Archaeological excavations at the Willows Beach site (DcRt-10) on southeastern Vancouver Island have revealed the presence of two distinct culture types – characteristic artifact assemblages generally associated with particular time periods – during the site's 2630–270 BP occupation. Following Croes's theory that culture type change reflects subsistence intensification, Willows Beach faunal assemblages are examined for evidence of change over time. Analysis of faunal remains from dated, stratified units associated with the two culture types suggests that at least some subsistence change occurs commensurate with changes in subsistence artifacts and culture type. Reference is also made to faunal changes at the nearby Esquimalt Lagoon and Maplebank sites. Greater sample sizes are needed to further support this association.


The synchronous catastrophic mortality in the semelparous cuttlefish (Sepia apama), is an annual winter event in the coastal waters of southern Australia. This creates an abundant food resource that attracts large numbers of marine carnivores to the Wollongong coast, including several species of albatross. This provided the opportunity to investigate the nutritional requirements and energetics of non-breeding albatrosses at the nearby University of Wollongong research facilities.. My objectives for these studies were: a) to determine the digestive (assimilation) efficiency of Diomedea albatrosses for cuttlefish; b) to measure the postprandial metabolism of albatrosses (2 species) with the aim of determining the energy cost of heating cold meals and the extent to which Specific Dynamic Action (SDA) contributed to food warming; and, c) to test whether the published values of 20% higher Basal Metabolic Rates (BMR) of large Diomedea albatrosses (6-10kg) compared to those for smaller species (Thalassarche, Phoebastria Spp.; 2.5-3.5kg) were maintained outside the breeding period. Reported values for albatross BMR suggested that mass-specific BMR (BMRm) of Diomedea was ~20% greater than for the Thalassarche genus. To confirm this observation, I measured BMR in four albatross species; wandering, Gibson's, white-capped (Thalassarche steadi) and Campbell (T. impavida), using open system respirometry. BMR had not previously been measured for the latter three species, but the results of these measurements confirmed the existence of intergeneric difference in mass-specific BMR. From anatomical studies I found that D. gibsoni kidneys were some 20% larger than those of T. steadi. As kidney mass has been found to be a major contributor to BMR in other avian species, this result may partially account for the observed intergeneric BMR difference I used open system respirometry to measure albatross post-prandial metabolism (PPMR) for meal temperatures of 0, 20 and 40°C (body temperature  40°C) in Diomedea albatrosses (largest species) and the Indian yellow-nosed albatross (T. carteri) (smallest species). Combining these results with a mathematical model of albatross stomach thermodynamics, I was able to estimate components of PPMR and evaluate the fractional contribution of specific dynamic action (SDA) to the energy cost of heating cold meals. I estimated SDA to be 5.7% of gross energy ingested (GEI) and the cost of heating cold meals at 0°C to be >5% of GEI. Because of physiological delays inherent in thermoregulation following ingestion of cold meals, the resultant rise in metabolic heat production was over 50% above the calorimetric energy required to heat this meal. The contribution of SDA towards warming 0°C meals fed in amounts equivalent to 20% of body mass was estimated to be 17.9% and 13.2% in Diomedea and Thalassarche carteri, respectively. Consequently, the combined effect of these interacting processes results in an energy loss of more than 7% of GEI in meals consumed at these temperatures. One highly visible characteristic in which the petrel family differs from other avian species is their long narrow (high aspect ratio) wings. Many studies have demonstrated that petrels have a superior gliding/soaring ability, which they utilise to extract energy for transport from oceanic airflow (winds and air displaced by ocean swells). Low-cost transport is essential for survival of large albatrosses in pelagic ocean waters, because suitable forage is often distributed in patches separated by hundreds to thousands of kilometres. I expected that an investigation of petrel anatomy, particularly locomotor muscles, might reveal morphological features that related to lower transport costs. I was able to obtain 125 specimens of 18 species of Procellariiformes that were collected by the New Zealand Department of Conservation as by-kill recovered from commercial fisheries. I used these for extensive anatomical examination, particularly of locomotor muscles and central organs, as the size of these can be correlated with aspects of albatross energetics and ecology. From allometric relationships derived for petrel locomotor muscles I found that the locomotor mass for petrels scaled isometrically. As body size increased, however, petrels redistributed locomotor muscle mass; with pectoral muscle mass showing decreases while other flight and leg muscles increased. Overall, the locomotor muscle mass of petrels is 25.5% less than for other avian orders, and this is directly attributable to their smaller flight muscles. The pectoral muscles, which generate the power for flapping flight, scale with an exponent of 0.91, while wing loading scales with an exponent of 0.39. Field observations reveal that all petrels use a take-off run to become airborne and that this increases in length with increasing body size, thus demonstrating the physical effect of this divergent scaling. This has a limiting effect on flight performance in the larger species (albatrosses); take-off can be a difficult task in calm conditions or when flight performance is degraded by moulted flight feathers. Leg muscle power therefore provides an important power contribution during this critical stage of flight. Petrel leg and pectoral muscles are comparable in size, and the leg muscle scaling exponent of 1.16 demonstrates the capacity to offset the inverse proportionate relationship between pectoral and body muscle masses. The relatively small flight muscles of petrels results in reduced maintenance energy cost and a reduction in induced drag, and therefore lower transport costs during flight. These cost reductions imply a significant cumulative saving for species in which flight is a dominant feature of their life history.


With their focus on the future of national security law, the essays in this issue share a common premise: that the future matters to legal policy, and that law must take the future into account. But what is this future? And what conception of the future do national security lawyers have in mind? The future is, in an absolute sense, unknowable. Absent a time machine, we cannot directly experience it. Yet human action is premised on ideas about the future, political scientist Harold Lasswell wrote in his classic work The Garrison State. The ideas about the future that guide social scientific work are rational predictions, he suggested. If law is premised on ideas about something unknowable, something that can, at best, be a prediction, then it seems important to examine what those ideas, assumptions and predictions are. This essay examines future-thinking in prominent works related to national security, including the ideas that the future is peacetime, a long war, a "next attack," and the future as a postwar. Drawing from scholarship on historical memory and conceptions of temporality, this essay argues that understandings of the future depend on more than the rational empirical predictions that Lasswell had in mind. The future is a cultural construct that depends in part on the way we remember the past. It does not exist apart from the politics and values that inform our perceptions. The future does not unfold on its own. We produce our future through both our acts and our imaginations. Culture matters deeply in this context, for the future we imagine is a well-spring of law.


This paper discusses the principle of the diffusion development of photoinduced
 (holographic) gratings with the use of photoattached molecules and its use in creating
 shrink-resistant photosensitive media for volume holography and in studying polymeric
 materials by a holographic relaxation method. It discusses how the composition, the
 fabrication method, and the thermal history of the medium affect its properties. It is
 shown that polymeric photosensitive materials with diffusion amplification fabricated by
 polymerization methods in mass differ from those made by casting a film from a solution.


In the fall of 2006, a real estate group led by the father and son team of Jerry and Rob Speyer completed the largest residential real estate deal in U.S. history. For $5.4 billion, this team purchased the twin housing developments of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, located on the East Side of Manhattan. As part of their business plan, the new landlords sought to displace thousands of rent-regulated tenants so that market rents could be charged in the units vacated by outgoing tenants. Led by a crusading elected official, who just happened to be a resident of the complexes, the members of the complexes' tenant association, supported by a host of lawyers from different sectors of the bar, pursued a range of legal avenues to resist the landlords' efforts to convert thousands of units from affordable housing into luxury, market-rate housing.In many ways, the purchase of the properties at the height of the real estate market, and the subsequent campaign to pursue a high rate of return on the investment to satisfy the debt burden on the properties, is another example of the distortions created by the era of easy credit. Much of the attention on the financial crisis focuses on the impact of the rise and collapse of an overheated home mortgage market on the broader financial system. What occurred in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is a symptom of that broader phenomenon, but one that occurred in the rental market, not the home mortgage market. It is a tale of irrational exuberance and aggressive speculation. The ultimate demise of the landlords' efforts also tells another story: one of a tenant association; an elected official; and a loose network of attorneys who, together, fought back the attempts of the landlords to displace thousands of rent regulated tenants, not with bulldozers, but trumped up legal claims and an aggressive business plan.The landlords' efforts were ultimately halted by a recent decision of New York's Court of Appeals in successful impact litigation filed by a class of tenants in the complexes, Roberts v. Tishman Speyer Properties, L.P., which is highlighted in detail in this article. But this legal victory, as important as it is for those tenants affected by it, tells only one part of the story. Progressive lawyers, in support of grassroots efforts, waged a campaign of hand-to-hand combat to preserve the affordability of the complexes for the tenants who live there. A review of these efforts helps to place the work of these attorneys within an emerging body of scholarship that highlights the positive and transformative power of legal advocacy to promote progressive social change. Within this body of scholarship there is a renewed yet sober appreciation for the value and ability of the law and legal advocacy to promote progressive social change. This appreciation emphasizes tactical flexibility, but also responsiveness and accountability to community interests and needs. This article analyzes the work of the attorneys who helped to orchestrate the legal campaign to preserve the affordability of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village to determine whether their actions were consistent with this approach to progressive lawyer and to gain what insights about progressive lawyering their efforts might reveal.


Exploiting Homogeneous Oxacillin Resistance in Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus to Identify Novel Anti-Virulence Therapeutic Targets Nikki S. Black, BSc MSc The number of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections have continued to increase in recent years and have drawn global concern to the potential future of living in a post-antibiotic era. These infections are of major concern being a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, including in developed countries. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, can have a mortality rate more than double that of methicillin-sensitive S. aureus strains, and treatment can be morethan twice as expensive. With an ever decreasing list of antibiotic therapeutic options at our disposal we must invest not only into the development of novel antibiotic compounds but alternative non-bactericidal alternative therapeutic options. Homogeneous oxacillin resistance selection has the potential to be used as an anti-virulence therapeutic, as well as a use in identifying novel targets in pathways associated with attenuation of virulence. Comparative bacterial genomics of heterogeneous (HeR) oxacillin resistant MRSA and their isogenic homogeneous(HoR) oxacillin derivatives identified multiple novel mutations in genetic loci associated with the c-di-AMP and stringent response nucleotide signalling pathways. In homogeneous oxacillin resistant isolates derived from a one step plating method with oxacillin 100 μg/ml and USA300 HoR isolates derived from a continuous chemostat culture, novel gene amplification events were reported associated in some cases with increased copy number of the SCCmec. Mutation of the gene gdpP (encoding the c-di-AMP phosphodiesterase) and hpt (encoding hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase) were identified as contributing to homogeneous oxacillin resistance. gdpP -dependent homogeneous oxacillin resistance was observed to have phenotypic changes in cytotoxicy, glycosylation of wall teichoic acid, and cell wall biosynthesis. These observations promote the c-di-AMP signalling pathway as a potential novel anti-virulence target. In contrast the hpt-dependent homogeneous oxacillin resistant phenotype was associated with a neutral effect on cytotoxicity and limited impact on biofilm production and autolysis. Homogeneous oxacillin resistance selection can have pleiotrophic effects on the physiology of S. aureus and is dependent on the associated chromosomal modifications. Through developing our understanding of these pathways we can identify novel targets for anti-virulence therapeutic strategies.


Numerous studies have established that active participation in the learning process is more effective in a learning environment that emulates a real-world learning environment. In a traditional teaching and learning environment, only little learning is taking place in the classroom even though there appears to be an active shift of information. Studies have also clearly established that the role of the teacher alone is able to crush or nurture a student's participation in the learning process. Hence, it is necessary to bring about a two-way transfer of knowledge between students and teachers as it requires optimum students' participation. This paper brings into discussion the shift in the role of teachers in the learning process, from the traditional teaching and learning environment to a learning environment that encourages active students' participation in the learning process. Respectively, this paper puts emphasis on the important role a teacher shoulders in shifting students from a passive role to an active role in a teaching and learning process. These characteristics of an effective teacher are grounded in the constructivism theory of learning, prior to which a brief description of the behaviorism and cognitivism theories is provided.


Rise in the underground economy creates problems for the policy-makers to formulate economic policies, especially the monetary and fiscal policies. It is found that if there was no tax evasion, budgets balance might have been zero and positive for some years and we would not have needed to borrow as much as we had borrowed. It is concluded that the impact of the underground economy is significant to the movements of the formal economy, but the impact of formal economy is insignificant in explaining the movements in the underground economy. In the long run, underground economy and official economy are positively associated. It is estimated that the underground economy ranges between Rs 2.91 trillion and Rs 3.34 trillion (54.6 percent of GDP to 62.8 percent of GDP respectively) in 2005 and tax evasion ranges between Rs 302 billion and Rs 347 billion (5.7 percent of GDP to 6.5 percent of GDP respectively) in 2005. Underground economy and tax evasion were increasing very rapidly in the early 1980s but the rate of increase accelerated in the 1990s. It declined in 1999, but reverted to an increasing trend until 2003. It declined again in 2004 and 2005.


Capillary nanofiltration is a new concept in membrane filtration. This technique combines the advantages of the good water quality obtained from nanofiltration membranes with the easy hydraulic cleaning of capillary membranes. Direct capillary nanofiltration can be used to treat ground water or surface water without pre-treatment. At the Delft University of Technology several MSc-thesis projects have been carried out on this subject. This paper will describe some results of these studies. A model based on a mass balance to predict the flux of a capillary nanofiltration installation treating groundwater is proposed. In this model the only resistance taken into account is the concentration polarisation. Also a model to predict the flux when treating surface water has been developed. This model takes into account the resistance due to cake filtration.


Although handwritten signature verification has been extensively researched, it has not achieved optimum accuracy rate. Therefore, efficient and accurate signature verification techniques are required since signatures are still widely used as a means of personal verification. This research work presents efficient distance-based classification techniques as an alternative to supervised learning classification techniques (SLTs). Two different feature extraction techniques were used, namely the Enhanced Modified Direction Feature (EMDF) and the Local Directional Pattern feature (LDP). These were used to analyze the effect of using several different distance-based classification techniques. Among the classification techniques used, are the cosine similarity measure, Mahalanobis, Canberra, Manhattan, Euclidean, weighted Euclidean and fractional distances. Additionally, the novel weighted fractional distances, as well as locally optimized resampling of feature vector sizes were tested. The best accuracy was achieved through applying a combination of the weighted fractional distances and locally optimized resampling classification techniques to the Local Directional Pattern feature extraction. This combination of multiple distance-based classification techniques achieved accuracy rate of 89.2% when using the EMDF feature extraction technique, and 90.8% when using the LDP feature extraction technique. These results are comparable to those in literature, where the same feature extraction techniques were classified with SLTs. The best of the distance-based classification techniques were found to produce greater accuracy than the SLTs.


The purpose of this paper was to investigate internships in the hospitality sector and identify factors that contribute to student satisfaction from this working and learning experience. One hundred and sixteen students who had completed their internships from both public and private higher education institutions in Greece participated in this study with a survey questionnaire that required participants to rate their internship experience and identify challenges and benefits. The findings suggest that overall students demonstrated a favorable perception towards their internship experience. This research also suggests that working in a professional environment, the learning experience, social interaction with supervisors/staff, and the working conditions are factors that contribute to motivation and student satisfaction from internships. Finally, students' expectations towards the internship experience were focused in learning and working in a professional environment. Long working hours, low or poor pay, and lack of coordination are issues that were raised as challenges and may contribute to low satisfaction. This paper proposes that institutions should provide students with clear information on internships and the challenges of working in the hospitality sector. They should offer programmes that include experiential learning and the practical aspect of the profession. In addition, it is proposed that the internships should be carefully planned and organized, as well as monitored by trained instructors to ensure the appropriateness of the learning experience to the students.


(The lack of infrastructure in Africa especially south of the Sahara is widely recognized as one of the continent's greatest impediments to sustainable development )[ (1)]. Even with this challenge, ICT operators in Kenya prefer to invest in own infrastructure despite the availability of underutilized ICT resources from other operators and players. This has led to wastage of scarce resources, high cost of services, poor quality services, environmental degradation and low investment in rural areas among others. The research sought to propose an adoption framework for ICT infrastructure sharing for mobile operators in Kenya after establishing the levels, drivers and challenges of infrastructure sharing. Data was collected from ICT staff of the four mobile operators Safaricom, Airtel, Essar and Telkom Kenya Orange across the country using a questionnaire. To supplement and increase reliability, data was also collected from other ICT stakeholders such CAK, ICTA, submarine operators, ICT vendors, KBC and non ICT related firms Equity, Barclays and Kenya Power Company. The research found out that the level of ICT infrastructure sharing among mobile operators was low at 20.4%. The five key drivers were identified as new market entrants, cost optimization, environmental conservation, operators focus on core business and network deployment to underserved and un served areas. The five main challenges were lack of regulatory framework, high capital, complexity of the sharing process, high charges by infrastructure owners and operators unwillingness to share. The TOE framework can be adopted for ICT infrastructure sharing with organizational factors having a greater influence than technology and external factors. Operator controlled infrastructure rollout had worked previously but due to changes in local and global market, there was need to change the way ICT resources were utilized. To achieve quick wins, operators had to partner with competitors by leasing and undertaking joint ventures. Infrastructure sharing was beneficial hence strategies to promote the same by use of incentives license fee and tax concessions, having a legal framework, government investment in backbone infrastructure and attracting independent firms will ensure competitiveness and a knowledge economy status


On 7 March 2013, the Moving Picture Experts Group Licensing Association (MPEG LA) and Google announced that they have entered into an agreement granting Google a license to techniques, if the patents in MPEG LA might be essential to VP8. Under this agreement, hardware and software companies are free to use the VP8 technology when developing their own products. Considering that it is now common to find patent disputes in headline news, the patent issues related to video coding standards are no exception. In this article, we report on the recent developments in royalty-free codec standardization in MPEG, particularly Internet video coding (IVC), Web video coding (WVC), and video coding for browser, by reviewing the history of royalty-free standards in MPEG and the relationship between standards and patents.


The outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) that occurred in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2001 was the single largest epidemic of FMD the world had ever experienced. This outbreak raises important issues about future FMD control strategies, including the use of vaccination. The outbreak has also stimulated a wider debate in the UK on the role and direction of agriculture. The author presents the views of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales on the handling of the outbreak by the UK Government and summarises some of the key lessons to be learned from a farming perspective.


A fundamental understanding of carrier transport mechanism is imperative for efficient semiconductor electronics and optoelectronics. Here, we use high speed black phosphorus photodetectors with sub-40 ps response time to elucidate carrier transport dynamics along its armchair and zigzag directions. Here we report a direct observation of carrier transport transition dynamics from phonon scattering transport to multiple trapping and release transport mechanism along the armchair direction, resulting from the relaxation of free carriers above the band edge to the band-tail states. We identified that the suppression of phonon scattering effects, a characteristic by Hall and field effect transistor measurements, is due to carrier transport in band tail states. Along the zigzag direction, only multiple trapping and release transport in band-tail states is observed, which might be due to low carrier mobility.


This book is the first of three volumes that illustrate the concept of social networks from a computational point of view. The book contains contributions from a international selection of world-class experts, with a specific focus on practical tools, applications, and open avenues for further research (the other two volumes review issues of Security and Privacy, and Mining and Visualization in CSNs). Topics and features: presents the latest advances in CSNs, and illustrates how organizations can gain a competitive advantage by applying these ideas in real-world scenarios; discusses the design and use of a wide range of computational tools and software for social network analysis; describes simulations of social networks, the representation and analysis of social networks, and the use of semantic networks in knowledge discovery and visualization; provides experience reports, survey articles, and intelligence techniques and theories relating to specific problems in network technology.


Since the Nineties, the process of globalization has caused a sharp increase in the real and financial integration of the worldwide economy, reducing the obstacles to international trade and minimizing the cost of transaction. The entrance of foreign firms in the domestic market has deeply modified the competitive situation of Italian enterprises, which have been forced to change their strategies in order to cope with those of the new competitors. In this scenario, internationalization is no longer one of the different strategic options available for the firm, but it becomes a forced choice to maintain or acquire a competitive advantage sustainable over time.
Internationalization strategies of SMEs, however, are hindered by the shortage of financial resources and entrepreneurial skills, therefore this kind of firms tends toward light forms of foreign expansion, like export and subcontracting. Despite this, many studies have demonstrated that the district localisation increases the firms' productivity and innovative capacity, so their competiveness both at a domestic and international level. The majority of these empirical contributions has focused mainly on the analysis of commercial flows, confirming that district enterprises reach a superior international performance compared to their external competitors. On the contrary, only few works have tried to evaluate the existence of a district effect on the firms' ability to invest abroad, but the obtained results are not straightforward. One of the reason of these conclusions is that the phenomena has been analysed without taking into account the differences existing between districts in terms of enterprises' dimension, diffusion of industrial groups and, above all, the sector of productive specialization, because the technological content of production could improve the innovativeness of district firms, allowing them to adopt advanced forms of internationalisation as foreign direct investments (FDI).
The aim of the thesis is to further investigate the district effect on internationalisation, trough an econometric analysis of the international strategies carried out by firms localised in three different local system of production characterised by different technological specialization.


This paper presents a new method for image compression by neural networks. First, we show that we can use neural networks in a pyramidal framework, yielding the so-called PCA pyramids. Then we present an image compression method based on the PCA pyramid, which is similar to the Laplace pyramid and wavelet transform. Some experimental results with real images are reported. Finally, we present a method to combine the quantization step with the learning of the PCA pyramid.


Community bank performance has improved significantly since the financial crisis but is still below pre-crisis levels. One key concern is net interest income, which rose early in the recovery but now is near a 40-year low. Net interest income is important to the long-term viability of community banks because it is their core source of revenue. Given community banks' significance to local households and businesses, policymakers, bankers, and other stakeholders would like to know whether low net interest income is the "new normal" or if it will reverse when the economy improves. Morris and Regehr examine net interest income starting in the late 1970s. They find low net interest income can be largely explained by current economic and banking conditions, suggesting it will return to pre-recession levels as monetary policy normalizes and the economic recovery continues. They also find that compared to some more severe recessions in the past 40 years, net interest income is somewhat stronger given economic and banking conditions.


Objectives The osteoclast has been implicated in development of bone erosion in gout. The aim of this study was to determine whether zoledronate, a potent antiosteoclast drug, influences bone erosion in people with tophaceous gout. Methods This was a 2-year, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 100 people with tophaceous gout. Participants were randomised to annual administration of 5 mg intravenous zoledronate or placebo. The primary endpoint was change in the foot CT bone erosion score from baseline. Secondary endpoint was change in plain radiographic damage scores. Other endpoints were change in bone mineral density (BMD), bone turnover markers and the OMERACT-endorsed core domains for chronic gout studies. Results There was no change in CT erosion scores over 2 years, and no difference between the two treatment groups at Year 1 or 2 (p(treat)=0.10, p(time)=0.47, p(treat*time)=0.23). Similarly, there was no change in plain radiographic scores over 2 years, and no difference between the two groups at Year 1 or 2. By contrast, zoledronate increased spine, neck of femur, total hip and total body BMD. Zoledronate therapy also reduced the bone turnover markers P1NP and β-CTX compared with placebo. There was no difference between treatment groups in OMERACT-endorsed core domains. Conclusions Despite improvements in BMD and suppression of bone turnover markers, antiosteoclast therapy with zoledronate did not influence bone erosion in people with tophaceous gout. These findings suggest a disconnect between responses in the healthy skeleton and at sites of focal bone erosion in tophaceous gout.


We present new calibrations of stellar parameters of O stars at solar metallicity taking non-LTE, wind, and line-blanketing effects into account. Gravities and absolute visual magnitudes are derived from results of recent spectroscopic analyses. Two types of effective temperature scales are derived: one from a compilation based on recent spectroscopic studies of a sample of massive stars – the "observational scale" – and the other from direct interpolations on a grid of non-LTE spherically extended line-blanketed models computed with the code CMFGEN (Hillier & Miller 1998) – the "theoretical scale". These T eff scales are then further used together with the grid of models to calibrate other parameters (bolometric correction, luminosity, radius, spectroscopic mass and ionising fluxes) as a function of spectral type and luminosity class. Compared to the earlier calibrations of Vacca et al. (1996) the main results are:
[–] The effective temperature scales of dwarfs, giants and supergiants are cooler by 2000 to 8000 K, the theoretical scale being slightly cooler than the observational one. The reduction is the largest for the earliest spectral types and for supergiants.
[–] Bolometric corrections as a function of T eff are reduced by 0.1 mag due to line blanketing which redistributes part of the UV flux in the optical range. For a given spectral type the reduction of BC is larger for early types and for supergiants. Typically BCs derived using the theoretical T eff scale are 0.40 to 0.60 mag lower than that of Vacca et al. (1996), whereas the differences using the observational T eff scale are somewhat smaller.
[–] Luminosities are reduced by 0.20 to 0.35 dex for dwarfs, by ~0.25 for all giants and by 0.25 to 0.35 dex for supergiants. The reduction is essentially the same for both T eff scales. It is independent of spectral type for giants and supergiants and is slightly larger for late type than for early type dwarfs.
[–] Lyman continuum fluxes are reduced. Our theoretical values for the hydrogen ionising photon fluxes for dwarfs are 0.20 to 0.80 dex lower than those of Vacca et al. (1996), the difference being larger at late spectral types. For giants the reduction is of 0.25 to 0.55 dex, while for supergiants it is of 0.30 to 0.55 dex. Using the observational T eff scale leads to smaller reductions at late spectral types.

The present results should represent a significant improvement over previous calibrations, given the detailed treatment of non-LTE line-blanketing in the expanding atmospheres of massive stars.


— Authentication is one of the most important security service provided to system by the different authentication schemes or algorithms which must be provided so that only authorized persons can have right to use or handle that system and data related to that information system securely. Techniques used include token based, biometric based as well as knowledge based. Despite these, no single mechanism is efficient and effective to provide adequate security for computing resources such as programs, files, messages, printers, internet, etc. A 3 – level authentication is proposed in this paper that is more confidential for ensuring adequate security.


SummarySeasonal honey production, worker pupal weight, length of worker adult life, and dimensions of worker corbiculae were determined for 19 colonies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) at one apiary. Honey production was correlated significantly with length (r = +0·551, P<0·0145) and area (r = +0·575, P<0·01) of corbicula. Area of corbicula was correlated significantly with length of life (r = +0·687, P<0·0012). Selection of honeybees for large corbicular area might increase honey production by permitting more pollen to be brought to the colony and consequently increasing the brood area and/or the length of life of the workers raised. Corbicular area was an important component of colony honey production throughout the year, and especially in weeks of good average colony weight gain.


A National Science Foundation sponsored workshop recently convened at the University of Illinois to help construction industry professionals determine the research needs and opportunities of the future. The internationally attended gathering focused its attention on project-wide database and communication systems; knowledge-based expert systems; simulation of construction site and management activities; and robotics. Using that conference and its proceedings as a base, the author in this paper discusses appropriate directions and priorities for computerized construction research as well as strategies for putting this work into practice.


Objective: The aim of this study was to observe the influence of different occlusal contacts in a superior pre-molar structure using Finite Element Analysis. Material and Methods: A three-dimensional model of a superior pre-molar was designed to simulate three occlusion situations, namely central occlusion and two types of lateral occlusion contacts. The model presents enamel, dentin, a periodontal ligament and a fixation cylinder separately. All materials were considered isotropic, linear and homogeneous, and the contacts of each structure were perfectly bonded. On analysis software, a load was applied to an occlusal surface at 40° to the long axis on lateral contacts, and directed to the long axis on central occlusion contact. Results: The results were obtained in stress maps and the maximum values were then plotted in table for quantitative comparison, with the enamel concentrating more stress than dentin and the occlusal contact presenting the worst biomechanical behavior. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it is possible conclude that: eccentric contacts have higher potential to develop abfraction lesions on the cervical region of teeth, thus increasing the magnitude of tensile and shear stresses. Keywords Finite Elements Analysis, Abfraction; Stress distribution; Occlusion, Premolar.


While initially motivated from a demographic application, this thesis develops methodology for expectile estimation. To this end first the basic model for expectile curves using least asymmetrically weighted squares (LAWS) was introduced as well as methods for smoothing in this context. The simple LAWS model was successfully applied to the original demographic data problem. Expectile curves from the simple LAWS model can cross. This is an undesirable, theoretically impossible, yet practically encountered phenomenon when estimating expectiles separately. In addition to the considerable (quantile) literature about this problem, the expectile bundle model is proposed to avoid crossings. Smooth non-crossing expectile curves are the result of this location-scale model. All curves are estimated simultaneously. Another side product is the possibility to estimate a single conditional density of the data. However, it is also possible to estimate a conditional (local) density with any set of estimated expectiles -- irrespective of the estimation method. A location-scale model is an attractive approach when supported by the data. Empirical data cannot always be modeled with this set-up. Therefore another application of asymmetric least squares, an expectile sheet, is introduced here. It also estimates a set of expectile curves simultaneously without the use of a restrictive assumption such as the expectile bundle model. A set of expectile curves can always be interpreted as a surface over the independent variable x and asymmetry p. By proceeding this way the surface is following from separate expectile curves. An expectile sheet is the direct estimation of this surface over the domain (x,p). It is based on a tensor product of B-splines covering both dimensions. Smoothing is applied in both directions. p-expectile curves are the contours of the expectile sheet for fixed p and along x. LAWS is based on iteratively reweighted least squares with asymmetric weights that are recalculated in each step. The expectile algorithm can be easily modified to estimate smooth quantile curves by dividing the original weights by the absolute value of the residuals. The new weights are updated in each iteration step. Each of the described expectile methods can be adapted to estimate quantiles by using the new weights. As an example for this adaptation of the weights quantile sheets are finally proposed in this thesis. They are based on expectile sheets with this modified weight vector.


Background: Culture shapes how people understand illness and death, but few studies examine whether acculturation influences patients' end-of-life treatment preferences and medical care. Methods and Findings: In this multi-site, prospective, longitudinal cohort study of terminally-ill cancer patients and their caregivers (n = 171 dyads), trained interviewers administered the United States Acculturation Scale (USAS). The USAS is a 19item scale developed to assess the degree of ''Americanization'' in first generation or non-US born caregivers of terminally-ill cancer patients. We evaluated the internal consistency, concurrent, criterion, and content validity of the USAS. We also examined whether caregivers' USAS scores predicted patients' communication, treatment preferences, and end-of-life medical care in multivariable models that corrected for significant confounding influences (e.g. education, country of origin, English proficiency). The USAS measure was internally consistent (Cronbach a= 0.98); and significantly associated with US birthplace (r = 0.66, P,0.0001). USAS scores were predictive of patients' preferences for prognostic information (AOR = 1.31, 95% CI:1.00–1.72), but not comfort asking physicians' questions about care (AOR 1.23, 95% CI:0.87–1.73). They predicted patients' preferences for feeding tubes (AOR = 0.68, 95% CI:0.49–0.99) and wish to avoid dying in an intensive care unit (AOR = 1.36, 95% CI:1.05–1.76). Scores indicating greater acculturation were also associated with increased odds of patient participation in clinical trials (AOR = 2.20, 95% CI:1.28–3.78), compared with lower USAS scores, and greater odds of patients receiving chemotherapy (AOR = 1.59, 95% CI:1.20–2.12). Conclusion: The USAS is a reliable and valid measure of ''Americanization'' associated with advanced cancer patients' endof-life preferences and care. USAS scores indicating greater caregiver acculturation were associated with increased odds of patient participation in cancer treatment (chemotherapy, clinical trials) compared with lower scores. Future studies should examine the effects of acculturation on end-of-life care to identify patient and provider factors that explain these effects and targets for future interventions to improve care (e.g., by designing more culturally-competent health education materials). Citation: Wright AA, Stieglitz H, Kupersztoch YM, Paulk ME, Kim Y, et al. (2013) United States Acculturation and Cancer Patients' End-of-Life Care. PL S ONE 8(3): e58663. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058663 Editor: Eric Deutsch, Institut Gustave Roussy, France Received October 26, 2012; Accepted February 5, 2013; Published March 11, 2013 Copyright: 2013 Wright et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This research was supported in part by the following grants to Dr. Prigerson: MH63892 from the National Institute of Mental Health and CA 106370 and CA 156732 from the National Cancer Institute; by Career Development Awards sponsored by the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Palliative Care Research Center, and the American Cancer Society to Dr. Wright; and by the Center for Psychosocial Epidemiology and Outcomes Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist, except that Dr. Alexi Wright's mother, Dr. Linda Wright, is on the Editorial Board of both PLOS Medicine and PLOS One. This manuscript has not been discussed with Dr. Linda Wright, however, and she has no knowledge that it is being submitted to PLOS ONE. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. * E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


This paper provides a snapshot of the role and importance of the creative industries for the Ukrainian economy. The economic dimension of the creative sector in Ukraine is becoming of higher interest for policy-makers taking into account its increasing contribution to international trade and great potential for further development. Correspondingly, this research is aimed at determining the importance and efficiency of the creative industries for the Ukrainian economy. The methodology of the study is founded on exploring the impact of the creative sector on an economic milieu in Ukraine. The paper proposes a strategy how the creative industries can transform Ukraine into a creative economy. This approach identifies four primary targets, which may result in economic, social, creative and cultural benefits, including keeping and development the creative talent, encouragement of the Ukrainian creative businesses, promoting "culture of openness," and shaping the creative ecosystem. This study provides a unique and vital contribution to ongoing discussions about the significance of the creative industries for national economies highlighting the universalized assumptions concerning the position of this sector in the Ukrainian economy. Received: December, 2016 1st Revision: March, 2017 Accepted: June, 2017 DOI: 10.14254/2071789X.2017/10-2/7 JEL Classification: F010, O3, O4, O5


A modular set of phosphite-oxazoline (P,N) ligands has been applied to the title reaction. Excellent ligands have been identified for a range of substrates, including previously challenging terminally disubstituted olefins, where we now have reached enantioselectivities of 99% for a range of substrates. The selectivity is best for minimally functionalized substrates with at least a moderate size difference between geminal groups. A DFT study has allowed identification of the preferred pathway. Computational prediction of enantioselectivities gave very good accuracy.


In this, the fourth volume of Tony Benn's diaries, the Labour Government continues its fight for survival. Important developments are occurring both at home and internationally. In Britain, Benn as Secretary of State for Energy is directly involved with Windscale and decisions about nuclear power and oil policy. Abroad, the Government is concerned with Carter's reappraisal of American foreign policy, the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and problems of EEC membership.In the Labour party itself, new forces of radicalism and reform are emerging, resulting in changes in Labour's policies and the ultimate formation of the SDP.Labour's unsuccessful economic policy and the widening rift with the labour movement lead to the Winter of Discontent and a near state of emergency. With Labour voters defecting, the scene is set for the Thatcher years.


Recent results suggesting that monetary financing is more expansionary than bond financing in standard New Keynesian models rely on a duality between policy rules for the rate of money growth and the short-term bond rate, rather than a special role for money. We incorporate two features into a simple sticky-price model to generalize these results. First, that money may earn a strictly positive rate of return, motivated by recent debates on the introduction of central bank digital currencies and the introduction of interest-bearing reserves. This allows money-financed transfers to be used as a policy instrument at the effective lower bound, without giving up the ability to use the short-term bond rate to stabilize the economy in normal times. Second, a simple financial friction generates a wealth effect on household spending from government liabilities. Though temporary money-financed transfers to households can stimulate spending and inflation when the short-term bond rate is constrained by a lower bound, similar effects could be achieved by bond-financed tax cuts. So our results do not provide compelling reasons to choose monetary financing rather than bond financing.


Edge-cladding is a key factor in improving saturated small signal gain coefficient 'beta's of large laser disc glass. In this paper, the glasses were melted with traditional method. The influences of mixed alkali effect (MAE) on refractive index, thermal expansion coefficient 'alpha', glass transition temperature Tg, dilatometer softening temperature Td, and relative chemical durability of phosphate edge-cladding glasses were studied. The results reveal that when Li/(Na+Li)=0.5, Tg, Td, and dissolution rate (DR) reach a minimal value. These results are preferred in phosphate edge-cladding glasses.


Mutual funds, pension funds and other institutional investors are a growing presence in U.S. equity markets, and these investors frequently hold large stakes in shares of competing companies. Because these common owners might prefer to maximize the values of their portfolios of companies, rather than the value of individual companies in isolation, this new reality has lead to a concern that companies in concentrated industries with high degrees of common ownership might compete less vigorously with each other than they otherwise would. But what mechanism would link common ownership with reduced competition? Some commentators argue that one of the most plausible mechanisms is executive pay design. The idea is that executive pay at companies in concentrated industries with high common ownership may be designed to dampen the incentives of the companies' managers to compete aggressively with peer firms.

This essay challenges both the theoretical and empirical bases for this argument and contends that executive pay design is actually an implausible mechanism linking common ownership with reduced competition. For example, I show that, contrary to the claims of some commentators, the use of competition-enhancing executive relative performance evaluation as a compensation tool has increased dramatically in parallel with the increase in common ownership, exactly the opposite of what one would expect if common owners sought to dampen competition through pay design.

Despite voicing skepticism regarding a possible association between common ownership and executive pay design, this essay also offers suggestions for improving empirical analyses going forward that should help to resolve the debate. If, however, as this essay argues, executive pay design is an implausible mechanism, this determination tends to undermine the broader claim that common ownership dampens inter-firm competition.


Facilitating the Acquisition of Social Skills Through Service Learning by Becky Joyce Hendrickson MA, Pacific Lutheran University, 2005 BS, Pacific Lutheran University, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University June 2016 Abstract Deficits in communication affect individuals with autism regarding the ability to access a free and appropriate education as well as quality of life. This research study explored the effects of a service-learning project on acquisition of social skills and reduction of problem behaviors for students who have autism. The conceptual framework for this study was based on Maslow's theory of motivation and Erickson's 8 stages of personality development. A mixed-methods design with sequential transformative strategy was used to collect quantitative data from 5 elementary students who have autism during involvement in service learning; the Social Skills Improvement System was used and was analyzed using a t test. Qualitative data derived from field notes were coded and thematically analyzed. Although the differences were not statistically significant, the social skills did improve and the problem behaviors did decline. Qualitative data also supported the supposition that a positive change may have occurred and those students' basic needs were being met through leadership opportunities. Although the results of this study appear promising, the size of the study limits generalization and further research is needed. Service learning may be an effective intervention for individuals with autismDeficits in communication affect individuals with autism regarding the ability to access a free and appropriate education as well as quality of life. This research study explored the effects of a service-learning project on acquisition of social skills and reduction of problem behaviors for students who have autism. The conceptual framework for this study was based on Maslow's theory of motivation and Erickson's 8 stages of personality development. A mixed-methods design with sequential transformative strategy was used to collect quantitative data from 5 elementary students who have autism during involvement in service learning; the Social Skills Improvement System was used and was analyzed using a t test. Qualitative data derived from field notes were coded and thematically analyzed. Although the differences were not statistically significant, the social skills did improve and the problem behaviors did decline. Qualitative data also supported the supposition that a positive change may have occurred and those students' basic needs were being met through leadership opportunities. Although the results of this study appear promising, the size of the study limits generalization and further research is needed. Service learning may be an effective intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) allowing positive social change. Service learning may allow individuals with ASD to have their basic needs met; increase positive social interactions with others; help decrease unexpected behavior; and reduce stress and depression for themselves, their family members, and their educators. Facilitating the Acquisition of Social Skills Through Service Learning by Becky Joyce Hendrickson MA, Pacific Lutheran University, 2005 BS, Pacific Lutheran University, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University June 2016


This paper studied Iranian Physics education students' understanding of the nature of science. The research is descriptive and was conducted through a survey study method. The sample of our study consisted of 94 students of Physics education in the second and third year of university. They were selected through random sampling from four classes at Isfahan University and Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University in Iran. For this purpose, 24 statements of the SUSSI questionnaire (Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry) were translated into Farsi. The statements were randomly arranged to form a new questionnaire. The validity of the new questionnaire was examined and approved and the Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire was calculated as 0.738. In the data analysis phase, the mean score of each statement was calculated using the frequency and the numerical value of each response. The score of each component of the nature of science was determined by averaging the scores of the statements related to that component. The average score of each component expresses the formal or naive or transitional view regarding that component. According to the results, while our subjects' attitude to observation and deduction conformed to international standards of science education, they had some misunderstandings regarding the other components of scientific inquiry. As physics education students will become teachers and contribute to the future generation's view of science, it would be better to incorporate more educational activities into teacher education programs with the aim of improving the trainees' conception of science.


Cloud computing with its three key facets (i.e., Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service) and its inherent advantages (e.g., elasticity and scalability) still faces several challenges. The distance between the cloud and the end devices might be an issue for latency-sensitive applications such as disaster management and content delivery applications. Service level agreements (SLAs) may also impose processing at locations where the cloud provider does not have data centers. Fog computing is a novel paradigm to address such issues. It enables provisioning resources and services outside the cloud, at the edge of the network, closer to end devices, or eventually, at locations stipulated by SLAs. Fog computing is not a substitute for cloud computing but a powerful complement. It enables processing at the edge while still offering the possibility to interact with the cloud. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on fog computing. It critically reviews the state of the art in the light of a concise set of evaluation criteria. We cover both the architectures and the algorithms that make fog systems. Challenges and research directions are also introduced. In addition, the lessons learned are reviewed and the prospects are discussed in terms of the key role fog is likely to play in emerging technologies such as tactile Internet.


As the main driver of energy production in eukaryotes, mitochondria are invariably implicated in disorders of cellular bioenergetics. Given that dopaminergic neurons affected in Parkinson's disease (PD) are particularly susceptible to energy fluctuations by their high basal energy demand, it is not surprising to note that mitochondrial dysfunction has emerged as a compelling candidate underlying PD. A recent approach towards forestalling dopaminergic neurodegeneration in PD involves near-infrared (NIR) photobiomodulation (PBM), which is thought to enhance mitochondrial function of stimulated cells through augmenting the activity of cytochrome C oxidase. Notwithstanding this, our understanding of the neuroprotective mechanism of PBM remains far from complete. For example, studies focusing on the effects of PBM on gene transcription are limited, and the mechanism through which PBM exerts its effects on distant sites (i.e., its "abscopal effect") remains unclear. Also, the clinical application of NIR in PD proves to be challenging. Efficacious delivery of NIR light to the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), the primary site of disease pathology in PD, is fraught with technical challenges. Concerted efforts focused on understanding the biological effects of PBM and improving the efficiency of intracranial NIR delivery are therefore essential for its successful clinical translation. Nonetheless, PBM represents a potential novel therapy for PD. In this review, we provide an update on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in PD and how PBM may help mitigate the neurodegenerative process. We also discussed clinical translation aspects of this treatment modality using intracranially implanted NIR delivery devices.


A key problem for models of joint action is to explain how co-ordination is established and sustained. Existing accounts emphasize the importance of interaction, demonstrating how collaborative feedback leads to more systematized, stable, and partner-specific referring conventions. However, in addition to conventionalizing referring expressions, recent work demonstrates how interlocutors also rapidly establish procedural conventions for resolving sequential and temporal co-ordination problems in the interaction. It is unclear, however, whether interlocutors associate these procedural conventions with specific conversational partners. To address this question, we report a collaborative, 3-participant, computer-mediated task which presents participants with the recurrent co-ordination problem of ordering their actions and utterances into a single sequence. Artificially generated clarification requests are inserted into the dialogue, that appear, to each participant, as if they originate from either of the 2 other participants. We argue that participants' responses to these clarifications provide evidence of interlocutors associating procedural conventions with specific partners.


Next time someone tells you business can't be done ethically -- corners must be cut, negotiations can't be honest -- hand them Jon Huntsman's new book.i¾ He started with practically nothing, and made it to Forbes'list of America's Top 100 richest people. Huntsman's generous about sharing the credit, but in the 21st century, he's the nearest thing to a self-made multi-billionaire. Now, he presents the lessons of a lifetime: a passionate, inspirational manifesto for returning to the days when your word was your bond, a handshake was sacred, and swarms of lawyers weren't needed to back it up. This is no mere exhortation: it'si¾ a practical business book about howi¾ to listen to your moral compass, even as others ignore theirs. It's about how you build teams with the highest values, share success, take responsibility, and earn the rewards that only come with giving back. Huntsman's built his career and fortune on these principles.i¾ You don't live these principles just to 'succeed': you live them because they're right. But in an age of non-stop business scandal, Huntsman's life proves honesty is more than right: it'si¾ the biggest competitive differentiator.


This article considers the role of experiments in learning in movements to democratise higher education 'under the rule of capital' (Gutierrez, Navarro and Linsalata 2017). It focuses on the emergence of a new generation of 'free universities' in the United Kingdom, situating these in a historical tradition of educational experimentation and a current context of global movements for autonomy from the state, capital and dominating epistemologies. It argues that free universities can contribute to transforming the relationship between knowledge, university and society, but that these contributions are often invisible within the logic of the dominant institutional systems. Conceptualising the projects as struggles for autonomy renders these contributions visible and valuable for educational reformers working both within and independently of the university.


This final chapter addresses primarily the question of what constitutes an unfair price or other trading conditions. A historical interpretation of Article 102 TFEU challenges the idea that recognition of unfairness is a distinctive feature of EU unfair competition law. This interpretation also receives support from the dynamics of the Treaty and the harmonisation of unfair competition acts and intellectual property rights. The analysis of certain provisions shows that the terms 'prejudice to the consumers,' 'unfair' and 'competitive disadvantage' gain particular relevance in the light of public policy before the courts. The meaning of 'undistorted' competition within the approximation of laws gradually loses its relevance in favour of an established Union case law on unfair competition and hybrid enforcement outcomes may arise where particular aspects of protected rights fall under the ambit of unfair competition acts and of EU competition law. It is critical when the latter leaves unfairness as 'exceptional circumstances' of intellectual property rights that are insufficiently substantiated before the courts as unfair competition acts. Therefore, a legislative proposal for an EU Control Regulation of such unfair competition acts aims to ensure legal certainty and predictability and to enforce the balance of fair versus unfair competition practices. The chapter concludes with the detailed reasons for drafting such a regulation.


A management platform is an integral part of any modern computer network. Its role in any kind of network (research or commercial) is undeniable. By using the management solution, the operators of the network monitor, troubleshoot and manage the network from a centra-lized location. In a research network such as the Mid Sweden University (MIUN) IPTV test bed, it also plays a very important role. Researchers can setup different configurations for the underlying network according to their research goals. MIUN IPTV test bed is expanding in the sense that it is covering a greater geographical area and more researchers are using the network in order to carry out their experiments. In this project, an attempt will be made to develop a management platform for the IPTV network. This platform will manage the whole network and will give the researchers opportunity to setup trail field by configuring the network devices according to their experiments.


The pro-apoptotic Bcl-2-family protein Bim belongs to the BH3-only proteins known as initiators of apoptosis. Recent data show that Bim is constitutively inserted in the outer mitochondrial membrane via a C-terminal transmembrane anchor from where it can activate the effector of cytochrome c-release, Bax. To identify regulators of Bim-activity, we conducted a search for proteins interacting with Bim at mitochondria. We found an interaction of Bim with Tom70, Tom20 and more weakly with Tom40, all components of the Translocase of the Outer Membrane (TOM). In vitro import assays performed on tryptically digested yeast mitochondria showed reduced Bim insertion into the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) indicating that protein receptors may be involved in the import process. However, RNAi against components of TOM (Tom40, Tom70, Tom22 or Tom20) by siRNA, individually or in combination, did not consistently change the amount of Bim on HeLa mitochondria, either at steady state or upon de novo-induction. In support of this, the individual or combined knock-downs of TOM receptors also failed to alter the susceptibility of HeLa cells to Bim-induced apoptosis. In isolated yeast mitochondria, lack of Tom70 or the TOM-components Tom20 or Tom22 alone did not affect the import of Bim into the outer mitochondrial membrane. In yeast, expression of Bim can sensitize the cells to Bax-dependent killing. This sensitization was unaffected by the absence of Tom70 or by an experimental reduction in Tom40. Although thus the physiological role of the Bim-TOM-interaction remains unclear, TOM complex components do not seem to be essential for Bim insertion into the OMM. Nevertheless, this association should be noted and considered when the regulation of Bim in other cells and situations is investigated.


What does a digital identity token have to do with medieval seals? Is the history of passports of any use for enabling the discovery of Internet users' identity when crossing virtual domain boundaries during their digital browsing and transactions? The agility of the Internet architecture and its simplicity of use have been the engines of its growth and success with the users worldwide. As it turns out, there lies also its crux. In effect, Internet industry participants have argued that the critical problem business is faced with on the Internet is the absence of an identity layer from the core protocols of its logical infrastructure. As a result, the cyberspace parallels a global "territory" without any identification mechanism that is reliable, consistent and interoperable across domains. This dissertation is an investigation of the steps being taken by Internet's stakeholders in order to resolve its identity problems, through the lenses of historical instances where similar challenges were tackled by social actors. Social science research addressing the Internet identity issues is barely nascent. Research on identification systems in general is either characterized by a paucity of historical perspective, or scantily references digital technology and online identification processes. This research is designed to bridge that gap. The general question at its core is: How do social actors, events or processes enable the historical emergence of authoritative identity credentials for the public at large? This work is guided by that line of inquiry through three broad historical case studies: first, the medieval experience with seals used as identity tokens in the signing of deeds that resulted in transfers of rights, particularly estate rights; second, comes the modern, national state with its claim to the right to know all individuals on its territory through credentials such as the passport or the national identity card; and finally, viewed from the United States, the case of ongoing efforts to build an online digital identity infrastructure. Following a process-tracing approach to historical case study, this inquiry presents enlightening connections between the three identity frameworks while further characterizing each. We understand how the medieval doctrines of the Trinity and the Eucharist developed by schoolmen within the Church accommodated seals as markers of identity, and we understand how the modern state seized on the term 'nationality' – which emerged as late as in the 19 century – to make it into a legal fiction that was critical for its identification project. Furthermore, this investigation brings analytical insights which enable us to locate the dynamics driving the emergence of those identity systems. An ordering of the contributing factors in sequential categories is proposed in a sociohistorical approach to explain the causal mechanisms at work across these large phenomena. Finally this research also proposes historically informed projections of scenarios as possible pathways to the realization of authoritative digital identity. But that is the beginning of yet another story of identity. BECOMING ARTIFACTS Medieval Seals, Passports and the Future of Digital Identity


The degradation of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), which is a pollutant of concern in the water environment, was carried out by catalytic ozonation with N-methyl hydroxylamine (N-HA) at different pH. The process and mechanism were investigated for the removal of DMP and ozone (O 3 ) under various experimental conditions including pH, N-HA dosage, and with or without tert-butyl alcohol (TBA). The results indicated that the removal of DMP was more efficient in the O 3 /N-HA system than sole O 3 , and the efficiency improved with increasing N-HA dosage. The levels of N-HA protonation were 99.89%, 8.36%, and 0.06% at pH 3.0, 7.0, and 9.2. Protonated N-HA (N-CH 3 NH 2 OH + ) enhanced the degradation of DMP from 6.93% to 100% at pH 3.0, and it decreased when pH was raised to 7.0 and 9.2 because of the lower level of N-HA protonation. The results of adding TBA confirmed that hydroxyl radicals (•OH) were the main active species involved in the removal of DMP during the ozonation process.


Increasing interest in self health monitoring and performance analysis has resulted
in a growing number of human health sensor devices. Such devices usually take the
form of small, wearable and battery powered electronic systems that emphasise low
power consumption and minimum discomfort to the user. While such sensors may be
helpful on their own, increased benefits can be realised though the implementation
of an integrated sensor network around the human body. In 2012, the IEEE 802.15.6
standard was introduced to provide a common communications protocol that may
be adopted by sensor devices using three types of physical layer communications
methods: ultra wideband radio frequency, narrow band radio frequency and human
body communications. While narrow band and ultra wideband communications
utilise traditional electromagnetic wave propagation, human body communications
relies on electrostatic coupling between the transmitter and receiver. Electrostatic
coupling has the benefit of reduced attenuation when used in body area networking
applications.
This thesis presents an implementation of an IEEE 802.15.6 compliant transceiver
using the human body communications physical layer. The thesis covers the design
and implementation of the digital and analogue electronics necessary to meet the
requirements of the standard, as well as describing a prototype transceiver that was
developed to confirm correct operation of the design. The transceiver design has
been developed in full for the purpose of this thesis.
The prototype transceiver is capable of sustaining up to 763Kbps at a bit error rate
of 0.21 at the maximum data date, or for improved quality of service, lower data
rates may be used with a minimum bit error rate of 0.06. Complete FPGA proven hardware descriptions of the digital system are provided in addition to a mixed signal
testbench, allowing end-to-end simulation of the entire communications channel.


We consider a communication method, where the sender encodes n classical bits into 1 qubit and sends it to the receiver who performs a certain measurement depending on which of the initial bits must be recovered. This procedure is called (n,1,p) quantum random access code (QRAC) where p > 1/2 is its success probability. It is known that (2,1,0.85) and (3,1,0.79) QRACs (with no classical counterparts) exist and that (4,1,p) QRAC with p > 1/2 is not possible.
We extend this model with shared randomness (SR) that is accessible to both parties. Then (n,1,p) QRAC with SR and p > 1/2 exists for any n > 0. We give an upper bound on its success probability (the known (2,1,0.85) and (3,1,0.79) QRACs match this upper bound). We discuss some particular constructions for several small values of n.
We also study the classical counterpart of this model where n bits are encoded into 1 bit instead of 1 qubit and SR is used. We give an optimal construction for such codes and find their success probability exactly--it is less than in the quantum case.
Interactive 3D quantum random access codes are available on-line at this http URL .


The food/water/energy nexus is the study of the interactions and connections between these three resources, the synergies and tradeoffs that arise from the way they are managed, and the potential areas of conflict. The core of nexus thinking is that no good results can be achieved from considering these resources independently, which means that food security cannot be achieved in a context of either/both water or/and energy insecurity. All three elements have to be assured to foster sustainability, resilience, prosperity and peace. In this paper attention is focused on the challenges posed by this nexus on achieving food security, which is embodied in the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which seeks to halve the number of hungry people in the world between 1990 and 2015. The primary aim of the paper is to identify how the nexus mentality underlies most of the pathways that have been proposed to achieve this goal. It argues that significant shortfalls exist and need to be addressed: there is still no generally accepted definition, and identifiable metrics for assessing the extent to which a food system fosters food security are lacking. Such metrics are necessary when evaluating alternative strategies and negotiating trade-offs therein.


Abstract. Accurate measurements of electron density in the lower D-region (below 70 km altitude) are rarely made. This applies both with regard to measurements by ground-based facilities and by sounding rockets, and during both quiet conditions and conditions of energetic electron precipitation. Deep penetration into the atmosphere of high-energy solar proton fluxes (during solar proton events, SPE) produces extra ionisation in the whole D-region, including the lower altitudes, which gives favourable conditions for accurate measurements using ground-based facilities. In this study we show that electron densities measured with two ground-based facilities at almost the same latitude but slightly different longitudes, provide a valuable tool for validation of model computations. The two techniques used are incoherent scatter of radio waves (by the EISCAT 224 MHz radar in Tromso, Norway, 69.6° N, 19.3° E), and partial reflection of radio-waves (by the 2.8 MHz radar near Murmansk, Russia, 69.0° N, 35.7° E). Both radars give accurate electron density values during SPE, from heights 57–60 km and upward with the EISCAT radar and between 55–70 km with the partial reflection technique. Near noon, there is little difference in the solar zenith angle between the two locations and both methods give approximately the same values of electron density at the overlapping heights. During twilight, when the difference in solar zenith angles increases, electron density values diverge. When both radars are in night conditions (solar zenith angle >99°) electron densities at the overlapping altitudes again become equal. We use the joint measurements to validate model computations of the ionospheric parameters f+, λ, αeff and their variations during solar proton events. These parameters are important characteristics of the lower ionosphere structure which cannot be determined by other methods.


After the success of Architectural Visions, with its focus on the German speaking countries, this volume is devoted to the individual handwriting of architects and designers from around the world. As computer aided design becomes ever more prevalent, the handmade drawing is experiencing an amazing Renaissance. In its characteristic touch it often shows much more clearly which aesthetic impression the planned building finally leaves behind than any number of computer aided visualisation techniques. What is striking here is the concentration on the main characteristics of the buildings, which in turn mark the appearance. In contrast, in the rendering, the love of detail and alleged approximation of reality often overshadows those characteristics. This volume unifies the most varied painting and drawing techniques, counterposing realized drafts to photos of the execution, so that the viewers can recreate for themselves the connection between architectural will and effect.


Restaurants, in general, utilise numerous suppliers. Normally they deliver on different days in the week and at different times during the day, logistically not an optimum approach. Not only does the current practice cause frequent interruptions, but by segregating the food supply chain unnecessary traffic is generated. This article investigated the need for developing a third party supplier hub, the best positioning of that hub and the most economical routes to the customers. With the aim of providing non-franchised restaurants with the necessary leverage to become market leaders, the hub is planned to only service the restaurants within the vicinity of the Stellenbosch area. In such a hub-configured supply chain, the suppliers would be delivering to the proposed hub, from where once-off deliveries to all the restaurants may be made on days and/or times determined by them. In order to investigate the benefits of providing such a hub structure, a systematic implementation approach was used. The first step was to do market research in order to establish the need for such a hub. That is, the viability of the hub from a restaurant's perspective was established. The next step entailed the investigation of the design criteria needed in determining a favourable hub location. Four possible hub locations were identified. The Clark and Wright's savings algorithm was then used to determine the optimal hub location and the feasibility of the results was verified with the aid of a global positioning system (GPS) device. The last steps followed involved the determination of an effective hub floor plan that may be utilised, possible products that can be supplied to the restaurants and the necessary assets needed to provide the hub's service. Finally, by incorporating all these facets, a cost analysis was done to determine the hub's profitability.


This book introduces analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) as a whole, covering essential theoretical and practical aspects as well as its applications in both biological and non-biological systems. Comprehensive characterizations of macromolecules in a solution are now routinely required not only for understanding the solution system but also for producing a solution with better properties. Analytical ultracentrifugation is one of most powerful and reliable techniques for studying the biophysical behavior of solutes in solution. In the last few years, there have been steady advances made in hardware, software, and applications for AUC. This book provides chapters that cover everything essential for beginners to the most advanced users and also offer updated knowledge of the field on advances in hardware, software, and applications. Recent development of hardware described in this book covers new detection systems that give added dimensions to AUC. Examples of data analysis with essential theoretical explanations for advanced and recently updated software are also introduced. Besides AUC of biological systems including membrane proteins and biopharmaceuticals, AUC applications for non-biological questions are included. AUC studies under non-ideal conditions such as highly concentrated solutions and solutions with high salt concentration are also included. The contributors to this book are leading researchers in the fields of solution biophysics and physical chemistry who extensively employ AUC analysis for their research. From this published work, one can gain new and comprehensive knowledge of recent AUC analysis


This study focuses on the isolation and molecular characterisation of fungal endophytes from an ethnomedicinal plant, Rauvolfia densiflora (Apocynaceae), and an evaluation of antioxidative and L-asparaginase potentials. Fungal endophytes were isolated from leaf and stem parts of R. densiflora collected from the site of Talacauvery, Western Ghats, India. The highest colonisation frequency was found in leaves (95.5%), followed by stem parts (63.5%). A total of 19 fungal morphotypes belonging to 11 genera were identified by analysing the ITS sequences of the endophytes. The strains were screened for asparaginase production by qualitative plate assay and quantification by Nesslerisation. Maximum activity was recorded in the Penicillium chrysogenum culture (3.77 IU/ml). Submerged fermentation and ethyl acetate extraction were carried out to obtain secondary metabolites for the evaluation of total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidative potentials. The TPC of fungal extracts ranged from 12.37 to 89.29 mg GAE/g dry extract and the IC50 value of scavenging activity from 26.64 to 547.23 μg/ml. The P. chrysogenum strain (MH392736) was found to have the potentially highest total phenolic content and a high antioxidant capacity. This is the first report on the characterisation of fungal endophytes from R. densiflora and their antioxidative and L-asparaginase potentials.


In my reply to the essays by Anne Kull, Eduardo Cruz, and Michael DeLashmutt, I turn first to Cruz's charge that my use of "the sacred" is at odds with a growing religious studies mainstream that understands religion in secular terms. I suggest that this latter approach has its own problems, deriving partly from its neglect of the political, constructed nature of the category of "religion." Second, in relation to Cruz's suggestion that my lack of attention to explanation compromises my claim to be social scientific, I defend a broader understanding of the human sciences and explore the relationships between understanding, critique, and history, and between sociology and theology. Third, reflecting on DeLashmutt's suggestion that I neglect the way that technical invention provides a glimpse of divine creativity, and the myth making that goes on around technology in vehicles such as science fiction, I argue that such issues have to be approached in a radically historical way. I conclude by identifying three challenges: to explore more deeply how technological objects form part of human being-in-the-world, to show how my approach might offer practical resources for assessing technological and environmental developments, and to expand my analysis to include non-Western religious traditions.


We have been attempting to apply financial portfolio analysis techniques to the task of selecting an application-appropriate suite of security technologies from the technologies available in the marketplace. The problem structures are sufficiently similar that the intuitive guidance is encouraging. However, the analysis techniques of portfolio analysis assume precise quantitative data of a sort that we cannot realistically expect to obtain for the security applications. This will be a common challenge in applying quantitative economic models to software engineering problems, and we consider ways to address the mismatch.


Random mutagenesis has been used to engineer the protease subtilisin E to function in a highly nonnatural environment--high concentrations of a polar organic solvent. Sequential rounds of mutagenesis and screening have yielded a variant (PC3) that hydrolyzes a peptide substrate 256 times more efficiently than wild-type subtilisin in 60% dimethylformamide. PC3 subtilisin E and other variants containing different combinations of amino acid substitutions are effective catalysts for transesterification and peptide synthesis in dimethylformamide and other organic media. Starting with a variant containing four effective amino acid substitutions (D60N, D97G, Q103R, and N218S; where, for example, D60N represents Asp-60-->Asn), six additional mutations (G131D, E156G, N181S, S182G, S188P, and T255A) were generated during three sequential rounds of mutagenesis and screening. The 10 substitutions are clustered on one face of the enzyme, near the active site and substrate binding pocket, and all are located in loops that connect core secondary structure elements and exhibit considerable sequence variability in subtilisins from different sources. These variable surface loops are effective handles for "tuning" the activity of subtilisin. Seven of the 10 amino acid substitutions in PC3 are found in other natural subtilisins. Great variability is exhibited among naturally occurring sequences that code for similar three-dimensional structures--it is possible to make use of this sequence flexibility to engineer enzymes to exhibit features not previously developed (or required) for function in vivo.


The Thelephorales (Basidiomycota, Fungi) form a monophyletic group with approximately 177 accepted species. The Thelephorales are cosmopolitan and encompass mainly ectomycorrhizal species. Unlike many fungal lineages, evolutionary trends within and between members of Thelephorales still remain incompletely assessed. Additionally, most phylogenetic investigations on fungi have failed to include representative samples from tropical Africa. In the present study started four years ago, we have assessed and documented some of the diversity of tropical African Thelephorales. It represents a part of a future broader but continuous project aiming for a complete monograph, and highlighting the anatomical and molecular relevance of tropical species in the evolutionary interpretation of Thelephorales in general. The study was started in the northern Guinean seasonal forests, located from central to north Benin (West Africa). Northern Guinean seasonal forests are characterised by a low specific plant richness, but predominated by a few ectomycorrhizal trees of the Caesalpiniaceae (Isoberlinia doka Craib & Stapf Isoberlinia tomenteosa (Harms) Craib & Stapf, Burkea africana Hook., and Afzelia africana Smith), Dipterocarpaceae (Monothes kerstingii Gilg.) and Euphorbiaceae (Uapaca guineensis Mull. Arg.). Four collecting trips were undertaken during the rainy seasons of 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Specimens of Thelephorales and soil cores were randomly sampled under native ectomycorrhizal trees. The collecting trips yielded over 800 specimens of Thelephorales and 60 EcM samples in total. Taxonomic investigations and species concepts of the specimens were assessed using a combination of both molecular and anatomo-morphological approaches.

All examined specimens were sorted into 19 morphologically different species. In this dissertation four new species are described and illustrated. A full description is provided for each species, together with reliable line drawings and, where possible, with SEM micrographs. Anatomic studies have confirmed and emphasised the commonality of irregularly shaped thin hyphae on the rhizomorph surfaces of many African species. Novel anatomical features hitherto unknown within Thelephorales, and rarely recorded for Hymenomycetes in general, are recorded. Detailed anatomical comparison with type species has enabled us to depict fundamental arguments about the discrimination of thelephoroid genera. We report fundamental differences in spore ornamentation between African and temperate tomentelloid species.

Using molecular PCR methods, we confirmed the high divergence rate of the ITS regions of thelephoroid fungi. Within morphologically close specimens, the ITS rDNA sequence deviation generally ranges between 0.0 to 2.68%. However, genetic distance between some specimens (e.g.Tomentella furcata Yorou & Agerer and T. cf. furcata nom. prov.) illustrates how morphologically convergent specimens may be greatly divergent with regard to their ITS rDNA. Phylogenetically, tropical African species of Thelephorales are either basal or terminal within various clades of investigated temperate, boreal and tropical species. Generally, they highly deviate from temperate and boreal closest species by 4.3 to 12.9% with regard to the ITS rDNA sequences.

Northern Guinean seasonal forests harbour a great diversity of Thelephorales that are, however, hard to detect due to the down-facing growth of fruit bodies of most resupinate Thelephorales, and the annual burning of required substrates. Only one species, Tomentella africana Yorou & Agerer, is widespread and commonly recorded. Many other species occur scarcely on fragmented substrates. Though the Thelephorales are cosmopolitan, we failed to record species that are reported to have a worldwide distribution. Notably, representatives of the resupinate thelephoroid genera Pseudotomentella Svrcek and Tomentellopsis Hjortstam were missing, as well as species of the mainly temperately distributed family Bankeraceae. In this study, we provide evidence of the ectomycorrhizal formation between Thelephorales and native tropical African forest trees. Anatomical and molecular characterisation of ectomycorrhizae formed between Thelephorales and native West African forest trees (namely Afzelia africana and Uapaca guineensis) are provided for the first time.

The present studies are based on original material collected in some Ceasalpinioid /Euphorbiaceae-dominated vegetation types found from central to north Benin. The Zambesian Centre of Endemism, located in South-East Africa, also harbours a variety of different ectomycorrhizal trees including Brachstegia spp, Julbernadia spp, and Isoberlinia spp. Stands dominated by monospecific ectomycorrhizal forest trees are also present in the rain forests of South Cameroon. The variety of ectomycorrhizal tree species present in tropical Africa implies a greater species richness of Thelephorales than that currently reported from Benin.

The present thesis represents a keystone study and provides baseline data for a continuing monograph of Thelephorales in tropical Africa. Intensive monographic and taxonomical investigations will undoubtedly reveal many interesting, and probably plesiomorphic, anatomical features from tropical Thelephorales. In this context, detailed anatomical investigations integrated with DNA sequence analyses and phylogenetic inferences are promising tools for discriminating thelephoroid species in general, and tropical ones in particular.

Taxonomic novelties in this study:
Tomentella capitata Yorou & Agerer
Tomentella brunneocystidia Yorou & Agerer
Tomentella furcata Yorou & Agerer
Tomentella africana Yorou & Agerer


In 1959, Reinhardt Koselleck published Critique and Crisis, in which he argued that the dominant tendency of political theory since the Enlightenment has been to subsume the political under the moral. Since then, other thinkers have echoed Koselleck's contention, and have described recent liberal political theory in particular as a 'flight from the political' (Freeden, 2005, 2008). In this situation, one of the main challenges confronting contemporary Western political theory is to end the flight from the political by clarifying what the concept of the political involves. But how is this to be done?
The first step is to see what guidance can be got from five of the most notable recent responses to this situation, each of which would be defended with varying degrees of success as offering a genuinely political theory. One has been made by neo-Kantian liberal thinkers whose concept of the political is best represented by the work of Rawls. The second has been made by defenders of a very different form of neo-Kantianism generally called discourse theory and best represented by Jurgen Habermas. The third may be described as the agonal theory of the political, represented here by the work of Chantal Mouffe. The fourth response is the postmodern concept of the political, of which I shall take the late Richard Rorty as the main representative. Finally, there is the pragmatic, or modus vivendi, concept of the political represented by the thought of John Gray.
After examining how these five influential schools of thought have attempted to theorize the political, I will turn to a small group of contemporary political theorists – notably, Michael Freeden at Oxford, Raymond Geuss and John Dunn at Cambridge, and Margaret Canovan, formerly of Keele University - whom I will suggest have been more successful than the representatives of the five schools just mentioned in pointing out the manner in which the future study of the political should proceed. In the final part of the paper I will consider, albeit briefly, how the concept of the political has been theorized in non-Western thought


Neoplastic pericarditis can be presented as acute pericarditis, pericardial effusion, effusive constrictive pericarditis or cardiac tamponade. For the majority of patients, a clinical manifestation of neoplastic pericarditis is absent or remains unrecognised during their life. A 56 year old male asymptomatic until three days ago that began with intense pain in epigastric region . The yugular vein was distended, breath and heart sounds were slightly decreased. Right-sided abdominal pain especially pronounced in the epigastric and right iliac fossa, his liver was palpable 2 cm below the right costal margin. In first cut of abdominal CT we showed pericardial effusion . The patient improved immediately after thetherapeutic pericardiocentesis. For the study of primary tumor was performed a thoraco-abdominal CT. Showing right hiliar mass, mediastinal lymph nodes, bilateral lung metastases. The patient was diagnosed with stage IV lung carcinoma, initiated the chemotherapy treatment (carboplatin-gemcitabine) by the medical oncology service at our hospital. Cardiac tamponade as the initial manifestation of malignancy is rare and such patients have a very limited expectancy, is because at the time of tumor disease diagnosis it is already advanced . There are few reported cases of patients with pericardial tamponade who presented with abdominal pain. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4021/jmc1213w


Siege Warfare follows the adaptation of late Roman military organization among successor states to 800 AD from Francia to the Caliphate, as siege technology, military infrastructure and administrative techniques throughout the Mediterranean derived from 4th and 5th century imperial innovations.


This paper presents the findings of a study examining the extent of linguistic attrition in Aromanian. In particular, the study focuses on derivational morphology and it examines reduction in the use of a group of suffixes by three age groups in the small town of Philippiada as well as loss in the allomorphic variation and in the range of semantic functions these suffixes perform. The results manifest a steady decline in the awareness of known items amongst the youngest members of the community, thereby showing that Aromanian is used progressively less and less by the speakers. The findings also demonstrate that functions which these morphemes originally performed are dying out, especially among the youngest segment of the population examined, while other functions are gradually being replaced by analytical forms.


This article proposes a new state-based policy, interstate environmental impact assessment, that builds on the National Environmental Policy Act's Environmental Impact Statement process to address interstate environmental harms. Interstate environmental harms, which occur when decisions or actions in one state produce negative environmental impacts in another state, have challenged American environmental law for over a century. Interstate environmental impact assessment would provide a procedural mechanism for an affected state and its citizens to influence the source state and minimize or prevent interstate environmental harms. The process itself would address the underlying problems of inadequate information, public process bias, and traditional economic externalities, and also produce information to improve federal adjudication and regulation when disputes arise over continuing harms.