The lubricating coating with good wear resistance at high temperatures is a critical challenge for the protective coatings of aerospace engine rotor. High-entropy alloy coatings show a potential to deal with that. The impacts of various oxygen contents in VAlTiCrW high-entropy alloy coatings on the mechanical properties at room temperature and tribological properties at 700 °C were studied systematically. When the oxygen flow increased from 0 sccm to 10 sccm, the hardness of the coatings increased from 3.3 GPa to 11.9 GPa, and the elastic modulus increased from 79.92 GPa to 181.7 GPa. Meanwhile, the coating featured the lowest coefficient of friction (COF, 0.17) and the lowest wear rate of 3.38 × 10−5 mm3/Nm. The Magnéli phase V2O5 in the coating was the key to reducing the COF, while the hard oxide phase such as WO3 and AlVO4, reduced the wear rate of the coatings.


Our truth is in the stories we tell. Nowhere is this better understood than in libraries. But what is our school library story as it relates to equity and cultural inclusion, and how relevant is that story to the needs of our students today? Every story is written from a point of view and truths can be elusive.
What is the role of the school library learning commons in keeping, sharing and creating the new story of Canada as a diverse, multicultural society and as a country that honours its relationship with its Indigenous peoples? What is the role of the school library learning commons in serving our multi-cultural society and in developing a welcoming and inclusive school culture?


Polyamide-montmorillonite nanocompositeswere prepared fromsolution of polyamide and the organo modified-montmorillonite (OM-MMT) using Nmethyl- 2-pyrrolidone as a solvent. The reactive organoclay was formed by using hexadecylpyridinium chloride (HPC) as a swelling agent for silicate layers ofmontmorillonite. The swelling process was carried out through ion exchange reaction between the end group of hexadecylpyridinium chloride salt and the sodiumion inmontmorillonite. This irreversible swellingmonitored bymeasuring the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the montmorillonite solutions. Dispersion of the modified clay in the polyamide (kevlar) matrix resulted in nanostructured material containing intercalated polymer between the silicate layers. The Polyamide-montmorillonite nanocomposites films (PA-MMT) characterized by FTIR, SEM and x-ray were exfoliated nanocomposites at low MMT content (<1 wt.%) and partially exfoliated nanocomposites at high MMT content (containing aggregates of MMT). The clay content significantly influences thermal behavior of the nanocomposite films, such as glass transition and decomposition temperatures of polyamide-montmorillonite nanocomposites. The glass transition temperatures of the nanocomposites were higher than that of the original polyamide. The dielectric properties of the PA–clay nanocomposites were studied in detail. The results displayed that the dielectric constants decreased with the increase of the clay content and the films showed relatively low dielectric constant when the clay content was over 1 wt% compared to pure polyamide.


The aim of this paper is to create a more complex and holistic understanding of the value system of the political consumer. A case study was undertaken were the unit of analysis constituted 12 high users of organic food products. The empirical data was analysed by utilizing Reynolds and Gutman's laddering technique. The results revealed that the purposive selected informants activate different cognitive structures when buycotting organic food. In other words, the informants activate different values for similar attributes and consequences. This means that consumption of organic food is related to different value sets. That is, value sets where the political aspects are represented to different degrees. This means that some informants primarily buycott organic food for personal or family related reasons. For this group of informants, the focus is mainly on health related issues. Preservation of nature or environmental concern is important in the sense that it in the end relates to promoting personal security and health. This means that the environmental aspect cannot automatically be assumed to be a political motive when buycotting organic food, because it can be linked to personal motives. Understanding environmental issues solely as political motives thus reflects a rather mundane understanding. Further and more problematic it also leads to wrong results when trying to investigate the extent of political consumption from a positivistic paradigmatic posture.More specifically, survey studies will have a tendency to conclude that the phenomenon i.e. political consumption is much more prevalent than it actually is. The novel findings yield theoretical as well as practical implications. For practitioners a more comprehensive understanding of consumer values related to "politicized" products or services will enable companies to better understand consumers need and expectations. The latter being a necessity if confirmation of expectations, satisfaction, retention of customers and customer loyalty are goals of importance for the selling company.


How do different methods employed by landscape architects impact the design outcome? This paper identifies and defines design methods in landscape architecture that may be classified as part of four internal and external connections and structures categories. Methods are further examined through two design exercises. In the first design exercise, the identified methods are individually applied to the same simple design which is used as a control. The only variable changed is the method used to design. The resulting designs are shown and analyzed. In the second design exercise, three different methods are applied to a complex design. Similar to the first design exercise, all variables are held constant except for the design methods. The resulting design outcomes are shown and analyzed. One conclusion from this work recommends landscape architecture designers use at least one method in each of four categories: 1) Modeling Systems, 2) Interrelationship and Dependencies, 3) Incorporation and Adadaption, and 4) Structure Problems in order to explore complex design issues more thoroughly.


With a historical and morphological approach, this paper marks the correlation between the critical junctures occurred in China from 1911 to 1958 and the new planning proposals for the modern capital cities rebuilt at that time, Nanjing and Beijing. This paper assumes that the modern breaking points of Chinese history have the key role in reshaping the urban landscape as in the past. From this perspective, the research assumes an 'interpretative morphological approach' based on the comparison of the case studies. Stressing the attention on the planning features of each proposal, it is possible to highlight, firstly, the way new plans reproduce the classic patterns and override them in accordance with the political ideals and propaganda meanings that architecture and urbanism are supposed to embody; secondly, a constant application of traditional forms and urban patterns, by citation and reinterpretation. These two orders of results could eventually prove that reactionary and revolutionary political forces are influenced by the same atavistic rhetorical frameworks when they come to draw the spatial palimpsest of their power. Thus, each critical juncture is a new testing ground for the resistance of those recurring planning features in the present days as in the past.


Blue chip and conservation filmmaking are the two styles most commonly applied to Natural History documentaries. The numerous threats to our oceans are among the most pressing problems of our time, and certainly these are Natural History stories. Yet neither of the established models of filmmaking has been able to effectively tell the story of our oceans in crisis. A "revolution" is in order. After contextualizing and analyzing exemplars, I will propose a new model which draws on the strengths of both blue chip and conservation filmmaking, but which would fit neither category as is. This new model, green chip filmmaking, holds my hope for filmmaking, my hope for oceans, my hope for our children, my hope for humankind.


Phosphoinositdes (PIPs) are a group of signaling phospholipids involved in regulating many cellular processes, including organelle dynamics, nutrient uptake, autophagy and apoptosis. Through the action of lipid kinases and phosphatases, phosphatidylinositol (PI) can be phosphorylated on three different positions of the inositol headgroup resulting in seven distinct PIP species. Substantial research has focused on elucidating the function and importance of headgroup phosphorylation while much less is known about the significance of the incorporation of specific acyl chains within PI. PI exhibits unique specificity of acyl chain composition, where majority contains 1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl acyl species. This unique acyl chain enrichment is, in part, controlled by the PI acyltransferase lysocardiolipin acyltransferase (LYCAT). How LYCAT and, in turn, incorporation of specific fatty acids, controls the function of PI and PIPs is poorly understood. Thus, I investigated the impact of LYCAT perturbation on PIP acyl profile and effects on PIP-dependent processes.

Perturbation of LYCAT by siRNA gene silencing resulted in a shift in the acyl profile of PIP2 species to contain shorter species. Additionally, LYCAT silencing altered the cellular localization and levels of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate and phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate but was without effect on other PI species examined. Consistent with this, silencing of LYCAT perturbed the membrane traffic of transferrin receptor dependent on these specific PIPs. I also observed changes in PI-dependent receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathways that control cell survival and proliferation, which are regulated by phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate. LYCAT perturbation altered activation of Akt1, which impacted a number of Akt substrates.

Additionally, using fluorescence microscopy, I discovered that LYCAT is localized to peripheral ER vesicles that contain PI synthase enzyme, which is responsible for PI synthesis. These peripheral vesicles partially overlap with endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites marked by E-Syt2 but showed little overlap with the ER maker, KDEL.

Collectively, my results show that the PI acyltransferase LYCAT controls the function of specific species of PIPs, which in turn selectively impacts specific stages of endomembrane traffic and hormone receptor signaling. Hence, the regulation of acyl content of PI is an important new dimension for the control of PI and PIP function.


The availability of inexpensive but powerful instrumentation and the rising costs of specialist acoustic facilities have increased interest in impulse response methods for measuring sound insulation, particularly in situ. The method is relatively simple and requires the separation of a direct short duration transmitted signal from subsequent scattered, diffracted, and reflected components, to allow fast Fourier transformation. Where the sound insulation performance of an open acoustic screen is required, internal diffracted components are included in the time window of interest. A description is given of the method of measurement of open screens that applies to both laboratory and field conditions. Measurements are compared with theory and discrepancies are the result of phase changes at high frequencies. These phase changes are not included for in the thin screen theory, however, agreement in general is good. The method works well for open screens, provided that the time signal is properly isolated, and ...


Prevotella melaninogenica is a gram‐negative anaerobic commensal bacterium that resides in the human oral cavity and is isolated as a pathogen of suppurative diseases both inside and outside the mouth. However, little is known about the pathogenic factors of P. melaninogenica. The periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis and Tanerella forsythia secrete virulence factors such as protease and bacterial cell surface proteins via a type IX secretion system (T9SS) that are involved in pathogenicity. P. melaninogenica also possesses all known orthologs of T9SS. In this study, a P. melaninogenica GAI 07411 mutant deficient in the orthologue of the T9SS‐encoding gene, porK, was constructed. Hemagglutination and biofilm formation were decreased in the porK mutant. Furthermore, following growth on skim milk‐containing medium, the diameters of the halos surrounding the porK mutant were smaller than those of the wild‐type strain, suggesting a decrease in secretion of proteases outside the bacterium. To investigate this in detail, culture supernatants of wild‐type and porK mutant strains were purified and compared by two‐dimensional electrophoresis. In the mutant strain, fewer spots were detected, indicating fewer secreted proteins. In infection experiments, the mortality rate of mice inoculated with the porK mutant strain was significantly lower than in the wild‐type strain. These results suggest that P. melaninogenica secretes potent virulence factors via the T9SS that contribute to its pathogenic ability.


There is growing consensus that development of a semipermanent ice sheet on Antarctica began at or near the Eocene-Oligocene (E-O) boundary. Beyond ice-rafted debris in oceanic settings, however, direct evidence for a substantial ice sheet at this time has been limited and thus far restricted to East Antarctica. It is unclear where glacier ice first accumulated and how extensive it was on the Antarctic continent in the earliest Oligocene. Sediments at the top of the Eocene marine shelf section on Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, include glacial marine deposits and a lodgment till with clasts derived from a variety of rock units on the peninsula. Dinoflagellate biostratigraphy and strontium isotope stratigraphy indicate an age at or very close to the E-O boundary. Glacier ice extending to sea level in the northern peninsula at this time suggests the presence of a regionally extensive West Antarctica ice sheet, and thus an even more dramatic response to the forcing factors that facilitated high-latitude ice expansion in the earliest Oligocene.


In yeast, as much as 50 to 60% of all transcription events can be devoted to the production of protein-synthesizing machinery (rRNAs, ribosomal proteins, and tRNAs). Thus, regulation of the synthesis of this machinery is essential to survival under adverse conditions. The cell integrity pathway, which mediates the response to increases in osmotic pressure, has been implicated in the repression of transcription of the rRNAs by RNA polymerase I and the ribosomal protein RNAs by RNA polymerase II. Li et al. show that transcription of the tRNAs by RNA polymerase III is also inhibited in temperature-sensitive secretory pathway mutants in yeast. However, they provide evidence that the pathway mediating this repression diverges from the cell integrity pathway downstream of protein kinase C and, subsequently, branches again, allowing specific regulation of each of the three polymerases. Li, Y., Moir, R.D., Sethy-Coraci, I.K., Warner, J.R., and Willis, I.M. (2000) Repression of ribosome and tRNA synthesis in secretion-defective cells is signaled by a novel branch of the cell integrity pathway. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20: 3843-3851. [Abstract] [Full Text]


In dealing with Russia's Muslim minority, the government in Moscow is facing a challenge that is likely to become more serious in coming years. By most estimates, selfidentified Muslims make up at least 10 percent of the country's total population of approximately 143 million. Looking at population size alone underestimates the political and demographic influence of Russia's Muslims, however. Ethnic Muslims are growing in number even as Russia's total population shrinks. They are geographically concentrated in large cities, the Volga region, and, most significantly, the North Caucasus, a region that in recent years has been wracked by violence.


Electronic collections present new challenges and opportunities in order to improve editing tasks. They offer the possibility of using built-in edits in electronic questionnaires previously not possible in paper or other modes of data collection. This topic covers all issues relating to methods or strategies about editing of data acquired through electronic data collection (CAPI, CATI, CAWI, etc) and the way the respondents can carry out editing when using electronic questionnaires. Other related topics may include comparisons of editing practices between electronic collections and other collection modes, as well as different problems using multimode data collections. Measuring the respondent burden and the quality and reliability of the responses in order to provide valuable information to other survey processes is another issue of interest. Papers describing editing strategies to improve relationship with respondents or the general editing process are also welcome.


Abstract. A study has been conducted on the fuel consumption in direct sowing of wheat with a Horsch Avatar 6.16 SD direct seeder aggregated to a John Deere 7250 R tractor. The experimental field (29.53 ha) was sown with winter soft wheat (Silverio variety) at a sowing rate of 195 kg/ha. The data from the sowing unit were collected using the JD Link telematics system, downloaded from the system and imported and compiled in a database. Fuel consumption was analyzed in accordance with the operation mode, the idle mode and the transportion mode of the machine-tractor unit. It was found that the average fuel consumption in work mode (when the seeder was sowing) was 23.08 l/h, while in transportion mode the seeding unit consumed 16.55 l/h and while the unit was idling it consumed 4.30 l/h. The results also show that the seeding unit has travelled 63 km and consumed 185 L of diesel fuel at an average diesel consumption of 23.08 l/h.


Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a very important disease of cattle in Great Britain, where it has been increasing in incidence and geographical distribution. In addition to cattle, it infects other species of domestic and wild animals, in particular the European badger (Meles meles). Policy to control bTB is vigorously debated and contentious because of its implications for the livestock industry and because some policy options involve culling badgers, the most important wildlife reservoir. This paper describes a project to provide a succinct summary of the natural science evidence base relevant to the control of bTB, couched in terms that are as policy-neutral as possible. Each evidence statement is placed into one of four categories describing the nature of the underlying information. The evidence summary forms the appendix to this paper and an annotated bibliography is provided in the electronic supplementary material.


The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) recently adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This paper draws on prior literature on the implementation of large-scale educational reforms to frame CCSS implementation in terms of eight core tasks, each tailored to the DoDEA context. These tasks are based on a synthesis of scale-up efforts from 15 diverse, large-scale reforms.


There are many incidents of increasing fluoride concentrations observed in India's groundwater. In the present study, the fluoride content was chemically analysed and integrated with geochemical model WATEQ4F sampled from Allahabad district, Northern India, with other water quality parameters. Geospatial technique was employed to depict the spatial distribution of fluoride concentrations, over this plain, normalized with WHO (World Health Organization) and BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) standards represented in the form of spatially interpolated maps. Hydro-geological conditions, such as weathering, geochemical reactions, alkaline nature of water, ion-exchange and high variability in temperature range, were taken into account in describing the geo or anthropogenic contributions to fluoride in groundwater. A large database of available ancillary information on related factors, such as soil properties, geological settings and climatic and topographical information, on a local scale, were also taken into account to rationalize the results. The analysis implies that post-monsoon samples have elevated concentration of fluoride compared with the pre-monsoon samples, with several zones found severely contaminated with fluoride as compared with the set standards in both seasons. The correlation analysis revealed a high correlation of fluoride, with fluorite mineral saturation index, followed by calcite and magnesite, indicating that these minerals could be used as geochemical indicators for fluoride contaminated areas.


In one of his publications, the politician and merchant Anthony Bacon asked if 'some honest Persons, of plain Understanding, and of tolerable Judgement and Experience, could be engaged, at the Government's Expence, to make the general Tour of North America'. This person, he thought, would be able to forge a connexion between the metropolitan centre and the far-flung reaches of America and improve the relationship between mother country and colony by increasing the level of understanding of the other on both sides of the Atlantic. Bacon appreciated that this lack of knowledge of their American brethren meant that British politics and politicians were often working with limited, or biased, information when formulating imperial policy.

This thesis analyses the ways six MPs with significant American connexions operated throughout the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s. It establishes that these men operated at the highest levels of British politics at this time and sought to create themselves as the predominant experts on the American colonies. In the debates on the nature of the British Empire throughout the 1760s and 1770s, these men were at the forefront of the political mind and, at least until the hardening of opinions in the 1770s, had an impact on the way in which the colonies were governed. More than that, however, this work has shown that – contrary to much earlier belief – the House of Commons in the later eighteenth century was not working in ignorance of the situation in the Americas: rather, there were a small but significant number of men with real and personal connexions to, and knowledge about, the colonies. As the imperial grounds shifted through the 1770s, however, even the most well-versed of these 'American MPs' began to appear to have suffered some disconnection from the colonial viewpoint.

This thesis takes into account the Atlantic and imperial networks under which these MPs worked and formed their political theories and opinions. In addition, it seeks in some way to bring the politics of the American Revolution into the fold of Atlantic History and to assess the ways in which those with the greatest experience of working in the peripheries of empire sought to reshape and reorganise its structure from the metropole after the close of the Seven Years War.


The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, draws attention to two long-standing social insurance programs that pay cash benefits to families when a breadwinner dies. Workers' compensation pays benefits if a worker is killed at work. Social Security pays families whether or not the worker's death is work-related. Although neither program is best known for its life insurance component, both can provide substantial income to surviving families. This tragedy highlights important differences between Social Security - which pools risk across the nation - and workers' compensation - which puts financial risk on individual employers and their insurers. For Social Security, the impact of the September 11th tragedy will not be large, because the number of new applicants represents a small fraction of the total number of new claims. State-based workers' compensation programs, however, are more vulnerable to catastrophic events. State workers' compensation programs vary in eligibility standards and benefit levels. New York is one of the few states that reduce a widow(er)'s benefit if she or he also receives Social Security. New York also has a relatively low cap on weekly benefits. In the decades since Social Security and workers' compensation began, health insurance coverage has become increasingly important for financial security. Although various federal and state programs are available, maintaining a secure connection to group health insurance can be problematic when a breadwinner dies. Neither Social Security nor workers' compensation programs offer assistance in this area.


This research was conducted to study the effects of Narcissistic leadership displayed in the public and private sector of Pakistan. Leadership style is of utmost importance at the workplace. It's a frequent observed phenomenon in corporate world that employers develop a great degree of Narcissism i.e. self admiration among themselves. Subsequently this narcissistic leadership style manifests into certain negative behaviours as defensiveness, mistrusting others, paranoia, self promotion, indifference etc. which not only undermines his/her leadership effectiveness but also have grave effects on employees. As a result, there is a phenomenal reduction in the components of employees' psychological contract. Although there have been numerous international studies on narcissistic leadership highlighting what constitute as narcissistic behaviours in employers and their impact on employee's psychological contract yet such comprehensive studies in the local corporate context have been missing. This research aimed at identifying; what percentage of Pakistani bosses, in our sample, from within the banking sector, exhibit narcissism, what are the behavioural manifestations of this narcissism, what percentage of bosses display narcissistic behaviours at work and to what degree, and what is the impact of such boss behaviours on employee's psychological contract. For this purpose a questionnaire was designed and data was collected from a sample of 96 people within various public and private sector organizations. Four hypotheses were developed and tested through regression analysis. Various other statistical techniques including demographical analysis, reliability analysis and correlations were also employed for data analysis. The survey findings show strong correlations between determinants of narcissistic leadership and components of employee psychological contract. It brings a comprehensive insight as how boss's narcissism hurts the employees and ultimately the organizations. The comparison of public and private sector in this regard does not show any considerable variations. The research concludes with various ways of shaping organizational climate and enhancing workplace sanity. In the end, certain recommendations are included which highlight different designs of measuring and channelizing narcissism among bosses.


Two kata from the recommended list: Gankaku-crane standing on a rock-a name descriptive of this kata, which has techniques for striking upward or downward with either hand while standing on one foot. Here are dazzling techniques for counterattacking with the back-fist or side kick.In the Jion kata there are many crisp, flowing movements, but within these calm, harmonious movements are strong, spirited techniques appropriate for mastering shifting positions, changing directions and sliding the feet.


Abstract. Urbanization is one of the most important human social activities in the 21st century (Chaolin et al., 2012). With an increasing number of people visiting cities, the provision of adequate urban service facilities, including public and commercial service facilities, in locations where people live has become an important guarantee of the success of urbanization. Exploring the commercial service facilities in a specific area of a city can help us understand the progress and trends of urban renewal in the area, provide a quantitative basis for evaluating the rationality of planning implementation, and facilitate an analysis of the effects of different factors on the regional development of a city (Schor et al. 2003). In this paper, we proposed a data processing and analysis method for studying the distribution and development pattern of urban commercial facilities based on customer reviews. In addition, based on road network constraints, we explored the patterns contained in customer reviews data, including patterns for the spatial distribution and spatial-temporal evolution of facilities as well as the number of facilities and degree of satisfaction.


Considered the biggest threat to marine ecosystems today, it is estimated that three fourths of the world's fish stocks are being harvested faster than they can reproduce. Because the ocean is not subject to defined property rights, there exists a "race to the bottom" encouraged by the rise of industrial fishing, as well as a voracious global demand. The Atlantic bluefin tuna provides a glaring example of an overfished species on the brink of extinction due to its popularity in the Japanese market. Its rarity and esteem have made it the most expensive fish in the sea and policy has so far failed to hinder the hunt for this profitable species. As a top predator in the marine food chain its viability poses a potential threat to maintaining balance in the ocean's ecosystem and tuna ranching largely perceived as a sustainable solution has only served to exacerbate that problem by jeopardizing the ocean's natural processes. Additionally, the intrinsic value of bluefin tuna and fish species in general has created little sympathy among consumers. For real change to happen, in the form of bluefin tuna being able to successfully replenish itself and reproduce, consumer awareness, international cooperation, and adherence to sustainable fishing will be required.


People with fixed mindsets believe that fundamental qualities like intelligence are essentially stable; people with growth mindsets believe that such qualities can be developed and nurtured.
Research shows that learners with growth mindsets are more: open to challenges and constructively critical feedback; resilient in the face of obstacles and failure; convinced that effort makes a difference; able to learn well with and from others; likely to succeed. If we can foster growth mindsets in our pupils the results will be transformative. The Growth Mindset Pocketbook is full of classroom strategies for doing just that.
Barry Hymer and Mike Gershon look at high-challenge tasks and the value of errors, mistakes and failure; exactly what we mean by effort and how to make that attractive to students; great feedback; the power of language; and 'going seriously meta' – equipping students to think about their own thinking and learn about their own learning.


HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) is now the third leading cause of end-stage renal disease in the African American population. HIV-1 infects renal tubular and glomerular epithelial cells or podocytes, cells that are a critical part of the filtration barrier. HIV-1 infection induces the loss of podocyte differentiation markers and increases podocyte proliferation. It has been previously shown that HIV-infection induces loss of contact inhibition. Here, the HIV-1 gene responsible for proliferative changes is identified by using cultured podocytes in vitro. The HIV-1 proviral construct, pNL4-3 was rendered noninfectious by replacing the HIV-1 gag/pol sequences with an EGFP reporter gene (pNL4-3: DeltaG/P-EGFP). This construct was then pseudotyped with VSV.G envelope to infect podocytes that were conditionally immortalized with SV-40 T antigen. In addition, mutated constructs were engineered with premature stop codons in the HIV-1 env, vif, vpr, vpu, nef, or rev genes. The parental construct and all the other mutated constructs, with the exception of nef, induced proliferation under nonpermissive conditions and anchorage-independent growth (colony formation in soft agar) under permissive conditions. In contrast, deletion of nef markedly reduced proliferation and colony formation. Although tat alone, or tat plus rev induced marginal levels of anchorage-independent growth, coexpression with nef significantly increased colony formation. Finally, stable expression of Nef in a retroviral vector, pBabe-puro, was sufficient to induce increased proliferation and colony formation. Moreover, nef induced saturation density and loss of contact inhibition. These data indicate that Nef induces multiple proliferative effects in podocytes in culture and that nef may therefore be an important gene in the pathogenesis of HIVAN in vivo.


Abstract Basin-scale internal waves within the Great Salt Lake (GSL) have been investigated numerically. In particular, the Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes equations were solved to predict the internal basin-scale wave motion in the south arm of the GSL. Forcing of the wave motion was through surface stresses induced by a spatially uniform but temporally varying wind distribution. The brine distribution was initialized as an upper layer with salinity 120 ppt over a deep brine layer of salinity 240 ppt. The simulations were run for 1 month period with wind forcing data from the Salt Lake City International Airport for the months March, April, May, and June 2006. Results indicate the existence of a Kelvin wave propagating counterclockwise about the perimeter of the basin with a period of ∼24 h.


This paper reviews the pattern of bank failures during the financial crisis and asks whether there was a link with corporate governance. It revisits the theory of bank governance and suggests a multi-constituency approach that emphasizes the role of weak creditors. The empirical evidence suggests that, on average, banks with stronger risk officers, less independent boards, and executives with less variable remuneration incurred fewer losses. There is no evidence that institutional shareholders opposed aggressive risk-taking. The Financial Stability Board published Principles for Sound Compensation Practices in 2009, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued principles for enhancing corporate governance in 1999, 2006, and 2010. The reports have in common that shareholders retain residual control and executive pay continues to be aligned with shareholder interests. However, we argue that bank governance is different and requires more radical departures from traditional governance for non-financial firms. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.


The purpose of this study is to explore craft textile production in Bangladesh and the implications for its incorporation into the international supply chain. International trade brings revenue to governments in the form of foreign exchange; craft offers a comparative advantage as it potentially embodies the culture and heritage of the land of origin thereby imbuing it with uniqueness. Craft textiles which currently survive in remote village areas struggle to compete in the global market as there are no strong networks to reach international market. Internationalisation of these Bangladeshi craft textile is essential not only to keep the local heritage alive but also to secure finance of rural poor people especially women. In order to understand the contexts of the Bangladeshi textile crafts, key issues of the global supply chain such as buyers and manufacturers, networking and communication, design strategy and preservation of traditional designs, quality, price, and lead time were identified from the literature reviewed. The central notions of the research are that (i) exports of craft textiles are of significant value to developing economies such as Bangladesh, (ii) craft production is an accessible business requiring little initial investment for technology and generates revenue for local and this is especially important for women as they are a high proportion of workforce in the craft sector and (iii) the low initial investments lead to much production taking place at home raising issues of inequalities of age, gender, income and opportunities.

The research took a qualitative approach to interview members of a conceptual supply chain in Bangladesh that may play a role in developing an international market for the traditional textiles. The members were: textile craft manufacturer, a senior officer in the export department of textile craft manufacturer and retailer, a merchandising manager in a textile sourcing house in Bangladesh, a mainstream apparel buyer in UK, employee of a craft retailer in UK and a researcher, and teacher of textiles of Bangladesh.

From the research conducted, it was found that the Bangladeshi craft industry needs to focus in three major areas: Marketing and promotion of the products to international market, introduction and communication with potential buyers, and enriching market knowledge. From the interviews conducted it is appeared that other issues associated with exporting textile crafts in a position to be improved with proper planning and practical implementation. Finally a structure of an integrated supply chain was proposed, however this may have limited applicability to companies at different stages of export market development.


We propose a new heuristic called Resubmission Impact to support fault tolerant execution of scientific workflows in heterogeneous parallel and distributed computing environments. In contrast to related approaches, our method can be effectively used on new or unfamiliar environments, even in the absence of historical executions or failure trace models. On top of this method, we propose a dynamic enactment and rescheduling heuristic able to execute workflows with a high degree of fault tolerance, while taking into account soft deadlines. Simulated experiments of three real-world workflows in the Austrian Grid demonstrate that our method significantly reduces the resource waste compared to conservative task replication and resubmission techniques, while having a comparable makespan and only a slight decrease in the success probability. On the other hand, the dynamic enactment method manages to successfully meet soft deadlines in faulty environments in the absence of historical failure trace information or models.


We examined benthic algal response to nutrient enrichment by nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and N + P in mangrove wetlands of The Bahamas, to test the hypothesis that human impacts (fragmentation) on these ecosystems altered nutrient limitation, thereby changing the frequency and/or magnitude at which ecological synergies occurred. Fragmentation occurred due to road construction, resulting in reduced hydrological connectivity between the wetlands and marine environment. Strong, persistent, and synergistic nutrient colimitation occurred in both pristine and fragmented estuaries. Ecosystem fragmentation did not alter the biomass response to dual nutrient enrichment, but did alter the relative magnitude of the nonadditive response. That is, synergistic responses were less extreme in fragmented systems. This was supported by the strong, negative relationship between ambient algal biomass (a surrogate for background productivity) and the strength of synergistic responses (R2 = 0.69 and 0.79, year 1 and year 2, respectively). Bahamian coastal ecosystems exhibited the greatest synergistic responses reported for a marine ecosystem, suggesting that the benthic algal communities associated with Bahamian wetlands are among the most nutrient‐limited marine ecosystems. Our findings provide a case study illustrating how altered nutrient dynamics associated with land‐use change may decrease the frequency and/or magnitude of synergistic responses to nutrients in aquatic ecosystems.


This descriptive study explores the phenomenon of disclosure of HIV infection by women. Specifically, we examined women's level of disclosure to various groups and how these disclosure decisions are made. The sample consisted of 322 HIV-infected women residing in the southern US. Participants were predominantly African-American, single women of reproductive age with yearly incomes less than $10,000. Data were collected at the first interview of a longitudinal study of reproductive decision making. Findings showed that the majority of the women had disclosed to some sex partners, close family and friends, and health care professionals. However, for a group of women, disclosure of HIV infection is a difficult issue supporting the need for health education and counseling. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis and revealed three major categories describing how women make disclosure decisions: full disclosure, criteria for disclosure and emotional disclosure. Quantitative analysis revealed few demographic differences among women in the three disclosure categories. These findings provide insight that can assist those working with HIV-infected women in helping them decide not only to whom they disclose, but how best to disclose.


The Channel Tunnel is made up of 2 long railway tunnels of about 50 km long and connected every 250 m by 2 m diameter pipes. These pipes, called piston relief ducts, allow the air pushed by a train to go from one tunnel to another to limit the piston effect due to the trains. Pressure drop devices are placed in the ducts to limit the flow speed. Eurotunnel is studying the possibility to replace these devices with turbines. These turbines must operate with flows alternatively in both directions, while keeping the same rotation direction. This study focused on the design and simulation of self-rectifying turbines adapted to the Channel Tunnel ducts. It is therefore proposed here to evaluate the adaptation of the various existing concepts by means of one-dimensional calculations and 2D numerical simulations. Two types of turbines are studied: Wells and Impulse turbines. A preliminary design of the two types of turbines is proposed and their performances are discussed.


Integer Prograw~ing is one of the most fascinating and difficult areas in the field of Mathematical Optimization. Due to this fact notable research contributions to Integer Programming have been made in very different branches of mathematics and its applications. Since these publications are scattered over many journals, proceedings volumes, monographs, and working papers, a comprehensive bibliography of all these sources is a helpful tool even for specialists in this field. I initiated this compilation of literature in 1970 at the Institut fur ~konometrie und Operations Research, University of Bonn. Since then many collaborators have contributed to and worked on it. Among them Dipl.-Math. Claus Kastning has done the bulk of the work. With great perseverance and diligence he has gathered all the material and checked it with the original sources. The main aim was to incorporate rare and not easily accessible sources like Russian journals, preprints or unpublished papers. Without the invaluable and dedicated engagement of Claus Kastning the bibliography would never have reached this final version. For this reason he must be considered its responsible editor. As with any other collection this literature list has a subjective viewpoint and may be in some sense incomplete. We have however tried to be as complete as possible. The bibliography contains 4704 different publications by 6767 authors which were classified by 11839 descriptor entries.


It has been theoretically predicted and experimentally shown that circular coaxial aperture arrays have higher transmissivities with respect to simple circular ones. This observation is mainly attributed to the propagating waveguide modes supported by the circular coaxial unit cell. In this letter, we investigate extraordinary light transmission in simple rectangular and coaxial rectangular aperture arrays through decaying TE waveguide modes at mid-infrared wavelengths. We demonstrate enhanced transmissions for the rectangular coaxial aperture arrays with respect to simple ones indicating that the enhancement of extraordinary light tranmission in coaxial structures can not be simply explained by the presence of propagating waveguide modes. Using 3-D FDTD simulations and experimental analysis of the localized plasmons at the aperture rims of the individual apertures, the nature and the enhancement of extraordinary light transmission for the coaxial apertures are shown. Shape anisotropy of the apertures is utilized for polarization control of the transmitted light through the total suppression of the desired polarizations. Depolarization ratios larger than the commercially available holographic wire grid polarizers are obtained. The reported results indicate the underlying physics of enhanced extraordinary transmission in coaxial aperture arrays is intricate and merits further scientific attention while practical applications are possible through the controlling of the aperture shapes.


This paper introduces a new point-absorber wave energy converter (WEC) with a moonpool buoy—the moonpool platform wave energy converter (MPWEC). The MPWEC structure includes a cylinder buoy and a moonpool buoy and a Power Take-off (PTO) system, where the relative movement between the cylindrical buoy and the moonpool buoy is exploited by the PTO system to generate energy. A 1:10 scale model was physically tested to validate the numerical model and further prove the feasibility of the proposed system. The motion responses of and the power absorbed by the MPWEC studied in the wave tank experiments were also numerically analyzed, with a potential approach in the frequency domain, and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code in the time domain. The good agreement between the experimental and the numerical results showed that the present numerical model is accurate enough, and therefore considering only the heave degree of freedom is acceptable to estimate the motion responses and power absorption. The study shows that the MPWEC optimum power extractions is realized over a range of wave frequencies between 1.7 and 2.5 rad/s.


Objective: The aim of this paper was to report a case of orofacial granulomatosis, with immunohistochemical evaluation of some inflammatory cells that would be involved on its etiopathogenesis. Methods: The specimen was collected through biopsy for diagnostic proposal and was further submitted to immunohistochemistry for CD3, CD20, S-100, D2-40, and AE1/AE3. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in inflammatory cells in granulomatous nodules and through the oral mucosa. Results: In the granulomas, CD3+ cells were the main component of inflammatory cells. S-100+ cells were seen diffusely distributed. CD20+ cells were observed in a lower amount than CD3+ and S-100+. D2-40 staining evidenced some large lymphatic vessels, which were surrounded by inflammatory cells. Besides the granulomas, an intense and diffuse inflammatory infiltrate was seen in connective tissue, immediately below the epithelium with a large number of CD3+ cells in intimate contact. A disorganization of the basal layer of epithelium was also present. AE1/AE3 was positive only in the keratinocytes. S-100+ cells were numerous in the connective tissue, and infiltrating the epithelium. CD20+ cells were observed in a lower number than CD3+ and S-100+, mainly located in a deeper region of the connective tissue. Conclusions: Dendritic cells and T lymphocytes were the major components of inflammatory infiltrate in oral mucosa and granulomatous nodules. The observed epithelial disorganization was quite similar to that of lichen planus. The findings corroborate to a cell-mediated immunological background of orofacial granulomatosis.


As the enlargement of the European Union (EU) increases the scope and population of Europe, social integration has been pushed to the forefront of political debate. Over the past decade, incidents such as the murder of Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri in 2004 or the political furor caused by the French ban on hijab in 2003 call into question Europe's ability to successfully integrate its diverse minority populations. When the EU took steps to move beyond an economic free trade area to a unified political entity, it strived to create a European identity shared by all of its citizens. However, the opening of borders between all member countries, which was intended to promote freedom of travel and the integration of nations, has instead heralded anti-immigrant sentiment that could undermine the entire project if given a chance to develop. Now, the steady flow of migrants from both within the EU and abroad exacerbates tensions with minority populations that must be solved before the continent welcomes further expansion. Expansion's Impact As described in the Single European Act of 1986, the European Union exists to promote the free exchange of peoples, goods, services, and capital. Such political integration has necessitated the opening of borders and passport controls between the EU's current member states. Much of Western Europe is stable and relatively prosperous, so the first four waves of enlargement strengthened political and market connections without provoking controversy. The 2004 and 2007 waves of enlargement, however, introduced twelve Central and Eastern European countries, which were economically impoverished and religiously and socially distinct. Tensions became evident when two-thirds of the existing member states refused to immediately open their borders to the accession states, opting instead for a gradual accommodation of migrants. The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Sweden were the only member nations that did not utilize the seven-year transitional phase that was drafted into the A10's accession treaties. The transition period was intended to let the EU-15 fortify their economies for the mass migration of unskilled laborers, a potentially destabilizing influx that had been causing widespread fear and opposition to open immigration. Even the United Kingdom, despite opening its borders, reacted to its citizens' concerns of unemployment through drastic immigration policy changes. Since then, member states have hotly debated the issue and changed their legislative policies on immigration, nearly always moving towards more stringent controls on the levels of migration. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The enlargement of the EU creates two infra-regional tensions that ultimately hinder the civic integration of immigrants. First, open immigration from economically weak countries to more prosperous societies has created an influx of unskilled labor into Western Europe. The host countries' governments have not only been proven wrong in their estimates of migrant numbers, but they have also been unable to keep accurate records of the people entering their nations in pursuit of work. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Home Office predicted in 2004 that only 15,000 migrants would arrive each year to the UK, but an estimated 300,000 migrated the following year. These unexpectedly large numbers concern European citizens, who believe that the unskilled laborers from new EU countries threaten their national economies and employment rates. Second, ethnic and/or religious tensions have been confused with economic opposition to open immigration. Polish migrants arc disparagingly referred to as "Polish plumbers," and some Europeans have voiced opinions that the foreign labor is diluting their national culture. Opposition to intra-European immigration has prevented Europeans from settling in other countries as EU citizens, and the sympathetic reactions of policymakers wanting" to appease the public desire for more stringent measures build resentment among migrants and stifle integration on the national level. …


This book picks up from where "100 Top Houses from Down Under" left off with another fabulous collection of Aussie and Kiwi houses. There is something special about the way that 'our' architects and designers approach house design - in the way they exploit site, location, materials and the climate to add to the ever-evolving Down Under residential vernacular.Some of the stand-out projects in this new compilation include a former petrol station in New Zealand that is now a beautiful contemporary home (complete with mechanic's bay/wine cellar!) ; a house in Brisbane built specifically as a showcase of sustainability; a coastal house in Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula that uses a mathematical surface as its model, with intriguing spatial results; a quirky house in New Zealand that alludes to a nearby railway station; a house in suburban Melbourne that brings the garden inside, encouraging ecological diversity and modelling sustainable building practices; several examples of significant renovations to period homes; tranquil rural properties that engage so completely with the landscape as to almost disappear; some streamlined, hip hard-edged warehouse/apartment projects; gorgeous beachside projects with the requisite ocean views - the list continues.There are many common themes that link these seemingly diverse projects, but the overwhelming thread is the architects' commitment to an environmental agenda. No longer are passive and active thermal and solar devices, rainwater harvesting and storage, non-mechanical ventilation and the like considered new or experimental. They are integral elements that enrich and enhance the superb architecture practised 'Down Under'.


Property theory is thriving. Having been long dominated by a disintegrative approach building up on the bundle of rights concept, scholars are now reexamining essentialist models of property, with the right to exclude featuring prominently as property's prospective core. These theories study various resources, from land to intellectual property, to pinpoint such an essence. Oddly enough, largely missing from these accounts is the most prominent source of wealth in today's world: the business corporation. While corporate law theory is increasingly looking beyond the nexus of contracts theory to illuminate the firm's proprietary foundations, property theory has yet to fit the business corporation into its newly integrative framework. The paper argues that this deficiency is not merely a coincidence. In many ways, the business corporation undermines the paradigms of current property theory. To start with, Berle and Means's underlying notion of divorce of ownership from control in the business corporation seems antagonistic to the owner's right to exclude or to 'set the agenda' for the resource. In addition, while property theory recognizes the need to pool together resources and overcome collective action problems, conventional models of property governance such as residential community associations seem alienated from the power relations and vertical authority within the business firm. Specifically, the setting of a majority shareholder enjoying a control premium alongside owing fiduciary duties to dispersed minority shareholders is allegedly at odds with the horizontal governance assumption in property theory. It may be even unfavorably viewed as reminiscent of obsolete modes of status-based stratification in property, going back to feudalism. This inconvenience does not release, however, property theory from accounting for the core nature of the business corporation. Moreover, the paper argues that once we move from a model of substantive essentialism to one that identifies the institutional and structural traits of property, then the business corporation becomes a much better fit for current property jurisprudence.


Abstract Greater uptake of solar panels on rental housing would have implications for housing affordability and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The influence of energy investments on housing values has been widely studied, with past research often finding a positive relationship. However, there is missing knowledge for the specific relationship between solar panels and housing rents. This study finds that Australian renters with solar panels pay approximately A$19 more in weekly housing rents than non-solar renters. The results suggest that landlords have been able to benefit from investments in solar panels through higher rent, with a payback period of around 5 years. The study provides context for policymakers across the world considering subsidies for solar panels on rental housing. The findings are robust across multiple methods including entropy balancing and are based on two large Australian household surveys. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2021.2004094 .


Summary The benefits of climate policy normally consist exclusively of the reduced impacts of climate change, i.e., the policy's primary aim. Our analysis of benefits of climate policy suggests, how ever, that researchers and policymakers should also take account of ancillary benefits, e.g., in the shape of improved air quality induced by climate protection measures. A consideration of both, primary and ancillary benefits, has a positive influence on global climate protection efforts, e.g., because the regional impact of ancillary effects attenuates easy-riding motives of countries with respect to their provision of climate protection. In this article, we analyze the nature of ancillary benefits, present an overview of European assessment studies and explain possible methods to estimate ancillary benefits. Main differences between primary and ancillary benefits are pointed out. Furthermore, we stress the major influences of ancillary benefits on climate policy. Finally, we present one of the first models integrating primary and ancillary benefits. By this model quan titative results are calculated with respect to ancillary benefits in the UK considering different greenhouse gas (GHG) control levels. It is observed that the ancillary benefits could cover about 4 percent of the full GHG reduction cost.


A sensor consisting of two fiber-optic interferometers of slightly different sensitivities can offer both high sensitivity and a wide dynamic range when the phase difference between the two interferometer outputs is used to identify the order of the fringe from either interferometer output. This technique is demonstrated with a polarimetric temperature sensor utilizing two different lengths of stress-induced birefringent fibers as sensing elements.


This article discusses various financial instruments that can be used to infer the Bank Rate expectations of financial market participants and examines how well these measures have predicted Bank Rate in the past. It also examines the role of model-based and survey information in assessing financial market Bank Rate expectations. The article suggests that it is important to adjust market interest rates for credit, liquidity and term premia when inferring expectations. It finds that credit and liquidity premia can largely be accounted for, either through the choice of financial instrument or by making some simple adjustments. Although recent advances in term structure modelling provide some useful techniques for adjusting for term premia, there is considerable uncertainty about how robust they are. It remains prudent therefore not to rely on any one measure and instead to use a variety of methods and information for this purpose.


Elucidation and monitoring of biomarkers continues to expand because of their medical value and potential to reduce healthcare costs. For example, biomarkers are used extensively to track physiology associated with drug addiction, disease progression, aging, and industrial processes. While longitudinal analyses are of great value from a biological or healthcare perspective, the cost associated with replicate analyses is preventing the expansion of frequent routine testing. Frequent testing could deepen our understanding of disease emergence and aid adoption of personalized healthcare. To address this need, we have developed a system for measuring metabolite abundance from raw biofluids. Using a metabolite extraction chip (MEC), based upon diffusive extraction of small molecules and metabolites from biofluids using microfluidics, we show that biologically relevant markers can be measured in blood and urine. Previously it was shown that the MEC could be used to track metabolic changes in real-time. We now demonstrate that the device can be adapted to high-throughput screening using standard liquid chromatography mass spectrometry instrumentation (LCMS). The results provide insight into the sensitivity of the system and its application for the analysis of human biofluids. Quantitative analysis of clinical predictors including nicotine, caffeine, and glutathione are described.


A polymer–metal oxide nanocomposite is a key in developing a high-temperature insulation material for power electronics and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) subsea cables having the capability of transmitting offshore renewable energy with lower losses and higher reliability. To achieve a higher operation voltage level and larger power capacity at a reduced cable size, weight, and volume, the lighter material offering improved electrical insulation at a high operating temperature is required. Addition of metal oxide ceramics in the polymer is shown to improve the insulating properties of the polymer used in the cable and power electronic applications; however, their performance deteriorates at elevated temperatures as thermal energy facilitates the electron injection to the bulk material by following conduction according to the Schottky emission. In this work, the heat insulating Al2O3 nanoparticles are added to the MgO–polyethylene nanocomposite to observe the effect of the interface between mix oxide nanoparticles on current density and breakdown strength of the nanocomposite compared to the MgO–polyethylene nanocomposite at room and elevated temperatures (90 °C). The concentrations of the MgO and MgO + Al2O3 mixture were varied from 1 to 12 wt % to find out that the nanocomposite containing MgO showed the best response than MgO + Al2O3 at elevated and room temperatures. There was no unified trend observed in the leakage current density and breakdown strength results for the MgO + Al2O3 nanocomposite, indicating the absence of the interface formation between MgO and Al2O3. The decrease in the interaction radius, calculated using numerical simulation of the nanoparticle dispersion state, resulted in the high breakdown strength. Addition of 12 wt % MgO helped achieving the highest breakdown strength, but overall breakdown strength for the MgO + Al2O3 nanocomposite improved at elevated temperatures. All nanocomposites showed improved electrical insulating properties compared to virgin low-density polyethylene (Pure LDPE) .


Top-k pairs queries have many real applications. k closest pairs queries, k furthest pairs queries and their bichromatic variants are some of the examples of the top-k pairs queries that rank the pairs on distance functions. While these queries have received significant research attention, there does not exist a unified approach that can efficiently answer all these queries. Moreover, there is no existing work that supports top-k pairs queries based on generic scoring functions. In this paper, we present a unified approach that supports a broad class of top-k pairs queries including the queries mentioned above. Our proposed approach allows the users to define a local scoring function for each attribute involved in the query and a global scoring function that computes the final score of each pair by combining its scores on different attributes. We propose efficient internal and external memory algorithms and our theoretical analysis shows that the expected performance of the algorithms is optimal when two or less attributes are involved. Our approach does not require any pre-built indexes, is easy to implement and has low memory requirement. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed approach.


In Canada, Twitter still played a mostly peripheral role in political communication, mobilization, and organizing in 2010. This study provides a snapshot in time of how Twitter was redefining local political campaigns before social media become ubiquitous in electioneering. Focusing on the 2010 municipal elections in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (the nation's capital), this study considers how and to what extent social networking platforms help shape the dynamics of local electioneering; it maps the ways in which Twitter was used by the Ottawa-Carleton district school board, the Ottawa catholic school board, the Eastern Ontario French-language public school board, and ward and mayoral candidates for voter outreach; it also identifies what were then novel ways in which voters creatively used Twitter to participate independently in the electoral process and to attempt to influence its outcome. Finally, it discusses how traditional news organizations experimented with social media in covering elections and engaging with audiences and voters.


Sławomir Parzych 2017.05.16 by Marek Dragan The article presents test results concerning the welding procedure qualification of the production welding of heat-resistant cast steel GX40NiCrSiNb35-25 (1.4852) performed using filler metal WZ 25 35 Zr according to PN-EN ISO 14343. The welding procedure qualification test was performed in accordance with PN-EN ISO 11970. The test joint made using the TIG method (141) was subjected to non-destructive and destructive tests enabling the identification of the mechanical properties of the joint. The test results satisfied the requirements contained in PNEN ISO 11970 and constituted the basis enabling the preparation of a related welding procedure qualification report.


Abstract Various types of Augmented Reality (AR) have been successfully applied to many highly operable and spatial teaching courses in medicine, chemistry, and others. AR has already shown advantages over traditional face-to-face and online teaching, such as Zoom or Teams meetings. However, it is unclear when comparing teaching activity whether new AR technologies can offer similar advantages disciplines that are non-highly operational or non-spatial in nature, such as Introduction to Psychology. In order to present teaching activities in three dimensions and all directions and realize the presence of a teacher's face movement, we developed two new methods: Volumetric video Augmented Reality (VAR) and Avatar-based Augmented Reality (AAR). We compared the effects of teaching psychology using four methods: VAR, AAR, face-to-face, and Zoom. The participants' data were collected via questionnaires with which we conducted variance analysis and Pearson correlation analysis. Our experiments showed that there were no significant differences in the effects of teaching under the four different teaching methods, but the AAR and VAR groups had significantly higher curriculum novelty and satisfaction, 3D sensation and presence, and teacher's attractiveness than face-to-face and Zoom groups. The research demonstrated that both VAR and AAR can improve the sense of presence and satisfaction in teaching psychology-related courses.


The increasingly competitive global economy has pushed companies to exploit their available resources as a ways of achieving competitive advantage. Leadership is critically important because it has a huge impact on the condition of the organization. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationship among Leadership Commitment (LSC), Organizational Performance (ONP), and Employee Engagement (EYE) via their effects on a set of mediating variables of Employers Branding (EYB), Strategic Alignment (SGA), Organizational Agility (ONA), and Human Resource Practices (HRM). A conceptual model of these relationships was developed on existing theories. Data were collected from 26 petrochemical companies' managers to be analyzed as identifiers of the latent variables in the model. This process was completed using the principles of structural equation modeling (SEM) which required confirmatory factor analysis on the measurement model and path analysis on the structural model. The analysis finds that Leadership Commitment directly affects Organizational Performance and Employee Engagement. The study also finds that Employers Branding, Strategic Alignment, Organizational Agility, and Human Resource Practices are an intervening factor between Leadership Commitment, Organizational Performance, and Employee Engagement. In addition, Strategic Alignment does not directly relate to human resource practice- it does so indirectly via Employers Branding and Organizational Agility. This result suggests that an increasing behavior of leader who commit to staying with their company, working toward organizations' target success, focusing on achieving goals, and also working toward the success of organizational change, appears to influence the value of organizational performance as well as the engagement levels of employees.


I. INTRODUCTION As you brew your coffee and sit down to read the Wall Street Journal before heading to work, you look for your major stock holdings. After all, you have never been keen on waiting to retire at age 65. Thankfully, you see your two newest stocks are performing well; Latham & Watkins is up, as is Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. While this scenario is not yet a reality, the chance of public ownership of American law firms is rising dramatically. This is due to the world's first publicly traded1 law firm in Australia, and the United Kingdom's recently enacted Legal Services Act-which allows for public ownership of law firms.2 Every state in America currently has adopted an ethical rule that prevents public ownership3 of a law firm.4 Further, most states base their ethical rules on the American Bar Association's (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules).5 Among other prohibitions, Model Rule 5.4 states: "(d) A lawyer shall not practice with or in the form of a professional corporation or association authorized to practice law for a profit, if: (1) a nonlawyer owns any interest therein . . . ."6 Despite this absolute rule, the commission that proposed the initial version of the Model Rules in 1982 advocated a rule that would have allowed public ownership of law firms.7 Since the adoption of the Model Rules, scholars and lawyers have spent little time and effort considering the modification of the prohibition against public ownership.8 However, things are changing internationally. On May 21, 2007, a small plaintiff's firm in Australia became the world's first publicly traded law firm.9 Further, the United Kingdom recently enacted the Legal Services Act, which allows public ownership of law firms.10 The international movement toward public ownership of law firms leads one to wonder whether such a thing could ever occur in the United States. Part II.A discusses the concept of the "legal profession," as well as recent trends and changes to the profession. Part II.B summarizes America's history of ethical rules regarding public ownership. Specifically, Part II.B.3.i discusses the ABA commission that recommended the Model Rules allow public ownership. Part II.B.3 also discusses two local variations to Model Rule 5.4 and, more recently, a failed attempt to amend Model Rule 5.4 to allow multi-disciplinary practices. Finally, Part II.C of this Note discusses the events in Australia and the United Kingdom and the path each country is taking toward public ownership. Part III begins by analyzing conventional arguments for and against public ownership of law firms. Then, Part III.C discusses how to value a law firm seeking public ownership. Specifically, this Part discusses the simple method of using a price-earnings (P/E) ratio11 to value a company, and the advanced method that requires analysis of organizational capital and the invisible balance sheet. Finally, Part III.D summarizes the potential avenues for changing American ethical rules to allow public ownership, so that opponents of public ownership can better block any attempt to reform Model Rule 5.4. Part IV recommends that firms ultimately should not go public and that jurisdictions should not modify their ethical rules to allow public ownership. Rather than seek public ownership, firms should mimic going public by going through most of the steps of preparing for public ownership. In particular, firms should value themselves with an eye toward the invisible balance sheet. By analyzing themselves as if they were going public, firms will force themselves to focus on long-term stability and organizational capital. II. BACKGROUND A. The Legal Profession and Recent Trends and Changes Before embarking on an analysis of something as potentially revolutionary as public ownership of law firms, it is necessary to define "profession" and to understand the current state of the legal profession. …


Chemotaxis, the ability of cells to detect and migrate directly towards a source of a chemically active agent, is the result of a sophisticated interplay of proteins within a complex regulatory network. However, partially redundant pathways that simultaneously mediate chemotaxis and dynamic
protein distributions complicate the experimental identication of distinct signaling cascades and their inuence on chemotactic migration. Yet, increasingly precise generation and rapid modication of chemotactic stimuliin microuidic devices promise further insight into the basic principles of
cellular feedback signaling.
I developed a Chemotactic Gradient Generator (CGG) for the exposure of living cells to chemotactic gradient elds with alternating gradient direction based on a double T-junction microuidic chamber. A large extension of the concentration gradients enables the parallel exposure of several dozens of cells to identical chemotactic stimuli, allowing for a reliable quantitative analysis of the chemotactic migration behavior. Two pressure pumps and a syringe pump facilitate accurate control of the inow velocities at the individual
ow chamber inlets, pivotal for precise manipulation of the chemotactic stimuli. The CGG combines homogeneous gradients over a width of up to 300 µm and rapid alterations of gradient direction with switching frequencies up to 0.7 Hz.
Fast gradient switching in our experimental design facilitates cell stimulation at the intrinsic time scales of their chemotactic response as demonstrated by a gradual increase in the switching frequency of the gradient direction. We eventually observe a "chemotactically trapped" state of Dictyostelium discoideum (D. discoideum) cells at a switching rate of 0.01 Hz. Here, gradient switching proves too fast for the cells to respond to the altered gradient direction by migration.
In contrast, we observe oscillatory runs at switching frequencies of less than 0.02 Hz. We distinguish between re-polymerizing cells that exhibit an internal re-organization of the actin cortex in response to chemotactic stimulation and stably polarized cells that gradually adjust their leading edge when the gradient is switched. To experimentally characterize both response types, we record cell shape and the intracellular distribution of actin polymerization activity. Cell shape is readily described by the eccentricity of the cell and to record F-actin polymerization dynamics we introduce a fluorescence distribution moment (FDM).
Accurate description of the migratory response behavior facilitates a quantitative analysis of the inuence of both the experimental boundary conditions such as gradient shape, ongoing starvation of the cells, and in particular the inuence of distinct signaling cascades on chemotactic migration. Here, we demonstrate this ability of the GCC by inhibition of PI3-Kinase with LY 294002. PI3-Kinase initiates the formation of fresh pseudopods in the direction of the chemotactic gradient and therefore is one of the key signaling pathways mediating the chemotactic response.
In shallow gradients and with ongoing starvation of the cells, we find a decreased ratio of re-polymerizing cells, pointing towards a diminished influence of PI3-Kinase. After inhibition of PI3-Kinase, cell re-polymerization in response to a switch in gradient direction is hindered at 5h of starvation, whereas at 7h of starvation evidence is found that chemotactic migration is more efficient. We observe the astonishing result that in dependency of the boundary conditions of the experiment inhibition of PI3-Kinase promotes an effective chemotactic response. Thus, the CGG for the rst time facilitates a quantitative analysis of the starvation time dependent effect of PI3-Kinase inhibition on D. discoideum chemotaxis.


The challenges and opportunities facing today's agriculture within the climate change context are at least twofold: in addition to adapting to a potentially more variable climate, agriculture may also take on the addition role of mitigating GHG emissions—such as providing renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels to some extent. For the US, a large-scale GHG mitigation effort through biofuels production pursuant to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) is already unfolding. A question thus naturally arises for the RFS2-relevant US agricultural sector: will climate change make it harder to meet the volume goals set in the RFS2 mandates, considering that both climate change and RFS2 may have significant impacts on US agriculture? The agricultural component of FASOMGHG that models the land use allocation within the conterminous US agricultural sector is employed to investigate the effects of climate change (with autonomous adaptation at farm level), coupled with RFS2, on US agriculture. The analysis shows that climate change eases the burden of meeting the RFS2 mandates increasing consumer welfare while decreasing producer welfare. The results also show that climate change encourages a more diversified use of biofuel feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production, in particular crop residues.


Abstract. According to the Department of Energy of the USA, today's electrical distribution system is 97.97% reliable. However, power outages and interruptions still impact many people. Many power outages are caused by animals coming into contact with the conductive elements of the electrical substations. This can be prevented by covering the conductive electrical objects with insulating materials. The design of these custom-built insulating covers requires a 3D as-built plan of the substation. This research aims to develop automated methods to create such a 3D as-built plan using terrestrial LiDAR data for which objects first need to be recognized in the LiDAR point clouds. This paper reports on the application of a new algorithm for the segmentation of planar surfaces found at electrical substations. The proposed approach is a region growing method that aggregates points based on their proximity to each other and their neighbourhood dispersion direction. PCA (principal components analysis) is also employed to segment planar surfaces in the electrical substation. In this research two different laser scanners, Leica HDS 6100 and Faro Focus3D, were utilized to scan an electrical substation in Airdrie, a city located in north of Calgary, Canada. In this research, three subsets incorporating one subset of Leica dataset with approximately 1.7 million points and two subsets of the Faro dataset with 587 and 79 thousand points were utilized. The performance of our proposed method is compared with the performance of PCA by performing check point analysis and investigation of computational speed. Both methods managed to detect a great proportion of planar points (about 70%). However, the proposed method slightly outperformed PCA. 95% of the points that were segmented by both methods as planar points did actually lie on a planar surface. This exhibits the high ability of both methods to identify planar points. The results also indicate that the computational speed of our method is superior to that of PCA by 50%. It is concluded that our proposed method achieves better results with higher computational speed than PCA in the segmentation of planar surfaces.


Goat rearing is one of the most common livestock farming activities in Mozambique and has the potential to play a powerful role in improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers. This study was conducted to investigate the status of goat husbandry practices in rural areas of southern Mozambique. Data were collected from a total of 45 smallholder goat keepers in three different villages through questionnaires complemented by interviews. Most households were dependent on crop production and livestock as their main source of income. Goats were reared under extensive systems where free grazing and tethering were the common feeding management practices with limited supplementation during the dry season. The flock sizes per household were predominantly small (13 ± 2.4) with uncontrolled breeding of goats. The goats were reared mainly as a source of meat for home consumption and a means of reserve cash income. All household members were involved in goat production but women and children had a minor role in terms of decision making. The main constrains limiting goat production were diseases, lack of veterinary services, limited size of grazing land and scarcity of feed resources. Intervention programs focused on improving the husbandry practices and veterinary assistance should be initiated to improve goat production and thereby improve the income and livelihood of the resource-poor farmers in Mozambique. This paper presents a summary of the results of a baseline study in the Namaacha and Moamba districts of Mozambique.


Fabrication process and advantages of the new generation quasi-monolithic integration technology are presented. The novel fabrication process gives excellent advantages such as extremely low thermal resistance, and a much lower thermal stress than the earlier QMIT concept [1]. This highly improves the packaging lifetime and electrical characteristics of the active devices. The fabrication process is simple and compatible with fabrication of high-Q passive elements. In comparison to the old concept of QMIT, elimination of air-bridges in this technology not only reduces the parasitics but also enables the fabrication of the rest of the circuit after measuring the microwave characteristics of the embedded active devices. This makes very accurate microwave and millimetrewave designs possible. Using the new fabrication process, microwave and millimetrewave circuits (with both coplanar and microstrip lines) containing power devices have for the first time been realised.


AbstractWe report on the synthesis of Mn3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) using a novel sonochemical method without requiring any pH adjustment. Synthesized material was identified as tetragonal hausmannite crystal structure model of Mn3O4 from XRD analysis. Crystallite size was estimated from x-ray line profile fitting to be 17±5 nm. FTIR analysis revealed stretching vibrations of metal ions in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination confirming the crystal structure. TEM analysis revealed a dominantly cubic morphology of NPs with an average size of ∼20 nm. Magnetic evaluation revealed a blocking temperature, TB of 40 K above which the material behaves paramagnetic. Asymmetric coercive field is attributed to the interaction between ferromagnetic Mn3O4 and antiferromagnetic Mn oxide at the surface of nanoparticles.


Teaching and learning are inherently social processes. An important constituent element of social processes is the interpersonal relationship between those who interact. Accordingly, the teacher-student relationship, which is the central theme of this PhD thesis, has been a major topic in educational research. In the work presented in this thesis the teacher-student interaction is conceptualized in terms of perceptions of dominance versus submission (i.e., Influence), and of hostility versus affection (i.e., Proximity). The general question this thesis addresses is how time consistency in student perceptions of interpersonal teacher behaviour is constituted at the start of the school year. This question is approached by studying the general trend of the development of student perceptions, the generalizeability of this trend across classrooms, and the relation of student perceptions to moment-to-moment interaction in classrooms. The first study reported in chapter 2 focuses on the general trend of perceptions of interpersonal teacher behaviour across the first months of the school year, as well as between-classroom deviations from this trend. The second study (chapter 3) addresses the time consistency of student perceptions by applying a quasi-experimental approach. Student perceptions of a teacher at zero acquaintance are compared to perceptions of students who had been taught by the same teacher for at least a year. Chapter 4 reports on the third study, focusing on stability and variability in teacher-class interaction at the start of the school year. In this study, teacher student interactions in two classrooms that differ in terms of the quality of the teacher-class relationship are analysed. The approach employed was inspired by a graphical approach to observational data, utilizing State Space Grids (Lewis, Lamey, & Douglas, 1999). In the last study, included in chapter 5, the immediate and delayed effects of specific teacher behaviours (i.e., coercive and supportive behaviour) on teacher-class relationships is investigated. Thus rather than assuming a general trend in the development of relationships, lesson-to-lesson variability in Influence and Proximity is explained by lesson-specific classroom events. The general picture that emerges, taking the four studies this thesis entails together, is general time consistency in teacher-class relationships, with a slight tendency to deteriorate. It appears that already after a few minutes the relationship between teacher and class, and thus one of the most important factors of the social learning environment, is defined and apparent in its general outline. On average, no large changes should be expected in the interpersonal Influence and Proximity of a teacher in a classroom from that moment on. Nonetheless, lesson-to-lesson variability in relationships is clearly influenced both supportive and coercive teacher behaviour, notably effects of coercive behaviour are especially immediate and may thus be regarded temporary disruptions. Comparing moment-to-moment interaction in a more and a less favourable classroom in terms of interpersonal relationship showed that differences between the classrooms were already apparent during the first classroom lesson of the school year and became more pronounced during the second and third lessons.


This thesis is concerned with various aspects of the detection and characterisation of transiting extra-solar planets. The noise properties of photometric data from SuperWASP, a wide-field survey instrument designed to detect exoplanets, are investigated. There has been a large shortfall in the number of planets such transit surveys have detected, compared to previous predictions of the planet catch. It has been suggested that correlated, or red, noise in the photometry is responsible for this; here it is confirmed that red noise is present in the SuperWASP photometry, and its effects on planet discovery are quantified. Examples are given of follow-up photometry of candidate transiting planets, confirming that modestly-sized telescopes can rule out some candidates photometrically. A Markov-chain Monte Carlo code is developed to fit transit lightcurves and determine the depth of such lightcurves in different passbands. Tests of this code with transit data of WASP-3 b are reported. The results of a search for additional transiting planets in known transiting planetary systems are presented. SuperWASP photometry of 24 such systems is searched for additional transits. No further planets are discovered, but a strong periodic signal is detected in the photometry of WASP-10. This is ascribed to stellar rotational variation, the period of which is determined to be 11.91 ± 0.05 days. Monte Carlo modelling is performed to quantify the ability of SuperWASP to detect additional transiting planets; it is determined that there is a good (> 50 per cent) chance of detecting additional, Saturn-sized planets in P ∼ 10 day orbits. Finally, the first-ever attempt to detect the secondary eclipse of a transiting extra-solar planet at radio wavelengths is made. Although no eclipse is conclusively detected, upper limits to the flux density from HD 189733 b are established, and compared to theoretical predictions of the flux due to electron-cyclotron maser emission.


For peer-to-peer web search engines it is important to keep the delay between receiving a query and providing search results within an acceptable range for the end user. How to achieve this remains an open challenge. One way to reduce delays is by caching search results for queries and allowing peers to access each others cache. In this paper we explore the limitations of search result caching in large-scale peer-to-peer information retrieval networks by simulating such networks with increasing levels of realism. We find that cache hit ratios of at least thirty-three percent are attainable.


This report describes the approaches necessary for the measurement, monitoring and reporting of structure, biomass and carbon stocks in mangrove forests. Mangroves are coastal ecosystems providing numerous ecosystem services affecting both marine and terrestrial resources. In addition, they contain substantial carbon stocks and, due to high rates of deforestation, are significant sources of carbon emissions. Because of their value as carbon stocks and sinks and their numerous other benefits, mangroves could be excellent candidates for carbon mitigation programmes including Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks in Developing Countries (REDD+). This publication outlines biologically relevant and statistically valid approaches to the efficient and accurate assessment of ecosystem structure, biomass and carbon stocks of mangrove forests.


Abstract Flapping wings often feature a leading-edge vortex (LEV) that is thought to enhance the lift generated by the wing. Here the lift on a wing featuring a leading-edge vortex is considered by performing experiments on a translating flat-plate aerofoil that is accelerated from rest in a water towing tank at a fixed angle of attack of 15°. The unsteady flow is investigated with dye flow visualization, particle image velocimetry (PIV) and force measurements. Leading- and trailing-edge vortex circulation and position are calculated directly from the velocity vectors obtained using PIV. In order to determine the most appropriate value of bound circulation, a two-dimensional potential flow model is employed and flow fields are calculated for a range of values of bound circulation. In this way, the value of bound circulation is selected to give the best fit between the experimental velocity field and the potential flow field. Early in the trajectory, the value of bound circulation calculated using this potential flow method is in accordance with Kelvin's circulation theorem, but differs from the values predicted by Wagner's growth of bound circulation and the Kutta condition. Later the Kutta condition is established but the bound circulation remains small; most of the circulation is contained instead in the LEVs. The growth of wake circulation can be approximated by Wagner's circulation curve. Superimposing the non-circulatory lift, approximated from the potential flow model, and Wagner's lift curve gives a first-order approximation of the measured lift. Lift is generated by inertial effects and the slow buildup of circulation, which is contained in shed vortices rather than bound circulation.


This paper describes the implementation of a kinetic gas-particle partitioning approach used for the simulation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation within the SPectral Aerosol Cloud Chemistry Interaction Model (SPACCIM). The kinetic partitioning considers the diffusion of organic compounds into aerosol particles and the subsequent chemical reactions in the particle phase. The basic kinetic partitioning approach is modified by the implementation of chemical backward reaction of the solute within the particle phase as well as a composition dependent particle-phase bulk diffusion coefficient. The adapted 5 gas-phase chemistry mechanism for α-pinene oxidation has been updated due to the recent findings related to the formation of highly oxidized multifunctional organic compounds (HOMs). Experimental results from a LEAK (Leipziger Aerosolkammer) chamber study for α-pinene ozonolysis were compared with the model results describing this reaction system. The performed model studies reveal that the particle-phase bulk diffusion coefficient and the particle phase reactivity are key parameters for SOA formation. Using the same particle phase reactivity for both cases we find that liquid particles with higher 10 particle-phase bulk diffusion coefficients have 310-times more organic material formed in the particle phase compared to higher viscous semi-solid particles with lower particle-phase bulk diffusion coefficients. The model results demonstrate that, even with a moderate particle phase reactivity, about 61 % of the modeled organic mass consists of reaction products that are formed in the liquid particles. This finding emphasizes the potential role of SOA processing. Moreover, the initial organic aerosol mass concentration and the particle radius are of minor importance for the process of SOA formation in liquid particles. A sensitivity 15 study shows that a 22-fold increase in particle size merely leads to a SOA increase of less than 10 %. Due to two additional implementations, allowing backward reactions in the particle phase and considering a composition dependent particle-phase bulk diffusion coefficient, the potential overprediction of the SOA mass with the basic kinetic approach is reduced by about 40 %. HOMs are an important compound group in the early stage of SOA formation because they contribute up to 65 % of the total SOA mass at this stage. HOMs also induce further SOA formation by providing an absorptive medium 20 for SVOCs (semi-volatile organic compounds). This process contributes about 27 % of the total organic mass. The model results are very similar to the LEAK chamber results. Overall, the sensitivity studies demonstrate that the particle reactivity and the particle-phase bulk diffusion require a better characterization in order to improve the current model implementations and to validate the assumptions made from the chamber simulations.


Abstract. The purpose of this study was to establish the growth curves parameters of American Bronze turkeys. The weekly body weight changes of male and female turkeys were recorded during 11 to 24 weeks of age. The Richards' growth model fitted the turkey weight and age (week) data. Profile analysis was also applied to weight-age data in order to get more detailed information about the differences in the live weights of male and female turkeys in consecutive weeks. Estimates for mature body weight were found as 9720.40 ± 971.33 g and higher for males than for females as 6029.96 ± 316.55 g. Based on Richards' model, male turkeys matured more slowly and it was needed that a more time to reach mature body weight than female turkeys. Results of profile analysis supported those results. Estimates for the absolute growth rate, absolute maturing rate and relative growth rate values were higher for females when compared to males. Male turkeys reached the maximum growth rate at 16.30 weeks of age whereas female ones reached the maximum growth rate at 12.85 weeks of age. Live weights of male and female turkeys, when both reached the maximum growth rate, were 3475.61 g and 2156.06 g, respectively. Male turkeys reached 80 % of their mature weights at 24 weeks of age, whereas female ones reached 92% of their mature weight.


Multi-label classification is the task of predicting potentially multiple labels for a given instance. This is common in several applications such as image annotation, document classification and gene function prediction. In this paper we present a formulation for this problem based on reverse prediction: we predict sets of instances given the labels. By viewing the problem from this perspective, the most popular quality measures for assessing the performance of multi-label classification admit relaxations that can be efficiently optimised. We optimise these relaxations with standard algorithms and compare our results with several state-of-the-art methods, showing excellent performance.


We reviewed studies on aftershocks in Taiwan for the following topics: the spatial-temporal distributions and focal-plane solutions of aftershocks fromof thirty larger earthquakes with magnitudes > 5; the correlations between the mainshock and the largest aftershock based on dependence of the differences in magnitudes (∆M), occurrence times (∆T), epicenters (∆H), and focal depths (∆D) upon the mainshock magnitude, Mm; magnitude-dependence of p-value of Omori's law of aftershocks; the correlation between the b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter's frequency-magnitude law and the p-value; application of the epidemic-type aftershock sequences (ETAS) model to describe the aftershock sequence; the mechanisms of triggering aftershocks; and dynamic modeling of aftershocks. The main results are: (1) The spatial distribution of aftershocks for some earthquakes is consistent with the recognized fault; (2) Unlike Båth's law, ∆M slightly increases with Mm; (3) ∆T does not correlate with Mm; (4) ∆D does not correlate with Mm; (5) ∆T somewhat increases with ∆D; (6) The p-value slightly increases with Mm; (7) There is a negative correlation between the band p-values. (8) There was seismic quiescence over a broader region of Taiwan before the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake; (9) Both the static and dynamic stress changes trigger aftershocks; and (10) Dynamic modeling shows that a decrease in elastic modulus is a significant factor in triggering aftershocks.