Background: Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) frequently have multiple risk factors. Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) have been associated with cardiovascular events and cardiovascular disease mortality. Aim of the study: This study aims to determine the prevalence of abnormal glucose regulation (AGR) among Libyan patients, presenting for elective coronary angiography. Methods: All patients referred for a diagnostic coronary angiogram at the Catheterization Laboratory of National Heart Centre, Tajora, Tripoli, over a period of 1 year from April 2007 to March 2008, were included after consent. Patients with a history of diabetes were excluded from the study. Diagnostic coronary angiogram was performed for all included patients as well as a standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with 75 GM glucose. Results: Ninety-nine patients were included in our study, with a mean age of 54.6 ± 11.2 years. 49 (49.5%) of the enrolled patients showed either impaired or diabetic fasting or 2-h OGTT results. 22 (22.2%) patients were diabetic based on fasting blood glucose or 2-h OGGT result, and 21 (21.2%) have IGT. Of the 15 (15.2%) patients with impaired fasting glucose, 7 (46.7%) patient showed diabetic glucose tolerance, and 2 (13.3%) patients have IGT. Among patients with AGR, coronary angiogram showed significant CAD in 36 (73.5%), compared to 28 (56%) of patients with normal fasting and 2-h OGTT results. Conclusion: Abnormal glucose regulation was high among Libyan patients presented for elective angiography. OGTT should be part of the evaluation in this high-risk population.


Objective: Our study explored the retrieval deficit and the associative deficit hypotheses of memory impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD). The former supports a memory deficit mediated by attention/executive dysfunctions, whereas the latter hypothesizes a hippocampal memory impairment in PD. Method: We studied 31 controls and 34 PD patients classified as PD with normal cognition (PD-NC; n = 18) and PD with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI; n= 16). To test the retrieval deficit hypothesis, we measured the performance in encoding, retention, and recognition in verbal and visual domains; to test the associative deficit hypothesis, we used a specific associative binding measure. Using resting-state functional-MRI, we compared the functional connectivity of different hippocampal subfields between PD patients and controls, and we related it to memory performance. Results: Consistently with the retrieval deficit hypothesis, PD-MCI, and PD-NC, were impaired in free recall encoding and retention in comparison to controls, especially in the visual domain. However, as predicted by the associative deficit hypothesis, PD-MCI and, to a lesser extent, PD-NC, showed also significant associative and binding deficits in cued recall. Notably, PD patients compared to controls did not show structural differences, although they had lower connectivity between the anterior hippocampi and the precuneus/superior parietal cortex. Worse performance in memory was associated with a more severe disruption of the hippocampal connectivity. Conclusions: The pervasive pattern of memory impairment in PD supports both hypotheses. The interplay between the hippocampus, related to associative memory deficits, and the precuneus, related to attentional control, provides a neural signature that reconciles them.


Interest in the higher-order moments of irradiance scintillation draws attention to extremely large excursions of irradiance. Observation of such excursions has many experimental difficulties involving receiver dynamic range, aperture size, and bandwidth as well as sufficiency of number of samples, surface reflections (mirages), and source divergence. We discuss these difficulties as well as techniques to mitigate them. Visual biases exist in graphical presentations of moments and probability-density functions; we make suggestions for effective graphical interpretation of data. We recommend measuring both the refractive-index structure parameter and the inner scale of turbulence simultaneously with irradiance statistics.


Objectives: The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of subcutaneous tocilizumab (TCZ-SC) in a real-world clinical setting in Japan. Methods: This single arm, 26-week prospective observational study enrolled patients with RA who were either TCZ naïve or switched from TCZ-IV to TCZ-SC (TCZ-IV-SC group) (UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000011102). All patients received TCZ-SC 162mg every 2 weeks and data were collected until week 26 or discontinuation. Results: Overall 784 (78.1%) were TCZ naïve and 219 (21.8%) were in the TCZ-IV-SC group. 70.9% received disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs at baseline. Adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs occurred in 28.2% and 4.9% of patients, respectively (TCZ-naïve: 29.5% and 5.2%; TCZ-IV-SC: 23.2% and 4.1%). Infections and infestations were the most common AEs (7.4%) and serious AEs (1.7%). Two TCZnaïve patients died. TCZ-naïve patients had an improvement in median Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) score and mean Disease Activity Score in 28 joints as measured by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) from baseline to week 26. The TCZ-IV-SC group had similar median CDAI scores and mean DAS28-ESR over 26 weeks. Conclusions: There were no unexpected safety signals with TCZ-SC. TCZ-SC was effective in reducing disease activity in TCZ-naïve patients and maintaining remission in TCZ-IV-SC patients. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 9 June 2017 Accepted 3 December 2017


This research was undertaken to study the predictive capability of the pressuremeter test for characterizing in situ creep behavior of unbound pavement layers. Although the creep potential of granular pavement materials is less pronounced than fine-grained soils, consideration of actual creep deformations in the pavement evaluation process will improve long-term pavement performance. In this investigation, the long-term deformations determined from laboratory one-dimensional creep tests were compared with those investigated by field pressuremeter tests. The pressuremeter test consisted of inflating a cylindrical probe incrementally up to a given stress level, and then maintaining the pressure constant for a 5-min single stage. During this stage, radial deformations of the soil cavity were recorded at each 30-s interval. The one-dimensional creep test was performed on remolded soil specimens through applying a constant stress level for 7 days. Comparison of creep parameters deduced from pressuremeter and creep tests data was based on the Singh–Mitchell creep model. The results showed that the average strain rates derived from in situ pressuremeter data are valid, and compare well with those predicted from the laboratory creep test. Thus, the pressuremeter device can be employed to assess field strain–time behavior of pavement systems in a fast and reliable approach.


by Radu-Florentin Diaconu Acknowledging guests during the State of the Union address is not a new practice; however, it has had a peripheral role in the overall architecture of the speech, with presidents typically acknowledging up to seven guests. In his 2018 State of the Union address, president Trump acknowledges no less than eighteen guests, transforming this otherwise marginal practice into an essential part of his discourse. This article analyzes, from a socio-rhetorical perspective, President Trump's unprecedented use of real-life individuals for image-building purposes during the 2018 State of the Union Address. I use sociological, rhetorical and linguistic concepts such as framing, narrative persuasion and demeanor indexicals to analyze the way Trump portrays the guests as heroes, integrates each into a brief narrative, and finally positions himself as hierarchically superior to them. Finally, I suggest potential directions for further research into the sociological, philosophical, political and cultural implications of this uncommon persuasive strategy.


The Internet has been experiencing significant changes in its scale, capacity, user population, traffic volume and the variety and quantity of online applications and devices. Its continuing evolution demands scalable technologies that provide sustained support for a network with increasing scale and complexity.
In this thesis, we propose several scalable techniques that apply to network control and evaluation. Specifically, we consider the following three problems: First, what is the appropriate congestion control algorithm for networks as capacities get higher and higher and workloads evolve? Second, how does one efficiently measure one-way packet loss rates along paths in a large network? And third, how does one simulate large high bandwidth IP networks so as to obtain detailed packet level information?
We first propose a new congestion control algorithm, E-TCP, that offers stable high performance under increasing Internet capacity and traffic volume. We develop an evolutionary network model that focuses on networks with increasing per connection throughput, increasing link capacity, and fixed router buffers. Through analysis, we illustrate the interaction between TCP congestion control, router buffer size, link capacity and link utilization. The analysis reveals a serious performance degradation problem for existing congestion control algorithms. Motivated by the analytical results, we develop a new end-to-end congestion controller, E-TCP (evolutionary TCP), that allows buffer sizes to remain constant for high link utilization and increasing data throughput.
Next, we propose a novel technique for measuring one-way path loss rates for paths in large IP networks. We use IP tunneling techniques to control the paths followed by measurement traffic in the network. Coupled with standard measurement capabilities such as NetFlow and SNMP, specific probing methods are developed to isolate the performance of groups or even individual measurement packets. We then exploit and extend multicast tomographic inference methods (MINC) to extract the performance of probe traffic on paths within the network. This yields a method that accurately determines one-way path performance with a few monitors for paths within a large IP network.
Finally, we focus on how to simulate the behavior of selected flows in an evolving network as it increases in scale and traffic. We present a hybrid simulation method that maintains the performance advantage of fluid models while providing detailed packet level information for selected traffic flows. We propose two models to account for the interaction between background TCP traffic in a fluid network and foreground packet traffic of interest. The first assumes that the packet traffic adds a negligible load on the fluid network whereas the second accounts for the added load by transforming the packet traffic into fluid flows and solving the resulting enhanced fluid model. This new technique provides us an efficient mechanism to simulate large high traffic volume IP networks as well as provide detailed packet level information for particular flows under observation.


Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) is a legume crop that is resilient to hot and drought-prone climates, and a primary source of protein in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world. However, genome resources for cowpea have lagged behind most other major crop plants. Here we describe foundational genome resources and their application to analysis of germplasm currently in use in West African breeding programs. Resources developed from the African cultivar IT97K-499-35 include bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries and a BAC-based physical map, assembled sequences from 4,355 BACs, as well as a whole-genome shotgun (WGS) assembly. These resources and WGS sequences of an additional 36 diverse cowpea accessions supported the development of a genotyping assay for over 50,000 SNPs, which was then applied to five biparental RIL populations to produce a consensus genetic map containing 37,372 SNPs. This genetic map enabled the anchoring of 100 Mb of WGS and 420 Mb of BAC sequences, an exploration of genetic diversity along each linkage group, and clarification of macrosynteny between cowpea and common bean. The genomes of West African breeding lines and landraces have regions of marked depletion of diversity, some of which coincide with QTL that may be the result of artificial selection or environmental adaptation. The new publicly available resources and knowledge help to define goals and accelerate the breeding of improved varieties to address food security issues related to limited-input small-holder farming and climate stress.


Current New York land grant university fertility guidelines for corn (Zea mays L.) recommend the use of 22 to 34 kg N ha -1 of band-applied starter fertilizer. On-farm research was conducted in 2006 and 2007 on a western New York dairy farm with an alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)-corn rotation to evaluate the need for starter N for corn in regularly manured fields. In 2009, the study was expanded to include 21 fields varying in soil type, manure history, and soil N supply potential as expressed by the Illinois soil N test (ISNT). At the western New York farm, there was no increase in corn silage yield or quality with starter N use in first-, second-, or fourth-year corn fields. The results of the statewide assessment also showed that for fields with optimal ISNT-N, manure could replace starter N without a decline in corn silage yield or quality. Starter N fertilizer application was needed for optimal yield in fields deficient or marginal in ISNT-N and without a manure history. For such fields, manure could replace the need for starter N as long as sufficient N was applied with the manure, indicated by corn stalk NO 3 test (CSNT) results between 750 and 2000 mg NO 3 -N kg -1 . A response of silage yield to starter N was common when CSNT-N was <750 mg NO 3 -N kg -1 . We conclude that manure can replace the need for starter N, but rates should be adjusted to obtain CSNT values between 750 and 2000 mg kg -1 .


We investigate the impact of land dispossession of peasants on the origin of the civil conflict in Colombia. Using a matching-pair instrumental variable approach, we show that the historical dispossession of peasants' lands by landlords that led to the rise of peasant grievances is associated with the presence of the rural guerrilla movement -The Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC)during the first stage of the Colombian civil conflict (1974-1985). This study exploits variation in floods to identify how peasants' land dispossessions during the export boom (1914-1946) determine the rise of rural guerrilla movements and the consolidation of their rebel activities. Using a novel municipal-level data set on natural disasters and land dispossession, the study documents that municipalities experiencing floods during the years 1914-1946 were substantially more likely to have land dispossession than municipalities where floods was not severe. Floods reduced temporarily the conditions of the land and its value, facilitating the dispossession of the peasants of their lands by large landowners. We propose two mechanisms through which previous land dispossession facilitated the emergence of rebel armed groups. On the one hand, exposure to previous events of violence gave military training and access to weapons and military experience to the rural population that likely emboldened the formation of rebel groups. On the other hand, the ideological cohesion stemming from radical liberals and communists exacerbated the grievances and helped the emergence of rebel armed groups.


Friends as lovers; lovers as friends; ex-lovers as friends; ex-lovers as family; friends as family; communities of friends; lesbian community. These are just a few of the phrases heard often in the daily discourse of lesbian life. What significance do they have for lesbians? Do lesbians view friends as family and what does this analogy mean? What sorts of friendships exist between lesbians? What sorts of friendships do lesbians form with non-lesbian women, or with men? These and other questions regarding the kinds of friendships lesbians imagine and experience have rarely been addressed. Lesbian Friendships focuses on actual accounts of friendships involving lesbians and examines a number of issues, including the transition from friends to lovers and/or lovers to friends, erotic attraction in friendship, diverse identities among lesbians, and friendships across sexuality and/or gender lines.


Learning tabula rasa, that is without any prior knowledge, is the prevalent workflow in reinforcement learning (RL) research. However, RL systems, when applied to large-scale settings, rarely operate tabula rasa. Such large-scale systems undergo multiple design or algorithmic changes during their development cycle and use ad hoc approaches for incorporating these changes without re-training from scratch, which would have been prohibitively expensive. Additionally, the inefficiency of deep RL typically excludes researchers without access to industrial-scale resources from tackling computationally-demanding problems. To address these issues, we present reincarnating RL as an alternative workflow, where prior computational work (e.g., learned policies) is reused or transferred between design iterations of an RL agent, or from one RL agent to another. As a step towards enabling reincarnating RL from any agent to any other agent, we focus on the specific setting of efficiently transferring an existing sub-optimal policy to a standalone valuebased RL agent. We find that existing approaches fail in this setting and propose a simple algorithm to address their limitations. Equipped with this algorithm, we demonstrate reincarnating RL's gains over tabula rasa RL on Atari 2600 games, a challenging locomotion task, and the real-world problem of navigating stratospheric balloons. Overall, this work argues for an alternate approach to RL research, which we believe could significantly improve real-world RL adoption and help democratize it further.


We observed high-purity correlated and entangled photon pairs generated through spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in a silicon wire waveguide (SWW). Employing a nano-scale silicon waveguide with a low loss mode size converter, we obtained a high coincidence to accidental coincidence ratio (CAR) of around 200 that was larger than that of cooled dispersion shifted fiber (DSF) by a factor 3.2, and observed the two-photon interference fringe of time-bin entangled photons with > 95% visibility without subtracting the accidental coincidences.


This paper attempts a response to two suggestions regarding the roots of and solutions to Africa's social, economic and political concerns. Rather than trying to provide answers to the question "who should be blamed for the quagmires of Africa?", the paper tries to provide further explanations of the problems using a specific case study of two pan-African scholars, Henry Kam Kah and Okori Uneke. Although their suggestions about the situation of Africa have received popular acceptance among scholars, this paper disputes the viability of their assumptions and conclusions. Even if it is true (as the scholars have argued) that Africa is an innocent victim of colonial or post-colonial causes, their arguments fall short of providing a foundation for future, positive development. Instead, this paper attempts to go beneath superficial first layer investigations to identify a more meaning way forward for the people of post-colonial Africa.


Abstract. Despite its importance and continouing debates, there is still no consensus on what is the competitiveness of farms, how to measure the competitiveness of different organizations in agriculture, what is the absolute and comparative competitiveness of different types of farms, which are the critical factors for increasing the competitiveness at the current stage of development, etc. This study tries to fill the existing gap by applying a holistic approach and assessing the competitiveness of Bulgarian farms as a whole and with different specializations. The multi-criteria assessment found that the level of competitiveness of farms in the country is at a good level, with low adaptive potential and economic efficiency to the greatest extent contributing to lower competitiveness. More than a third of all agricultural holdings have a low level of competitiveness. The most competitive are the farms specialised in the beekeeping, followed by field crops, mixed animal husbandry and mixed crops production, and the lowest for farms in grazing livestock. Most significant factors for increasing the competitiveness of Bulgarian farms are market conditions (supply and demand, prices, competition), direct government subsidies, access to knowledge, advice and counseling, participation in government support programs, available information , financial opportunities, and opportunities for benefits in the near future.Proposed approach should be improved and applied more widely and periodically, increasing accuracy and representativeness. The latter requires close cooperation with producer organizations, advisory service and other stakeholders, and improvement of the agricultural information collection system in the country. Keywords. Competitiveness, Agricultural holdings, Specialsiation, Bulgaria. JEL. Q12, Q13, Q15, Q18 .


In Cloud environments, efficient resource provisioning and management present today a challenging issue because of the dynamic nature of the Cloud on one hand, and the need to satisfy heterogeneous resource requirements on the other hand. In such dynamic environments where end-users can arrive and leave the Cloud at any time, a Cloud service provider (CSP) should be able to make accurate decisions for scaling up or down its data-centers while taking into account several utility criteria, e.g., the delay of virtual resources setup, the migration of existing processes, the resource utilization, etc. In order to satisfy both parties (the CSP and the end-users), an efficient and dynamic resource allocation strategy is mandatory. In this paper, we propose an original approach for dynamic resource allocation in a Cloud environment. Our proposal considers computing job requests that are characterized by their arrival and teardown times, as well as a predictive profile of their computing requirements during their activity period. Assuming a prior knowledge of the predicted computing resources required by end-users, we propose and investigate several algorithms with different optimization criteria. However, prediction errors may occur resulting in some cases in the drop of one or several computing requests. Our proposed algorithms are compared in terms of various performance parameters including the rejection ratio, the dropping ratio, as well as the satisfaction of the endusers and the CSP.


Status of This Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract For scalability purposes, a network may comprise multiple Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) areas. An inter-area Traffic Engineered Label Switched Path (TE-LSP) is an LSP that transits through at least two IGP areas. In a multi-area network, topology visibility remains local to a given area, and a head-end Label Switching Router (LSR) cannot compute an inter-area shortest constrained path. One key application of the Path Computation Element (PCE)-based architecture is the computation of inter-area TE-LSP paths. The PCE Communication Protocol (PCECP) is used to communicate computation requests from Path Computation Clients (PCCs) to PCEs, and to return computed paths in responses. This document lists a detailed set of PCECP-specific requirements for support of inter-area TE-LSP path computation. It complements the generic requirements for a PCE Communication Protocol.


Through one-on-one in-depth interviews of Canadian public sector flax breeders, this study explores issues around Intellectual Property (IP) and Freedom To Operate (FTP) in flax breeding from a Canadian perspective. The results are supported by a scan of flax breeding efforts worldwide, an in-depth patent analysis (using Patent Lens and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) databases) and a review of varietal registrations (via the International Union for Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Variety Registration database) for countryby-country applications to national listings and Plant Breeders Rights (PBRs). The results suggest that while stronger Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) seem to hamper research in some crops, flax breeding – overall – has not witnessed the negative effects of stronger IP protection. Relative to other crops, flax production worldwide is small. The flax breeding industry itself is represented primarily by public research institutions with only a few small private companies operating in this area worldwide. Given the significant involvement of the public sector and the limited use of biotechnology, the flax IP landscape is not as complex as that of other oil crops such as canola and soybeans.


Recent developments in sensors, global positioning system devices, and smart phones have increased the availability of spatiotemporal data streams. Developing models for mining such streams is challenged by the huge amount of data that cannot be stored in the memory, the high arrival speed, and the dynamic changes in the data distribution. Density estimation is an important technique in stream mining for a wide variety of applications. The construction of kernel density estimators is well studied and documented. However, existing techniques are either expensive or inaccurate and unable to capture the changes in the data distribution. In this paper, we present a method called KDE-Track to estimate the density of spatiotemporal data streams. KDE-Track can efficiently estimate the density function with linear time complexity using interpolation on a kernel model, which is incrementally updated upon the arrival of new samples from the stream. We also propose an accurate and efficient method for selecting the bandwidth value for the kernel density estimator, which increases its accuracy significantly. Both theoretical analysis and experimental validation show that KDE-Track outperforms a set of baseline methods on the estimation accuracy and computing time of complex density structures in data streams.


In this paper we describe our preliminary experiments to extend the work pioneered by Forrest (see Forrest et al. 1996) on learning the (normal abnormal) patterns of Unix processes. These patterns can be used to identify misuses of and intrusions in Unix systems. We formulated machine learning tasks on operating system call sequences of normal and abnormal (intrusion) executions of the Unix sendmail program. We show that our methods can accurately distinguish all abnormal executions of sendmail from the normal ones provided in a set of test traces. These preliminary results indicate that machine learning can play an important role by generalizing stored sequence information to perhaps provide broader intrusion detection services. The experiments also reveal some interesting and challenging problems for future research. much effort has been devoted to the problem of detecting intrusions as quickly as possible. There are two basic approaches to intrusion detection: ¯ Misuse Intrusion Detection: known patterns of (past


Tropical lowland plant communities in north-eastern Queensland are under enormous pressure from continuing clearing, fragmentation, exotic species invasion, inappropriate fire regimes, and altered hydrological patterns. Few accurate figures with respect to past clearing patterns exist, and comparatively little scientific research has been conducted on the highly diverse and ecologically significant range of remnant vegetation types. Additionally, most plant communities remain very poorly represented in the existing conservation reserve system. The initial focus of this thesis was, therefore, to provide the first detailed assessment of clearing and fragmentation for an area of the tropical lowland environment (between Townsville and Cairns) widely recognised for its ecological significance.

In the area examined, approximately 140 ha yr-1 of remnant vegetation has been cleared over a 50 year period (1942-1992). This is more than double the rate recorded by any other study in the wet-tropics, but well below clearing rates calculated for more populated regions of the state. Dramatic changes in the size class (area) distribution of remnants were recorded for all vegetation types, particularly in the smaller size classes. A range of landscape indices were used to assess patterns of habitat fragmentation. Remnant shape, perimeter length and dispersion across the landscape all varied significantly for certain vegetation types, and the management implications associated with these changes are considered. The need for a "finescale" approach to landscape analysis in conservation planning exercises is discussed, with three vegetation types utilised as case studies.

Melaleuca viridiflora open woodlands were selected for further investigation, based on their relatively simple structure, the fact that opportunities arose to assess prescribed burns conducted by management agencies, and the large extent to which they have been affected by past clearing patterns. Their current conservation status as described within the literature was also reviewed. To assess this status fully, a detailed analysis of community structure and composition was conducted at 24 sites throughout the wet-tropics coastal region between Townsville and Cooktown. A high diversity of structural and floristic types was recorded. Many of these types are not adequately included (some not at all) in the existing conservation reserve system. A synthesis of previous research highlighted the significant level of biodiversity associated with these woodlands, adding weight to the argument for increased levels of protection in reserves.

A total of 127 species were recorded from the 24 sites, with classification analyses of species presence/absence data separating seven or eight main groups of sites, essentially related to a gradient of latitude and (predicted) rainfall. The groups were not well explained by either species richness, past fire frequencies or soil types. Structural classification analyses based upon DBH data identified six or seven main groups, the singularly most striking of which was sites with annual fire histories. Ordinations based on both the DBH and species presence/absence data produced groupings that supported those detected by the classification techniques. In a closer examination of sites with similar fire histories, soil moisture and soil type were both found to have significant effects on community structure and composition.

The effects of single prescribed burns were examined at several sites. Moderately intense fire dramatically affected individuals in the understorey and intermediate size classes, with reductions in the latter of up to 58%. The effects of repeated fires (i.e. an annual fire regime) on these size classes were also examined and suggest that two consecutive fires are sufficient to exhaust the regenerative ability of M. viridiflora saplings, even though the species is widely considered to be adapted to fire. The simplification of community structure (fewer strata with insufficient recruitment to maturity) as a result of subsequent high frequency fires is considered likely, and recommendations (adopted by management agencies) for longer fire-free intervals than those currently prescribed are proposed. The effects of fires on the fine fuel loads of these communities were also examined, with an average loss of 97% of fine fuel in moderate intensity fires. Even two to three years after fire, fuel loads remained well below pre-fire levels.

The spatial pattern of Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis Barrett & Golfari (Pch)) invasion (from plantations adjacent to high conservation value remnants) into M. viridiflora woodlands was also documented. Pines dispersed more than 400 m, with densities ranging widely between the remnants studied. At a site examined in detail, the distribution of pines was poorly correlated with that of the dominant native species in the community. Growth rates of the exotic pine were, at times, more than twenty-fold those of M. viridiflora, whilst mortality was substantially lower. Differences in the germination responses of the two species to varying temperature and soil moisture treatments were also examined, with M. viridiflora germinating more readily at higher temperatures and elevated soil moisture levels. A relatively intense prescribed fire was used to assess its effectiveness as a management tool for the control of exotic pines. Although successful in controlling juveniles (less than 1.5m tall), little effect was observed on larger trees. Other potential management techniques (hand removal, localised chemical treatment and the development of sterile plantation species) are considered essential for a successful integrated control program that minimises the potential for invasion into other significant remnant M. viridiflora habitats.

Finally, the results of this study are assessed within the context of the sustainable management and development of these woodland communities at the landscape level. The opportunities for future research relevant to each section of the thesis are also outlined.


Knowledge sharing has been considered a significant component of success in Knowledge Management (KM). In most organizations KM is often inadequate when it comes to knowledge sharing. In order to encourage knowledge sharing using Web technology, it is important to know why staff do or do not use web based knowledge sharing system (WKSS), when communicating internally and sharing knowledge via Web technology, and when and where this happens. Very few models have paid attention to examine user acceptance of using WKSS specifically in academic context, therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that affect academics' behavior towards using WKSS. WKSS model, which is a developed model, and at its core usesthe Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) involving expectancy performance, effort expectancy and social influences. Minor changes in these factors are adopted, and additional factors are synthesized, which are: trust in the technology and time expended to enhance our understanding of WKSS acceptance and usage. In regard to the users' assessment, which test the developed model WKSS, all factors are confirmed.


This executive summary describes an investigation into the performance of pavement markings in wet night conditions. The performance of a typical pavement marking will degrade when it gets wet. This is a result of the flooding of the marking optics, thereby reducing retroreflectivity. Several technologies are available to improve wet marking performance. In this project, six technologies were tested using both standard measurement methods and participant evaluations. The results show that two of the marking technologies, raised retroreflective markers and wet retroreflective tape, outperformed the group under all conditions. These markings were also highly accepted by the participants. The results also show that the standard paint and glass beads technology is the worst performing and the least desirable of those evaluated. A comparison of the ASTM retroreflectivity measurement methods and the measured luminance results also indicates that the methods are suitable for the conditions used in the evaluation; however, possible additions and corrections to the methods are outlined in this report. A follow-up study is underway to allow development of a performance-based specification for pavement markings for wet night visibility.


The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the competency, competency models and measurement instruments at workplace settings, its significance to human resource development in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities. Interest on competency based approaches is growing. In the management literature, the competency based approach has grown through McClelland (1973) seminal paper "testing for competencies rather than intelligence" as to argue the traditional approach to measure performance using aptitude and content test. Evidence had also indicated that competency can lead to effective job performance. The practice of competency base approach has resulted with the expansion of models on measurement instrument. This paper discusses the previous competency literature with greater interest on the field of competency, competency models and measurement instruments towards technical vocational education and training in Malaysia specific for vocational college teaching profession. This study suggests that competency modelling and measurement instruments can contribute to the effectiveness of Vocational College Teacher education and to address competency gaps issues. Competency modelling and instruments to measure for vocational teaching is still is in its infancy however the lack of competent teachers is a challenge for Malaysia to reach a better income levels in future.


Objective: Marijuana misuse by adolescents is a social and public mental health problem in Jamaica and globally. Research has suggested that family structure is one of the factors that influences adolescents' consumption of marijuana. This study was undertaken to determine if family structure and parental monitoring had any association with marijuana use among adolescents in Jamaica. Methods: Data from a nationally representative sample collected in Jamaica's National Secondary School Survey 2013 were analysed. The study sample consisted of 3365 grades 8–12 students from 38 secondary schools. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed using PSPP software. Results: A significantly higher proportion of male (24.4%) than female (16.9%) adolescents reported lifetime use of marijuana. There was no significant difference in the proportions of male and female adolescents regarding marijuana use over the past one year (15.5% versus 10.4%) or over the past 30 days (8.7% versus 5.4%). There were significant differences in lifetime use of marijuana among adolescents from different family structures (Chi-square = 442.63, p = 0.00). The differences were not between one-parent families and two-parent families. Parental monitoring of adolescents' school work was strongly protective against lifetime marijuana use. Adolescents whose parents paid attention very closely (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.34; 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: 0.22, 0.52), closely (AOR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.99) and somewhat closely (AOR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.99) to what they did at school were all significantly less likely to have ever used marijuana. Conclusion: Lifetime marijuana use among adolescents was associated with family structure but not from the perspective of one-parent families versus two-parent families. Parental monitoring of adolescents' school activities significantly protected against lifetime use of marijuana.


ABSTRACT Participation, it has been said, is a central lynchpin of citizenship and democracy. Unfortunately, studies have shown for some time that political participation is on the decline in most Western democracies. Particularly for scholars and policy analysts who define political participation in democracy purely as voting, party membership or in terms of a narrow 'arena' definition of politics, the conclusion is clear: levels of political illiteracy are rising, while political participation is declining. Yet, the turn away from formal democratic politics and conventional forms of political participation is only one part of the picture. There is now an extensive literature suggesting a proliferation of new developments and alternative forms of political participation. But even as scholars have become more attuned to these new forms of political participation, the focus remains too narrow. Responding to Iris Marion Young's call to encourage alternative communicative forms in political participation, this article explores the capacity of participatory theatre to be an alternative site of political participation. By surveying three applications of participatory theatre, Jana Sanskriti, Journey of Asylum – Waiting and Betrayed – the article shows how theatre premised on spect-actors set against a communal backdrop can prefigure a more participatory political community.


When Rube Foster was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, his rightful place alongside baseball's greatest black heroes was at last firmly established. A world-class pitcher, a formidable manager, and a brilliant administrator, Rube Foster was arguably more influential in breaking down the color barrier in major league baseball than the venerable Jackie Robinson. Born in 1879, Rube Foster pitched for the legendary black baseball teamsthe Cuban X-Giants and the Philadelphia Giants before becoming player-manager of the Leland Giants and the Chicago American Giants. Long a central figure in black baseball, he founded baseball's first black league the Negro National League in 1920. From its inception, the Negro League served as a vehicle through which many of the finest black players could showcase their considerable talents. Challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes, it ultimately set the stage for future efforts to contest Jim Crow. Despite the long-standing success of the Negro National League as an influential black institution, Rube Foster was deeply embittered by organized baseball's unmitigated refusal to lift the color barrier. He died a broken man in 1930. The Best Pitcher in Baseball is the story of a man of unparalleled vision and organizational acumen whose passion for justice changed the face of baseball forever. It is a moving tribute to a man and his dream.


The fuzzy or soft $k$-means objective is a popular generalization of the well-known $k$-means problem, extending the clustering capability of the $k$-means to datasets that are uncertain, vague, and otherwise hard to cluster. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised active clustering framework, where the learner is allowed to interact with an oracle (domain expert), asking for the similarity between a certain set of chosen items. We study the query and computational complexities of clustering in this framework. We prove that having a few of such similarity queries enables one to get a polynomial-time approximation algorithm to an otherwise conjecturally NP-hard problem. In particular, we provide algorithms for fuzzy clustering in this setting that asks $O(\mathsf{poly}(k)\log n)$ similarity queries and run with polynomial-time-complexity, where $n$ is the number of items. The fuzzy $k$-means objective is nonconvex, with $k$-means as a special case, and is equivalent to some other generic nonconvex problem such as non-negative matrix factorization. The ubiquitous Lloyd-type algorithms (or alternating minimization algorithms) can get stuck at a local minimum. Our results show that by making a few similarity queries, the problem becomes easier to solve. Finally, we test our algorithms over real-world datasets, showing their effectiveness in real-world applications.


Literature is a form of human consciousness, so the main question raised by literary theological thought is more concerned with the human being than with God. Literature interprets and seeks to explain the existential experience of the individual and society. God appears in the context of literary introspection when artistic thought seeks for the ontological essence and existential meaning of being human. The theology of literature investigates the literary interpretation of the origin and sense of existence, and holds literature to be a variant of the individual theological quest, namely an existential test for the Christian doctrine. The main collision between literature and Christianity (the traditional Western religion) is the justification of God in the context of evil. This paradox is investigated through theodicy, a philosophical and theological attempt to reconcile the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence, omnipotence and omniscience with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the human world. The contradiction between the omnipotence of God and the evil that exists in the world is the main question concerning the existential experience of God, and a question that provokes literary thought. Literary theology (theological thought seen in literary works, a form of the so-called theology of experience) considers the paradox of God's love and existential evil, and the possibilities for the justification of God in the face of innocent suffering. Many literary works, from Dante to contemporary literature, raise the theodic issue. The apexes of literary theodicy are works by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Brothers Karamazov, 1880) and Albert Camus (La Peste, 1947). Literary theodicy artistically points to the depth of the problem of innocent suffering.


We investigate the evolution of the galaxy star formation rate function (SFRF) and cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD) of z ∼ 0–8 galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations. In addition, we present a compilation of ultraviolet, infrared and H α SFRFs and compare these with the predictions from the EAGLE suite of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. We find that the constraints implied by different indicators are inconsistent with each other for the highest star-forming objects at z < 2, a problem that is possibly related to selection biases and the uncertainties of dust attenuation effects. EAGLE's feedback parameters were calibrated to reproduce realistic galaxy sizes and stellar masses at z = 0.1. In this work we test if and why those choices yield realistic star formation rates (SFRs) for z ∼ 0–8 as well. We demonstrate that supernovae feedback plays a major role at setting the abundance of galaxies at all star-forming regimes, especially at high redshifts. On the contrary, active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback becomes more prominent at lower redshifts and is a major mechanism that affects only the highest star-forming systems. Furthermore, we find that galaxies with SFR ∼1–10 M⊙ yr−1 dominate the CSFRD at redshifts z ≤ 5, while rare high star-forming galaxies (SFR ∼10–100 M⊙ yr−1) contribute significantly only briefly around the peak era (z ∼ 2) and then are quenched by AGN feedback. In the absence of this prescription objects with SFR ∼10–100 M⊙ yr−1 would dominate the CSFRD, while the cosmic budget of star formation would be extremely high. Finally, we demonstrate that the majority of the cosmic star formation occurs in relatively rare high-mass haloes (MHalo ∼ 1011–13 M⊙) even at the earliest epochs.


This paper critically examines the potential of prisoner litigation in Canada to shed light on what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has called "the hidden world of punishment." It considers whether prisoner's rights litigation can act as a meaningful legal check on the growing punishment agenda in Canada. The paper begins with a brief description of some aspects of the punishment agenda before moving on to consider case law under the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which speaks directly to punishment and its limits, the section 12 right to be free from "cruel and unusual treatment or punishment." A dominant strand in the section 12 case law has been the minimal impact the section has had in limiting the proliferation of mandatory minimum sentences in recent years. This paper considers another strand of section 12 case law which has received little attention and which presents a different kind of challenge to the punishment agenda, namely section 12 review of prison conditions and the treatment of prisoners. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the limitations and potential of Charter litigation in the prison context.


Background: Toothbrushes are used as an adjunct for mechanical plaque control to improve the oral health and hygiene. However, toothbrushes are an easy source of contamination by the microorganisms. Rinsing with plain tap water may reduce this microbial load, but complete elimination is not possible. Aim: The study aimed to compare the efficacy of three different chemical agents as toothbrush disinfectant. Materials and Methods: A triple-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in a dental institute. Forty volunteers were divided into three experimental groups and one control group (n = 10). (Group A: 0.2% chlorhexidine; Group B: distilled water; Group C: Listerine; and Group D: 2% sodium hypochlorite). The participants were instructed to brush their teeth using toothbrushes with standard bristles and then disinfect their toothbrushes according to instructed methods. Bacterial decontamination of toothbrushes was measured by calculating colony-forming units (CFUs) of Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Escherichia coli. Data were statistically analyzed using the SPSS software package for Windows (version 15.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Means, standard deviations, and for data of each microorganism after disinfection with different methods were calculated with descriptive statistics. The Bonferroni test was performed for post hoc analysis. A P value of 0.05 was considered as the level of statistical significance. Results: Means were calculated for the CFU in all the groups; Group D (2% sodium hypochlorite) was found to have highest mean reduction for all the microorganisms followed by Group C (Listerine), Group A (0.12% chlorhexidine), and Group B (distilled water) (control group). Conclusion: All the methods tested were effective in reducing the bacterial count of S. mutans, Staphylococcus, L. rhamnosus, and E. coli. However, the most effective method was NaOCl (2%) followed by Listerine, chlorhexidine, and water.


Dictionary entries for highly polysemous words have long proved difficult for lexicographers and dictionary users alike. From the lexicographer's point of view, senses and possibly subsenses need to be identified, and tough decisions must be made about the order of senses within the entry. From the user's standpoint, long entries require a certain amount of time and patience, because users must often wade through large amounts of information before finding the answer to their initial query. In response to this, lexicographers working on English monolingual learner's dictionaries have introduced "access facilitating devices" Lew's (2010), also known as pointers, guide words or signposts, to help users disambiguate and thus find information more quickly. This paper addresses the nature of signposts: what sort of information do they convey, and what semantic relationship do they have with the headword? In our paper, we will analyze several entries for nouns and adjectives in four learner's dictionaries of English (CALD, LDOCE, MEDAL and OALD) and discuss the differences across dictionaries. Our analysis shows a preference for synonyms, as opposed to superordinates or contextual information, in the English dictionaries analyzed. We then show how signposts are being used in the DAELE, an ongoing project of a learner's dictionary of Spanish.


Among all scattering processes, spontaneous Brillouin scattering originates from the interaction between light and thermal acoustic waves propagating in the medium. The interference resulting from the incident light and its spontaneously backscattered fraction generates an acoustic wave through the electrostriction process, which in turns also scatter the incident light and reinforce the backscattered intensity. It appears throughout the equations of this stimulated process that this energy transfer from the incident light to the backscattered light is formally equivalent to an optical gain that can be used to obtain a laser emission. In optical fibers, the spectral characteristics of this Brillouin gain not only depend on the fiber type, but also on temperature and applied strain. Continuous and stable Brillouin laser operation is obtained using high quality fiber ring resonators. Since precise characterization of those resonators is of key importance, a new method based on the analysis of Rayleigh backscattering within the fiber ring resonator using an optical time domain reflectometer has been developed in the present work. By increasing the incident pump intensity, the Stokes wave increases and in turns act as a pump to create a second order Stokes wave. That way multiple Stokes orders can be generated. Using both Brillouin gain and ring cavity equations, a model depending only on the pump intensity has been established. It allows evaluation of the threshold and the intensity of each generated Stokes wave. Necessary criteria for obtaining lowest threshold, as well as considerations about efficiency and temperature influence are discussed and compared to the measurements performed on different Brillouin ring lasers. Since the Brillouin gain comes from the interference between pump and backscattered Stokes waves, a model based only on circulating intensities cannot be complete. The analysis of the ring polarization eigenmodes as a function of the fiber birefringence is necessary in order to compute at every location in the ring the polarization state of both pump and Stokes waves to determine their mixing efficiency. The Brillouin gain over one round trip can thus be precisely calculated. Although this analysis is only relevant on rings having well known birefringence, a linear or circular birefringence, some conclusions can be drawn for rings having an uncontrolled birefringence. Measurements performed on a circular birefringence ring resonator confirms the theoretical prediction. The emission frequency of the Brillouin laser is fixed by the ring resonance and will adapt to any environmental changes. However, the optical waves themselves also modify the emission frequency throughout Kerr effect and dispersion of the Brillouin gain expressed by Kramers-Kronig relations. The process that leads Brillouin laser light to exhibit an exceptional coherence has been studied and values of its linewidth are proposed. The measurement of the beat note between two Stokes waves asses these considerations. Increasing the length of the fiber ring decreases the laser threshold, but gain competition between the different resonances underneath the Brillouin gain curve tends to make the emission unstable. Depending on the ring configuration or pump noise, a continuous, chaotic or pulsed regime can be addressed. The study of the Brillouin laser has highlighted many of its interesting properties, such as coherence, frequency shift in the range of 10 to 12 GHz, Brillouin gain directivity, etc. Among all applications that can take advantage of these remarkable characteristics, the Brillouin gyroscope is probably the one which motivated the biggest interest. However, all applications presented in this work: the Brillouin current sensor, the coherent laser linewidth measurement setup, the phase modulated microwave generator and the PSK signal sender, bring new solutions addressed to a wide variety of domains such as sensing, metrology, instrumentation and telecommunication.


The purpose of this study was to develop, scale, and validate assessments in engineering, science, and mathematics with grade appropriate items that were sensitive to the curriculum developed by teachers. The use of item response theory to assess item functioning was a focus of the study. The work is part of a larger project focused on increasing student learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related areas in grades 4–8 through an engineering design-based, integrated approach to STEM instruction and assessment. The fact that the assessments are available to school districts at no cost, and represent psychometrically sound instruments that are sensitive to STEM-oriented curriculum, offers schools an important tool for gauging students' understanding of engineering, science, and mathematics concepts.


The Kennedy dike swarm of the central and northern Laramie Mountains is the most extensive Precambrian dike swarm of the Wyoming province. The dikes occupy from 15 to 20% of a 100-km-wide exposure of Archean basement, and include diabasic, plagioclase-phyric, and peridotitic rock types. U-Pb zircon and baddeleyite data indicate that dikes were intruded at 2010 Ma. The dikes were deformed locally and metamorphic zircon replaced igneous baddeleyite to varying degrees during the collisional Medicine Bow orogeny that affected the southern margin of the Wyoming province between 1780 and 1760 Ma.

The geochemical compositions of the dike swarm exhibit a continuum with considerable overlap between diabase, plagioclase porphyry, and peridotite. Medium-grained rocks along the margins of peridotite are the best estimate of parental, mantle-derived magma compositions. The variations in major element compositions are the result of magmatic differentiation and crystal accumulation. Minor amounts of assimilation of felsic Archean crust, identified from Nd, Sr, and Pb isotopic compositions, have significantly affected the abundances of some trace elements including the rare earth elements.

The Kennedy dike swarm records Paleoproterozoic rifting of the southern Wyoming province. Identification of the rifted continental block rests in part on the recognition of a coeval dike swarm. The only well-dated dikes of similar age are the Lac de Gras dike swarm of the Slave craton. A tectonic reconstruction juxtaposing the southeastern Wyoming province with the northern Slave province is proposed.


Peer-to-peer (P2P) network is widely used for transferring large files nowadays. Measurement results show that most downloading peers are patient as the average download session is usually very long. It is sometimes even longer than downloading from a dedicated server using a modem. Existing results in the literature indicate that the stochastic fluctuation and the heterogeneity in the service capacity of each peer are two of the major reasons that make the average download time far longer than expected. In those studies, it has been often assumed that there is only one downloading peer in the network, ignoring the interaction and competition among peers. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the interaction and competition among peers on downloading performance under stochastic, heterogeneous, and unstructured P2P settings, thereby greatly extending the existing results on stochastic P2P networks made only under a single downloading peer in the network. To analyze the average download time in a P2P network with multiple competing downloading peers, we first introduce the notion of system utilization tailored to a P2P network. We investigate the relationship among the average download time, system utilization, and the level of competition among downloading peers in a stochastic P2P network. We then derive an achievable lower bound on the average download time and propose algorithms to give the peers the minimum average download time. Our result can much improve the download performance compared to earlier results in the literature. The performance of the different algorithms is compared under NS-2 simulations. Our results also provide theoretical explanation to the inconsistency of performance improvement by using parallel connections (parallel connections sometimes do not outperform a single connection) observed in some measurement studies.


When we conceptualize a region as large as the Roman Empire, it is almost always the case that we visualize a modern overview map of the Mediterranean blanketed with a solid shape where Roman territory once existed. This modern view of the empire, as if from a satellite far above the earth, was not a perspective with which the people living in the empire were familiar. To be sure, the Romans were not completely ignorant as to the geographic shape of the lands they lived in, but the shape of the world for the Romans was not the top down view available to modern populations via satellite imagery. The Roman period view of empire was horizontal, defined by distance and cost. This view of the world is problematic to recreate; it changes according to location and means of travel. The disparity of ancient and modern views is what the Shape of the Ancient World project attempts to cope with. The participants in the SotAW project have built a model compatible with the realities of the Roman world, by creating a digital network engaging the three basic modes of travel in the Roman Empire: by road, river and sea. These three modes of travel across the entire extent of the Roman Empire were considered in terms of travel time, vehicle of travel, and variables such as currents, mountain ranges, and seasonal viability, by a team of twelve graduate students under the supervision of Professor Walter Scheidel at Stanford University with support from Stanford's digital humanities infrastructure in the form of modeling, analysis and project management.  Research was allotted to project participants according to geographic regions and mode of travel, then with the aid of resources such as the Barrington Atlas and Arnaud's The Routes de la Navigation Antique , we developed a network of the Ancient Mediterranean world using ESRI ArcGIS and Gephi. Developing the network model has produced several insights and the resulting digital network has several applications. Using digital technologies we are able to use the transportation network to reproject the shape of the Roman Empire based on the travel cost, and illustrate how the shape of the Roman Empire diverged significantly from standard geographical displays. By integrating the multiple means and modes of travel into one network we are also able to conclude with reasonable accuracy, the time commitment for moving across the vast extent of the Roman Empire in a way previous models, committed exclusive to a single mode of travel or a smaller geographic region, are not capable of. Such a network can provide valuable insights to the understanding of Roman period trade networks, large scale settlement patterns, and military deployments. Eventually it is the goal of the SotAW project to provide an online resource; to give access to the visualizations and a search engine capable of providing a point to point estimation of travel time from any two urban centers included in the SotAW model.


Participatory epidemiological Research was conducted in Turkana to identify the two most important livestock diseases, and then characterize their incidence and the economic impact. The study was carried out between 12th to 26th September 2011. Semi-structured interviews, guided by checklists were completed with groups of respondents in each of the 16 randomly selected villages (adakars) to collect data on livestock diseases and their impact on the livelihood of the people. Simple ranking techniques, proportional piling exercises and matrix scoring methods were used to collect data on the importance of the diseases identified. Matrix scoring of clinical signs was used to correlate the disease terms provided by the respondents in local language with the scientific names. The research focused on Lomooh or peste des petit ruminants (PPR) and Loukoi or contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP). Disease impact matrix scoring (DIMS) was used to correlate the diseases to the economic losses, while participatory mapping, time lines and seasonal calendars were used describe the spatial and seasonal distribution of the diseases. Transect drives was used to collect data on the pasture conditions. Lomooh (peste des petits ruminants) was reported to occur in outbreaks with a median morbidity of 65% and a range of 25% to 90% and a case fatality rate median and range of 95% and 75, to 100% respectively. Loukoi (CCPP) on the other hand was described to be an endemic disease known by the community for a long time and had a median morbidity rate of 50% (with range of 39 to 75% and a median and range case fatality rate of 62% and 40 to 85%, respectively). These losses led to reduced income and food insecurity at the household levels. The biggest challenge to livestock farming (which contributed to 75% of the livelihood) was recurrent drought, insecurity and diseases, with CCPP and PPR being considered as having the largest impact. Respondents indicated that these challenges have made people worse off than they were 20 and 10 years ago and more reliant on external food aid.


In this paper, we present a strategy and an FPGA implementation of a Connect6 player submitted to the FPT 2011 Design Competition. Connect6 is a two-player strategy board game. The winner of the game is the player who first gets six pieces of his color in a connected horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. We assign a strategic value to each potential move depending on the current board configuration. Our approach uses a minimal amount of situation dependent game logic in order to take full advantage of the available compute resources and parallelism. The FPGA implementation of this strategy always wins against the software opponent provided for the competition. Additionally, our implementation wins on average against different software AIs from [1], as long as no sophisticated game-tree search is performed by the software.


We investigate the problem of teleporting unknown qudit states via pure quantum channels with nonmaximal Schmidt rank. This process is mapped to the problem of discriminating among nonorthogonal symmetric states which are linearly dependent and equally likely. It is shown that by applying an optimized maximum-confidence (MC) measurement for accomplishing this task, one reaches the maximum possible teleportation fidelity after a conclusive event in the discrimination process, which in turn occurs with the maximum success probability. In this case, such fidelity depends only on the Schmidt rank of the channel and it is larger than the optimal one achieved, deterministically, by the standard teleportation protocol. Furthermore, we show that there are quantum channels for which it is possible to apply a k-stage sequential MC measurement in the discrimination process such that a conclusive event at any stage leads to a teleportation fidelity above the aforementioned optimal one and, consequently, increases the overall success probability of teleportation with a fidelity above this limit.


A taxonomic study was conducted that considered strains of the genera Hanseniaspora/Kloeckera held in the Industrial Yeasts Collection (DBVPG) of the Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale of the Universita ' di Perugia, Italy. Standard phenotypic as well as molecular criteria were considered in a effort to revisit the classification of these strains, some of which have been in the collection for about 50 years. Results of salient physiological tests showed that some of the DBVPG and type strains could not be identified by current taxonomic keys. Electrophoretic karyotypes were identical for some species, with the type strains of the seven accepted species showing only five distinct chromosomal patterns. DNA–DNA hybridization analyses, using a non-radioactive dot-blot technique, allowed for the distinction of taxa. The taxonomic implications of these results are discussed.


This Research entitle the " Analysis of Brand Equity ( Ekuitas Brand) Laptop Acer With The Study at Student of Majors Technique Unlucky Informatika University of Muhammadiyah Malang". This Research aim to to know how ekuitas of brand laptop Acer seenly from the aspect of look into the student of majors of technique Informatika University of Muhammadiyah Malang, by using variable of Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Brand Loyalty, and Perceived Quality as variable from Brand Equity. Analysis Method used in this research is; to analyse the variable of Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, and Perveiced Quality, used Tabulation of frequency with calculating frequency of responder answer; while to analyse the Brand Association used Test Cochran to look for the association which signifikan to be used in defining Laptop of Brand Acer . Result of each analysis show the Laptop of Brand Acer have the high ekuitas. For the indicator of highest top of mind if compared to the a other brand. From calculation at tables to analyse the knowable Loyalitas Brand that responder seriously take a fancy to the laptop of brand Acer and suggest the others to buy the product of laptop of brand Acer of besides responder also express to lick lips to buy the product of laptop of brand Acer though have to learn to operate again, so that position of level of Loyalitas Brand is Commited Buyer. Analyse the Perceived Quality indicate that the easy laptop brand Acer in operating, owning consistent performance though within old ones, owning high battery resilience and available of aksesoris. Result of Association analysis to laptop Acer indicate that the picture of logo of brand Acer, brand Acer with quality, desain, and newest output type from brand Acer which quickly by signifikan in forming brand image to the product of laptop of brand Acer. From the analysis result, can be suggested that a Company remain to take care of the quality of product on the chance of brand remain to be recognized by consumer, taking care of loyalitas consumer and pric to sell the product which vary. Keyword : Brand Equity ( Ekuitas Merek ), Acer Link Terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/327/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-hardisusan-16315-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


In order to improve the reliability of micro-spot welding of metal parts in production such as e. g. in electron guns for TV picture tubes, real-time information about the evolution of the welding process should be available to allow on-line modification of the laser parameters. Such information can be derived from a set of sensors that are mounted on a laser-scanning head. Different sensors are used to monitor the optical fiber output power to determine the evolution of temperature during the spot welding process, to measure plasma emission and back-reflected laser light. A vision channel and a CCD camera are used to control the position of the laser spot on the parts to be processed. The compact scanning head is composed of a tip/tilt laser scanner, a collimating lens and a focusing lens. The scanner is fast steering, with a bandwidth of 700Hz, and can tilt by ±3.5° with a repeatability better than 50μrad. The settling time for maximum deflection is less than 10ms. The scanning lens is a newly developed focusing lens designed to replace commercial cumbersome scanning lenses such as F-θ lenses, which have large volume, weight and price. This lens is based on the well-known Cooke triplet design and guarantees a constant shape of the spot all over the scan surface and is specially well suited for high power beam delivery. The scan field achieved by the system is limited to 25mm x 25mm. The laser used for this application is a pulsed Nd:YAG laser delivered by an optical fiber to the optical head. However, the system can be adapted to different types of lasers. Laser micro-spot welding on copper substrate has been performed in the frame of the Brite-Euram project MAIL. Smaller tolerances (a factor of 2 less) on the spot diameters were obtained in the case of a sensor controlled operation compared to the case where sensor control is not used.


Summary * Coordination in Bosnia has been handicapped because the Dayton Accords did not designate a single authority to synchronize the military, political and humanitarian aspects of the mission. * Because the Information Revolution largely stops at division level, high technology systems support the headquarters far more effectively than the soldier on the ground. * The Bosnian experience underlines the need to substitute commercial telecommunications, automation and services for outmoded military equipment and support structures. * Much of the success of the Bosnian operation can be traced to the quality of the American soldier Cespecially in his innovative use of both commercial and military technology. Perception versus Reality American information operations in Bosnia underline both the importance of information in modern military operations and the difficulties of adapting traditional structures to new missions and technologies. Although the Bosnian deployment is still a work in progress, this uneven picture of progress and problems does not always square with inside-the-Beltway perceptions. Defense trade publications regularly feature stories about the high technology supporting our operations in Bosnia-complete with seductive images of electronic maps, gigabytes of computer-transmitted information, and live imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles. As one Washington-based official recently put it, "...with huge bandwidths and powerful computers, we can get intelligence to where it is needed--Humvees, cockpits, ships." While its effects are often over-stated, an unprecedented amount of information flows from Washington to European headquarters and intermediate staging bases. A family of wide-area networks, for example, connects NATO headquarters with the Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia, passing operational and intelligence messages to the 33 nationalities comprising the coalition. The Internet has also been used for everything from "morale messages" exchanged between the troops and their families to "home pages" carrying frequent public affairs updates. A generation of painstaking efforts in the arcana of NATO communications standardization has paid off as well, with systems that provide an essential baseline of interoperability for IFOR's coalition partners. Routine close air support missions over Bosnia, for example, can involve British Harriers vectored by offshore NATO AWACS aircraft to Norwegian forward air controllers providing direct support to a Swedish-led brigade. But elaborate information flows between higher command levels do not always translate into better support for the warfighter. In fact, life in Bosnia has not changed very much for the American soldier, because the information revolution largely stops at Division level. Despite the techno-hype, subordinate brigades and battalions typically conduct operations much as they did 20 years ago: with acetate-covered 1:50,000 maps, outdated communications gear, and only those sensor or reconnaissance systems organic to ground units. Unlike the popular image of a Tom Clancy "Ops Center," most tactical command centers look much as they have in other wars--in tents, semi-destroyed buildings or the back ends of armored vehicles. Add in the effects of mountainous terrain (limiting line-of-sight communications); weather (either cold and muddy or hot and dusty) and computer viruses (sophisticated and ubiquitous) and you confront the enduring qualities of military life in the field. In the apt summation of one U.S. Army general in Bosnia, "Soldiering is still an outdoor sport." U.S. and NATO soldiers have had considerable success in meeting these challenges: but the following issues highlighted by the Bosnian operation are especially important for the future: Command & Control: The fundamental question of "Who's in charge?" has normally been synonymous with the dread specter of U. …


The concept of algorithmic political communication has arisen through the joint development of propaganda and communication theories, as well as the findings of computer science. This is a field that generates results that amplify and extend to political communication, such as microsegmentation or automated diffusion of content; likewise, it produces some adverse effects that hinder citizen participation in the cybersphere. This paper presents a review of works published in three Latin American countries (Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico) with artificial intelligence, communication, and democracy as their constituent elements. The data come from a total of 206 documents, including reports from supranational organisms and associations, and publications in scientific journals indexed in databases such as Google Scholar and Scopus between 2011 and 2021. The selection criterion is based on the total or partial appearance of certain keywords, plus filters by relevance and impact factors. This systematic review is structured based along four axes that explain democracy according to Landman et al. (2009): electoral participation, participation of civil society, media integrity, and impartial administration. The main conclusions indicate that many of the practices in the studied countries are still at an incipient or experimental stage, with algorithmic political communication being used especially during electoral campaigns. Similarly, an increasing resistance from civil society to the influence of social networks is starting to be detected.


The Himalaya, the Karakoram and Tibet were assembled by the successive accretion to Asia of continental and arc terranes during the Mesozoic and early Tertiary. The Jinsha and Banggong Sutures in Tibet join continental terranes separated from Gondwana. Ophiolites were obducted onto the shelf of southern Tibet in the Jurassic before the formation of the Banggong Suture. The Kohistan—Ladakh Terrane contains an island arc that was accreted in the late Cretaceous on the Shyok Suture and consequently evolved into an Andean-type batholith. Further east this TransHimalayan batholith developed on the southern active margin of Tibet without the prior development of an island arc. Ophiolites were obducted onto the shelf of India in the late Cretaceous to Lower Palaeocene before the closing of Tethys and the formation of the Indus—Yarlung Zangbo Suture at about 50 Ma. Post-collisional northward indentation of India at ca.5 cm a-1 since the Eocene has redeformed this accreted terrane collage; palaeomagnetic evidence suggests this indentation has given rise to some 2000 km of intracontinental shortening. Expressions of this shortening are the uplift of mid-crustal gneisses in the Karakoram on a late-Tertiary breakback thrust, folding of Palaeogene redbeds in Tibet, south-directed thrust imbrication of the foreland and shelf of the Indian Plate, north-directed back-thrusts along the Indus Suture Zone, post-Miocene spreading and uplift of thickened Tibet, giving rise to N—S extensional faults, and strike-slip faults, which allowed eastward escape of Tibetan fault blocks.


The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western North America has yielded a number of specimens assigned to the ornithischian dinosaurs Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus, and many of these specimens come from channel sandstone deposits. Six new specimens are recorded mostly from channel sandstones as well. Indeed, early analyses of site occurrences (reducing the effects of large single-site samples) suggested that Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus were more often found in channel sandstone deposits than other common Morrison Formation dinosaurs such as Camarasaurus or Diplodocus. This also indicated the possibility of ecological segregation of the former two genera from other herbivorous dinosaurs of the Morrison. Revisiting this question with additional data suggests the pattern may not be as strong as it once appeared. Analysis of occurrence data indicates that Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus occur in channel sandstone deposits slightly more frequently than the two sauropods, but statistical analysis of this pattern by either localities or individuals indicates little significance to the trend. However, Camptosaurus appears more strongly associated with channel sandstone deposits relative to other dinosaurs than does Stegosaurus. These results suggest that any ecological segregation of these genera was moderate, but that, if present, the segregation was more pronounced in Camptosaurus.


This paper argues that in Spanish negative phrases of the form " ni XP ni XP" 'neither XP nor XP', ni is a polarity-sensitive disjunction. Following the widening/strengthening account of polarity sensitivity in Heim (1984), Kadmon and Landman (1993), and others, it is argued that ni -XPs have a restricted distribution because they can only satisfy their requirement of pragmatic strengthening in the scope of negation. This analysis fulfills a prediction made by Krifka's (1992) Polarity Lattice approach regarding the existence of polarity-sensitive disjunctions.


Chemical solution deposition, a very useful method for oxide film growth, is used to fabricate Y Ti O (YTO)-La Zr O (LZO) composite buffer layers on NiW (200) substrates. It is found that the orientation of the YTO layer is epitaxially related to the orientation of the LZO-NiW template. When YTO is prepared on a 900 C -annealed LZO layer, the orientation of the YTO is (222); however, the (400) oriented YTO layer is obtained when it is deposited on a 1000 C-annealed LZO-NiW template. These results suggest that the YTO orienta- tion can be tuned by the LZO orientation and that YTO can be considered as one of the cap layers for coated conductors. Index Terms—Buffer layers, chemical solution deposition (CSD), coated conductors.


The European Commission is asking EFSA for scientific and technical support in the epidemiological analysis of animal disease outbreaks (i.e. African swine fever, lumpy skin disease and avian influenza) and to assess surveillance data (i.e. Echinococcus multilocularis and avian influenza). At the moment, since EFSA data models are not completely harmonised; EFSA's data warehouse is not connected with the EC's Animal Disease Notification System (ADNS); and data submission and validation is not automated, the animal health data collections are labour intensive for both EFSA and the data providers of the Member States. EFSA's aim is to work together with Member States on the technical aspects of 'ad hoc animal health data collections', in order to (i) reduce the manual input of the data to be submitted by the Member States to EFSA; (ii) avoid double reporting to EFSA and, possibly, to other systems; (iii) Provide the Members States with instruments to produce automatically draft national reports on animal health and surveillance in a protected environment (secure connections, log in credentials) to ensure data protection; (iv) increase the quality and the comparability of the data received from the Member States; (v) shorten the time to retrieve up-to-date data, relevant for risk assessment purposes, and to release sound scientific advice. This report aims at providing the reader with the main elements to understand the SIGMA project and at briefly describing the contents of the Animal Health Network meeting and at capturing the feedbacks having a direct impact on the strategy.


Owing to their high surface areas, tunable pore dimensions, and adjustable surface functionality, metal-org. frameworks (MOFs) can offer advantages for a variety of gas storage and gas sepn. applications. In an effort to help curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, we are developing new MOFs for use as solid adsorbents in post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture, and for the sepn. of O2 from air, as required for oxy-fuel combustion. In particular, MOFs with open metal cation sites or alkylamine-functionalized surfaces are demonstrated to provide high selectivities and working capacities for the adsorption of CO2 over N2 under dry flue gas conditions. Breakthrough measurements further show compds. of the latter type to be effective in the presence of water, while calorimetry data reveal a low regeneration energy compared to aq. amine solns. MOFs with open metal cation sites, such as Mg2(dobdc) (dobdc4- = 2, 5-dioxido-1,4-benzenedicarboxylate), are highly effective in the removal of CO2 under conditions relevant to H2 prodn., including in the presence of CH4 impurities. Redox-active Fe2+ sites in the isostructural compd. Fe2(dobdc) allow the selective adsorption of O2 over N2 via an electron transfer mechanism. The same material is demonstrated to be effective at 45 ° C for the fractionation of mixts. of C1 and C2 hydrocarbons, and for the high-purity sepn. of ethylene/ethane, propylene/propane, and CO/H2 mixts. Finally, it will be shown that certain structural features possible within MOFs, but not in zeolites, can enable the fractionation of hexane isomers according to the degree of branching or octane no.


The origin of rigidity in disordered materials is an outstanding open problem in statistical physics. Previously, a class of 2D cellular models has been shown to undergo a rigidity transition controlled by a mechanical parameter that specifies cell shapes. Here, we generalize this model to 3D and find a rigidity transition that is similarly controlled by the preferred surface area S0: the model is solid-like below a dimensionless surface area of s 0 ≡ S 0 / V ¯ 2 / 3 ≈ 5.413 with V ¯ being the average cell volume, and fluid-like above this value. We demonstrate that, unlike jamming in soft spheres, residual stresses are necessary to create rigidity. These stresses occur precisely when cells are unable to obtain their desired geometry, and we conjecture that there is a well-defined minimal surface area possible for disordered cellular structures. We show that the behavior of this minimal surface induces a linear scaling of the shear modulus with the control parameter at the transition point, which is different from the scaling observed in particulate matter. The existence of such a minimal surface may be relevant for biological tissues and foams, and helps explain why cell shapes are a good structural order parameter for rigidity transitions in biological tissues.


1 Abstract — The study was focused on the development and assessment of the illustrated language activities of the 1996 Edition of the Portage Guide to Early Education. It determined the extent of appropriateness, applicability, time efficiency and aesthetics of the illustrated language activities to be used as instructional material not only by teachers, but parents and caregivers as well. The eclectic research design was applied in this study using qualitative and quantitative methods. To determine the applicability and time efficiency of the study, a try out was done. Since the eclectic research design was used, it made use of a researcher-made survey questionnaire and focus group discussion. Analysis of the data was done through weighted mean and ANOVA. The respondents of the study were representatives of Special Education (SPED) teachers, caregivers and parents of a special-needs child, particularly with difficulties in learning basic language skills. The results of the study show that a large number of respondents are SPED teachers and caregivers and are mostly college graduates. Many of them have earned units towards Master's studies. Moreover, a majority of the respondents have not attended seminars or in-service training in early intervention for them to be more competent in the area of specialization. It is concluded that the illustrated language activities under review in this study are appropriate, applicable, time efficient and aesthetic for use as a tool in teaching. The recommendations are focused on the advocacy for SPED teachers, caregivers and parents of special-needs children to be more consistent in the implementation of the new instructional materials as an aid in an intervention program.


Annex 41 of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems program (ECBCS) is a cooperative project on "Whole-Building Heat, Air, and Moisture Response" (MOIST-ENG). Subtask 1 of that project set out to advance development in modeling the integral heat, air, and moisture transfer processes that take place in whole-buildings. Such modeling comprises all relevant elements of buildings: indoor air, the building envelope, inside constructions, furnishing, systems, and users. The building elements interact with each other and with the outside climate. The IEA Annex 41 project runs from 2004–2007, coming to conclusion just before the Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings X conference. The Annex 41 project and its Subtask 1 do not aim to produce one state-of-the-art hygrothermal simulation model for whole buildings, but rather aim to stimulate the participants' own development of such models or advanced use of related existing models. Subtask 1 deals with modeling principles and the arrangement and execution of so-called common exercises with the purpose of gauging how well we can succeed in the modeling. To direct the modeling, free scientific contributions have been invited from specific fields that need the most attention in order to better accomplish the integral building simulations. This paper will give an overview of the advances in whole-building hygrothermal simulation that have been accomplished and presented in conjunction with IEA Annex 41, Subtask 1. In addition, the paper will give an overview of the Common Exercises that have been carried out in the subtask. Based on these two activities, some general experiences are reported about how well we are able today to carry out such advanced modeling, and some recommendations for future developments are indicated.


In this section we present an abstract of a review relevant to prescribing in general practice from the latest issue of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. To view the article in full or for further information, visit www.thecochranelibrary.com


Climate change is an important social issue and the subject of much research, both to understand the history of the Earth's changing climate and to foresee what changes to expect in the future. Approximately every five years starting in 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes a set of reports that cover the current state of climate change research, how this research will impact the world, risks, and approaches to mitigate the effects of climate change. Each report supports its findings with hundreds of thousands of citations to scientific journals and reviews by governmental policy makers. Analyzing trends in the cited documents over the past 30 years provides insights into both an evolving scientific field and the climate change phenomenon itself. Presented in this paper are results of dynamic topic modeling to model the evolution of these climate change reports and their supporting research citations over a 30 year time period. Using this technique shows how the research influences the assessment reports and how trends based on these influences can affect future assessment reports. This is done by calculating cross-domain divergences between the citation domain and the assessment report domain and by clustering documents between domains. This approach could be applied to other social problems with similar structure such as disaster recovery.


Purchasing a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) package solution can be a complex and daunting task. Selecting and evaluating the right candidate is difficult, especially when the solution aims at the heart of company business. The company's competitive edge must be maintained, while at the same time ensuring the intended goals such as reduced costs and better functional coverage. A good Enterprise Architecture should be a prime tool when evaluating several solutions against the company's needs.In this paper we will recount the experience and lessons learned when we evaluated three COTS systems to replace a set of legacy oil trading and operations systems. Based on weaknesses in our Enterprise Architecture, we applied strategic domain-driven design principles to extend our Enterprise Architecture during the evaluation. We found that these techniques enabled us to thoroughly analyse our domain with the domain experts and provide answers based on tacit domain knowledge, without going through the cost and effort of performing a full-scale architectural analysis. At the same time, the tacit domain knowledge became explicit and shared, easing the communication with various stakeholders.


Access has been one of the main difficulties compan ies have faced in emerging markets (PRAHALAD, 2005). The capillarity of the market, th e existence of small, not professionalized and sometimes informal retailers, the lack of infra st ucture and high transportation costs are some of the distribution challenges companies face in po orer regions. The literature concerning the Base of the Pyramid ( BoP) is still recent and only after the seminal article by Prahalad and Hart (2002), it evo lved into many different management perspectives. However, there is a lack of researche s oncerning distribution strategies to the BoP. Therefore, the main objective of this research is t o identify, in the perception of executives working in the market, the conditions as ociated to a satisfactory distribution for the BoP market in Brazil and to build a substantive the ory that helps to shed light to the understanding of the distribution phenomenon adopte d by consumer goods companies to reach the BoP market in Brazil. In order to accomplish the objectives of this thesi s, a grounded theory methodology (Glaser; Strauss, 1967; Corbin; Strauss, 2008) was used. This approach helped to identify the channel strategies used by local and global compani es i the market. Many techniques for data collection were applied. The most important one was in-depth interviews with 26 executives from 24 different consumer goods companies in Brazil. Am ong the companies there were small, medium and large enterprises; which were also group ed as manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Furthermore, secondary data were examine d to identify business strategies to reach BoP and map global distribution initiatives. A database from a consumer panel was also used to analyze what and where BoP consumers purchase non-d urable goods. It was verified that small and traditional retailing is a very strong format i n BoP markets and in the Northern/Northeastern regions. Cash & Carry is a format that is growing a lot. On the other hand, hypermarkets are not very used by low income population. The results suggest that three major categories are associated to a satisfactory distribution: (a) willingness, which means the effort, knowledge and enthusiasm a firm has to operate at BoP markets; (b) well-done execution, which is related to designing correctly the marketing channel and operating efficiently in an environment full of bstacles, such as lack of infrastructure, capillarity, lack of safety, regional differences a nd informality, and (c) relationship, which was perceived to be friendlier and essential at BoP mar kets, since it is very difficult for manufacturers to reach the entire market alone. It is more likely to have a satisfactory distribution when manufacturers establish strong relationships in the marketing channel. Besides, small retailers have a perception of isolation and expect a higher level of relationship. These major categories explain also the competitive advantage that local c ompanies have in relation to MNCs and large companies. Despite of the limitations of an exploratory study, it is expected that this thesis will contribute to the BoP knowledge as well as to the i dentification of the peculiarities of distribution in BoP markets.