (431 kcal; 65 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat, 19 g protein) followed by rest (BR); breakfast before exercise (BE; 60 min cycling at 50 % peak power output); and overnight fasting before exercise (FE). The 24-h energy intake was calculated based on the food consumed for breakfast, followed by an ad libitum lunch, snacks, and dinner. Indirect calorimetry with heart-rate accelerometry was used to measure substrate utilization and 24-h energy expenditure. A [6,6-2H2]glucose infusion was used to investigate tissue-specific carbohydrate utilization. Results The 24-h energy balance was −400 kcal (normalized 95% CI: −230, −571 kcal) for the FE trial; this was significantly lower than both the BR trial (492 kcal; normalized 95% CI: 332, 652 kcal) and the BE trial (7 kcal; normalized 95% CI: −153, 177 kcal; both P < 0.01 compared with FE). Plasma glucose utilization in FE (mainly representing liver glucose utilization) was positively correlated with energy intake compensation at lunch (r = 0.62, P = 0.03), suggesting liver carbohydrate plays a role in postexercise energy-balance regulation. Conclusions Neither exercise energy expenditure nor restricted energy intake via breakfast omission were completely compensated for postexercise. In healthy men, pre-exercise breakfast omission creates a more negative daily energy balance and could therefore be a useful strategy to induce a short-term energy deficit. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02258399.


The detection of the human skin has proven to be a useful and robust technique in
computer vision for detecting, segmenting, and tracking faces and hands. It is also used
in many different applications in motion capture, human-computer interaction, access
control, surveillance, and content-based image retrieval and indexing of image
databases.
To build a decision rule that will discriminate between skin and non-skin pixels, a metric
has to be introduced to measure the distance of the pixel color to skin tone. The skin
color models define the type of this metric.An improved chromatic skin color model is discussed in this thesis. The model detected
the human skin in the Bitmap images with JPEG format. A threshold method and 2D
Gaussian model were used to improve the accuracy of the skin region detected.
Good results have been achieved by using the proposed model. Results show that the
model detects the human skin with an excellent detection rates for over than 90%. This
result shows that this model is more appropriate to avoid false detection areas, while
there remains a high degree of correct detection.
This model has been implemented using the MATLAB software, which able to improve
the performance and accuracy of skin detection models.


The objective of this paper is to identify the fact ors that could have led North-American companies to voluntarily submit their information i n XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) under the XBRL Voluntary Financial Reporting Program (2005-2008). The motivation that led us to carry out this analysis was the fact that, despite the many benefits attributed to XBRL , only 137 companies (out of over 10.000 filers) deci ded to join the voluntary program issued by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). At this point, we wondered if the SEC should have promoted other benefits to encourage companies to use XBRL. To reach our goal, we conducted a Delphi study. Through this study, we asked a panel of XBRL experts their opinion about the reasons that could have led companies to voluntaril y disclose their business information in XBRL. Our results show that, according to experts, factor s such as to gain a deeper knowledege of XBRL and to acquire a company image as a pioneer in tech nology played an essential role in the process of voluntary adoption of the standard.


Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences is an international journal that offers a forum for illuminating the intersections between phenomenology, empirical science, and analytic philosophy of mind.  The journal builds bridges between continental phenomenological approaches in the Husserlian tradition and disciplines that have not always been open to or aware of phenomenological contributions to understanding cognition and related topics. The journal presents work by phenomenologists, scientists, and philosophers who study cognition. In addition the journal offers discussion of methodological issues involving the variety of approaches appropriate for addressing these problems.  Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences provides critical review articles that address recent work in areas relevant to the connection between empirical results in experimental science and first-person perspective.


The first deep-tow boomer survey on the Antarctic continental margin has revealed relict subglacial deltas on the outer continental shelf off the Antarctic Peninsula. Progradation of subglacial deltas is thought to take place at the grounding lines of ice streams which flow on deforming subglacial till. Acoustic characteristics and estimation of likely sediment transport rates suggest that these features were produced by late-stage readvance of grounding lines during the waning of the last ice sheet that covered the shelf. This readvance could have taken place during the Younger Dryas (12.9–11.6 ka), but changes in sea level and climate may not be the only important controls on subglacial delta formation. The discovery of relict subglacial deltas on the outer shelf is consistent with the hypothesis that the grounded ice sheet in these areas was low profile and fast flowing. If low-profile grounded ice extended to the shelf edge in many places around Antarctica at times of glacial maximum, this could explain the greater glacial maximum ice-sheet extent in interpretations based on offshore data, compared with reconstructions based on onshore data and numerical glaciological models.


Whole plant senescence is a programmed, endogenously controlled process in which cellular components are degraded and the resultant metabolites sequestered to other plant organs. All cells, with the possible exception of the meristem progenitors, go through cell division, expansion, elaboration of secondary structures to the primary cell wall, quiescence, and finally death. This senescence process is thought to be partially catalyzed by an increase in translation of degradative proteins coupled to a decrease in translation of vital proteins (Skadsen and Cherry, 1983). Inducers of senescence include wounding, fruit ripening, changes in hormone levels (auxin, cytokinins + auxin, Ca2+ + cytokinins, and ethylene), various stresses (anaerobiosis, heat, cold, UV light, Cd2+, and Li+), and pathogen attack (Theologis, 1992). The regulatory mechanisms that facilitate entry of a cell, tissue, or whole plant into this final developmental stage are largely unknown; however, hormonal controls are likely to be involved. A better understanding of the genetic regulation of senescence will be important for studies relating to : I) normal cellular differentiation, maintenance, and turnover; 2) plant defense mechanisms and the hypersensitive response; and 3) embryogenesis and development. In addition, economic benefits could result from reduction in post-harvest and post-production losses as well as improvement of crop yields. Evidence indicates that soybean cotyledon senescence and induced "rejuvenation" (i.e.,. the reversal of the senescence process) are associated with changes in gene expression (Marek and Stewart 1992; Skadsen and Cherry 1983). During germination the cotyledons emerge, become green, and develop leaf-like characteristics including photosynthetic and storage mobilizing capability. During normal development, the cotyledons senesce after expansion of the first and second trifoliates. It has been shown (Krul, 1974) that this process can be reversed by the removal of the epicotyl up to the "point of no return" (PONR), a developmental stage at which up to 90% of nucleic acids and 80% of proteins are lost from the senescing cotyledon. The objectives of this research project were to identify genes that show differential expression during senescence and rejuvenation in the soybean cotyledon system and to isolate clones of genes that are specifically up-regulated in expression during these processes. To accomplish these objectives, Northern blots were used to assay soybean cotyledon mRNA populations during various stages of senescence and rejuvenation using a collection of gene clones known or suspected to be involved in senescence and rejuvenation. These gene clones included: I) a tomato ethylene forming enzyme (EFE) and several other ethylene up-regulated genes; 2) from carnation, ACC synthase, glutathione stransferase and other unidentified senescence associated genes; 3) from soybean, three lipoxygenases, two vegetative storage proteins, rubisco large and small subunits and an iron superoxide dismutase; 4) from cucumber, malate synthase and isocitrate lyase; and 5) two Arabidopsis genes, Sag2 (cysteine protease) and Sag4 (currently unidentified). In addition, cDNA libraries were constructed from senescent, nonsenescent, and rejuvenated soybean cotyledons. Finally, a cDNA library made from senescing soybean cotyledons was screened for a Sag2 homologue. These studies revealed up-regulation in expression during cotyledon senescence for rubisco large and small subunits, two soybean vegetative storage proteins, and an Arabidopsis cysteine protease. A soybean homologue to the Arabidopsis cysteine protease (Sag2) was cloned from senescing soybean cotyledons and restriction analysis revealed that it contained two Pvull sites.


Legal change is a fact of life. The need to deal with legal change has spawned a number of complicated bodies of doctrine. Some of these issues have been studied extensively, such as doctrines concerning the retroactivity of new law and the question whether inferior courts can anticipatorily overrule a moribund superior court precedent. How such questions are answered affects the size and the distribution of the costs of legal change. Less appreciated is the way that heretofore almost invisible matters of appellate procedure and case handling also allocate the costs of legal transitions. In particular, this Article focuses on lower courts' discretionary decisions about when to decide the cases that come before them: should lower courts continue to decide cases in the regular course even when a change in law is in the offing, or should they delay adjudication until after the dust has settled?The Article has both positive and normative aspects. It begins by drawing together several bodies of doctrine in order to present a unified account of what we can call our system's "law of legal change." The Article then presents a case study of the six-month interval between Blakely v. Washington, which invalidated a state sentencing scheme and cast substantial doubt on federal sentencing guidelines, and United States v. Booker, which then held Blakely applicable to the federal system. A majority of the federal courts of appeals that addressed the question upheld the federal guidelines during this transitional interval. Beneath the surface, however, the various courts upholding the guidelines managed cases very differently, particularly when it came to questions of timing. As a result, some circuits bore much of the cost of legal change themselves, while others shifted some of the cost to litigants and other courts. Although that episode is unusual in terms of the size and salience of the case-management problem, the same general phenomena routinely manifest themselves on a smaller scale. Having described what courts actually do, I then suggest a framework for evaluating and perhaps improving how courts process cases during transitional periods. Case-management decisions are highly context-specific, which makes it difficult and perhaps undesirable to formulate general rules, but we might be able to improve courts' handling of such matters by altering the institutional environment and modifying incentives.


We consider a Gaussian diamond network where a source communicates with the destination through n non-interfering half-duplex relays. We focus on half-duplex schedules that utilize only local channel state information, i.e., each relay has access to its incoming and outgoing channel realizations. We demonstrate that random independent switching, resulting in multiple listen-transmit sub cycles at each relay, while still respecting the overall locally optimal listen-transmit fractions, enables to approximately achieve at least 3/4 of the capacity of the 2-relay diamond network. With a single listen-transmit cycle, this fraction drops from 3/4 to 1/2. We also provide simulation results that point to the same fractions of capacity being retained over networks with more than 2 relays.


The present study examines relationships among the HR practices of empowerment and training), employee job satisfaction,, employee organisational commitment with internal influence and external representation), as well as the mediation role of the employee attitudes. Using data collected from 335 flight attendants, structural equation model analysis reveal positive effects of employee attitudes on both internal influence and external representation. Moreover, HR practices are found to be positively associated with job satisfaction, while job satisfaction is indicated to be the only mediator in the structural model. The results show job satisfaction and empowerment to have strong predictive power. Implications for services marketing are drawn from the results.1. IntroductionDue to the liberalisation of the airline industry and the emergence of low-cost carriers, intense competition is the inevitable phenomenon for airlines around the world. As such, securing competitive advantages is a crucial determinant of company's survival. In the service sector, scholars suggest that firm's competitive advantages can be significantly accrued through its ability to provide superior customer service (Vargo and Lusch 2004; Meng et al. 2009). Recognition of the importance of service quality not only leads service providers to the pursuit of service excellence, but also draws scholars' attention on increasing the quality of service delivery. It is believed that one way to enhance service quality and delight customer is to have employees go beyond the normal call of duties (Ennew and Binks 1999). Thus, research attention has been placed to focus on the importance of organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs - behaviours that entail individual contributions in the workplace beyond the specified role requirements and are not explicitly recognized by the formal reward system), as the relationship between employee behaviours and customers' perceptions of service quality is evident. Although much research effort was devoted to explore such behaviours, most of the focus was on affiliative behaviours such as interpersonal helping and compliance which are intended to maintain and reinforce the status quo (Choi 2007). Discretionary behaviours which are promotive but challenges the status quo (i.e. making suggesting to improve work performance) has received only limited research attention (Bettencourt 2004). Also, how external representation (i.e. employee being vocal advocates to outsiders) develops has gained limited research attention despite its important contribution to the firm's image and success (Bettencourt and Brown 2003). In addition, despite numerous OCBs have been studies in the hospitality industry, only a handful was found in the case of airline cabin staff. Thus, leaving a void on how airline companies can lead employees to engage in It is generally believed that human resource management practices enhance employee performance. However, relative little is known about approaches for developing and motivating frontline service employees (Elliger et al. 2007). In addition, there remains fundamental gap in our current understanding on how management practices influence discretionary behaviours. The main objective of the current study is to examine the relationships between human resource management practices (i.e. empowerment and training) and two boundary-spanning behaviours including 1) internal influence, taking individual initiative in communications to the firm and co-workers to improve service delivery by the organizsation, co-workers, and oneself (cf. Bettencourt and Brown 2003; Bettencourt et al. 2005), and 2) external representation, being vocal advocates to outsiders of the organisation's image, products, and services (Bettencourt and Brown 2003; Bettencourt et al. 2005). Drawing from the service related literature, the authors posits that that HR practices play an indirect role in organisational performance by enhancing employee job attitudes. …


Discover how project Reactor enhances the reactive programming paradigm and allows you to build scalable asynchronous applications
Key Features
Use reactive APIs, Flux, and Mono to implement reactive extensions

Create concurrent applications without the complexity of Java's concurrent API

Understand techniques to implement event-driven and reactive applications

Book Description
Reactor is an implementation of the Java 9 Reactive Streams specification, an API for asynchronous data processing. This specification is based on a reactive programming paradigm, enabling developers to build enterprise-grade, robust applications with reduced complexity and in less time. Hands-On Reactive Programming with Reactor shows you how Reactor works, as well as how to use it to develop reactive applications in Java.

The book begins with the fundamentals of Reactor and the role it plays in building effective applications. You will learn how to build fully non-blocking applications and will later be guided by the Publisher and Subscriber APIs. You will gain an understanding how to use two reactive composable APIs, Flux and Mono, which are used extensively to implement Reactive Extensions. All of these components are combined using various operations to build a complete solution.

In addition to this, you will get to grips with the Flow API and understand backpressure in order to control overruns. You will also study the use of Spring WebFlux, an extension of the Reactor framework for building microservices.

By the end of the book, you will have gained enough confidence to build reactive and scalable microservices.
What you will learn
Explore benefits of the Reactive paradigm and the Reactive Streams API

Discover the impact of Flux and Mono implications in Reactor

Expand and repeat data in stream processing

Get to grips with various types of processors and choose the best one

Understand how to map errors to make corrections easier

Create robust tests using testing utilities offered by Reactor

Find the best way to schedule the execution of code

Who this book is for
If you're looking to develop event- and data-driven applications easily with Reactor, this book is for you. Sound knowledge of Java fundamentals is necessary to understand the concepts covered in the book.


Abstract Anglo-American tort doctrine pays considerable attention to the conduct of the victim as well as the conduct of the injurer. Moreover, a symmetrical standard of care for victims and injurers is commonly invoked: just as injurers are liable for failure to use reasonable care, victims frequently have their compensation reduced insofar as they, too, failed to use reasonable care. The advent of comparative fault, replacing the all-or-nothing rule of contributory negligence, has made the symmetrical approach seem inexorable and unremarkable. But symmetry is usually the wrong perspective for the legal system to take towards victim and injurer conduct. Moreover, a uniformly symmetrical approach ignores the nuances of legal doctrine. Courts often depart from symmetry, even in comparative fault jurisdictions. Thus, courts recognize several categorical doctrines that permit full recovery without regard to the possible fault of the victim (e. g., when the defendant has a duty to protect the victim from his own vulnerability or incapacity, or when the defendant is engaged to provide medical care or other services to the victim necessitated by the victim's own prior fault). Courts also recognize categorical doctrines that automatically preclude any recovery despite the supposed presumptive status of comparative fault (e. g., the illegality doctrine, the mitigation of damages doctrine, and the defense of voluntary assumption of risk). Even when victim conduct is compared to injurer conduct, the way in which victim conduct is relevant to tort liability is frequently qualitatively different from the way in which injurer conduct is relevant. Often, when we characterize a victim as being "at fault," we do not mean that the victim should have acted differently, but only that he should be strictly responsible for his choice or action (e. g. because he justifiably forfeited his right to full damages). Indeed, sometimes, even though a victim has a moral or legal right not to take a precaution, it is appropriate to deny him full damages for the harm that the precaution would have averted. To be sure, symmetry is sometimes appropriate, especially when the actor's unreasonable conduct creates substantial risks both to others and to himself. But in many other cases, symmetry is much less defensible, at least if one endorses a largely nonconsequentialist rather than a purely utilitarian account of tort law. The law could do more to address the unjustifiable use of symmetrical criteria – for example, the fact-finder could be instructed, or the trial judge could be directed, to treat unreasonable risk to others as a more serious type of fault than unreasonable risk to self.


The growing global interest in corporate responsibility (CR) and the pressure felt by organisations in all sectors to demonstrate commitment and progress in CR has led to demands for guidelines and standards that can help companies shape their response to CR in a measurable and consistent way. In recent years a number of models and guidance documents have been produced; however companies are still struggling to understand how to approach CR and what mechanisms to use to integrate it into their organisation's systems. The link between Quality Management Systems and CR has been noted by many authors and a respected model was developed by Castka et al (2004) which combined the systems used in the ISO 9001 accreditation with the requirements of a CR process. Their CSR Framework however does not link to any accredited standards and lacks practical steps for organisations to follow. This study takes the underlying basis of The CSR Framework and combines it with the guidance and structure found in the British Standard for Sustainability, the BS 8900, to create a model for CR integration. Through qualitative case study research of four organisations, the benefits and development areas of this model are discussed in relation to the CR needs of the organisations concerned and the practicalities of using a model to shape the integration of CR.


Long ago, U.S. business learned the benefits of constantly soliciting advice from workers on the shop floor by studying the startling success of the Japanese automobile industry. But the vast majority of U.S. school districts have remained hierarchical operations that ignore the wisdom available from their best classroom teachers. After decades of failed top-down solutions, now is the time to create a massive national movement that empowers and deeply respects our teachers. Scientists and science teachers can lead the way.


Peatlands respond to natural hydrologic cycles of precipitation and evapotranspiration with reversible deformations due to variations of water content in both the unsaturated and saturated zone. This phenomenon results in short‐term vertical displacements of the soil surface that superimpose to the irreversible long‐term subsidence naturally occurring in drained cropped peatlands because of bio‐oxidation of the organic matter. These processes cause changes in the peat structure, in particular, soil density and void ratio. The consequential changes in the hydrological parameters need to be incorporated in water flow dynamical models. In this paper, we present a new constitutive relationship for the soil shrinkage characteristic (SSC) in peats by describing the variation of porosity with moisture content. This model, based on simple physical considerations, is valid for both anisotropic and isotropic three‐dimensional peat deformations. The capability of the proposed SSC to accurately describe the deformation dynamics has been assessed by comparison against a set of laboratory experimental results recently published. The constitutive relationship has been implemented into a Richards' equation–based numerical code and applied for the simulation of the peat soil dynamics as observed in a peatland south of the Venice Lagoon, Italy, in an ad hoc field experiment where the relevant parameters are continuously measured. The modeling results match well a large set of field data encompassing a period of more than 50 days and demonstrate that the proposed approach allows for a reliable reproduction of the soil vertical displacement dynamics as well as the hydrological behavior in terms of, for example, water flow, moisture content, and suction.


Purpose: Male breast cancer is rare, and its genomic landscape has yet to be fully characterized. Lacking studies in men, treatment of males with breast cancer is extrapolated from results in females with breast cancer. We sought to define whether male breast cancers harbor somatic genetic alterations in genes frequently altered in female breast cancers. Experimental Design: All male breast cancers were estrogen receptor–positive, and all but two were HER2-negative. Fifty-nine male breast cancers were subtyped by immunohistochemistry, and tumor–normal pairs were microdissected and subjected to massively parallel sequencing targeting all exons of 241 genes frequently mutated in female breast cancers or DNA-repair related. The repertoires of somatic mutations and copy number alterations of male breast cancers were compared with that of subtype-matched female breast cancers. Results: Twenty-nine percent and 71% of male breast cancers were immunohistochemically classified as luminal A–like or luminal B–like, respectively. Male breast cancers displayed a heterogeneous repertoire of somatic genetic alterations that to some extent recapitulated that of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/HER2-negative female breast cancers, including recurrent mutations affecting PIK3CA (20%) and GATA3 (15%). ER-positive/HER2-negative male breast cancers, however, less frequently harbored 16q losses, and PIK3CA and TP53 mutations than ER-positive/HER2-negative female breast cancers. In addition, male breast cancers were found to be significantly enriched for mutations affecting DNA repair–related genes. Conclusions: Male breast cancers less frequently harbor somatic genetic alterations typical of ER-positive/HER2-negative female breast cancers, such as PIK3CA and TP53 mutations and losses of 16q, suggesting that at least a subset of male breast cancers are driven by a distinct repertoire of somatic changes. Given the genomic differences, caution may be needed in the application of biologic and therapeutic findings from studies of female breast cancers to male breast cancers. Clin Cancer Res; 22(16); 4045–56. ©2016 AACR.


It is often documented, based on autocorrelation, variance ratio, and power spectrum, that exchange rates approximately follow a martingale process. Because these data check serial uncorrelatedness rather than martingale difference, they may deliver misleading conclusions in favor of the martingale hypothesis when the test statistics are insignificant. In this paper, we explore whether there exists a gap between serial uncorrelatedness and martingale difference for exchange rate changes, and if so, whether nonlinear time series models admissible in the gap can outperform the martingale model in out-of-sample forecasts. Applying the generalized spectral tests of Hong to five major currencies, we find that the changes of exchange rates are often serially uncorrelated, but there exists strong nonlinearity in conditional mean, in addition to the well-known volatility clustering. To forecast the conditional mean, we consider the linear autoregressive, autoregressive polynomial, artificial neural network, and functional-coefficient models, as well as their combination. The functional coefficient model allows the autoregressive coefficients to depend on investment positions via a moving-average technical trading rule. We evaluate out-of-sample forecasts of these models relative to the martingale model, using four criteriathe mean squared forecast error, the mean absolute forecast error, the mean forecast trading return, and the mean correct forecast direction. White's reality check method is used to avoid data-snooping bias. It is found that suitable nonlinear models, particularly in combination, do have superior predictive ability over the martingale model for some currencies in terms of certain forecast evaluation criteria.


Evicted! is a practical and critical look at the vulnerability of Americans' property rights to eminent domain abuse since the Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo decision.
 The 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the taking of an individual's home by local government for the sake of private development, unleashed a firestorm of controversy. The backlash against eminent domain cuts across partisan, ideological, and racial lines, with 4 out of 5 Americans opposing Kelo. Critics of Kelo claim that it represents a radical departure in the law, putting every homeowner in jeopardy of dispossession by government at the service of corporate interests. But are property rights and eminent domain truly in mortal conflict? Written for general readers, property owners, and local government officials seeking to understand the implications of Kelo for eminent domain and property law, Evicted! cuts through all the hype and hysteria surrounding Kelo and argues that the alleged wave of eminent domain abuse is mostly a myth.
 Evicted! describes what property rights are, why the law protects them, and how eminent domain really works. Schultz shows that Kelo did not make new law but only broadened Supreme Court precedents, and he refutes claims that Kelo has opened the way to widespread eminent domain abuse. Nevertheless, the author identifies certain legislative changes that are needed at the local, state, and national levels to better protect individual property owners when corporate thugs and corrupt government officials occasionally gang up against them.


The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing people's perception of wait time in a theme park attraction queue (waiting line). Theme park designers can create a sense of suspended reality within the theme park to provide a positive perception and enhanced experience for their guests. This study presents an investigation to measure the suspended reality satisfaction in the design around the queue areas at Walt Disney World. This study attempts to determine if providing more suspended reality in the designed queue environment has an affect on guest perceptions of a shorter wait time than actual wait time. Using Friedman's statistical test, the results show some significance (p-value of 0.025) between the design efforts and shorter wait times perceived, but no significant difference in the multiple comparison test (p-value > than 0.10). However, there is a relationship found between time of day and guest perception using Kendall's statistical test that suggests that as the day goes on people perceive longer wait times (p-value less than 0.005). Theme park fatigue may be a significant factor in the perception of the wait time while standing in the queue line. Key-Words: landscape architecture, environmental design, environmental behavior, environmental psychology


The unsustainable growth in pharmaceutical expenditure has resulted in multiple initiatives across Europe to lower prices of generics and enhance their utilisation. These include prescribing restrictions. However, there have been concerns with their impact on subsequent quality of care as well as their influence in reality. OBJECTIVES: (a) Review the influence of prescribing restrictions and whether there are any differences depending on their nature and drug classes; (b) Ascertain whether prescribing restrictions can be added to existing demand-side measures to further enhance prescribing efficiency; (c) Whether they compromise subsequent quality of care. RESULTS: Prescribing restrictions have a variable impact on subsequent utilisation of patented protected products versus generics in a class, with their influence depending on the nature and follow-up of the restrictions rather than the class of drug. This is seen among the proton pump inhibitors, statins, and renin-angiotensin drugs. Prescribing restrictions can be successfully added to existing measures to further enhance prescribing efficiency, and do not appear to compromise subsequent quality of care. CONCLUSIONS: Prescribing restrictions can be a successful strategy as countries strive to maintain the European ideals for healthcare. However, care is needed when planning these programmes: else health authorities could be disappointed with their outcome.


This paper investigates the impact of alternative economic opportunities for the youth in consolidating positive peace. Using data from randomized control trial from a cash-for-work program for unskilled youngsters, with no opportunities in the labor market, we capture the causal effect of employment on social cohesion and trust in institutions in post-conflict CoI'te d'Ivoire. We estimate the short term and midterm impacts of the program from a sample of 4,160 youngsters randomly drawn including 3,125 beneficiaries and 1,035 in the control group in 16 municipalities nationwide. We also include in the analysis the prediction of youth behavior in favor of peace conditional to their participation in the program by running a LASSO model. In the short term, participation in the program decreases the odds to trust out-community youth by 29% and the odds to trust colleagues by 16%. In the long term, having a paid-job significantly increases the likelihood to attend community meeting by 20%, trust in family members by 17% and trust in colleagues by 25%. Further, participation in the program is found to significantly predict behavior to peace. Lastly, while training in entrepreneurship negatively predict social cohesion, training in paid-job positively predict attitude to peace.


An air-flow, propeller type, rim-drive turbine is being manufactured to be used in sites with heads ranging from 12 to 28 feet. A laboratory turbine model study was conducted to optimize several turbine variables. The model study provided revealing information in regard to the effect of bearing arrangement and blade angle on turbine performance. The model study also provided a means of testing various mechanical peripheral equipment associated with the turbine such as water seals, and bearing location. In particular, the performance of the turbine with a downstream bearing support web was tested.


This paper considers questions about continuity and discontinuity between life and mind. It begins by examining such questions from the perspective of the free energy principle (FEP). The FEP is becoming increasingly influential in neuroscience and cognitive science. It says that organisms act to maintain themselves in their expected biological and cognitive states, and that they can do so only by minimizing their free energy given that the long-term average of free energy is entropy. The paper then argues that there is no singular interpretation of the FEP for thinking about the relation between life and mind. Some FEP formulations express what we call an independence view of life and mind. One independence view is a cognitivist view of the FEP. It turns on information processing with semantic content, thus restricting the range of systems capable of exhibiting mentality. Other independence views exemplify what we call an overly generous non-cognitivist view of the FEP, and these appear to go in the opposite direction. That is, they imply that mentality is nearly everywhere. The paper proceeds to argue that non-cognitivist FEP, and its implications for thinking about the relation between life and mind, can be usefully constrained by key ideas in recent enactive approaches to cognitive science. We conclude that the most compelling account of the relationship between life and mind treats them as strongly continuous, and that this continuity is based on particular concepts of life (autopoiesis and adaptivity) and mind (basic and non-semantic).


Established practice is available as a reference for evaluating sustainable transport and CO2 emissions at national, European and global levels, but comparing corresponding systems at the regional and local levels are more challenging. Therefore, this paper analyses the use of indicators, evaluation methods and data availability at local and regional levels for applied policies and measures in transport planning. Sweden is used as a case study. Available data show that total surveys (e.g., vehicle registry data), sample surveys (e.g., interviews) or modelling can be used to develop transport indicators, and that either generated (volume generated in the area) or performed (volume in the area) traffic and transportation is estimated. However, there are limitations with all methods and the design of evaluations needs careful consideration in order to reflect changes in local and regional transport systems and to relate those changes to specific measures and policies. In most cases, survey methods need to be used in order to follow up the most common indicators. All evaluation methods need to be complemented with analyses of a baseline to determine additionality and also potential rebound effects need to be considered, which requires the application of a wider systems perspective.


In 2002 Dr. Hans Blix, then chief United Nations weapons inspector, led his team on a search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Before the United States went to war with Iraq the next March, he maintained there were no WMD in Iraq. History proved him right. For more than forty years Dr. Blix has worked on global disarmament, and with this new book he renews the call for nuclear nonproliferation. His interests, though, go beyond stemming the threat of nuclear attack from rogue states and terrorists. It is not, he argues, a recipe for success for nuclear states to tell the rest of the world that it must stay away from the very weapons that nuclear states claim are indispensable. We will never be able to convince rogue states to halt the pursuit of nuclear weapons programs unless we take the lead in a new nonproliferation and disarmament movement. Looking back at the UN post-World War II efforts against the use of nuclear weapons, Blix documents the retreat from early commitments by nuclear powers, most alarmingly from pledges against first use and toward programs to develop new types of nuclear weapons. He urges us to revive these efforts, and that the world's powers also look at issues of global disarmament and security as pieces of the same puzzle. Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters includes specific suggestions--how the UN can set the stage for a credible multilateral disarmament and nonproliferation process; what kind of treaties would be most helpful--and recommendations for regional policy, including providing the Middle East with enriched uranium for civilian nuclear power production but not allowing uranium enrichment there.From March 2000 to June 2003 Hans Blix was Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). Dr. Blix, author of Disarming Iraq, is Chair of the Swedish government's Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction.


Introduction Recently, we could show that angiotensin II, the reactive peptide of the blood pressure-regulating renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system, causes the formation of reactive oxygen species and DNA damage in kidneys and hearts of hypertensive mice. To further investigate on the one hand the mechanism of DNA damage caused by angiotensin II, and on the other hand possible intervention strategies against end-organ damage, the effects of substances interfering with the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system on angiotensin II-induced genomic damage were studied. Methods In C57BL/6-mice, hypertension was induced by infusion of 600 ng/kg • min angiotensin II. The animals were additionally treated with the angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker candesartan, the mineralocorticoid receptor blocker eplerenone and the antioxidant tempol. DNA damage and the activation of transcription factors were studied by immunohistochemistry and protein expression analysis. Results Administration of angiotensin II led to a significant increase of blood pressure, decreased only by candesartan. In kidneys and hearts of angiotensin II-treated animals, significant oxidative stress could be detected (1.5-fold over control). The redox-sensitive transcription factors Nrf2 and NF-κB were activated in the kidney by angiotensin II-treatment (4- and 3-fold over control, respectively) and reduced by all interventions. In kidneys and hearts an increase of DNA damage (3- and 2-fold over control, respectively) and of DNA repair (3-fold over control) was found. These effects were ameliorated by all interventions in both organs. Consistently, candesartan and tempol were more effective than eplerenone. Conclusion Angiotensin II-induced DNA damage is caused by angiotensin II type 1 receptor-mediated formation of oxidative stress in vivo. The angiotensin II-mediated physiological increase of aldosterone adds to the DNA-damaging effects. Blocking angiotensin II and mineralocorticoid receptors therefore has beneficial effects on end-organ damage independent of blood pressure normalization.