Placement and compaction of the backfill behind an earth retaining wall may induce a vertical shear force at the soil-to-wall interface. This vertical shear force, or downdrag, is beneficial for the stability of the structure. A significant reduction in construction costs may result if the downdrag is accounted for during design. This potential reduction in costs is particularly interesting in the case of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lock walls. A simplified procedure is available in the literature for estimating the downdrag force developed at the wall-backfill interface during backfilling of a retaining wall. However, finite element analyses of typical U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lock walls have shown that the magnitude of the downdrag force may decrease during operation of the lock with a rise in the water table in the backfill. They have also shown that preand post-construction stress paths followed by interface elements often involve simultaneous changes in shear and normal stresses and unloading-reloading. The hyperbolic formulation for interfaces (Clough and Duncan 1971) is accurate for modeling the interface response in the primary loading stage under constant normal stress. However, it has not been extended to model simultaneous changes in shear and normal stresses or unloading-reloading of the interface. The purpose of this research was to develop an interface model capable of giving accurate predictions of the interface response under field loading conditions, and to implement this model in a finite element program. In order to develop the necessary experimental data, a series of tests were performed on interfaces between concrete and two different types of sand. The tests included initial loading, staged shear, unloading-reloading, and shearing along complex stress paths. An extended hyperbolic model for interfaces was developed based on the results of the tests. The model is based on Clough and Duncan (1971) hyperbolic formulation, which has been extended to model the interface response to a variety of stress paths. Comparisons between model calculations and tests results showed that the model provides accurate estimates of the response of interfaces along complex stress paths. The extended hyperbolic model was implemented in the finite element program SOILSTRUCT-ALPHA, used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for analyses of lock walls. A pilot-scale test was performed in the Instrumented Retaining Wall (IRW) at Virginia Tech that simulated construction and operation of a lock wall. SOILSTRUCT-ALPHA analyses of the IRW provided accurate estimates of the downdrag magnitude throughout inundation of the backfill. It is concluded that the extended hyperbolic model as implemented in SOILSTRUCT-ALPHA is adequate for routine analyses of lock walls.


By the use of television techniques it is possible to record the position of a man's gaze upon a picture of the scene at which he is looking. The corneal reflection of a light is picked up by a television camera, which magnifies the movement of the spot about 100 times. The scene at which the man is gazing is provided by a second television camera, and the corneal reflection is superimposed upon another television monitor also showing the same scene. By suitable calibration, this spot can be made to lie upon that part of the scene being regarded and the accuracy with which this can be done is within one or two degrees.Thus it is possible to see where a man is looking at any moment, and simultaneously to record the composite eye-scene picture by means of a motion picture camera. In addition to its practical uses, this method is particularly useful for answering such general questions as whether a subject always sees what he is directly looking at, what kind of cues catch his attention when he is searching, and what sort of changes in a display catch his attention. It is primarily intended for use with a moving display, as it records the point of view directly on to each state of the display. Successive glances therefore indicate the order in which particular parts of complex displays are selected, as well as the exact moment at which the gaze changes to a new position.


Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a human herpes virus that is the cause of infectious mononucleosis and is associated with several types of cancers. These cancers include Burkitt's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin's disease, and a variety of leukemias. EBV is found in two states; latent (dormant state) and lytic (the replicating state). A protein essential for the switch and establishment of the lytic state is the immediate-early protein BZLF1. BZLF1 is known to physically associate with a variety of host cellular proteins leading to changes in cellular environment. One such association is with the human B cell protein Pax5. Pax5 plays an important role in determining B cell differentiation as well as promoting the latent state in EBV infected cells through the activation of the EBV latent promoter Wp. The BZLF1/Pax5 complex was examined to determine if this interaction produces specific cellular changes. Pax5 protein levels in B cells before, during and after EBV infection were established. I also examined the effect the BZLF1/Pax5 complex has on the histone methylation state of chromatin during EBV infection. My final goal was to determine if the BZLF1/Pax5 complex affects Pax5 ability to transcriptionally activate two of its target genes, CD19 and CD79a. My results show that during lytic replication the expression of the EBV protein BZLF1 results in increased levels of Pax5. These increased levels of Pax5 result in increased levels of Pax5 transcriptional targets CD19 and CD79a. Also the increased levels of Pax5 and the BZLF1/Pax5 complex resulted in hypermethylation of histone 3 lysine 9.


In the past two decades, the development of sustainable refrigeration systems such as thermally operated vapor adsorption refrigeration systems achieved unparalleled growth in the research world as compared to conventional vapor compression systems and even thermally operated vapor absorption refrigeration system. Yet, the commercial success of the adsorption refrigeration system could not be achieved due to mainly its higher space area required per kilowatts of refrigeration capacity. With the focus to look improvement on this issue, the performance of the adsorption refrigeration system has been studied concerning adsorption/desorption time and heat transfer of adsorber. It is proposed to reduce the adsorption/desorption time, due to which the concentration (ratio of the mass of adsorbed refrigerant to the mass of activated carbon) will not reach its equilibrium value, but it is possible to get a higher mass flow in a shorter period. In turn, the cooling capacity will increase. In view of this, a mathematical model has been developed to study the performance and applied to three adsorbent–adsorbate pairs, namely, Maxsorb III–ethanol, Maxsorb III–R507a, and Maxsorb III–R134a. Based on the mathematical investigations, it is observed that the cooling capacity can be improved significantly at a litter higher cost of the heat transfer mechanism.


The focus of the research is on economic relations between Finland and the United States as well as their effects on the Finnish economy and Finnish-owned firms. A substantial share of the effects are transmitted through indirect channels. In the beginning the roles of the United States in world output, trade and foreign direct investment are evaluated. The role of the U.S. dollar as a world currency and the roles of the U.S. in the transmission of economic shocks and in trade policy are studied. The shocks analyzed include the financial crisis of the years 2007-2008 and changes in the exchange rate of the dollar. The NiGEM model of the international economy is used as the main analytic tool. Exports and imports of goods and services are studied at the aggregate level and according to product groups. The effects of Finlands U.S. exports are studied with an input-output model and with a macroeconomic model. Among investments, foreign direct investments as well as portfolio investments are considered. Economic relations are researched also at the firm level. The material includes annual reports of listed enterprises, the Orbis-databank on firms and a questionnaire posted to firms that are active on the U.S. market. Next, the importance of the United States in the innovation activity and technology transfer is explored. The effects on Finland are studied by focusing on e.g. studying in the U.S., patent co-operation and trade in high technology products, as well as with the help of the above-mentioned questionnaire. In the end of the book some conclusions from the whole study are drawn


In the last thirty years much philosophical discussion has been generated by Kripke's proof of the necessity of origin for material objects presented in footnote 56 of 'Naming and Necessity'. I consider the two most popular reconstructions of Kripke's argument: one appealing to the necessary sufficiency of origin, and the other employing a strong independence principle allegedly derived from the necessary local nature of prevention. I argue that, to achieve a general result, both reconstructions presuppose an implicit Humean atomistic thesis of recombination, according to which any two (nonoverlapping) possible objects can simultaneously coexist in one and the same world. Yet recombination ill accords with the other assumptions of the proofs. I also argue that the locality of prevention does not entail strong independence.


The European Court of Justice's new approach to posting of workers is explored in light of recent UK industrial action. Four doctrinal positions are identified and probed: the host-state standards posted workers can enjoy, the role of collective standards and action to set and enforce host-state standards for posted workers, the liability of unions and employers under Article 49 EC, and demarcation of the boundaries between free movement of services and other Treaty personal freedoms. While the inspiration informing the new approach, adapting to enlargement and encouraging cross-border trade, is appropriate, the UK disputes help powerfully to illustrate how the doctrinal positions thus inspired create, especially in certain combinations, outcomes which are doctrinally dubious, socially and politically undesirable, and potentially highly socially inflammable. In many respects, the new approach is the wrong approach.


Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is used for the first time to characterize Cinchona alkaloids in natural Cinchona bark and commercial Cinchona extracts. ToF-SIMS analysis of quinine (Qn), a major Cinchona alkaloid, provides significant molecular fragments, which can be used in the fast qualitative screening of Qn and related compounds in small amounts of Cinchona bark and extract. Conventional approaches for natural product analysis such as bark are time-consuming and typically require large amounts of samples and significant amounts of organic solvents for extensive liquid extraction as well as liquid chromatography for analyte separation from the matrix before detection. In this study, it is demonstrated that ToF-SIMS can be used for the direct analysis and fast qualitative screening (less than 10 minute analysis time) of Cinchona alkaloids. It is also a greener approach than chromatography-based approaches because it uses less sample material and no organic solvents. Before ToF-SIMS analysis, the bark surface topography and roughness were analyzed using 3D laser microscopy. ToF-SIMS results in this study were validated by complementary high performance liquid chromatography-MS results. This work shows the potential of ToF-SIMS in the screening of pharmaceutically relevant compounds that are present in natural samples such as bark and extracts.


Abstract. An algorithm setup for the operational Aerosol Layer Height product for TROPOMI on the Sentinel-5 Precursor mission is described and discussed, applied to GOME-2A data, and evaluated with lidar measurements. The algorithm makes a spectral fit of reflectance at the O2 A band in the near-infrared and the fit window runs from 758 to 770 nm. The aerosol profile is parameterised by a scattering layer with constant aerosol volume extinction coefficient and aerosol single scattering albedo and with a fixed pressure thickness. The algorithm's target parameter is the height of this layer. In this paper, we apply the algorithm to observations from GOME-2A in a number of systematic and extensive case studies, and we compare retrieved aerosol layer heights with lidar measurements. Aerosol scenes cover various aerosol types, both elevated and boundary layer aerosols, and land and sea surfaces. The aerosol optical thicknesses for these scenes are relatively moderate. Retrieval experiments with GOME-2A spectra are used to investigate various sensitivities, in which particular attention is given to the role of the surface albedo. From retrieval simulations with the single-layer model, we learn that the surface albedo should be a fit parameter when retrieving aerosol layer height from the O2 A band. Current uncertainties in surface albedo climatologies cause biases and non-convergences when the surface albedo is fixed in the retrieval. Biases disappear and convergence improves when the surface albedo is fitted, while precision of retrieved aerosol layer pressure is still largely within requirement levels. Moreover, we show that fitting the surface albedo helps to ameliorate biases in retrieved aerosol layer height when the assumed aerosol model is inaccurate. Subsequent retrievals with GOME-2A spectra confirm that convergence is better when the surface albedo is retrieved simultaneously with aerosol parameters. However, retrieved aerosol layer pressures are systematically low (i.e., layer high in the atmosphere) to the extent that retrieved values no longer realistically represent actual extinction profiles. When the surface albedo is fixed in retrievals with GOME-2A spectra, convergence deteriorates as expected, but retrieved aerosol layer pressures become much higher (i.e., layer lower in atmosphere). The comparison with lidar measurements indicates that retrieved aerosol layer heights are indeed representative of the underlying profile in that case. Finally, subsequent retrieval simulations with two-layer aerosol profiles show that a model error in the assumed profile (two layers in the simulation but only one in the retrieval) is partly absorbed by the surface albedo when this parameter is fitted. This is expected in view of the correlations between errors in fit parameters and the effect is relatively small for elevated layers (less than 100 hPa). If one of the scattering layers is near the surface (boundary layer aerosols), the effect becomes surprisingly large, in such a way that the retrieved height of the single layer is above the two-layer profile. Furthermore, we find that the retrieval solution, once retrieval converges, hardly depends on the starting values for the fit. Sensitivity experiments with GOME-2A spectra also show that aerosol layer height is indeed relatively robust against inaccuracies in the assumed aerosol model, even when the surface albedo is not fitted. We show spectral fit residuals, which can be used for further investigations. Fit residuals may be partly explained by spectroscopic uncertainties, which is suggested by an experiment showing the improvement of convergence when the absorption cross section is scaled in agreement with Butz et al. (2013) and Crisp et al. (2012), and a temperature offset to the a priori ECMWF temperature profile is fitted. Retrieved temperature offsets are always negative and quite large (ranging between −4 and −8 K), which is not expected if temperature offsets absorb remaining inaccuracies in meteorological data. Other sensitivity experiments investigate fitting of stray light and fluorescence emissions. We find negative radiance offsets and negative fluorescence emissions, also for non-vegetated areas, but from the results it is not clear whether fitting these parameters improves the retrieval. Based on the present results, the operational baseline for the Aerosol Layer Height product currently will not fit the surface albedo. The product will be particularly suited for elevated, optically thick aerosol layers. In addition to its scientific value in climate research, anticipated applications of the product for TROPOMI are providing aerosol height information for aviation safety and improving interpretation of the Absorbing Aerosol Index.


Computational graph analysis metrics can be used to make quantitative comparisons between biological and regulatory networks obtained from real specimens with simulated synthetic networks that have well parameterized properties such as a scale-free structure. We compute the betweenness centrality metric for five public domain proteinprotein network data sets and compare them with synthesized NK networks. We employ a node-culling procedure to progressively remove the highest connected nodes in these networks and assess the wholistic system changes as revealed by the resulting Floyd all-pairs distance and the number of component clusters in the networks as they fail and break up. We discuss the potential for this method in assigning characteristic signatures or categories to networks of this sort as well as for identifying network components that are most vulnerable to biological attack.


A robust and reliable attitude estimator is a key technology enabler for the development of autonomous aerial vehicles. This paper is an introduction to attitude estimation for aerial robotic systems. First, attitude definition and parameterizations are recalled and discussed. Then, several attitude estimation techniques – ranging from algebraic vector observation-based attitude determination algorithms to dynamic attitude filtering and estimation methodologies – are presented and commented upon in relation to practical implementation issues. Particular attention is devoted to the applications of a well-known nonlinear attitude observer (called explicit complementary filter in the literature) to aerial robotics, using a low-cost and light-weight inertial measurement unit, which can be complemented with a GPS or airspeed sensors.


In this paper, we analyze the security of compressed sensing (CS) as a cryptosystem. We demonstrate that random linear measurements acquired using a Gaussian i.i.d. matrix reveal only the energy of the sensed signal, and that only the energy of the measurements leaks information about the signal. We provide useful bounds for assessing the information leakage about the energy, linking those bounds to the minimum mean square error achievable by practical estimators. Moreover, we propose a simple strategy based on the normalization of the measurements which achieves, at least in theory, perfect secrecy, enabling the use of CS-based encryption in practical cryptosystems.


Objective To characterise prevalence of traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, assess CVD risk and examine the effect of simulated interventions on CVD risk among HIV-infected Asian Indians. Methods Cross-sectional data between September 2015 and July 2016 wer used to describe the prevalence of CVD risk factors. Five risk scores (Framingham, Data Collection on Adverse Effects of Anti-HIV Drugs Study (D:A:D), Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular, QRISK2 and Ramathibodi—Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand were used to estimate CVD risk. The effect of seven sensitivity analyses: smoking prevention; diabetes prevention; optimal blood pressure and dyslipidaemia control (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)); CD4 augmentation and a combination of the scenarios on the median cumulative D:A:D CVD scores were assessed. Results Of 402 enrolled, 56% were women, median age was 40 years (IQR: 35–45 years) and median time-updated CD4 counts were 378 cells/μL (IQR: 246–622). Fifty-five and 28% had ever been screened for hypertension and diabetes, respectively prior to enrolment. The prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, low HDL, previous and current smokers were 9%, 22%, 20%, 39%, 14% and 4%, respectively. Thirty-six per cent had intermediate-to-high 5-year CVD risk by D:A:D estimates. Thirty-two per cent were eligible for statin therapy by American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines; 2% were currently on statins. In sensitivity analyses, diabetes prevention was associated with the highest reduction of CVD risk. Conclusion CVD at younger ages among Asian Indian people living with HIV appear to be an imminent risk for morbidity. Stepping up of preventive services including screening services and prescription of statins are important strategies that must be considered.


The problem posed by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to the affected individual can be conceptualized, using Leventhal's common sense model, as a health threat to be encoded and coped with accordingly. The current paper adopts an alternative use of self-regulation theory. It is hypothesized that in CFS the health threat is no longer the illness, but anything that threatens to disrupt a precarious accommodation to it. It is argued that attempts at threat regulation may become inadvertently self-defeating, promoting the threats they attempt to diminish. Evidence is presented for homeostatic mechanisms in physiological, neurocognitive and affective domains, and for their potential to become locked in vicious circles. It is further argued that illness attributions, rather than being independent cognitive processes, may be intimately linked with emotional and somatic processes. Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis is used to suggest ways in which the self-regulation of highly interconnected somatic, affective, and cognitive states may be substantially implicated in the maintenance of CFS. This perspective is used to reconsider effective treatment and to suggest new interventions. The self-regulation model is a potentially powerful explanatory framework for the consideration and treatment of CFS and medically unexplained symptoms in general.


The late Badenian and Sarmatian (Serravallian) evolution of depositional environments in the Danube Basin (Želiezovce Depression) has never been fully explored. Here, we clarify the paleoenvironmental changes which took place in this area during the late Badenian and Sarmatian on the basis of sedimentological, petrographic, biostratigraphic and paleobotanical analyses performed at multiple sections. The combination of these methods with sequence stratigraphy allowed us to divide the sedimentary record into three main intervals: 1) the transgressive late Badenian rocky shore deposits (transgressive and/or highstand system tract), followed by a gap in the stratigraphic record (that can approximately coincide with the latest Badenian falling stage system tract). 2) Earliest Sarmatian terrestrial deposits connected with the beginning of the Sarmatian transgression (synchronous with the lowstand system tract). 3) The early Sarmatian deltaic environment influenced by tidal processes associated with the highstand system tract. The fossil leaf association indicates a climatic turnover from subtropical to temperate conditions between the earliest (lowstand system tract) and the early Sarmatian (highstand system tract). Sediments of the late Sarmatian (falling stage system tract) were not deposited or were later eroded. However, they may be present in the neighbouring depressions, which tectonically opened during the late Sarmatian. The Badenian–Sarmatian boundary in the Želiezovce Depression is developed in transgressive shallow marine to terrestrial volcano-sediments as is typical for this boundary in most other Paratethys depocentres.


The paper presents a model for tax compliance based on prospect theory wherein an individual makes the decision whether to file, and declare a certain amount of income, or to not file based on a set of policy parameters as well as his/her preferences. The paper poses the question- at what incomes would individuals choose to file a return and answers the same using a model based on prospect theory. Further, simulations are presented to illustrate the impact of changes in tax rates, penalty and audit probability on the individual's preference to file. The results from the simulation show that for different values of policy parameters there exists crossover income at which individuals would choose to file a return. Given all else, at the exemption threshold of 0.1 million, individuals would choose to file a return at incomes greater than or equal to 0.6 million.


WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF THE TENURE PROCESS: A CASE STUDY AT A SMALL PUBLIC SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY by Debra Jennings Cody The purpose of this study was to describe women's experiences and challenges encountered during the tenure process at one institution, if and how they overcame those challenges, and if the challenges are consistent with those that appear in the literature. Higher education is comprised of a majority of male faculty members and administrators, but data show that women have surpassed men in earning doctorate degrees. Nevertheless, the rate at which women achieve tenure is not equal to that of men. Most of the literature on tenure is based on institutionalized power, gender inequities, policies, criteria, and the experiences of males, while providing limited information about women and their experiences during the tenure process. Furthermore, information about tenured women provides little discussion of how women navigate the tenure process. This lack of information demonstrates that there is a gap in the literature about women's experiences in academia, especially during the process of achieving tenure. Therefore, this study explored women's experiences with the tenure process through the lens of institutionalized power informed by gender and feminism. For the purpose of this study, I adopted a qualitative case study approach. The primary source of data collection was semi-structured phenomenological interviews with three women who were tenured within the last five years. This case study investigated tenure, institutionalized power, and gender at a small public university. I abstracted themes from the data by applying an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) technique to analyze and describe the results of the study. Results show that the participants felt stressed out and unsure about the criteria for tenure. Data also show that finding a mentor and beginning the process early are important. This study will add to the body of knowledge about women's experiences with the tenure process in higher education.


With a tabletop hybrid Nd:YAG-Nd:glass laser as pump source, a compact optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) laser system with a peak output power of 16.7 TW and a pulse duration of 120 fs has been demonstrated. Chirped pulses are amplified from 50 pJ to more than 3.1 J with an energy gain of above 6×1010 by three LBO optical parametric amplifiers with a pump energy of 12.4 J at 532 nm. After compression, a final output of 2.0-J/120-fs pulse is obtained. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest peak output power from an OPCPA laser so far. In addition, a practical design of 1-PW laser system based on the technique of OPCPA is also proposed.


Abstract. A quality-controlled, 5-year dataset of aerosol number
size distributions (particles with diameters (Dp) from 7 nm through 14 µm) was developed using observations from a scanning mobility particle
sizer, aerodynamic particle sizer, and a condensation particle counter at
the Department of Energy's Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. This dataset
was used for two purposes. First, typical characteristics of the aerosol
size distribution (number, surface area, and volume) were calculated for the
SGP site, both for the entire dataset and on a seasonal basis, and size
distribution lognormal fit parameters are provided. While the median size
distributions generally had similar shapes (four lognormal modes) in all the
seasons, there were some significant differences between seasons. These
differences were most significant in the smallest particles
(Dp<30 nm) and largest particles (Dp>800 nm).
Second, power spectral analysis was conducted on this long-term dataset to
determine key temporal cycles of total aerosol concentrations, as well as
aerosol concentrations in specified size ranges. The strongest cyclic signal
was associated with a diurnal cycle in total aerosol number concentrations
that was driven by the number concentrations of the smallest particles
(Dp<30 nm). This diurnal cycle in the smallest particles
occurred in all seasons in ∼50 % of the observations,
suggesting a persistent influence of new particle formation events on the
number concentrations observed at the SGP site. This finding is in contrast with earlier
studies that suggest new particle formation is observed primarily in the
springtime at this site. The timing of peak concentrations associated with
this diurnal cycle was shifted by several hours depending on the season,
which was consistent with seasonal differences in insolation and boundary
layer processes. Significant diurnal cycles in number concentrations were
also found for particles with Dp between 140 and 800 nm, with peak
concentrations occurring in the overnight hours, which were primarily
associated with both nitrate and organic aerosol cycles. Weaker cyclic
signals were observed for longer timescales (days to weeks) and are
hypothesized to be related to the timescales of synoptic weather
variability. The strongest periodic signals (3.5–5 and 7 d cycles) for
these longer timescales varied depending on the season, with no cyclic
signals and the lowest variability in the summer.


Freshwater catfish culture has been hampered by bacterial diseases. One of the agents of the bacterial disease is Motile Aeromonas Septicemia (MAS). The application of synthetic antibiotics has had some disadvantages such as bacterial resistance and undegradable in water. One of the potential antibacterial herbs is Lantana camara . Information of Lantana as an antibacterial on catfish is still limited. Therefore, the experiment of utilization of Lantana as an antibacterial for catfish should be conducted. The experiment was carried out to evaluate the potential of Lantana extract as an antibacterial of A. hydrophila for catfish. The completely randomized design was applied consisting of four treatments using two parts of the plant, leaves and flowers. The treatments were: A = 1,000 ppm of leaves; B = 2,000 ppm of leaves; C = 1,000 ppm of flowers; D = 2,000 ppm of flowers), and control. Lantana extracts were diluted into each culture media which had been infected with A. hydrophila . Several factors were observed in this experiment such as prevalence with of MAS disease, survival rate, percentage of haematocrites and total of leukocytes of fish blood. The results showed that the fish treated with 2,000 ppm of flowers extract had a lower in prevalence of MAS disease and higher in survival rate than those treated with 1,000 ppm; 2,000 ppm of leaves; and 1,000 ppm of flowers, respectively. However, percentage of haematocrytes and total of leucocytes was not influenced by the extracts from different parts of Lantana plant. In conclusion, 2,000 ppm of Lantana flowers extract might be useful as an antibacterial of A. hydrophila for catfish culture.


Analytics firm Distimo offers a web based product that allows mobile app developers to track the performance of their apps across all major app stores. The Distimo backend system uses web scraping techniques to retrieve the market data which is stored in the backend master database: the data warehouse. A batch-oriented program periodically synchronizes relevant data to the frontend database that feeds the customer-facing web interface.
The synchronization program poses limitations due to its batch-oriented design. The relevant metadata that must be calculated before and after each batch results in overhead and increased latency.
The goal of this research is to streamline the synchronization process by moving to a continuous, replication-like solution, combined with principles seen in the field of data warehousing. The binary transaction log of the master database is used to feed the synchronization program that is also responsible for implicit data transformations like aggregation and metadata generation. In contrast to traditional homogeneous database replication, this design allows synchronization across heterogeneous database schemas.
The prototype demonstrates that a composition of replication and data warehousing techniques can offer an adequate solution for robust and low latency data synchronization software.


Four projects were built over two construction seasons using special devices attached to the paving machine that produces a 30o slope on the outside pavement edge instead of the near vertical drop-off common with conventional paving equipment. This pavement edge treatment allows vehicles that leave the roadway a gentler slope to navigate when remounting the pavement. The projects used four types of devices; (1) the TransTech Shoulder Wedge MakerTM, (2) the Advant-EdgeTM, (3) the Carlson Safety Edge End Gate, and (4) a contractor built device. All of the devices were able to produce a finished pavement slope that was close to the 30o angle recommended by FHWA. The projects will be monitored for five years to measure the functional performance of the edge treatment and possible reductions in collisions caused by drivers trying to re-enter the roadway after losing control and running off the road.


The ever increasing number of digital images in both public and private collections urges on the need for generic image content analysis systems. These systems need to be capable to capture the content of images from both scenes and objects, in a compact way that allows for fast search and comparison. Modeling images based on local invariant features computed at interest point locations has proven in recent years to achieve such capabilities and to provide a robust and versatile way to perform wide-baseline matching and search for both scene and object images. In this thesis we explore the use of local descriptors for image representation in the tasks of scene and object classification, ranking, and segmentation. More specifically, we investigate the combined use of text modeling methods and local invariant features. Firstly, our work attempts to elucidate whether a text like bag-of-visterms representation (histogram of quantized local visual features) is suitable for scene and object classification, and whether some analogies between discrete scene representations and text documents exist. We further explore the bag-of-visterms approach in a fusion framework, combining texture and color information for natural scene classification. Secondly, we investigate whether unsupervised, latent space models can be used as feature extractors for the classification task and to discover patterns of visual co-occurrence. In this direction, we show that Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) generates a compact scene representation, discriminative for accurate classification, and more robust than the bagof-visterms representation when less labeled training data is available. Furthermore, we show through aspect-based image ranking experiments, the ability of PLSA to automatically extract visually meaningful scene patterns, making such representation useful for browsing image collections. Finally, we further explore the use of the latent aspect modeling in an image segmentation task. By extending the representation resulting from the latent aspect modeling, we are able to introduce contextual information for image segmentation that goes beyond the traditional regional contextual modeling found for instance in Markov Random Field approaches.


This article surveys the appeal of Ottomanism for non-dominant group members of the Young Turk organisation. It focuses on a specific reading of Ottomanism as a nationalist discourse articulated by Young Turk intellectuals in exile. The article analyses the actions, thoughts and writings of Ottoman Albanian Ismail Kemal who, in 1900, after an influential career in Ottoman officialdom, escaped to Europe and affiliated himself with the leaders of the organisation in exile. What emerges from this study is that Ottomanism was, until the Committee of Union and Progress adopted an authoritarian and pro-Turkist stance, a feasible discourse for Young Turk activists from both a dominant and non-dominant background. The article also suggests that an assessment of the role of Young Turks from a non-Muslim or non-Turkish background needs to include a consideration of a simultaneous and compatible role of such members as working for imperial reform and for the improvement and protection of their own particular community.


The article argues for the Comp account (e.g., Groos and Van Riemsdijk 1981) over the head account (e.g., Bresnan and Grimshaw 1978) of free relatives (FRs), on the basis of several converging arguments from Croatian. Evidence from reconstruction effects shows that the wh-phrase introducing a free relative (WHFR) originates inside the relative clause and wh-moves to its surface position. In addition, arguments from clitic placement show that the derived position of the WHFR is no higher than Spec,CP of the FR.


AbstractPak-Russian relations have been marred by historical legacies, over-emphasized western dependence and Pakistan's Indo-centric approach. There have been many ups and downs in the history of their relations but most of the times they have perceived each other in negative mindset; Pakistan through the prism of western perception and the Soviets/Russia through the Indian eyes. Both countries have strong potential to improve their relations in the fast changing regional and global security environment but it depends how both countries utilize the new opportunities knocking their doors. Russian Federation is reasserting its role in its immediate sphere of influence and beyond, and Pakistan is looking for new avenues of opportunities in the face of US/western standoff. Therefore, both have geopolitical and strategic compulsions to improve their relations.Key Words: Pakistan, Russia, United States, policy, powerGoing back to the roots and analyzing theoretically, the history of Pak-Russia relations is a tale of misperceptions and lost opportunities. International political history is a western discourse; it is not intended here to go through the delicate discussion of post-modernism, especially of Michael Foucault, and demonstrate that knowledge is a function of the present power. In fact, here, it is just to highlight the obvious lack of rationality in the pursuit of Pakistan's foreign policy towards Russia. Rationality can simply be defined as a state understands its 'real' interests and a 'sincere' conduct of its foreign policy in realization of them.Pak-Russian relations have often been under-rated, despite strong potentials, mainly due to misperceived notions and mindsets. There have been many opportunities to improve their relations but were lost due to different approaches to regional and global security perceptions. It is interesting to note that there is not a single bilateral issue between the two countries that divides them. Russian Federation is the inheritor of Soviet mantle; studded with strong nationalism, historical strength, geopolitical outreach and great power status. On the other hand, Pakistan's proximity to Afghanistan and Central Asia, nuclear power status and growing anti-Americanism, have great potential for renewed Russian interest in Pakistan. However, both the policy practices and academic approaches in Pakistan were/are instrumental in neglecting this vital area of country's foreign policy. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to highlight the importance of Pak-Russia relations through historical analysis and lost opportunities. The study also emphasizes the future options for Pakistan in the light of 'revisiting' and 'revamping' of Pakistan's foreign policy.Critical AssumptionsWhile analyzing the Pak-Russia relations, it is important to understand some underlying assumptions in Pakistan's strategic thinking shaping its foreign policy.The Colonial Legacy: Pakistan's foreign policy is mainly shaped by its colonial legacy of being a part of the British Empire. The over-riding emphasis of Pakistani elite, feudality, bureaucracy and military, led to the pro-western approach in its foreign policy dealings. Therefore, Pakistan preferred a distant ally over an immediate neighbor; making a choice between the US and former USSR. Many observed that rationally speaking, it would have been more in the interest of Pakistan to rely on the tangible help of Russia that was just a border away than over the US that was continent apart. But, it is a history that Pakistan delayed the acceptance of the Soviet invitation and 'managed' to get a similar offer from the US and accepted it in no time (Sattar, 2007, April 12).Cause for this choice is interestingly in the colonial past of this country. It is a matter of fact that Britain was once the greatest imperial power of the world. After the World War II, it lost its power and could not hold on to its possessions. Thenceforth, the US replaced Britain as the protector of the free liberal world, but in its own fashion. …


In low potential agricultural areas like the Honduran hillsides characterized by soil degradation and erosion, organic agriculture can provide a means to break the downward spiral of resource degradation and poverty. We use original survey data to analyze the factors influencing the decision to convert to organic agriculture. Previous studies have emphasized the role of spatial patterns in the diffusion and adoption of agricultural technologies in general and organic agriculture in particular. These spatial patterns can result from a variety of underlying factors. In this article we test various potential explanations, including the availability of information in the farmer's neighborhood, social conformity concerns and perceived positive external effects of the adoption decision, in a spatially explicit adoption model. We find that farmers who believe to act in accordance with their neighbors' expectations and with greater availability of information in their neighborhood network are more likely to adopt organic agriculture. Furthermore, perceived positive productivity spillovers to neighboring plots decrease the probability of adoption. We discuss the implications of our findings for the dissemination of sustainable agricultural technologies in low-potential agricultural areas in developing countries.


This study aimed to support Oxfam's Public Health Promotion (PHP) strategy through a rapid qualitative assessment of the remaining social barriers to compliance with Ebola prevention and treatment messages. At the time of the study, most Liberians had a high awareness of Ebola prevention and treatment information. However, new infections continued to occur in "hot spots" around the country. A preliminary assessment suggested that negative perceptions and fear of Ebola response efforts contributed to non-compliance and resistance in some areas. Research activities assessed the sources of negative perceptions and fears of Ebola response activities, and looked for suggestions to improve Oxfam's response.


This paper proposes FPGA realization of an IP core for generic fractional-order derivative based on Grünwald-Letnikov approximation. This generic design is applied to achieve reconfigurable realization of fractional-order chaotic systems. The fractional-order real-time configuration boosts the suitability of this particular realization for different applications, including dynamic switching, synchronization, and encryption. The proposed design targets optimized utilization of the FPGA internal resources and efficient employment of the external peripherals: switches and I/O ports in the FPGA board. The digital design of the fractional-order dependent terms: binomial coefficients and power function is proposed. Three approximations of the power function using curve fitting are compared, settling on the quadratic approximation that balances accuracy and efficiency. Three fractional-order chaotic systems: Liu, Li and Chen four-wing, are verified for both commensurate and incommensurate orders cases, using one approach for the commensurate order case and two approaches for the incommensurate order case. The reconfigurable design is realized on the Artix-7 FPGA board, yielding throughputs of 1.1266, 1.1266, and 1.434 Gbit/s for both commensurate and incommensurate orders cases of the three systems, respectively. Compared to recent related works, the proposed implementation demonstrates its efficient hardware utilization and suitability for potential applications.


We review the creative activity in the software development process of the ROSS (Responsive Objects, Surfaces, and Spaces) API. The ROSS API is a tangible toolkit that allows designers and developers to easily build applications for many different tangible platforms while still accommodating the continued evolution of the underlying sensing technologies. This paper describes the ROSS API specification, identifies its originality and relevance to creativity, discusses the challenges of the API development process, and summarizes the lessons learned.


Although relationships, interaction and networks in business markets have been well documented (Turnbull and Cunningham, 1981; Hakansson, 1982), there is a lack of
research analysing relationships between international joint venture partners. A joint venture parent company needs to understand how to interact with their partner, together with the impact cultural values have on performance, in order to prevent possible conflict. Many of the empirical studies into joint venture performance have focused on measures such as control, financial data and partner satisfaction (Killing, 1983; Beamish, 1984; Geringer and Herbert, 1991; Yan and Gray, 1994). China's recent entry into the World Trade Organisation, underlines the importance of understanding the influence cultural values have on performance.

This project is an empirical study into inter-partner relationships and performance in Western and Chinese joint ventures. The research primarily focuses on the Western parent perspective. Most of the relationships studied featured British firms. Measures are used to examine how interaction constructs, exchange episodes, and cultural values in these relationships impact joint venture performance. China's accession to the WTO is also addressed as a possible change factor to existing joint venture relationships. This project draws on literature on inter-firm relationships from the IMP tradition in industrial
marketing, from Chinese management studies, and from the field of cultural analysis. Since the research is cross-cultural, emic and etic; constructs that can be used in the measurement of the joint venture have been applied in order to attain conceptual equivalence.

Methodological triangulation is used to address the research questions. First, a total of 25 interviews were conducted with mostly British parent company managers responsible for establishing, and/or involvement with the joint venture. Second, a questionnaire survey was administered to 'fill in gaps' identified by the qualitative study. This produced a total of 57 responses.

Findings suggest that cultural values, in particular guanxi, continue to be regarded as an important part of relationships in Chinese and Western joint ventures. Based upon the case findings, the author proposes an empirically testable model of factors impacting joint venture performance. These factors include (1) Commitment; (2) Cultural understanding; (3) Control; (4) Communication; (5) Co-operation and (6) Consensus.

The research contributes to the three bodies of literature: IMP, foreign direct investment and Chinese cultural values, by illustrating how combining elements of these disciplines
can be applied in the context of joint venture performance.


The methodology to assess technology readiness is currently the key instrument in supporting the decisions to finance research and development projects. It was originally used in the area of aviation and space technologies, where the requirements connected with reliability and resilience to extremely difficult conditions are very high. Nowadays the methodology is used in Poland in the evaluation of research and development activities related to commercial market that is characterized by massive diversity. The need to apply this methodology in the process of commercializing new products is indicated in this study.


This paper reports the results of a natural field experiment where workers from a paid crowdsourcing environment selfselect into tasks and are presumed to have limited attention. In our experiment, workers labeled any of six pictures from a 2 × 3 grid of thumbnail images. In the absence of any incentives, workers exhibit a strong default bias and tend to select images from the top-left ("focal") position; the bottomright ("non-focal") position, was the least preferred. We attempted to overcome this bias and increase the rate at which workers selected the least preferred task, by using a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives. We also varied the saliency of these incentives by placing them in either the focal or non-focal position. Although both incentive types caused workers to re-allocate their labor, monetary incentives were more effective. Most interestingly, both incentive types worked better when they were placed in the focal position and made more salient. In fact, salient non-monetary incentives worked about as well as non-salient monetary ones. Our evidence suggests that user interface and cognitive biases play an important role in online labor markets and that salience can be used by employers as a kind of "incentive multiplier".


This paper presents an energy-aware execution environment, called Energy-aware Collaborative Organic Execution Environment (ECO/ee), for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). ECO/ee provides an energy-aware and autonomous data routing scheme. It can dynamically adapt to the user's queries and efficiently determine the energy-abundant delivery paths. The fundamental concepts are inspired by the forage and task allocation mechanisms of honey bees as well as the interaction between the honey bee colony and the bee keeper. The experiments show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of energy efficiency and adaptability to the user requirements.


This paper presents the results of a content analysis of computing job adverts to assess the types of skills required by employers in Botswana. Through the study of job adverts for computing professionals for one year (i.e., January 2008 to December 2008), we identified the types of skills required by employers for early career positions. The job adverts were collected from 7 major newspapers (published both daily and weekly) that are circulated throughout the country. The findings of the survey have been used for the revision and development of curricula for undergraduate degree programmes at the Department of Computer Science, University of Botswana. The content analysis focused on the identification of the most sought after types of qualifications (i.e., degree types), job titles, skills, and industry certifications. Our analysis reveals that the majority of the adverts did not set a preference to a particular type of computing degree. Furthermore, our findings indicate that those job titles and computing skills which are on high demand are not consistent with previous studies carried out in the developed countries. This requires further investigation to identify reasons for these differences from the perspective of the practices in the IT industry. It also requires further investigation regarding the degree of mismatch between the employers computing skills demands and the knowledge and skills provided by academic programmes in the country.


Gene expression profiles can change dramatically between sexes and sex bias may contribute specific macroevolutionary dynamics for sex-biased genes. However, these dynamics are poorly understood at large evolutionary scales due to the paucity of studies that have assessed orthology and functional homology for sex-biased genes and the pleiotropic effects possibly constraining their evolutionary potential. Here, we explore the correlation of sex-biased expression with macroevolutionary processes that are associated with sex-biased genes, including duplications and accelerated evolutionary rates. Specifically, we examined these traits in a group of 44 genes that orchestrate sperm individualization during spermatogenesis, with both unbiased and sex-biased expression. We studied these genes in the broad evolutionary framework of the Insecta, with a particular focus on beetles (order Coleoptera). We studied data mined from 119 insect genomes, including 6 beetle models, and from 19 additional beetle transcriptomes. For the subset of physically and/or genetically interacting proteins, we also analyzed how their network structure may condition the mode of gene evolution. The collection of genes was highly heterogeneous in duplication status, evolutionary rates, and rate stability, but there was statistical evidence for sex bias correlated with faster evolutionary rates, consistent with theoretical predictions. Faster rates were also correlated with clocklike (insect amino acids) and non-clocklike (beetle nucleotides) substitution patterns in these genes. Statistical associations (higher rates for central nodes) or lack thereof (centrality of duplicated genes) were in contrast to some current evolutionary hypotheses, highlighting the need for more research on these topics.


Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) results in a cascade of tissue responses leading to cell death, axonal degeneration, and glial scar formation, exacerbating the already hostile environment and further inhibiting axon regeneration. Overcoming these inhibitory cues and promoting axonal regeneration is one of the primary targets in developing a cure for SCI. Previously, we demonstrated that transplantation of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-induced astrocytes derived from embryonic glial-restricted precursors (GDAsBMP) promotes extensive axonal growth and motor function recovery in a rodent spinal cord injury model. Here, we identify periostin (POSTN), a secreted protein, as a key component of GDABMP-induced axonal regeneration. POSTN is highly expressed by GDAsBMP and the perturbation of POSTN expression by shRNA diminished GDABMP-induced neurite extension in vitro. We also found that recombinant POSTN is sufficient to overcome the inhibitory effect of scar-associated molecules and promote neurite extension in vitro by signaling through focal adhesion kinase and Akt. Furthermore, transplantation of POSTN-deficient GDAsBMP into the injured rat spinal cord resulted in compromised axonal regeneration, indicating that POSTN plays an essential role in GDABMP-mediated axonal regeneration. This finding reveals not only one of the major mechanisms underlying GDABMP-dependent recovery from SCI, but also the potential of POSTN as a therapeutic agent for traumatic injury of the CNS.


PTEN is a tumour suppressor protein named after its homology with phosphatase and tensin and its frequent deletion on chromosome 10. PTEN was discovered to be mutated in several solid tumours such as breast brain and ovarian cancers. This study sought to establish the role of PTEN mutation in haematological malignancies. Methods were developed to extract DNA from archival material consisting of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections and methanol-fixed, May-Grunwald and Giemsa-stained bone marrow smears. To optimise amplification of extracted DNA, PCR primers were developed to produce a range of product sizes from human p-globin, prothrombin and PTEN genes. Techniques were developed for RTPCR amplification of cDNA from cultured haematological cell lines. Electrophoresis methods were developed to demonstrate heteroduplex formation using non-denaturing concentrations of denaturing agents and different gel media and running temperatures. Primers were designed to flank exon sequences and a representative group of myeloid and lymphoid malignancies were screened for PTEN mutations. Exons 5, 7 and 8 were initially amplified for heteroduplex analysis following reports of frequent mutation. No heteroduplex bands were observed in samples assayed. The possible insensitivity of heteroduplex analysis to mutations in sub populations of mutant tumour cells led to the development of SSCP techniques. These techniques were optimised for analysis of DNA that was extracted from frozen archived bone marrow. PCR reactions were developed to amplify each PTEN exon. No suitable primers were found for exon 2 analysis due to extensive non-specific amplification. A total of 912 SSCP assays were performed, screening a range of lymphoid and myeloid malignancies for mutations in all PTEN exons except exon two. Only two possible aberrant conformations were indicated, both in exon 5. The exon 5 PCR product from both positive samples were DNA sequenced using forward and reverse primers. Exon 5 of seven other leukaemia samples were sequenced as controls to detect possible lack of sensitivity of SSCP analysis to PTEN mutations. All samples showed exon 5 DNA sequences in agreement with published sequences. These results suggest that small deletions and point mutations in the PTEN gene are very rare in haematological malignancy. The expression of PTEN mRNA in cultured haematological malignancy cells was established by the earlier RTPCR amplification using cultured cells. Western blotting was performed to establish PTEN protein expression in primary malignancies. All samples assayed showed protein expression. Concerns regarding the contribution from residual normal cells to the PTEN expression picture in tumour cell samples led to the assay of protein by immunofluorescence. PTEN protein was demonstrated in all successful reactions with one CGL and one AML M3 showing higher levels of expression that control cells. These results suggest that in haematological malignancy, the PTEN gene is not mutated and PTEN protein is expressed in leukaemic cells.Research by other workers has demonstrated the importance of PTEN in normal haemopoesis. In mouse models, normal PTEN expression is essential for normal compartmentalisation and to prevent the acquisition of a leukaemic picture. This study suggests that if PTEN dysfunction is involved in the development of haematological malignancy, then it is by a subtle mechanism such as a change in expressed protein levels. It may be that, with the small number of oncogenic mutations necessary to promote a leukaemic phenotype, mutated PTEN does not provide a selective advantage to promote further the survival of the malignant cell population.


BACKGROUND
Amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis (AIT) is caused by excessive hormone synthesis and release (AIT I) or a destructive process (AIT II). This differentiation has important therapeutic implications.

PURPOSE
To evaluate (99m)Tc-sestaMIBI (MIBI) thyroid scintigraphy in addition to other diagnostic tools in the diagnosis and management of AIT.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Thyroid and (99m)Tc-MIBI scintigraphies were performed in 20 consecutive AIT patients, along with a series of biochemical and instrumental investigations (measurement of thyrotrophin, free thyroid hormones and thyroid autoantibodies; thyroid colour-flow Doppler sonography (CFDS) and thyroid radioiodine uptake (RAIU)).

RESULTS
On the basis of instrumental and laboratory data (excluding thyroid (99m)Tc-MIBI scintigraphy) and follow-up, AIT patients could be subdivided into six with AIT I, ten with AIT II and four with indefinite forms of AIT (AIT Ind). (99m)Tc-MIBI uptake results were normal/increased in all the six patients with AIT I and absent in all the ten patients with AIT II. The remaining four patients with AIT Ind showed low, patchy and persistent uptake in two cases and in the other two evident MIBI uptake followed by a rapid washout. MIBI scintigraphy was superior to all other diagnostic tools, including CFDS (suggestive of AIT I in three patients with AIT II and of AIT II in three with AIT Ind) and RAIU, which was measurable in all patients with AIT I, and also in four out of the ten with AIT II.

CONCLUSION
Thyroid MIBI scintigraphy may be proposed as an easy and highly effective tool for the differential diagnosis of different forms of AIT.


AbstractThis paper will review the predominant models developed by researchers to assess the psychological adaptation of immigrants in the host society. The use of the terms assimilation and acculturation, to reflect the process of change undergone by immigrants, will be discussed. Although these terms have been used interchangeably, the outcome of change is very different in each. The difference between assimilation and acculturation is reflected in the models of adaptation regrouped under linear and bidimensional models. A third model, called orthogonal cultural identification, is presented in light of the criticisms made of the first two types of models. The psychosocial changes undergone by immigrants who move from one country of residence to another, have been subsumed under the terms of assimilation or acculturation. Although these two terms refer to similar processes of change, within individuals, their outcome is quite different. Eisenstadt (1954) identified three stages in the migration process. The first consists of the needs or dispositions which motivate a person to migrate; the second stage is the physical transition itself, from the original society to the new one; the third stage refers to the absorption of the immigrant within the social and cultural framework of the new society. Researchers agree that psychosocial changes experienced by immigrants, in this third phase, include "the learning of new roles, the transformation of primary group values, and the extension of participation, beyond the primary group, in the main spheres of the social system" (Eisenstadt, 1954, p. 9). There is much disagreement, however, about whether successful adaptation is marked by loss of identification with the heritage culture (Eisenstadt, 1954) or whether adaptation can occur without any such loss (Spindler, 1978).This paper will present two divergent theories of immigrants' adaptation implied by the terms assimilation and acculturation. The models which these theories have generated will be divided into two broad categories: 1) Linear models -- representing cultural change on a linear bipolar continuum, going from the heritage culture to the host culture, and 2) Bidimensional models -- in which two independent dimensions of cultural change are crossed at right angles to each other, resulting in four adaptation styles which immigrants can adopt.Some of the early models of acculturation and assimilation will be presented, since many of these have served as guidelines for later research. The critical review of models will be followed by findings on the outcome of immigrants' adaptation, according to the two types of models. Our intent is to assess whether various Canadian ethnic groups tend to maintain their heritage culture or to replace it with the host culture. In light of the criticisms made of the models reviewed and of the findings summarized, a third model, orthogonal cultural identification, will be presented.AssimilationAssimilation is a term used as far back as 1677, in reference to conformity with a country in which one lives (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). Simons (1900) defined assimilation at the turn of the century as: "that process of adjustment or accommodation which occurs between the members of two different races, if their contact is prolonged and if the necessary psychic conditions are present" (p. 791). Park and Burgess (In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences [IESS], 1968) defined it as "a process of interpenetration and fusion in which persons or groups acquire the memories, sentiments, and attitudes of other persons or groups, and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life" (p. 438).Eisenstadt (1985) established a very clear interaction between immigrants and the host society, during the process of assimilation. Successful assimilation, according to Eisenstadt, occurs when immigrants have become full participants in the "institutions" of the host society and identify completely with that society. …


This report maps the extent of corporate power in the South African agro-food system using a value chain approach. It identifies major corporate actors in the various nodes of the agro-food system as of 2014. Some nodes tend to be dominated by corporations, for example input supply, grain storage and handling, and feedlots for commercial livestock. Other nodes have a strong corporate core but there is also a wide periphery, for example agricultural production, food manufacturing, wholesale and retail and consumer food service. The large periphery of marginalised actors in some parts of the system point to possible areas of intervention to boost livelihoods by supporting economic activity in the periphery. Although there are pockets of concentrated power in the system as a whole, there is also some distribution of power across nodes as well as between commodities. Vertical integration is less prevalent than in the past. The report looks at governance in the food system, the expansion of corporate self-regulation, and the implications for food security and nutrition. Corporations have immense power in structuring consumer perceptions on food quality and health, from input into apparently neutral dietary-based guidelines to advertising. Financialisation in the food system, including the institutionalisation of share ownership and the rise of agri-investment companies, and the multi-nationalisation of South African agro-food capital especially into Africa, have implications for the ability of the nation state to regulate activities in the agro-food system.


In catastrophe risk and probabilistic hazard evaluations, one overarching issue is how to account for uncertainties. One influential school of thought employs a sharp distinction between aleatory (pertaining to randomness) uncertainty and epistemic (pertaining to knowledge) uncertainty, and uses this distinction to derive total uncertainty in risk and probabilistic hazard evaluations. This paper first critiques two quantitative versions of this sharp distinction. The first version applies only to single models. The second version applies to a weighted combination of rival models. This paper shows that serious contradictions and biases arise for each version, as elaborated by its advocates. Given these contradictions and the need to address the overarching issue of uncertainties in risk evaluations, this paper goes on to sketch an alternative approach called robust simulation, which applies to catastrophe risk and probabilistic hazard results. Robust simulation first develops results from a single preferred model, and then proceeds to find and evaluate results from the most divergent yet credible rival models. In addition to producing many simulations from models, this approach also tests resulting distributions in terms of their stability.


Construction estimating works as the basis for various strategic decisions regarding the preparation of bid proposals, procurement plans, various levels of schedules, and job cost control. Under the highly risky environment of the prevalent competitive bidding practice, preparation of realistic estimates pertaining to those management decisions has been a complex task that is often performed on an ad hoc and piecemeal manner. Conventional procedures and tools have proved inadequate to provide a structured decision aid that, under such environment, maximizes the contractor's chances of winning a job with maximum potential profit, and further generates practical baseline plans needed for job control to maintain this profit. Yet the situation has been translated into a high percentage of business failures, a high potential for claims, and at best a low profit margin in the industry. This research presents a methodology for an integrated cost estimation and bid preparation, with emphasis on the assessment of bidding risks and optimum markup estimation. The methodology utilizes available tools (algorithms, database management systems, and Al-based techniques) that can benefit from current industry practice and provide an adequate decision aid during bid preparation. The methodology facilitates integration among estimating, planning and scheduling, and bid unbalancing. It incorporates enhancements to the various functions that cover the quantitative aspects of an estimate including: direct and indirect cost estimation, planning and scheduling, and resource utilization. This enables detailed estimates of costs and durations to be generated for all the project tasks, with minimal redundancy and in less time. Such estimates also establish the baselines needed for efficient job control. For practicality, the methodology accounts for the qualitative (risk-related) factors that play a vital role in the preparation of competitive bid proposals (e.g., competition, market conditions, and contractor keenness for the job). The methodology utilizes Neural Networks, an Al-based technique that employs a learning mechanism and emulates the human ability to solve pattern recognition tasks similar to many problems encountered in construction. This technique is introduced as a new tool to the industry, incorporating several potential applications. A neural network model is designed and used to arrive at an optimum markup value that maximizes that contractor's potential profit and predicts the probability of winning the job at such level of profit, in response to the project risk pattern. The methodology then utilizes the data obtained through the detailed estimate to optimally unbalance the final bid, in an effort to improve the contractor's cash flow while maintaining his competitiveness. A PC-based prototype is developed to automate the bid preparation process and an example application is presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed methodology. The proposed integrated methodology contributes to current automation efforts in construction and its modular architecture allows for further enhancement and expansions. The developments made with respect to the markup estimation problem demonstrates the powerful capabilities of neural networks and the potential benefits of deriving analogy-based solutions to complicated construction problems that are characterized by high uncertainty. This approach could readily be utilized in other domains in construction management where solutions are based primarily on holistic analogy and traditional algorithmic solutions are inadequate


In this article, we theoretically study the quantum statistical properties of the light transmitted through or reflected from an optical cavity, filled by an atomic medium with strong optical non-linearity induced by Rydberg-Rydberg van der Waals interactions. Atoms are driven on a two-photon transition from their ground state to a Rydberg level via an intermediate state by the combination of a weak signal field and a strong control beam. By using a perturbative approach, we get analytic results which remain valid in the regime of weak feeding fields, even when the intermediate state becomes resonant. Therefore they allow us to investigate quantitatively new features associated with the resonant behaviour of the system. We also propose an effective non-linear three-boson model of the system which, in addition to leading to the same analytic results as the original problem, sheds light on the physical processes at work in the system.


While social scientists have documented severe consequences of job loss, scant research investigates why workers lose their jobs. We explore the role of housing insecurity in actuating employment insecurity, investigating if workers who involuntarily lose their homes subsequently involuntarily lose their jobs. Analyzing novel survey data of predominately low-income working renters, we find the likelihood of being laid off to be between 11 and 22 percentage points higher for workers who experienced a preceding forced move, compared to observationally identical workers who did not. Our findings suggest that initiatives promoting housing stability could promote employment stability.


We study large-scale multi-label classification (MLC) on two recently released datasets: Youtube-8M and Open Images that contain millions of data instances and thousands of classes. The unprecedented problem scale poses great challenges for MLC. First, finding out the correct label subset out of exponentially many choices incurs substantial ambiguity and uncertainty. Second, the large data-size and class-size entail considerable computational cost. To address the first challenge, we investigate two strategies: capturing label-correlations from the training data and incorporating label co-occurrence relations obtained from external knowledge, which effectively eliminate semantically inconsistent labels and provide contextual clues to differentiate visually ambiguous labels. Specifically, we propose a Deep Determinantal Point Process (DDPP) model which seamlessly integrates a DPP with deep neural networks (DNNs) and supports end-to-end multi-label learning and deep representation learning. The DPP is able to capture label-correlations of any order with a polynomial computational cost, while the DNNs learn hierarchical features of images/videos and capture the dependency between input data and labels. To incorporate external knowledge about label co-occurrence relations, we impose relational regularization over the kernel matrix in DDPP. To address the second challenge, we study an efficient low-rank kernel learning algorithm based on inducing point methods. Experiments on the two datasets demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed methods.


The new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) navigates the unchartered territory of defining a workable universal development agenda that will apply to all countries. Emerging economies (EMEs) will play a pivotal role in the implementation of this new global agenda. This paper examines the position of four of the most influential EMEs – Brazil, China, India and South Africa, outlining what they stand to gain or lose from a series of issues that require global action and that are fundamental for the successful implementation of the SDGs. We focus our analysis on six selected issues: global finance, technology transfer, trade, climate change, sustainable consumption and production and global governance. Our study finds that: EMEs are already taking action domestically, bilaterally and regionally even in areas where they have been unwilling to make commitments at the international level. There are a number of issues that could be of interest to EMEs beyond changes to global governance including technology transfer, cooperation on tax information and tracking illicit financial flows, and climate finance. On their part, these influential EMEs could improve standards employed by their national development banks and private sector actors and, if they are genuine in their advocacy for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), spend political capital pushing for a specific LDC Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) target and increase access to their own markets for LDCs. There is a possibility that China could set ODA targets in the future. This paper was written ahead of the Third International Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which was held in July 2015. At this, existing commitments to deliver ODA to LDCs was reaffirmed, but were not increased.1


Arguments in support of the Pacific origin for the Caribbean Plate are discussed along with others that point to an inter-American origin. Entry of a Pacific-derived plate would have involved unlikely, geometrically complex and highly diachronous events. They would have included changes in direction of subduction, changes in direction of plate migration, major (1000s of km) plate migration, major rotation of large parts of a volcanic arc, major rotations of the Maya and Chortis blocks and diachronous development of flysch/wildflysch deposits as the entering plate interacted with neighbouring elements. The internal structural conformity of the Caribbean Plate and of the Maya and Chortis blocks with regional geology of Middle America shows that no major migrations or rotations have occurred. Coeval, regional deposits of Albian shallow water limestones, Paleocene‐ Middle Eocene flysch/wildflysch deposits, Middle Eocene limestones, and a regional Late Eocene hiatus show an inter-American location, not a changing Pacific-Caribbean location. Neogene displacement of the Caribbean relative to North and South America amounts to no more than 300 km.


Most category studies have focused on established categories with discrete boundaries. These studies not only beg the question of how a de novo category arises, but also upon what institutional material actors draw to create a de novo category. We examine the formation and theorization of the de novo category "modern architecture" between 1870 and 1975. Our study shows that the process of new category formation was driven by groups of architects with distinct clientele associated with institutional logics of commerce, state, religion, and family. These architects enacted different artifact codes for a building based on institutional logics associated with their specific mix of clients. "Modern architects" fought over what logics and artifact codes should guide "modern architecture." Modern functional architects espoused a logic of commerce enacted through a restricted artifact code of new materials in a building, whereas modern organic architects advocated transforming the profession's logic enacted through a flexible artifact code of mixing new and traditional materials in buildings. The conflict became a source of creative tension for modern architects that followed, who integrated aspects of both logics and materials in buildings, expanding the category boundary. Plural logics and category expansion resulted in multiple conflicting exemplars within "modern architecture" and enabled its adaptation to changing social forces and architectural interpretations for over 70 years.


Humans are social animals. We routinely interact with others learning about one another, about places, where to go and what places to avoid. Our activities are coordinated with others; sometimes because we explicitly seek to physically meet with those we know personally, other times the coordination is systemic because of norms and requirements of when those activities can take place (e.g. shopping when the shops are open etc.). With those personally known, interactions serve to exchange information, form social bonds and to create social support systems. Within the transportation realm, the social dimension comes into play in different ways. Two or more people who want to meet face to face have to select a meeting location and travel to that destination. People can also learn about short-term activity locations, or about residences and workplaces through others and make location decisions based upon them. These two areas of social contacts' influence in the location choice is the topic of this report. The report looks into how job search methods can impact home and work location patterns at the aggregate level. It also investigates the role job search methods and their outcomes play in subsequent relocation and residential location decisions at the individual level. A third element that will be considered is the relationship between home, work and activity locations for social meetings. The roles of social networks are explored in work finding, residential location choice, and choices of meeting locations.


The effective composition content of E.davidii were determined in four habitats by High- Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and utraviolet-visible (UV), and the different of morpholofical parameters and effective content were analyed by one-way ANOVA statistical analysis. The results showed that both the flavonoid anicariin contents in intensive light were richer than the wide in faint light. So increased light intensity in cultivated E. davidii can promote effective components improvement. According to the standard of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the icariin content of root and stem in E. davidii in the wild can not meet the standard of icariin content, but the leaf in habitat 3 can meet the standard of icariin content. In flavonoid content of icariin content, the leaf only can reach the standard of flavonoid content. So, the flavonoid content of E. davidii could alternate for the five genuine species to medicine.


This paper traces the story of Indian financial sector over the period 1950–2015. In identifying the trends and turns of Indian financial sector, the paper adopts a three period classification viz., (a) the 1950s and 1960s, which exhibited some elements of instability associated with laissez faire but underdeveloped banking; (b) the 1970s and 1980s that experienced the process of financial development across the country under government auspices, accompanied by a degree of financial repression; and (c) the period since the 1990s till date, that has been characterized by gradual and calibrated financial deepening and liberalization. Focusing more the third period, the paper argues that as a consequence of successive reforms over the past 25 years, there has been significant progress in making interest and exchange rates largely market determined, though the exchange rate regime remains one of managed float, and some interest rates remain administered. Considerable competition has been introduced in the banking sector through new private sector banks, but public sector banks continue have a dominant share in the market. Contractual savings systems have been improved, but pension funds in India are still in their infancy. Similarly, despite the introduction of new private sector insurance companies coverage of insurance can expand much further, which would also provide greater depth to the financial markets. The extent of development along all the segments of the financial market has not been uniform. While the equity market is quite developed, activities in the private debt market are predominantly confined to private placement form and continue to be limited to the bluechip companies. Going forward, the future areas for development in the Indian financial sector would include further reduction of public ownership in banks and insurance companies, expansion of the contractual savings system through more rapid expansion of the insurance and pension systems, greater spread of mutual funds, and development of institutional investors. It is only then that both the equity and debt markets will display greater breadth as well as depth, along with greater domestic liquidity. At the same time, while reforming the financial sector, the Indian authorities had to constantly keep the issues of equity and efficiency in mind.


We analysed volcanic tremor recorded during ten lava fountain eruptions at Mount Etna volcano over the second half of 2011. The seis- mic signal, recorded by a network of 19 broadband stations, was corrected for site effects. The site amplification factors obtained for all the seismic stations were calculated using 18 regional earthquakes. To quantitatively estimate the goodness of the site correction, the vol- canic tremor source locations obtained by using site corrections were compared with those performed without such corrections. The seismic signal was filtered in two different frequency bands before applying correction: (i) the band 1-2 Hz, which contains most of the tremor energy, and (ii) the band 5-10 Hz, in which, likely due to scattering phenomena, the assumption of isotropic radiation behind the volcanic tremor source location method is valid. The results revealed that the seismic signal correction for site effects improved the tremor location results. Such improved tremor locations, together with volcanological and geodetic data, allowed us to identify two dis- tinct periods characterised by different tremor locations during lava fountains (July - August 20 and August 20 - November 15). Such differences were probably due to magma recharge phenomena, taking place during the former period.


Friction Stir Welding is a solid state join process in which the heat need is produced by the friction of a tool on the work pieces. The tool rotates on the surface and also applies a force against it to create the needed friction. This technology does not use any consumable and does not produce any gas, which makes it cost effective, save for the operators and clean.The equipment used for this technology has been changing within the years. Milling machines were adapted to it at the beginning. After, specific machines for friction stir welding were developed, providing higher down force and control systems. Nevertheless, the lack of flexibility of machines made industrial robots became an alternative. Robots have limitations in terms of stiffness. But, they can be used to weld complex geometries and they can be used in large scale applications due to their flexibility and low cost.This project studies the process from the robot behaviour perspective. The main objective is to achieve a better understanding of the process to contribute to the continuous development of robotic FSW. An acquisition system was developed to monitor different signals from the robot such as, forces, torque, path deviation, and vibrations. The data acquisition system developed and mounted at PTC was tested and its limitations were examined. The developed system has been used for conducting different experiments: The differences between the robot system and a system based on a FSW machine situated at TWI were studied; and, in addition, the behaviour of the robot under different welding parameters was investigated.


Debuccalization is a weakening phenomenon whereby various consonants reduce to laryngeals. Examples include Spanish s-aspiration (s becomes h word-finally) and English t-glottalization (t becomes glottal stop syllable-finally). Previous analyses of debuccalization view it as a lenition process that deletes or manipulates formal phonological features. This dissertation frames debuccalization based on the articulatory gestures involved rather than features. In the default case, debuccalization processes delete oral gestures and leave behind laryngeal gestures. This is captured in an Optimality Theoretic grammar by the low ranking of faithfulness to oral gestures, and the high ranking of faithfulness to laryngeal gestures. The motivation for changing the consonant is a markedness constraint which favors more articulatorily efficient consonants. When this constraint outranks oral faithfulness, consonants debuccalize.This constraint system allows us to account for many cases of debuccalization well, but it highlights other cases where the laryngeal gestures of the debuccalized consonant and the fortis version are not identical---cases which show supplementary gestures. These supplementary gestures require an explanation, and three competing analyses are considered: perceptual faithfulness, dissimilation, and neutralization avoidance. The perceptual faithfulness analysis claims that the laryngeal gesture is changed to make the resulting sound more similar to the underlying sound. The dissimilation analysis states that the laryngeal gesture is changed to make it less like its neighboring sounds. Finally, the neutralization avoidance analysis claims that laryngeal gestures must change to avoid neutralization with other phonemes.I first demonstrate that all three analyses are able to account for the case study of Indonesian k-debuccalization (k becomes glottal stop in coda position). Moreover, all three are consistent with the principles of Optimality Theory and have plausible motivations. As such, experimental data is used to provide evidence for or against the competing analyses. A perceptual experiment was designed to verify the perceptual faithfulness and dissimilation analyses, evaluating the predictions each analysis makes regarding perceptual similarity. Some evidence is found for the perceptual faithfulness account of Indonesian. An artificial grammar learning experiment was also performed, which was used to test the possibility of a learning bias of avoiding neutralization in phoneme inventories, and the evidence from this experiment provides support for the neutralization avoidance analysis.


This thesis summarizes a three years scientific research investigation on the design and fabrication of porous silicon based optical devices for applications in the field of biochemical sensing. Porous silicon is an ideal transducer material due to its sponge-like morphology, characterized by a specific surface area up to 500 m2 cm-3, which assures an effective interaction with gas and liquid substances. Moreover, porous silicon is a low cost material, completely compatible with standard microelectronic processes.
In this work, different porous silicon structures such as Fabry-Perot interferometer, Bragg mirror, optical microcavity, Thue-Morse sequences and optical waveguide have been realized and characterized as optical transducers for the monitoring of chemical and biological interactions. The selectivity, reversibility and sensitivity of these devices as optical sensors have been discussed.
The porous silicon surface has been modified in order to gain chemical stability, proper wettability, and specific features such as biomolecules immobilization. Standard chemical functionalizations, but also an innovative pure biological passivation method based on selfassembled biofilms of the Hydrophobins proteins, have been successfully experimented.
Some standard micromachining techniques, such as HF wet etching and anodic bonding, have been optimized to integrate the porous silicon sensing element into a Lab-on-Chip prototype. The integrated devices have been characterized as fast sensors of chemical compounds and response times shorter than 100 ms have been demonstrated. The Direct-Laser-Writing of the porous silicon surface, as alternative process to the photolithographic patterning in the device miniaturization has been also exploited.
Finally, a bottom-up approach in microoptics has been developed by using the silica shells of some marine Diatoms, microalgae which show impressive morphological and physical analogies with porous silicon.


Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information--often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion--that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend.

Internet filtering takes place in at least forty states worldwide including many countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Related Internet content control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions.

Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.

Contributors:

Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva, Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, and Jonathan Zittrain


While there is talk of 'climate change refugees' there is rather less clarity about the legal status of those whose homelands disappear under the waves. Unlike persons displaced by war or political upheaval, as experienced after the Second World War, such persons do not fall within the usual understandings of 'refugee'. The erosion of the foundations of their identity has, in some cases, been gradual and incremental, but without territory can we talk of sovereignty or citizenship? Is the latter place bound or does citizenship mean more than just affiliation to a particular place? Does nationality depend on a nation and if so what is it that makes a nation? These questions are pertinent to those whose homelands may disappear as a result of natural disasters or rising sea levels. They are particularly, but not only, relevant to people in the Pacific living on low lying atolls such as in Tuvalu, Kiribati and parts of the Solomon Islands. In the Pacific, exchanges among strangers start with the question 'where are you from?' Can a person be a Pacific islander if he or she has no island? This paper considers how that will be answered by those who are from lands under the seas, and what changes may have to be made to the legal frameworks that determine identity in these circumstances.


Infections with parasitic helminths (nematodes and trematodes) represent a significant economic and welfare burden to the global ruminant livestock industry. The increasing prevalence of anthelmintic resistance means that current control programmes are costly and unsustainable in the long term. Recent changes in the epidemiology, seasonality and geographic distribution of helminth infections have been attributed to climate change. However, other changes in environment (e.g., land use) and in livestock farming, such as intensification and altered management practices, will also have an impact on helminth infections. Sustainable control of helminth infections in a changing world requires detailed knowledge of these interactions. In particular, there is a need to devise new, sustainable strategies for the effective control of ruminant helminthoses in the face of global change. In this paper, we consider the impact of helminth infections in grazing ruminants, taking a European perspective, and identify scientific and applied priorities to mitigate these impacts. These include the development and deployment of efficient, high-throughput diagnostic tests to support targeted intervention, modelling of geographic and seasonal trends in infection, more thorough economic data and analysis of the impact of helminth infections and greater translation and involvement of end-users in devising and disseminating best practices. Complex changes in helminth epidemiology will require innovative solutions. By developing and using new technologies and models, the use of anthelmintics can be optimised to limit the development and spread of drug resistance and to reduce the overall economic impact of helminth infections. This will be essential to the continued productivity and profitability of livestock farming in Europe and its contribution to regional and global food security.


The consistency problem models language learning as the problem of finding a grammar consistent with finite linguistic data. The subset problem refines that formulation, asking for a consistent grammar that generates a smallest language. This article reviews results concerning the tractability of the consistency problem within Optimality Theory (OT) and shows that the OT subset problem is instead intractable. The subset problem thus needs to be restricted to plausible typologies, and solution algorithms need to take advantage of the additional structure brought about by these typological restrictions. These implications are illustrated with a discussion of the choice between batch and errordriven models of the child's acquisition of phonotactics.