The crystal structure of Sb2Se3 gives rise to unique properties that cannot otherwise be achieved with conventional thin-film photovoltaic materials, such as CdTe or Cu(In,Ga)Se2. It has previously been asserted that, grain boundaries can be made benign provided only the weak van der Waals forces between the (Sb4Se6)n ribbons are disrupted. Here it is shown that non-radiative recombination is suppressed even for grain boundaries cutting across the (Sb4Se6)n ribbons. This is due to a remarkable self-healing process whereby atoms at the grain boundary can relax to remove any electronic defect states within the band gap. Grain boundaries can however impede charge transport due to the fact that carriers have a higher mobility along the (Sb4Se6)n ribbons. Because of the ribbon misorientation certain grain boundaries can effectively block charge collection. Furthermore, it is shown that CdS is not a suitable emitter to partner Sb2Se3 due to Sb and Se inter-diffusion. As a result a highly defective Sb2Se3 interfacial layer is formed that potentially reduces device efficiency through interface recombination.


Removing noise while preserving and enhancing edges is one of the most fundamental operations of image/video processing. When taking pictures with digital cameras, it is frequently found that the color images are corrupted by miscellaneous noise and, hence, noise filtering is necessary. The difficulty is that usually the filtering will reduce the sharpness of the image. On the other hand, optical lens imperfections are usually equivalent to spatial low pass filters and tend to result in blurred images. It is customary to apply edge enhancement algorithm on the image in order to improve the sharpness, but this process usually increase the noise level as a by-product. In this paper, we present a new integrated approach to address these issues. The proposed approach combines color edge detection, bilateral noise filter, and edge enhancement based on suitable color spaces. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the noise while preserving and enhancing edges.


This study proves an in-depth investigation of the grammatical realization (including semantic functions, temporal markers, grammatical roles, grammatical categories, and syntactic relationships) of temporal expressions in Tsou, an Austronesian language of Taiwan. Temporal expressions examined in this study are based on Haspelmath's (1997) classifications of time adverbials and, meanwhile, with the addition of frequency expressions and miscellaneous temporal expressions, in order to scrutinize the semantic functions and their corresponding markings. Among the twenty-three subtypes of semantic functions, it is found that five temporal markers are employed in the markings with different types of semantic functions of temporal expressions: ne-, ho-, ta, to, and no. Besides, some semantic functions of temporal expressions in Tsou even take the form of ne or ho clause. These five markers and the ne or ho clause possess their own distinguishing temporal characteristics. It is also shown that the markers ta, to, and no are virtually oblique case markers, thereby suggesting that in addition to spatial and psychological distinctions, case markers in Tsou can distinguish temporal meanings as well.

Following Croft's (1991) function-indicating morphosyntax, it is shown that the categorial statuses of twenty-three subtypes of temporal expressions fall under the grammatical categories verb and noun. This analysis challenges the claim that adverbial concepts tend to be realized as verbs in Formosan languages (Starosta 1988). Nevertheless, the analysis towards frequency expressions is largely consistent with Zeitoun (1992) and H. Chang (2004); that is to say, frequency expressions surface as verbs.

Given idiosyncratic distributional properties, temporal expressions in Tsou can be divided into three groups. In group one, temporal expressions projected as NP and CP are restricted to occur in the position immediately before the subject, in the sentence-initial position, and in the sentence-final position. In group two, temporal expressions projected as VP are constrained to follow the preverb and simultaneously precede the main verb. In group three, the temporal expressions projected as TP are restricted to precede or follow the ho/ne clause. In addition, following Lehmann (1988) and Diessel (2001), temporal expressions in Tsou involving bi-clausal constructions (projected as CP (group one) and TP (group three)) are in a relation of clause linkage subordination, which is further treated as ADV-clause rather than COMP-clause and REL-clause.

This study is organized as follows. Chapter one introduces the background of this study. Chapter two provides a sketch of Tsou grammar. Chapter three scrutinizes the semantic functions and the markers of each of the temporal qualifications in Tsou. Chapter four discusses and analyzes the syntax of temporal expressions in Tsou, including grammatical roles, grammatical categories, and syntactic functions of temporal expressions. Finally, chapter five concludes this study.


Chuangzuo has emerged as a music trend through a music movement, and as
a popular culture for youth in Malaysia, but the music of chuangzuo have not
been described to the general public that is probably not aware of the
identity in chuangzuo, the social aspects of chuangzuo as in a gongzuofang, and
also how the music has sustained so far.
The primary objective of this study is to determine the identity and the
sustainability of chuangzuo activities in Malaysia. The specific objectives are
to produce a description on the settings of gongzuofang in Penang, an analysis
of musical materials of chuangzuo, and a clarification of the identity and
sustainability of chuangzuo based on the former two specific objectives. Observation through fieldwork is rendered for this ethnographic research.
The primary setting is gongzuoJang in Penang, namely the Wanderers and
CZMusic which have been actively involved in chuangzuo activities.
Observation, interviews and video recordings of important rehearsals and
actual performance were rendered. The secondary setting of the fieldwork is
based on related song-writing competitions, concerts and music camp, which
were held in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
The general phenomenon of chuangzuo depicts a scene where youth perform
their own music compositions with guitars or light instruments. Chuangzuo is
a music activity for the youth in Malaysia, as the music, mainly performed in
Chinese, often depicts the youth's life-cycle events. The music is commonly
composed in the sentimental style or of a ballad that usually adopts a major
key and the common simple quadruple time. Instrumentation is usually
simple, and Chinese texts· with rhymes are used. Though mixed language
and vocables are included sometimes, the texts are commonly written in the
discursive style.
A gongzuofang is the basic unit of chuangzuo that accommodates youth's
music activities. It exists as an important space for music practice, music learning,
idea-sharing, planning, music presentation, socialisation, and also
life-cycle events. The studied gongzuofang represents a typical organisation
that provides its members with abundant opportunities in musi ccompositions, as members learn to compose, perform, compete in music
contests and produce music concerts or music recording.
Chuangzuo is an opportunity for youth to engage with music. They usually
adopt elements of cultural fusion in their compositions, and they show
amateurish characteristics in their music. This has formed the musical
identity of chuangzuo. The social identity of chuangzuo is built through
identity construction, individuality, communion formation and aspiration.
Nevertheless, the need to survive changes for the long term has triggered the
implementation of sustainability in the handling of chuangzuo. The
sustainable ways, as observed, are organisation, commercialisation,
hegemony and exclusion of certain music genres.


Algebraic natural proofs were recently introduced by Forbes, Shpilka and Volk (Proc. of the 49th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), pages 653–664, 2017) and independently by Grochow, Kumar, Saks and Saraf (CoRR, abs/1701.01717, 2017) as an attempt to transfer Razborov and Rudich's famous barrier result (J. Comput. Syst. Sci., 55(1): 24–35, 1997) for Boolean circuit complexity to algebraic complexity theory. Razborov and Rudich's barrier result relies on a widely believed assumption, namely, the existence of pseudo-random generators. Unfortunately, there is no known analogous theory of pseudo-randomness in the algebraic setting. Therefore, Forbes et al. use a concept called succinct hitting sets instead. This assumption is related to polynomial identity testing, but it is currently not clear how plausible this assumption is. Forbes et al. are only able to construct succinct hitting sets against rather weak models of arithmetic circuits. Generalized matrix completion is the following problem: Given a matrix with affine linear forms as entries, find an assignment to the variables in the linear forms such that the rank of the resulting matrix is minimal. We call this rank the completion rank. Computing the completion rank is an NP-hard problem. As our first main result, we prove that it is also NP-hard to determine whether a given matrix can be approximated by matrices of completion rank ≤ b. The minimum quantity b for which this is possible is called border completion rank (similar to the border rank of tensors). Naturally, algebraic natural proofs can only prove lower bounds for such border complexity measures. Furthermore, these border complexity measures play an important role in the geometric complexity program. Using our hardness result above, we can prove the following barrier: We construct a small family of matrices with affine linear forms as entries and a bound b, such that at least one of these matrices does not have an algebraic natural proof of polynomial size against all matrices of border completion rank b, unless coNP ⊆ ∃ BPP. This is an algebraic barrier result that is based on a well-established and widely believed conjecture. The complexity class ∃ BPP is known to be a subset of the more well known complexity class in the literature. Thus ∃ BPP can be replaced by MA in the statements of all our results. With similar techniques, we can also prove that tensor rank is hard to approximate. Furthermore, we prove a similar result for the variety of matrices with permanent zero. There are no algebraic polynomial size natural proofs for the variety of matrices with permanent zero, unless P#P ⊆ ∃ BPP. On the other hand, we are able to prove that the geometric complexity theory approach initiated by Mulmuley and Sohoni (SIAM J. Comput. 31(2): 496–526, 2001) yields proofs of polynomial size for this variety, therefore overcoming the natural proofs barrier in this case.


BACKGROUND
A combination of prednisone, azathioprine, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been widely used as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The safety and efficacy of this three-drug regimen is unknown.

METHODS
In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we assigned patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who had mild-to-moderate lung-function impairment to one of three groups -- receiving a combination of prednisone, azathioprine, and NAC (combination therapy), NAC alone, or placebo -- in a 1:1:1 ratio. The primary outcome was the change in longitudinal measurements of forced vital capacity during a 60-week treatment period.

RESULTS
When approximately 50% of data had been collected (with 77 patients in the combination-therapy group and 78 in the placebo group), a planned interim analysis revealed that patients in the combination-therapy group, as compared with the placebo group, had an increased rate of death (8 vs. 1, P=0.01) and hospitalization (23 vs. 7, P<0.001). These observations, coupled with no evidence of physiological or clinical benefit for combination therapy, prompted the independent data and safety monitoring board to recommend termination of the combination-therapy group at a mean follow-up of 32 weeks. Data from the ongoing comparison of the NAC-only group and the placebo group are not reported here.

CONCLUSIONS
Increased risks of death and hospitalization were observed in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who were treated with a combination of prednisone, azathioprine, and NAC, as compared with placebo. These findings provide evidence against the use of this combination in such patients. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Cowlin Family Fund; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00650091.).


In ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex P. Lawson & Lawson)-bunchgrass ecosystems of the western USA, fire exclusion by Euro-American settlers facilitated pine invasion of grassy openings, increased forest floor detritus, and shifted the disturbance regime toward stand-replacing fires, motivating ecological restoration through thinning and prescribed burning. We used in situ soil respiration over a 2-yr period to assess belowground responses to pine invasion and restoration in a ponderosa pine-bunchgrass ecosystem near Flagstaff, AZ. Replicated restoration treatments were: (i) partial restoration - thinning to presettlement conditions; (ii) complete restoration - removing trees and forest floor material to presettlement conditions, native grass litter addition, and prescribed burning; and (iii) control. Within treatments, we sampled beneath different canopy types to assess the effects of pine invasion into grassy openings on soil respiration. Growing season soil respiration was greater in the complete restoration (346 ± 24 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) and control (350 ± 8 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) than the partial restoration (301 ± 5 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) in 1995. In 1996, the complete (364 ± 17 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) and partial (328 ± 7 g CO 2 -C m -2 ) restoration treatments had greater growing season respiration rates than the control (302 ± 13 g CO 2 -C m -2 ). Results suggest that restoration effects on soil respiration depend on interannual soil water patterns and may not significantly alter regional C cydes. Soil respiration from grassy openings was 15% greater than from soil beneath presettlement or postsettlement pines in 1995 and 1996. A lack of active management will decrease belowground catabolism if pines continue to expand at the expense of grassy openings.


This thesis contributes to the scholarship on policy diffusion in general, and on environmental policy diffusion in particular, by unpicking the drivers of different diffusion mechanisms. Its overarching aim is to investigate the motivational dynamics influencing environmental policymaking at the fuzzy, understudied, pre-legislative stage. The thesis comprises four standalone papers: The first paper (Chapter 2) examines policymakers' motivations to engage with the climate change mitigation agenda based on a case study of Israeli climate change mitigation policy. It suggests that Israel's engagement with the climate change mitigation agenda, displaying an evident pattern of diffusion by emulating developed countries, is significantly motivated by considerations of internal, rather than external, legitimacy, contrary to expectations. The second paper (Chapter 3) makes theoretical advancements in recognising issue attributes as explanatory factors for the different mechanisms of policy diffusion, addressing an acknowledged gap in the literature. The third paper (Chapter 4) is an empirical application of the issue attributes model introduced in Chapter 3; the concept is applied to three diffusion processes of environmental issues in Israel: climate change, air pollution, and waste, analysing the differences in the attributes of these three issues, and subsequently, the differences in diffusion mechanisms in practice. The fourth paper (Chapter 5) investigates GLOBE International, a previously unstudied network of legislators committed to advancing climate change legislation. Its main findings show that GLOBE facilitates a mechanism of policy and political learning, but perhaps more interestingly, generates network-enabled emotional energy and esprit de corps among its members, which has helped to motivate and sustain climate action by legislators. The thesis takes a qualitative, microlevel approach, utilising data from 64 interviews with policy actors from 21 countries, as well supporting textual sources, thus contributing to the qualitative knowledge base needed to support analytical aggregations on policy diffusion processes.


A pilot project was taken up by NAL to study the nature of loading a fin of a13; particular aircraft experiences during the flight.13; The task of limited instrumented flight tests has revealed that the vertical fin13; experiences buffet under asymmetric maneuvers as a consequence of the excitation of13; inherent structural response modes in the frequency range from 10 to 50 Hz. The base13; line data obtained during flight tests can be used as a pointer for assessment of13; structural integrity of vertical tail assembly at a later date, when the extension of Total13; Technical Life (TTL) of airframe would be taken up.13; In view of findings on buffet response of the fin through instrumented flight tests, it is13; concluded that the aircraft can perform required maneuvers safely within the specified13; limit of flight envelope even though the buffet occurrence is observed within it.13; Further, no additional limitations on aileron (roll) and rudder deflection other than13; those laid down in the flight manual are recommended.


The role of standards as I see it is to promote decision making that is in the interest of the public. For instance, air pollution standards might limit the sulfur content of fuels burned within a city or country. Without these standards, some individuals may burn cheaper higher sulfur fuels using the reasoning that "the little bit of sulfur dioxide contributed by me can't hurt that much". However, if everyone uses the high sulfur fuels, the general health of the public may deteriorate. Hence, standards are enacted to prohibit this situation from occurring.

Usually standards specify maximum or minimum limits in terms of either absolute amounts or flowrates. Examples of the former are limitations on heights of buildings and ability to withstand an earthquake of specified magnitude. Under the latter are the air pollution standards of "parts per million" and radiation dosages due to nuclear facilities.

This short note attempts to support the contention that standards should be specified in light of (1) the public preferences and, (2) the alternatives available. The implications of any alternative must always have some degree of uncertainty, so in this sense, my contention is that standards should depend on preferences for and probabilities of the consequences of the available alternatives. This particular viewpoint will be explained in terms of a simple abstract example. The thoughts contained here are meant to illustrate some of the considerations and relationships that I feel are important in establishing standards. They are not meant as complete procedures for the process of setting standards.


Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) is a rare autosomal recessive disease, affecting mainly patients of Slavic origin. It is caused by a defect in the NBN gene, resulting in defective nibrin protein formation. This leads to chromosomal instability, which predisposes to cancer, with lymphoid malignancies predominating. Nibrin is also involved in gonadal development and its disfunction in females with NBS frequently results in a pure gonadal dysgenesis (PGD) causing hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. However, only a few ovarian tumors in NBS patients have been reported to date. We describe the first case of a girl with NBS with PGD, who developed metachronous bilateral ovarian germ cell tumors (dysgerminoma and gonadoblastoma). Pathogenesis of PGD, neoplastic transformation and therapeutic approach in females with NBS are discussed.


Archaeological investigations of Apple Island in Orchard Lake, Oakland County, Michigan, were casually begun in the early decades of the 20th century when the wners of the centrally located Campbell family, farm plowed up and then reinterred a Native American burial accompanied by a pewter bowl filled with white shell beads. 2000 and 2003 discontinuous shallow excavations conducted by local middle school students under the direction of Michael Stafford of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, yielded quantities of animal bone and a scattering of European trade goods. Stafford assigned these to a "Fur Trade" site but never fully reported on the site or its contents. In 2008 excavations supported by the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society and the University of Detroit Mercy, were conducted by West Bloomfield School science teachers, directed by David S. Brosc. Careful stratigraphic and geomorphological analyses documented the extent of the 18th century occupation and revealed a sequence of prehistoric occupational events, overlain by up to 20 centimeters of colluvial soils overlaying the aboriginal occupation surfaces, below which intact sub-surface features such as fire-reddened hearth areas were preserved intact. With additional support from the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society, Imprints From The Past, LLC., and Western Michigan University, test excavations were conducted by Brose in 2013 along with detailed analyses of all recovered soils, faunal remains and artifacts. These studies demonstrate that the earliest scattered evidence for human occupation occurred during the Late Woodland Period, ca. AD 1000 1500. The major Native American occupation took place during the summer of 1763 by perhaps 3 sets of three or four related males. Statistical analyses of archaeological distributions along with historical documents strongly suggest that these were almost certainly a war party of Pottawatomi temporarily associated with Pontiac's siege of Fort Detroit.


We describe new results on the vibrations of rolling tyres, aimed at noise prediction for tyres of given design on a smooth road surface. This new approach incorporates our existing models, of smooth road-tyre interaction and belt vibration but includes additional features that are required for real tyre patterns. To this end, the model allows variable tread block size and grooves along the belt circumference; the density and angle of these grooves may also vary laterally. The key innovation is to treat the tyre belt as a laterally stacked series of rings, each of which is equipped with a set of viscoelastic springs around its circumference. It is shown how to use this construction to mimic the details of actual tyre patterns and, in conjunction with existing models, predict belt vibrations. The construction is applied to develop a ring discretisation for a real tyre that shows strong lateral variations. It is shown that the vibration amplitude is concentrated on a set of parallel lines in frequency-wavenumber space and that the tread pattern dictates the occurrence and spacing of these lines. Linkage to a boundary element calculation then allows quantification of the influence of tread parameters on radiated noise. Keywords: Vibration, tread pattern, tyre noise. Copyright © (2011) by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering.


India is recorded as one of the mega biodiversity countries on the earth. The unique geographical zone and the physical-climatic features of the various biogeographic area resulted in the remarkable floral diversity of India. Bryophytes are small imaged amphibians with three different lineages such as liverworts, hornworts and moss. The category moss represents the largest group with more number of species. The present study aims to compile Bryum species of India based on all the available literature and information from herbaria of various organizations. Bryum is one of the largest genus among the moss species with morpho-plasticity of characters. Leaves form the unique character of the species, but a high discrepancy in leaves is recorded among the various species of the genus therefore it is wise to select other features unless it is established on specimens of diverse ecology. Sporophytic characters are ideal, but in most species, they remained unexplored as compared to the gametophytic datay. Similarly, the sporophytic capsules are highly diverse in size and their configuration is often irregular with abnormal peristomial characters. Further, the spores are diverse in size and shape. More than 45 species were recorded by various bryologists from India. Many species are similar in look with confusing characters. Therefore, revision of Bryum is warranted to eliminate the overlapping and complex allied clusters among the reported species.


BACKGROUND
Nontuberculous mycobacteria are mycobacteria, other than those in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, and are commonly found in the environment. Nontuberculous mycobacteria species (most commonly Mycobacterium avium complex and Mycobacterium abscessus) are isolated from the respiratory tract of approximately 5% to 20% of individuals with cystic fibrosis; they can cause lung disease in people with cystic fibrosis leading to more a rapid decline in lung function and even death in certain circumstances. Although there are guidelines for the antimicrobial treatment of nontuberculous mycobacteria lung disease, these recommendations are not specific for people with cystic fibrosis and it is not clear which antibiotic regimen may be the most effective in the treatment of these patients.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of our review was to compare antibiotic treatment to no antibiotic treatment, or to compare different combinations of antibiotic treatment, for nontuberculous mycobacteria lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. The primary objective was to assess the effect of treatment on lung function and pulmonary exacerbations and to quantify adverse events. The secondary objectives were to assess treatment effects on the amount of bacteria in the sputum, quality of life, mortality, nutritional parameters, hospitalizations and use of oral antibiotics.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis Trials Register, compiled from electronic database searches and hand searching of journals and conference abstract books. Date of last search: 13 November 2014.We also searched a register of ongoing trials and the reference lists of relevant articles and reviews. Date of last search: 24 September 2014.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Any randomized controlled trials comparing nontuberculous mycobacteria antibiotics to no antibiotic treatment, as well as one nontuberculous mycobacteria antibiotic regimen compared to another nontuberculous mycobacteria antibiotic regimen, in individuals with cystic fibrosis.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Data were not collected because no completed trials were identified by the searches.

MAIN RESULTS
No completed trials were identified by the searches, but one ongoing trial was identified, which may be eligible for inclusion in this review when completed.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
This review did not find any evidence for the effectiveness of different antimicrobial treatment for nontuberculous mycobacteria lung disease in people with cystic fibrosis. Until such evidence becomes available, it is reasonable for clinicians to follow the American Thoracic Society guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of nodular or bronchiectatic pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium avium complex or Mycobacterium abscessus in patients with cystic fibrosis.


Archaefructaceae is proposed as a new basal angiosperm family of herbaceous aquatic plants. This family consists of the fossilsArchaefructus liaoningensis and A.sinensis sp. nov. Complete plants from roots to fertile shoots are known. Their age is a minimum of 124.6 million years from the Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China. They are a sister clade to all angiosperms when their characters are included in a combined three-gene molecular and morphological analysis. Their reproductive axes lack petals and sepals and bear stamens in pairs below conduplicate carpels.


Task scheduling is heart of any grid application which guides resource allocation in grid. Heuristic task scheduling strategies have been used for optimal task scheduling. Heuristic techniques have been widely used by the researchers to solve resource allocation problem in grid computing. In this paper, we classify heuristic task scheduling strategies in grid on the basis of their characteristics. We identified different types of heuristics such as population based heuristic, economic heuristic, meta heuristic, simple heuristic, and hybrid heuristic.


Background Success in school and the labour market is due to more than just high intelligence. Associations between traits such as attention, self-regulation, and perseverance in childhood, and later outcomes have been investigated by psychologists, economists, and epidemiologists. Such traits have been loosely referred to as "non-cognitive" skills. There has been no attempt to systematically assess the relative importance of non-cognitive skills in early life on later outcomes. Methods The systematic review protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, CRD42013006566) in December 2013. We systematically reviewed electronic databases covering psychology, education, health and economics for articles published from database conception until September 2015. Titles and abstracts were screened for eligibility, and from eligible articles data was extracted on study design, sample type and size, age of participants at exposure and outcome, loss to follow up, measurement of exposure and outcome, type of intervention and comparison group, confounding adjustment and results. Where possible we extracted a standardised effect size. We reviewed all studies and rated their evidence quality as 'better, weak, or poor' on the basis of study design and potential for confounding, selection and measurement bias. Results We reviewed 375 studies and provided interpretation of results from 142 (38%) better quality studies comprising randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental, fixed effects including twin studies, longitudinal and some cross-sectional designs that made reasonable attempts to control confounding. In the academic achievement category outcomes were reported in 78 publications of better quality studies which were consistent with 0.1-0.2 SD effects. Psychosocial outcomes were reported in 65 better quality studies consistent with effects of 0.3-0.4 SD. For the language and cognitive category there were 42 publications reporting better quality studies consistent with effects of 0.3-0.4 SD. For physical health, results across only eight better quality studies were inconsistent but centred around zero. Analysis of funnel plots consistently showed asymmetric distributions, raising the potential of small study bias which may inflate these observed effects. Conclusions The evidence under-pinning the importance of non-cognitive skills for life success is diverse and inconsistent. Nevertheless, there is tentative evidence from published studies that non-cognitive skills associate with modest improvements in academic achievement, psychosocial, and language and cognitive outcomes with effects in the range of 0.2-0.4 SD. The quality of evidence under-pinning this field is generally low with more than a third of studies making little or no attempt to control even the most basic confounding (endogeneity) bias. The evidence could be improved by adequately powering studies, and using procedures and tools that improve the conduct and reporting of RCTs and observational studies. Interventions designed to develop children's non-cognitive skills could potentially improve opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged children. The inter-disciplinary researchers interested in these skills should take a more rigorous approach to determine which interventions are most effective.


Abstract Introduction: Radiotherapy is a valid treatment option for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, complications can occur following irradiation of the closest anatomical structures, including brainstem radionecrosis (BRN). The rehabilitation is poorly described in patients with BRN, despite its usefulness in improving functional independence in patients with brain tumors. We aimed at testing the usefulness of intensive, robot-assisted neurorehabilitation program to improve functional independence in a 57-year-old male with BRN. Patient concerns: A 57-year-old male diagnosed with a nasopharyngeal carcinoma, received a radiation total dose of 72 Gy. Owing to the appearance of a severe symptomatology characterized by dysphagia, hearing loss, and left sided hemiparesis, the patient was hospitalized to be provided with intensive pharmacological and neurorehabilitation treatment. Diagnosis: Follow-up brain magnetic resonance imaging disclosed no residual cancer, but some brainstem lesions compatible with BRN areas were appreciable. Intervention: The patient underwent a 2-month conventional, respiratory, and speech therapy. Given that the patient only mildly improved, he was provided with intensive robot-aided upper limb and gait training and virtual reality-based cognitive rehabilitation for other 2 months. Outcomes: The patient reported a significant improvement in functional independence, spasticity, cognitive impairment degree, and balance. Conclusion: Our case suggests the usefulness of neurorobotic intensive rehabilitation in BRN to reduce functional disability. Future studies should investigate whether an earlier, even multidisciplinary rehabilitative treatment could lead to better functional outcome in patients with BRN.


The ever growing performances of mathematical programming solvers allows to be thinking of solving more and more complex problems, and in particular, optimization problems with uncertain data. Here we suppose that the decision-maker makes decisions in two stages: first before discovering the actual value taken by the data, second once uncertainty has been revealed. This second part is called the recourse problem. Two-stage stochastic linear programming is often used in this case but it requires knowing the underlying probability distribution of the data, which is not available in many cases. We present a robust approach that relies only on mild assumptions on the uncertainties involved in the problem, as bounds or reference values of the uncertain data. It looks for a solution that remains satisfactory for all realizations of the data, i.e. for worst scenarios. We first study a general theoretical model with mixed integer decision variables and continuous recourse variables. Then we show that the approach can be generalized, even when the full recourse property is not verified, that is when the problem can have no solution for some values of the first stage decision variables. We finally present two applications: the design of a hybrid energy park for which the recourse variables are continuous, and the design of a telecommunication optical network for which the recourse variables are integer.


The fragmentation of production across borders allows firms to make and export final goods, or to perform only intermediate stages of production by processing imported inputs for re-exporting. We examine how financial frictions affect companies' choice between processing and ordinary trade – implicitly a choice of production technology and position in global supply chains – and how this decision affects performance. We exploit matched customs and balance sheet data from China, where exports are classified as ordinary trade, import-and-assembly processing trade (processing firm sources and pays for imported inputs), and pure assembly processing trade (processing firm receives foreign inputs for free). Value added, profits, and profitability rise from pure assembly to processing with imports to ordinary trade. However, more profitable trade regimes require more working capital because they entail higher up-front costs. As a result, credit constraints induce firms to conduct more processing trade and pure assembly in particular and preclude them from pursuing higher value-added, more profitable activities. Financial market imperfections thus impact the organization of production across firms and countries and inform optimal trade and development policy in the presence of global production networks.


This paper studies the exchange rates at which Mexican pesos are accepted for retail purchases in El Paso, Texas. A stratified random sample of 586 participating firms is surveyed to examine two aspects of reverse dollarization in the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez border region. The first is to determine the percentage of retail businesses in El Paso that accept foreign currency in the form of Mexican pesos. The results suggest that just over 13.1% (77/586) of all retail firms in this market accept pesos, which on average, comprise 4.35% of total sales for those firms. The second is to calculate the effective exchange rate at which firms accept Mexican pesos. We find that 68.5% of firms accepting the peso do so at a premium. We discern these two aspects further utilizing various multivariate analyses.


Background: Waon therapy has been shown to improve symptoms, cardiac function and prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). We aim to investigate the utility of a convenient thermal therapy involving a footbath in patients with refractory CHF. Method: We enrolled ten patients who satisfied the following criteria: New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III or IV, LVEF <40%, and refractory to the conventional therapy. All patients underwent the footbath therapy daily for 2 weeks. Results: Blood pressure and heart rate did not differ during the footbath therapy. Footbath therapy significantly improved the NHYA functional class (p=0.02), plasma BNP level (1319.3 ± 812.4 vs 615.6 ± 490.4 pg/ml, p=0.04), and %FMD (3.1 ± 2.7 vs. 6.6 ± 4.1 pg/ml, p=0.04). In contrast, there was no significant change in LVEF (19.6 ± 10.9 vs. 22.3 ± 9.0 %, p=0.09). Conclusion: Footbath therapy could improve the status of CHF by improving the endothelial function. We think footbath therapy is a novel and convenient non-pharmacological treatment for patients with refractory CHF.


The computer software industry is an extreme example of rapid new product introduction. However, many consumers are sophisticated enough to anticipate the availability of upgrades in the future. This creates the possibility that consumers might either postpone purchase or buy early on and never upgrade. In response, many software producers offer special upgrade pricing to old customers in order to mitigate the effects of strategic consumer behavior. We analyze the optimality of upgrade pricing by characterizing the relationship between magnitude of product improvement and the equilibrium pricing structure, particularly in the context of user upgrade costs. This upgrade cost (such as the cost of upgrading complementary hardware or drivers) is incurred by the user when she buys the new version but is not captured by the upgrade price for the software. Our approach is to formulate a game theoretic model where consumers can look ahead and anticipate prices and product qualities while the firm can offer special upgrade pricing. We classify upgrades as minor, moderate or large based on the primitive parameters. We find that at sufficiently large user costs, upgrade pricing is an effective tool for minor and large upgrades but not moderate upgrades. Thus, upgrade pricing is suboptimal for the firm for a middle range of product improvement. User upgrade costs have both direct and indirect effects on the pricing decision. The indirect effect arises because the upgrade cost is a critical factor in determining whether all old consumers would upgrade to a new product or not, and this further alters the product improvement threshold at which special upgrade pricing becomes optimal. Finally, we also analyze the impact of upgrade pricing on the total coverage of the market.


British seaside towns have been subject to numerous attempts at regeneration and rebranding since the collapse of traditional seaside tourism began in the late 1970s. This paper reviews contemporary approaches to seaside regeneration and demonstrates that cultural regeneration strategies are becoming increasingly prevalent in this area. The validity of transferring city-based models of cultural development to these smaller urban areas is critiqued. The history of cultural investment in seaside towns is highlighted to show how current approaches to cultural regeneration, while presented as novel, are in fact a resumption of earlier strategies of cultural tourism development. This heritage of cultural development provides a resource for seaside cultural regeneration which may allow development of this type to avoid the negative social impacts often associated with cultural regeneration in cities.


Background: DLG5 p.R30Q has been reported to be associated with Crohn disease (CD), but this association has not been replicated in most studies. A recent analysis of gender-stratified data from two case–control studies and two population cohorts found an association of DLG5 30Q with increased risk of CD in men but not in women and found differences between 30Q population frequencies for males and females. Male–female differences in population allele frequencies and male-specific risk could explain the difficulty in replicating the association with CD. Methods: DLG5 R30Q genotype data were collected for patients with CD and controls from 11 studies that did not include gender-stratified allele counts in their published reports and tested for male–female frequency differences in controls and for case–control frequency differences in men and in women. Results: The data showed no male–female allele frequency differences in controls. An exact conditional test gave marginal evidence that 30Q is associated with decreased risk of CD in women (p = 0.049, OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.00). There was also a trend towards reduced 30Q frequencies in male patients with CD compared with male controls, but this was not significant at the 0.05 level (p = 0.058, OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.01). When data from this study were combined with previously published, gender-stratified data, the 30Q allele was found to be associated with decreased risk of CD in women (p = 0.010, OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.97), but not in men. Conclusion: DLG5 30Q is associated with a small reduction in risk of CD in women.


The central argument in this chapter is both simple and challenging. I will propose that the attitudes of professional workers to their continuing professional development [CPD] is a strong indicator, if not a defining feature, of their approach to practice. This is not to maintain that the individual learner must carry the entire burden of post-qualification CPD. However, it is individuals that are expected to decide upon, initiate, maintain and complete their responsibilities for post-registration learning. Within the increasing profile of arguments for 'life-long learning' across all aspects of modern life, the individual learner is identified as a key mediator in creating knowledge through 'dialogues' that purposefully link the organisational contexts and settings of professional practice with the opportunities for continuing professional development. Dialogues with service users and carers, as well as colleagues and supervisors, in particular, are crucial. Supervision is an important and underplayed aspect of CPD for health and social work practitioners. The chapter will include a critical examination of key rationales underpinning professional education in social care and an exploration of constructive arguments for dialogue with colleagues and managers to enhance creative notions of continuing professional 'capability'.


Over the past decade, researchers have used variation in the chemical composition of fish otoliths (earstones) to address a number of ecological questions, such as stock assessment and assessing rates of movement of individuals among habitats or life-history stages. However, these methods have yet to be applied successfully to the study of larval connectivity, a major unanswered question in marine ecology. Accomplishing this task requires a reference collection of pre-pelagic natal otoliths and accurate measurement of the chemical signatures of otoliths cores of recruits. We analyzed the chemical composition of natal otoliths from near-term benthic eggs of a damselfish (Stegastes beebei) from all regions of the Galapagos Archipelago. There was no consistent variation in chemical signature at the largest scale, among regions in the archipelago (separated by ~100 to 150 km). However, we found significant variation among islands within each region (10s of km), and among clutches within islands. In addition, we found that otolith cores of newly settled recruits often differed chemically from natal otoliths (which ultimately make up the otolith core as the fish grows). Variation at smaller spatial scales but not larger ones implies that otolith chemistry will only be usable if larvae disperse short distances in this system, and additional work is required to understand the relationship between the chemistry of natal otoliths and recruit cores. Otolith chemistry has the potential to address questions of connectivity, but our data suggest that these methods should be applied cautiously.


Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare and life-threatening thrombotic microangiopathy characterized by microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, severe thrombocytopenia, and organ ischemia linked to disseminated microvascular platelet rich-thrombi. TTP is specifically related to a severe deficiency in ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 repeats, member 13), the specific von Willebrand factor-cleaving protease. ADAMTS13 deficiency is most frequently acquired via ADAMTS13 autoantibodies, but rarely, it is inherited via mutations of the ADAMTS13 gene. The first acute episode of TTP usually occurs during adulthood, with a predominant anti-ADAMTS13 autoimmune etiology. In rare cases, however, TTP begins as soon as childhood, with frequent inherited forms. TTP is ∼2-fold more frequent in women, and its outcome is characterized by a relapsing tendency. Rapid recognition of TTP is crucial to initiate appropriate treatment. The first-line therapy for acute TTP is based on daily therapeutic plasma exchange supplying deficient ADAMTS13, with or without steroids. Additional immune modulators targeting ADAMTS13 autoantibodies are mainly based on steroids and the humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab. In refractory or unresponsive TTP, more intensive therapies including twice-daily plasma exchange; pulses of cyclophosphamide, vincristine, or cyclosporine A; or salvage splenectomy are considered. New drugs including N-acetylcysteine, bortezomib, recombinant ADAMTS13, and caplacizumab show promise in the management of TTP. Also, long-term follow-up of patients with TTP is crucial to identify the occurrence of other autoimmune diseases, to control relapses, and to evaluate psychophysical sequelae. Further development of both patients' registries worldwide and innovative drugs is still needed to improve TTP management.


We propose a novel theoretical framework of analysis for Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). We reveal a fundamental flaw of previous analyses which, by incorrectly modeling GANs' training scheme, are subject to ill-defined discriminator gradients. We overcome this issue which impedes a principled study of GAN training, solving it within our framework by taking into account the discriminator's architecture. To this end, we leverage the theory of infinite-width neural networks for the discriminator via its Neural Tangent Kernel. We characterize the trained discriminator for a wide range of losses and establish general differentiability properties of the network. From this, we derive new insights about the convergence of the generated distribution, advancing our understanding of GANs' training dynamics. We empirically corroborate these results via an analysis toolkit based on our framework, unveiling intuitions that are consistent with GAN practice.


The aim of this study was to determine the use of the lipid profile of patients with sarcoidosis and compare it with healthy subjects. We assume that lipid profile of serum in sarcoidosis differs from the lipid profile of control subjects. Serum was collected from 14 patients with II stage of sarcoidosis and 14 control subjects (healthy volunteers). Proton NMR spectroscopy combined with discriminant analyses, OPLS-DA (orthogonal partial least squares projections to latent structures discriminant analysis), was used. Thirty four NMR signals of lipid compounds were selected. OPLS-DA model consisted of three components and very good explain the data and also predict the data. Discriminant analysis correctly classified patients according to their groups for 92.9% of sarcoidose and 100% of control. From multivariate discriminant analysis we obtain a list of potentialbiomarkers which are statistically significant and which separate one class from another. These biomarkers are statistically significant, but not necessarily biochemically significant. They may have biochemical significance and they may be the biomarkers we are interested in, however, this must be established through extensive testing. Presented method allows distinguishing between healthy subject and sarcoidosis patients. (Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis 2018; 35: 150-153)


Aspirations for a boundless communication paradigm for future generation networks have changed the conventional way of looking at network security. With such a vision, security techniques should not only be securing local end-users but also be protecting entire networks from malicious adversaries. Unfortunately, providing security protection for such gigantic networks is a very challenging task. Based on the analogous relationships of various cell interactions in a metabolic network and a complex heterogeneous network, we explore the possibilities of human immune system (HIS) inspired anomaly detection for protecting interworked heterogeneous networks. In light of this, the applicability of two key schools of thought on how the HIS detects anomalies; namely, the Negative Selection (NS) and the Danger Theory (DT) are discussed in this article. While the NS theory is the traditional understanding of anomaly detection in the HIS, the DT is a radical new concept that challenges the main fundamentals of the NS theory, which is currently being hotly debated among immunologists. Based on this, the article highlights the applicability and the limitations of these two theories in detecting malicious anomalies in heterogeneous networks. From our analysis, we establish a doctrine that the DT outperforms its counterpart (the NS theory) in detecting anomalies in a complex heterogeneous network. Our analysis also indicates that the DT inspired anomaly detection is efficient in detecting malicious network adversaries and updating network segments that are under attack, thereby increasing the survivability of heterogeneous networks.


This paper studies the task of one-shot fine-grained recognition, which suffers from the problem of data scarcity of novel fine-grained classes. To alleviate this problem, a off-the-shelf image generator can be applied to synthesize additional images to help one-shot learning. However, such synthesized images may not be helpful in one-shot fine-grained recognition, due to a large domain discrepancy between synthesized and original images. To this end, this paper proposes a meta-learning framework to reinforce the generated images by original images so that these images can facilitate one-shot learning. Specifically, the generic image generator is updated by few training instances of novel classes; and a Meta Image Reinforcing Network (MetaIRNet) is proposed to conduct one-shot fine-grained recognition as well as image reinforcement. The model is trained in an end-to-end manner, and our experiments demonstrate consistent improvement over baseline on one-shot fine-grained image classification benchmarks.


Flightlessness in birds occurs in a taxonomically diverse array of families, but is best exemplified in the rails (Rallidae). Most flightless species of rails live on islands, where the absence of native mammalian predators may make flight superfluous. Fossil rails from Oligo-Miocene sites at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia, are considered to represent a single species of gallinule Gallinula, described here as new. Compared with four Quaternary species of Gallinula from Australasia (two volant, two non-volant), it shows similarities with the flightless species in the development of the fore- and hindlimb elements and in other characteristics of limb bone morphology associated with flightlessness. These indicate that the Riversleigh species was non-volant. Its relationships with the Quaternary species, including the flightless Gallinula mortierii, now restricted to Tasmania, but known from Plio-Pleistocene deposits in eastern mainland Australia, are considered.


"This study focuses on public investments and policy reforms for leveraging growth spillovers at the African regional level. A conceptual framework that is built on the endogenous growth theory and the new economic geography is presented first to gain a better understanding of the underlying theory and empirical evidence on regional integration and growth spillovers. In order to demonstrate the potential benefits from greater cross-border technology spillovers in Africa, as well as from trade liberalization and investment in infrastructure, results from ex-ante simulations using partial and general equilibrium models are then presented and discussed. Results indicate that sizeable regional spillover benefits can be obtained by permitting greater crossborder transfer and adoption of improved technologies, sometimes as large as three to four times the gain in direct benefits obtained within the innovating countries. This is especially true for commodities like mutton, groundnuts and sorghum. Moreover, reducing trade barriers between African countries in agriculture and non-agriculture can significantly increase intra-regional agricultural trade and raise economic growth rates. The simulations also demonstrate that improving transportation infrastructure generates the most encouraging results, increasing agricultural income by as much as 10%. The findings in this study confirm that greater regional cooperation in agricultural research and development, harmonization of regulatory standards for technology adaptation, and harmonization and liberalization of trade systems within the region could play a crucial role in expanding opportunities for African farmers. Therefore, strengthening linkages among African countries through infrastructure, agricultural R&D, and expansion of intraregional trade can generate large spillovers and leverage regional growth." Authors' Abstract


Summary The Yellow Sea region is of high global importance for waterbird populations, but recent systematic bird count data enabling identification of the most important sites are relatively sparse for some areas. Surveys of waterbirds at three sites on the coast of southern Jiangsu Province, China, in 2014 and 2015 produced peak counts of international importance for 24 species, including seven globally threatened and six Near Threatened species. The area is of particular global importance for the 'Critically Endangered' Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmaea (peak count across all three study sites: 62 in spring [2015] and 225 in autumn [2014] and 'Endangered' Spotted Greenshank Tringa guttifer (peak count across all three study sites: 210 in spring [2014] and 1,110 in autumn [2015]). The southern Jiangsu coast is therefore currently the most important migratory stopover area in the world, in both spring and autumn, for both species. Several serious and acute threats to waterbirds were recorded at these study sites. Paramount is the threat of large-scale land claim which would completely destroy intertidal mudflats of critical importance to waterbirds. Degradation of intertidal mudflat habitats through the spread of invasive Spartina, and mortality of waterbirds by entrapment in nets or deliberate poisoning are also real and present serious threats here. Collisions with, and displacement by, wind turbines and other structures, and industrial chemical pollution may represent additional potential threats. We recommend the rapid establishment of effective protected areas for waterbirds in the study area, maintaining large areas of open intertidal mudflat, and the urgent removal of all serious threats currently faced by waterbirds here.


This paper presents and discusses a new mobile application for teaching and learning programming basics. The purpose is to help students acquire competencies while having fun and using their own devices. The mobile application was designed according to cross-platform approach to reach the broadest possible audience of learners, saving time and effort of development and maintenance. The code is fully shared between mobile platforms (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) allowing learners to install the application on any device. The core application is based on a multi-agent system to make the application interactive, flexible and dynamic and provide students with tailored instructions. A prototype is presented showing the main features of the application.


This paper introduces a unified framework of counterfactual estimation for time-series cross-sectional data, which estimates the average treatment effect on the treated by directly imputing treated counterfactuals. Its special cases include several newly developed methods, such as the fixed effects counterfactual estimator, interactive fixed effects counterfactual estimator, and matrix completion estimator. These estimators provide more reliable causal estimates than conventional two-way fixed effects models when the treatment effects are heterogeneous or unobserved time-varying confounders exist. Under this framework, we propose two sets of diagnostic tests, tests for (no) pre-trend and placebo tests, accompanied by visualization tools, to help researchers gauge the validity of the no-time-varying-confounder assumption. We illustrate these methods with two political economy examples and develop an open-source package, fect, in both R and Stata to facilitate implementation.


The Measurement-Performance Link As international economies continue their recovery after the 2008 global economic crisis, growth rates are regarded as being 'weak and uneven and reflective of different evolutions across different countries and regions' (IMF 2014). In such challenging competitive environments organisations tend to focus very strongly on the management and measurement of performance in order to meet the task of staying in business. Harris & Mongiello (2001) see a company's emphasis on performance measurement (PM) as a route to competitive advantage, and turbulent business environments, such as those currently being experienced worldwide, can be seen as a key driver of both organisational and research interest in performance measurement. However despite almost 30 years of research into performance measurement the discipline still has, what could be referred to as significant, foundational problems. There has been a lack of development of key concepts or a unified terminology in the subject area, this is mostly due to the multidisciplinary nature of the PM field which has "vast richness, but unmanageable diversity" (Neely 2007, p.2) . One of the most significant issues in the PM field is that there have been contradictory findings as to whether or not the measurement of performance actually has an impact on the achievement of performance outcomes (Franco & Bourne 2004). In fact it is suggested that measurement has become such an accepted approach that few organisations genuinely challenge why they should measure in the first place, concentrating instead on what can be measured and how to measure it (Robson 2004). In many cases the relationship between the measurement of performance and the achievement of performance outcomes is often described simplistically with catchall phrases like "you can't manage what you can't measure". These phrases imply a simple association between measurement and action in order to achieve performance. The reality of the relationship is however far more complex and the existence of a positive relationship between measurement and performance outcomes have yet to be definitively proven in the literature. Difficulties lie in the ability of researchers to capture the underlying factors that may mediate the relationship between measurement and performance and the considerable influence of organisational structures, culture or operating environments on the achievement of performance. The complex social structures at play in organisations can also have a significant impact on both measurement and performance and these are not sufficiently dealt with by many of the theories applied to contemporary performance measurement research. The Performance Management literature is replete with investigations into the determinants of performance but the role of measurement in organisational outcome is rarely addressed. The following document will explore whether this fundamental gap in the research may be bridged by the adoption of a meta-theoretical perspective, in this case an emergent critical realist perspective, in the conduct of performance measurement investigations. A brief review and critique of the theoretical evolution of research into the measurement-performance link will now follow and the case for the adoption of a critical realist perspective will subsequently be advanced.


Variation in sapwood thickness (TS) around the circumference of a stem and the presence of intermediate wood can cause errors in the estimation of sapwood area (AS) and individual tree-scale transpiration (Q) based on the sap flow technique. We measured bark thickness (TB), TS, and intermediate wood thickness (TI) in 16 orthogonal directions for wood discs from 57 Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) trees, and evaluated the impact of variation in TS around the circumference of a stem and the validity of assuming a constant TI for AS estimates. The coefficient of variation of TS in the 16 directions was 5.3–36.7%. AS based on four orthogonal directions resulted in only minor errors for all trees, although this was not the case for AS based on one and two directions. The mean TI over the 16 directions was not significantly correlated to the diameter. If TI was assumed to be constant at the median value for our forest (=0.8 cm), the relative absolute errors for six of the 57 trees exceeded 30%. If these errors are unacceptable, we recommend extracting stem discs to measure TI when estimating AS and Q for trees with intermediate wood having a similar color to sapwood.


"Lost fish," writes Howell Raines, "chasten us to the knowledge that we are all, in each and every moment, dwindling. Imagine my surprise when I discovered well into my sixth decade that losing fish can prepare us for a blessing as well as for pain."Confronting loss -- of an elusive fish or something larger -- is at the heart of "The One That Got Away, " the graceful sequel to Raines's much-loved, bestselling memoir "Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, " published to great acclaim in 1993. With the same winning combination of reminiscences, anecdotes, philosophy and fishing lore, his bold new memoir covers the eventful years in this latest passage of his life, and the realization that in relinquishing his former identity as a newspaperman he has actually gotten what he wanted, just in the most unlikely way.In wry and witty prose, Raines shifts between fishing vignettes and personal reflections on his childhood, his second marriage, his relationships with his two sons, the trajectory of his career at "The New York Times" and his move toward old age. At the center of his narrative is his most thrilling fishing adventure -- an epic battle with a marlin he hooked and fought for more than seven hours in the South Pacific -- which comes to symbolize his growing understanding and acceptance of the unpredictability of luck, love, lies and life, and how the unexpected can, in fact, be an opportunity to make life more interesting.Raines's wonderful descriptions of streams, people and fish; his passion for angling and writing; and his wise and perceptive commentary on the vagaries of his own life combine to create a profound book -- one of undeniable appeal and uncommon heart.


Aim To compare rates of emergency readmission following discharge for common paediatric conditions from a range of hospital services. Design Retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics (HES) and telephone survey of service provision. Setting Twelve hospitals serving a metropolitan area in the North West of England. Outcome measures Emergency admissions to hospital within 7 days of discharge for breathing difficulty, feverish illness and/or diarrhoea. Results HES were obtained for all children under 15 years of age discharged following emergency admission for breathing difficulty, feverish illness and/or diarrhoea during 2005/2006 (n=20 354) or 2006/2007 (n=23 018). The readmission rate for all hospitals in 2006/2007 was 5.5%. The percentage of same day discharges was associated with readmission (Kendall's taub correlation=0.61, p=0.007). Readmissions were also associated with the proportion of same day discharges for breathing difficulty (Kendall's taub=0.83, p<0.001) and feverish illness (Kendall's taub=0.50, p=0.023) but not significantly so with diarrhoea (Kendall's taub=0.37, p=0.098). The total number of admissions at a hospital in the year was associated with its readmission rate (Kendall's taub=0.71, p=0.002). Most of the sample lived in the 40% most deprived areas in England, but there was no significant association between readmission and living in the 10% most deprived areas. Conclusions Readmission rates are associated with higher numbers of annual admissions and higher proportions of children discharged on the day of admission. Variations between hospitals suggest that other factors can also affect readmission rates. Readmission rates calculated from HES can contribute to assessments of the outcome of emergency services.


We introduce the forward-backward (FB) representation of the dynamics of a reward-free Markov decision process. It provides explicit near-optimal policies for any reward specified a posteriori. During an unsupervised phase, we use reward-free interactions with the environment to learn two representations via off-the-shelf deep learning methods and temporal difference (TD) learning. In the test phase, a reward representation is estimated either from observations or an explicit reward description (e.g., a target state). The optimal policy for that reward is directly obtained from these representations, with no planning. We assume access to an exploration scheme or replay buffer for the first phase. The corresponding unsupervised loss is well-principled: if training is perfect, the policies obtained are provably optimal for any reward function. With imperfect training, the sub-optimality is proportional to the unsupervised approximation error. The FB representation learns long-range relationships between states and actions, via a predictive occupancy map, without having to synthesize states as in model-based approaches. This is a step towards learning controllable agents in arbitrary black-box stochastic environments. This approach compares well to goal-oriented RL algorithms on discrete and continuous mazes, pixel-based MsPacman, and the FetchReach virtual robot arm. We also illustrate how the agent can immediately adapt to new tasks beyond goal-oriented RL.


Probiotic lactic acid bacteria have a great potential to control bovine mastitis as well as they are favourable choice to treat many infectious diseases of human. These bacteria are well known as having many properties which make them beneficial to control pathogenic microorganisms. These include, the ability to adhere to cell, the reduction of pathogenic bacteria adherents, the co-aggregation, the production of organic acids, hydrogen peroxide, bacteriocin and etc., to be safe and non-pathogenic, which antagonize pathogenic microorganisms. However, each strain must be well identified and characterized in vitro before using for disease treatment. The aim of the present study was to screen three kind of test suspensions: TS1, TS2 and TS3, which contains probiotic lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus helveticus or its natural glycopeptides, and other natural immunomodulators, in order to investigate which content were the most effective in inhibiting several mastitis causing bacteria in dairy cattle: coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase- negative staphylococci S. haemolyticus, S. saprophyticus, S. simulans, S. vitulinus, and Gram-negative bacteria Citrobacter freundii and Serratia liquefaciens. Test suspensions TS1, TS2 and TS3 were adjusted by pH 6.3, then tested in vitro by well diffusion assay to determine their antimicrobial effect against bacteria. Furthermore haemolytic activity of applied test suspensions were determined. In results TS1 (9-13 mm) and TS2 (10-15 mm) showed the inhibition effect on four of eight tested bacterial strains, whereas TS3 did not displayed any antimicrobial effect. TS2 have a greatest antimicrobial activity as they resulted in the largest inhibition zones.


POWERED BY THE DEVELOPMENTS IN NEW TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS, THE WORLD IS MOVING RAPIDLY TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTURES AND INFORMATION SOCIETIES THAT COMPRISE NETWORKS OF INDIVIDUALS, FIRMS AND COUNTRIES THAT ARE LINKED ELECTRONICALLY AND IN INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS. KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR "LEAPFROG" STRATEGIES THAT COULD ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT. THIS PAPER THEREFORE ARGUED THAT WITHOUT INNOVATIVE PUBLIC POLICY, INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES COULD BECOME A SOURCE OF EXCLUSION AND CONFLICT; AND IF ANY FORM OF DEVELOPMENT IS EMPOWERING IN THE 21ST CENTURY, IT IS THE ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE CREATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL CAPACITY FOR THE NEWLY EMERGED AFRICAN UNION.


Much has been made of "special and differential" treatment in the Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations. In particular, a conscious effort has been made to infer that special and differential treatment will promote development. While special and differential treatment may be a necessary evil given developing countries' higher adjustment costs, dignifying it as a development mechanism plays into the hands of protectionist interests. In particular, by allowing a general increase in the ability of developing countries to isolate their economies, it may reduce the efficacy of important forces that prod institutional reforms in developing countries. As institutional reform is one of the keys to economic development, lionizing special and differential treatment in the WTO is likely to be counterproductive.


This paper examines the disciplined programming methodology of EM Dijkstra which advocates the development of correctness proofs simultaneously with writing a program, (if not before) in the context of two problems which faced the authors recently. The paper applies the thought processes advocated by Dijkstra to these problems and indicates the insights that the authors gained from this. In both cases algorithms new to the authors were derived, and the properties of these are also examined. The paper should be interesting to those concerned with increasing the effectiveness of programming, for it demonstrates that the techniques advocated by Dijkstra are indeed transferable to other programmers, and that this transfer yields better insight into the activity we call programming.


With the growth of Web 2.0/3.0, social network sites have been created for various purposes for a wide spectrum of users. Creating a digital footprint has become imperative, especially for professionals seeking career development and professional advancement. This study explores professionals' intention to leave an organization for professional advancement (ILPA) based on their use of a professional social network site, LinkedIn. Our framework leverages self-determination theory (SDT) to demonstrate why professionals use this online social networking service. To validate our theoretical framework, 379 randomly selected active LinkedIn users completed an online questionnaire. The extent to which using LinkedIn influences ILPA is examined and the results support all our hypotheses. Our post-hoc analysis indicates a strong relationship between needing support and motivation for participating in LinkedIn. We attempt to explain the findings by using the time perspective concept. This study is also of practical value to companies seeking to set policies to retain professionals. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.


High-resolution multibeam bathymetry data from the Sumatran subduction zone reveal the regional and local morphology, including small-scale fault-related features and landslides that may be linked to earthquakes in the recent geological past. The accretionary prism is steeply sloped and pervasively eroded, with evidence of unusual landward vergence (seaward fault dip) of the frontal thrusts. Small-scale (5–100 m height) fault scarps, folds, and troughs are common along the seaward edge of the frontal thrust at the deformation front. A model of back-thrust fault slip or bending moment folding during plate-boundary slip, such as during the 2004 M9.2 megathrust earthquake, can explain the position of these features on the seaward fold limb of a seaward-dipping thrust. We infer that in major Sumatran (and other similar settings) plate-boundary earthquakes, coseismic surface rupture may occur at the prism toe.


A biometric study of chelae of the burrowing shrimp Protocallianassa faujasi (Desmarest, 1822), from the late Maastrichtian of the Maastrichtian type area, The Netherlands, has revealed three morphotypes. These types are interpreted as sexual dimorphs (male and female) and earliest ecdysis stages (immature male). Among the studied material are fifteen specimens of a new Cretaceous callianassid, Corallianassa acucurvata new species, one specimen provisionally assigned to the genus Calliax and a callianassid from the Danian. Burrows preserving callianassid chelae in situ are discussed. Based on burrow morphology a suspension feeding mode of life for P. faujasi is inferred, whereas C. acucurvata n. sp. probably was an active omnivorous analogue of its closest Recent relatives. The extinction of P. faujasi in the Meerssen Member appears to correspond to the increase in seagrass vegetation. The Protocallianassa-Corallianassa faunal changeover took place about 100,000 yrs before the K/T boundary in this region.


Illness and injury have a significant financial impact on families, but recent news media reporting and lawmaker responses have framed these issues in terms of hospital mistreatment of the uninsured. In this article, we argue that the hospital misbehavior model imposes artificial parameters on a much broader health care finance problem. We demonstrate this empirically, using new data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project to show that even insured families experience a wide range of direct and indirect financial consequences of illness or injury, including income loss. We also engage in a positive analysis of debtor-creditor law to challenge the assumption that hospitals misbehave when they engage in routine debt collection. Our health care finance system depends in part on self-pay obligation, and lawmakers in some states have given medical providers enhanced collection powers and incentives to be diligent beyond those given to other creditors. When hospitals engage in regular types of collection activity within the boundaries set by debtor-creditor law, they are playing out the role assigned to them by the health care finance system. We recognize that some hospitals have engaged in wrongdoing, and we cannot rule out the possibility that proposed changes in response to the hospital misbehavior model will have positive effects for some uninsured patients. Yet, we suspect that the negatives will outweigh the positives. If lawmakers believe they have solved the health care finance problem by imposing new limits on hospital behavior, they are less likely to tackle the larger issues that leave millions of responsible people struggling financially after a serious medical problem. The hospital misbehavior model also imposes costs on hospitals that hospitals may be ill equipped to bear, and it may lead to further reduction of necessary services at not-for-profit facilities. We recommend replacing the hospital misbehavior model with an expanded vision of health care finance issues that includes all forms of medical debt, direct non-medical costs, third-party payers, and lost income and opportunity - a full range of the economic fallout from a serious medical problems.


The purpose of this study is to describe the effects that a C4 (command, control, communications, and computer) knowledge management system (KMS) had on increasing the situational awareness (SA) level of network monitors maintaining a very large, dynamic, and complex communication network during wartime. This case study utilized triangulation and analysis of the multiple interviews, audiovisual material, archival records, and documents that formed the basis for the findings of this study. During Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) G6 developed an automated Marine Air Ground Task Force Communication Control Center Event Log (MEL), a web-based KMS that replaced the physical logbook to track communication network status for this large network that supported over 86,000 personnel over four months. The MEL enhanced SA, the sharing of information directly related to the operation of the communication network, as well as the sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge of system readiness. Limitations of the study revolved around collecting data in a real battlefield situation. Considering the unusual nature of the events, the results may or may not be replicated outside of simulations until there is another major military offensive. The findings reveal the practical benefits of automating physical logbooks. The results also shed light on behaviours of individuals within a network under situations of moderate and high stress. Overall behaviours of a community of practice under wartime conditions are revealed. This case study documents behaviours in the unusual context of an invasion of enemy territory. As such this research fills the gap between theoretical considerations of knowledge management and the practical and organic implementation of a KMS.


Architecture and Control addresses the urgent question residing at the intersection of architectural and cultural theory: how can the interplay between designed structures and practices of control foster an emergence of the unforeseen and the uncontrolled in post-2000 architectures and infrastructures?


Since the dawn of horse domestication, coat colors have always fascinated humankind. In the last century, knowledge of genetics and development of scientific tools have become powerful enough so that the effects of many DNA mutations could be critically studied. Coat color nomenclature varies according to countries and breed associations; in addi‐ tion, many factors can modify the color of the coat, such as sun exposure, age, sex, and nutritional status of the animal. Nevertheless, horses are capable of producing only two pigments. Several genes have been indicated as putative to coat color modification, alter‐ ing the basic color by dilution, redistribution, or lacking of pigments.


Genetic recombination during meiosis functions to increase genetic diversity, promotes elimination of deleterious alleles, and helps assure proper segregation of chromatids. Mammalian recombination events are concentrated at specialized sites, termed hotspots, whose locations are determined by PRDM9, a zinc finger DNA-binding histone methyltransferase. Prdm9 is highly polymorphic with most alleles activating their own set of hotspots. In populations exhibiting high frequencies of heterozygosity, questions remain about the influences different alleles have in heterozygous individuals where the two variant forms of PRDM9 typically do not activate equivalent populations of hotspots. We now find that, in addition to activating its own hotspots, the presence of one Prdm9 allele can modify the activity of hotspots activated by the other allele. PRDM9 function is also dosage sensitive; Prdm9 +/- heterozygous null mice have reduced numbers and less active hotspots and increased numbers of aberrant germ cells. In mice carrying two Prdm9 alleles, there is allelic competition; the stronger Prdm9 allele can partially or entirely suppress chromatin modification and recombination at hotspots of the weaker allele. In cell cultures, PRDM9 protein variants form functional heteromeric complexes which can bind hotspots sequences. When a heteromeric complex binds at a hotspot of one PRDM9 variant, the other PRDM9 variant, which would otherwise not bind, can still methylate hotspot nucleosomes. We propose that in heterozygous individuals the underlying molecular mechanism of allelic suppression results from formation of PRDM9 heteromers, where the DNA binding activity of one protein variant dominantly directs recombination initiation towards its own hotspots, effectively titrating down recombination by the other protein variant. In natural populations with many heterozygous individuals, allelic competition will influence the recombination landscape.


Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources have provided the analytical spectroscopist with a relatively simple means of performing quantitative analyses at very low concentration levels. Pneumatic solution nebulizers employed with ICP systems are a frequent source of problems. Presently available nebulizers demand that sample solutions contain a low percentage of dissolved solids and that there be no suspended solids which may cause flow restrictions or blockage. Many times, samples having one or both of these limitations require analysis. Although the samples themselves are not ideal for ICP analysis the concentration levels sought make this analytical method attractive, and an effort to find a nebulizer suitable for solutions with high percentages of dissolved solids and/or suspended solids was begun.


Sound is commonly analysed subjectively by listening to it. However, when we want to analyse a sound objectively, we often switch domains, and change to visual or numerical displays. While it is likely that, generally speaking, the visual sense dominates other senses, when the data being explored are sound the question naturally arises as to whether these data may be statistically represented in that same domain. This paper describes and demonstrates a general scheme for building statistical representations of sound that exist entirely within the auditory domain, and use the original audio data to present descriptive data.


Abstract. The rapidly increasing interest of foreign investors in land in the global South, also termed land grabbing, has been widely discussed as potentially supportive, but often rather harmful for local populations. Combining a critical livelihoods perspective with access theory and a bargaining model, this study scrutinizes local people's perceptions of the land investments, power relations during land negotiations and intra-community differences. By analysing two European forestry companies in Tanzania, we have chosen a sector and a country with presumably more positive outcomes for local populations. The deals resulted in not only labour opportunities and infrastructural improvements, which are mainly perceived as positive, but also cases of violated land rights, inadequate compensation and decreased food security. Hence, even under favourable preconditions, the consequences for local people are ambivalent. With this study, we contribute to a differentiated analysis of the contested role of large-scale land deals in contemporary rural development.


Human beings like all organisms, are subject to a variety of diseases. Musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis, that affect our muscles and bones, are particularly debilitating in that they considerably limit our ability to interact with our environment. The symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and loss of movement. There is deterioration of the cartilage in our articulations. The precise determination of the underlying cause of the deterioration is a challenging task. It is believed that it is caused by excessive force in the joints due to inappropriate muscle forces. Since only forces in muscles just beneath the skin can be measured, the force hypothesis remains unproven. Musculoskeletal models are essential in analysing musculoskeletal diseases because they address the lack of information on the forces involved. Such models are used to estimate muscle and joint reaction forces. Determining the key elements in a musculoskeletal model to assess its quality raises several challenges. In this thesis, a musculoskeletal model of the shoulder is presented. The model is governed by the laws of rigid-body mechanics and is similar to a model of a cable-driven mechanism. The model contains both the kinematic and dynamic aspects of the shoulder. Applying the theory of rigid body mechanics requires a certain level of rigour to ensure compatibility between the kinematic and dynamic parts of the model. Therefore, a considerable part of the thesis is devoted to presenting the details of the model's construction. The model is designed specifically for estimating muscle and joint-reaction forces in quasi-static and dynamic situations. The muscle-force estimation problem is defined as a nonlinear program and solved in this thesis using a two-step approach. In a first step, the kinematics is constructed and inverse dynamics is used to estimate the associated joint torques. In a second step, the nonlinear program is solved using null-space optimisation. An initial solution to the estimation problem is obtained by taking a pseudo-inverse of the moment-arms matrix. The solution is then corrected using the matrices null-space to satisfy the constraints. This approach redefines the estimation problem as a quadratic program and considerably reduces the time required to find a solution. Once the muscle-forces are estimated, the joint reaction forces are deduced from the dynamic model. Muscle and joint-reaction forces are compared to other results from the literature.


The increasing popularity and acceptance of VANETs will make the deployment of autonomous vehicles easier and faster since the VANET will reduce dependence on expensive sensors. However, these benefits are counterbalanced by possible security attacks. We demonstrate a VANET-based botnet attack in an autonomous vehicle scenario that can cause serious congestion by targeting hot spot road segments. We show via simulation that the attack can increase the trip times of the cars in the targeted area by orders of magnitude. After 5 minutes, the targeted road becomes completely unusable. More importantly, the effect of such an attack is not confined to a specific hotspot; the congestion can spread to multiple roads and significantly affect the entire urban grid. We show that current countermeasures are not effective, and point to new possible defenses.


In recent years we see a rapidly growing line of research which shows learnability of various models via common neural network algorithms. Yet, besides a very few outliers, these results show learnability of models that can be learned using linear methods. Namely, such results show that learning neural-networks with gradient-descent is competitive with learning a linear classifier on top of a data-independent representation of the examples. This leaves much to be desired, as neural networks are far more successful than linear methods. Furthermore, on the more conceptual level, linear models don't seem to capture the "deepness" of deep networks. In this paper we make a step towards showing leanability of models that are inherently non-linear. We show that under certain distributions, sparse parities are learnable via gradient decent on depth-two network. On the other hand, under the same distributions, these parities cannot be learned efficiently by linear methods.


Objectives : To examine trends in hospitalization and inpatient deaths of neonates, and infectious diseases (IDs) between 2005-2014; and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) between 2010 and 2014 in Yemen. Method : It was a retrospective descriptive study. Data were extracted from the clinical records of the patients admitted from 2005 to 2014 for neonates and cases aged 1-59 months with IDs. For cases with SAM data were available from 2010 to 2014. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results : Between 2005 and 2014, 39282 under-5 hospitalized and 33.6% were neonates. Of 26069 aged 1-59 months, 15224(58.4%) hospitalized with IDs. Pneumonia (44.6%), diarrhea (29.9%), and meningitis (10.6%) were the main subgroups. During the study period, there were 4183 under-5 deaths. Neonatal deaths accounting for 3671 (87.8%). Deaths aged 1-59 month were 512(12.2%) and IDs contributing 440(85.9%). Compared to 2005/06, neonatal hospitalization and death declined by 9.2% and 18.1% in 2013/14, and IDs by 56.8% and 79.2%, respectively. Pneumonia reductions were 65.4% and 83.7%, diarrhea 42% and 95.5%, and meningitis 73% and 83%, respectively. Between 2010-2014, SAM cases were 1781 of 13689 total hospitalization [13% (95%CI 12.5-13.6)] and 53 SAM deaths of 224 total deaths [23.7 % (18.6-29.6)]. SAM hospitalization rate increased from 8.5% in 2010, to 18.4% in 2014 and death rate increased from 27% (17.6-39.0) to 57.5% (42.2-71.5), respectively. Conclusion : Despite significant decline in IDs and vaccine preventable diseases, this study showed 87.8% of under-5 mortality were neonates. The increasing trends in SAM hospitalization and death are alarming. Interventions to improve neonatal survival and to reduce SAM morbidity and mortality are urgently needed.


A climate change experiment with a fully coupled high resolution regional atmosphere-ocean model for the Baltic Sea is compared to an experiment with a stand-alone regional atmospheric model. Both experiments simulate 30-yr periods with boundary data from the same global climate model system. This particular global model system simulates very high sea surface temperatures during summer for the Baltic Sea at the end of this century under the investigated emission scenario. We show that the sea surface temperatures are less warm in the coupled regional model compared to the global model system and that this difference is dependent on the atmospheric circulation. In summers with a high NAO index and thereby relatively strong westerly flow over the North Atlantic the differences between the two models are small, while in summers with a weaker, more northerly flow over the Baltic Sea the differences are very large. The higher sea surface temperatures in the uncoupled experiment lead to an intensified hydrological cycle over the Baltic Sea, with more than 30% additional precipitation in summer taken as an average over the full 30-yr period and over the entire Baltic Sea. The differences are mostly local, over the sea, but there are differences in surrounding land areas.


An ethnographic account of sorcery accusation, violence, and subsequent community discussion provides a basis to explore the 'moral economy of agency' that shapes expressions and interpretations of personhood in Vanuatu. Mediated historically by transforming social, political, and economic circumstances, agency is demonstrated to be patterned according to culturally specific ontological and moral schemes. Key local categories of embodied personhood – including man ples (man place), man wan (man one), and jelus (jealousy) – are examined to elucidate two relationally entwined analytic categories, referred to as 'distributive' and 'possessive' agency. Such categories, it is argued, fundamentally shape expressions and interpretations of moral being and doing, including by providing a basis for identifying morally abject expressions of personhood. Taking seriously the important role of spiritual agency within such moral economies, this paper provides new ethnographically grounded insights into the ways in which communities and individuals negotiate moral being within transforming contexts of economic and sacred power.


This paper investigates the possibility of pounding, deck unseating and tangential joint residual damage due to curvature effects. Furthermore, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of cable restrainers on the overall nonlinear seismic response of seismically isolated highway viaducts is presented. For this purpose, the bridge seismic performance has been evaluated on four different radii of curvature, 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m, considering two cases: restrained and unrestrained curved viaducts. Depending on the radius of curvature, three-dimensional nonlinear dynamic analysis shows the vulnerability of curved viaducts to pounding and deck unseating damage. In this study, the effectiveness of the use of cable restrainers on curved viaducts is demonstrated. The restrainers not only provide a successful unseating protection but also allow the viaducts to behave uniformly despite the differences on the curvature radius, therefore mitigating the curvature effects.


In this study, we develop methods to identify verbal expressions in social media streams that refer to real-world activities. Using aggregate daily patterns of Foursquare checkins, our methods extract similar patterns from Twitter, extending the amount of available content while preserving high relevance. We devise and test several methods to extract such content, using time-series and semantic similarity. Evaluating on key activity categories available from Foursquare (coffee, food, shopping and nightlife), we show that our extraction methods are able to capture equivalent patterns in Twitter. By examining rudimentary categories of activity such as nightlife, food or shopping we peek at the fundamental rhythm of human behavior and observe when it is disrupted. We use data compiled during the abnormal conditions in New York City throughout Hurricane Sandy to examine the outcome of our methods.


The absorption spectra, electric and photoconductivity of poly-N-epoxypropylcarbazole and crylonitrilebutadienestyrene films doped with hetero bimetallic and hetero trimetallic complexes are investigated. Over the visible range of light spectrum absorption and inner photoeffect are attributed to d-d-transitions in metallic ions and their electronic recharge. Appearance of negative photoconductivity was detected. This effect is explained by capture of nonequilibrium charge carriers on the deep energetic traps close to boundaries of the complexes associates and by decreasing of electric field within the volume of polymeric composites films. If additional channel for the transport of nonequilibrium holes arises while poly-N-epoxypropylcarbazole is used, then the effect of negative photoconductivity vanishes and the photosensitivity increases.


This paper reports on commissioned research into the technical and cost aspects of using hollow clay 'maxi' bricks in Western Cape house construction. Specifically, sample bricks were evaluated in terms of the National Building Regulations, a technical analysis was conducted of energy savings, dimensional co-ordination, structural strength, structural stability and rain penetration, and a framework for a comparison between the effect on house costs of the use of hollow clay and solid cement 'maxi' bricks was established.


Why has the female voice deepened over the last fifty years? Who talks more, men or women? How can a baby in the womb distinguish between different voices? The human voice is the personal and social glue that binds us, and the most important sound in our lives. The moment we open our mouth we leak information about our biological, psychological and social status. Babies use it to establish emotional ties and acquire language, adults to decode mood and meaning in intimate and professional relationships. Far from being rendered redundant by modern technology, the human voice has enormous and enduring significance.


We examine how modal aberration measurements degraded by turbulence-induced anisoplanatism may be used to optimally conjugate atmospheric phase aberrations. By examining the form of the aperture-averaged mean square residual phase error, we show that atmospheric compensation is suboptimal when the measured coefficients from off-axis or finite-altitude guide stars are applied directly. The optimal compensation is obtained only when conjugate phase coefficients are estimated, given the guide-star measurements and knowledge of the spatial correlation of the on-axis and measured phase coefficients, by use of a minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) estimator. The form of this estimator is outlined, thus motivating the need to quantify the spatial cross correlation of the Zernike coefficients of the phase aberrations. With a knowledge of the modal cross correlation, we show that wave-front compensation performance can be enhanced by use of the MMSE estimator over use of the beacon measurements directly for all orders of correction. For high-order off-axis natural-guide-star correction, equivalent imaging performance is obtained at a beacon offset 10% larger than when beacon measurements are used directly. For high-order laser-guide-star correction, equivalent imaging performance is obtained at laser-guide-star altitudes 20% lower when the MMSE estimator is employed.